Motor Mounts On The Frame

Little late on posting this week as what seemed like should take a few hours took much more. Had a bit of difficulty getting the holes where I wanted them which required re-work. oh well. Got it in now.

Looking at the finished product it doesn't look like much. But the mounts are not just fastened to the thin wall of the frame (about 14 gauge). I drilled a 1 1/4 hole all the way through top and bottom then welded in some pipe, welded in a 3/16 plug in the end of the pipe and drilled that for the motor mount. Then covered all of that with a 1/8 plate (tack welded at the moment). Should give it some strength.

The other tricky bit is that inside of the frame there is some supporting structure for the "A" arms I had to miss. But wanted to be as close to it as possible. Took some massaging of the holes after they were drilled to get it all to work out.

More Engine And Trans Fitting

Getting the motor and trans to sit inside the engine bay is one thing. Getting them to sit level and not banging on anything is another. This week was spent doing more fine tuning on the location and checking how other things might fit (starter, alternator etc.).

After some time noticing how tight everything is between the suspension towers I went and checked out another swap project. Whoa. There was lots more cutting that I had thought. Made the cutting I had done so far look insignificant. Encouraged by the work of others I started cutting a bit more while still being conservative. Some more trimming and adjusting is required but it's pretty close to where it'll stay. It even fits with the starter on and there looks to be enough room for the exhaust to pass between the block and the frame.

Now that I have the location I have to come up with motor mounts for it. This is a bit of a challenge as I need to leave room for the exhaust and steering. I'd also like to use some mounts that do a good job of cutting NVH (usually requires large mounts). And I have to change up the oil filter/oil cooler combo bit as it won't fit at all.  And need to know what to leave room for. So lots of time planning and not so much fabricating over the last couple days.

It's nice to have it at a good location. Now to get it to stay there :-)

Engine And Trans Test Fit

Things seem to be going kind of slow this week. But did get a few things done. Got the starter mount hole cut and starter fitted. Welded a stud in one place and a backing nut in another to allow the trans to mount. Need to do some countersinks for a few bolts on the motor but the tool didn't show up in time. For test fitting the few bolts I have are just fine.

Tipped up the motor, put the trans on and tossed it into the car. There are several interference areas that need to be addressed that are not allowing the engine to lower to where I had it before. But with enough cutting and welding just about anything "fits" :-)

More VR6 RWD Motor Adapter Plate

More work done on the motor adapter plate. Most of the trans to plate holes are now drilled. And the perimeter is roughly cut out. So much easier to handle the smaller plate. Still need to cut the hole for the starter. Then it'll be time to test fit the assembly to the car.

VW VR6 Motor To BMW E46 Trans Adaption

One problem with the motor I choose was it was in only FWD or AWD cars only. No RWD trans exists. This requires an adapter. I've made a trans adapter before on my EV project. Really didn't want to do that for this project but this is how it turned out.

After what seemed like forever planning and scratching my head for what the best scenario was I ordered a metal plate. It came in friday and work to mate the plate to the motor was started. I've successfully cut the center clearance and the dowel and bolt mounting holes.

Next up mounting the transmission to the plate. This motor has the timing chain on the backside and the timing cover bumps out into the transmission bell housing area. I'm not the first to use this combination and I cut my trans to clear in a similar way. A little more fitting and I can put in the dowel and bolt holes then cut the perimeter out.

2 Year Anniversary - Introducing the VR6 GT6

 Realized the 2nd year anniversary of my Triumph ownership was this past week. Seems like it would be good to have some a big progress to celebrate. How about some news on the re-engine portion of the project?  The motor is a 3.6L VR6 24 Valve, direct injection, variable valve timing, variable intake, all the goodies. In stock form was rated at 280 hp. Best I can tell the motor weights similar to the GT6 motor, maybe less. It's mounted further back and the Battery will be relocated to the rear. Overall balance should be better than the factory GT6. Time will tell. 

About a year ago I bought the donor car, a 2006 VW Passat, for the engine. Was very anxious to get started on that but forced myself to stick to the body work (which took way too long) to get the back of the car in solid shape before moving on. Then the winter came and progress halted for the winter.

The winter break was a little longer than anticipated as somehow we got the idea we wanted to try sailing in Florida for a vacation trip (since flying has gotten so complicated). Which ended up with us buying a fixer up boat and me doing a lot of projects in the driveway in the cold instead. (How was this better than working in the garage in the cold?). Anyway the boat was finished (well finished enough) and the sailing trip was a complete success. Six great days of sailing and covered about 100 miles. 

Back to the GT6

The first weekend back I made some wooden supports to put the GT6 back on it's skates so it could be moved to the side to make room. Then the donor car was towed into the garage and deconstruction started. This past week I pulled the motor and started fitting it into the GT6. I wasn't sure the engine was going to fit so was quite interested in doing a test fit. Still a lot of fiddling and fitting to do but it looks like it can be made to work (with enough cutting and welding about anything fits. Right?). The engine may even keep it's factory intake.

The hood still doesn't quite close yet but I was out of time to work on it. I think the the hood bracing in sitting on the intake. Will have to do some checking on where it's hitting

when I have some more time.

Spraying Primer

With cold weather coming, and my garage not heated work on the car in the garage will likely slow or stop for awhile. In particular any priming will have to stop do to the cold. We wanted to get the bare metal parts of the car covered in primer before that happened. Since these would be the shinny surfaces of the car it was time to try our hand at spray painting. I had helped with a car in high-school (on a high-school budget). I don't remember much but I do remember it didn't go well. I've done my share of spray cans panting over my lifetime and had some success making a decent looking job with those (after lots of wet sanding). So using a spray gun would be an adventure. Good thing it's only the primer coat.

Since we had done a fair amount of sandblasting in the garage the first step for the day was to clean the car and the garage to get rid of the dust. Then clean it again and then again. Then I did some more wire wheeling, sanding and rubbing with a scotch brite pad to ensure the surface was good. Then clean again. I put up some plastic to keep the over spray limited to only part of the garage and covered up some area that would have more dust in it then I could get cleaned.

Sprayed on the epoxy primer and it went pretty well. We are using the Harbor freight automotive spray kit. The 3 compressors did a good job and the water separators seemed to be working. With our time crunch we didn't prep much of the inside of the car or the front bulkhead so those weren't painted. I did try to paint the upper rear valence on the inside. I quickly realized that climbing into the car to paint after the outside was coated wasn't a good plan (airline dragging against the side) and that meant the rear only got one coat. Which was ok as it appeared to be missing much of the ledge where it meets the lower valence and the upper part where the hatch rain gutter I couldn't see and so is probably not coated well.

The other thing I found tough was getting all the areas. Particularly tough were the hatch weather seal and rain gutter, insides of the fender pinch welds and inside the rain gutter along the sides of the roof. At one point (early in) I was standing in the hatch trying to spray looking from the inside towards the outside. This had some success. The roof rain gutter in the end looks impossible to get it all. I tried a bunch of angles and it just doesn't seem to get the inside of the part that curls over. This isn't much of a surprise as I had a tough time getting it sand blasted with the nozzle practically in the gutter and sand bounces everywhere. Paint doesn't seem to bounce so much. I'm thinking I'll have to use a small brush or q-tip or something to get that surface.

All in all I thought it went petty well. I'm sure it's got a pretty good orange peal to it but it's going to be block sanded so no worries there. Very happy to have the metal covered for the winter months.

Stripping Paint

We had considered priming the bare metal parts of the car a week ago but the weather turned cold. The forecast was for better weather ahead so we used the cold days to stripping more areas. Stripping paint has to be one of my least favorite parts.

For stripping we did a combination of wire wheeling and sand blasting. The GT6 roof's rain rail/gutter folds over making it nearly impossible to see all the surface nonetheless remove the paint. The rain rail I sand blasted and even with the sand blaster it was difficult to get all the paint out. All down the inside the rain rail is a seam between the roof and the rail. It seemed to me it would be important to get a good layer of paint sticking in there to keep the water out. (pro tip don't put the ceramic nozzle into the rail and tip it. It will snap the tip off).

With warm weather forecast for this coming week we had set the goal of laying down primer on Monday the 9th. Work last week focused seeing how much we could get stripped ready for paint. We got the roof, sides, rear valence and rocker panels all cleaned off (Bulkhead, scuttle panel still have paint). I would have liked to get more stripped but Saturday we have tickets to the ballet and had to quit work on the car about 5pm.

I should mention that as expected working on areas showed other flaws that needed correcting. So there was also a good amount of weld touch up, additional grinding and sanding done.

Would also like to say that I sandblasted for several hours a couple of times. One session I had the compressors ruining for about 3 hours straight. The store bought water trap right before the blaster had only dust inside the bowl. There was no moisture at all. Opened the valve at the bottom of my homemade drip-leg and a good amount of water came out. Appears that perhaps my water troubles are over :-) Things went so well blasting a blasted several areas that I could have wire wheeled. But once it was out I figured I'd just keep blasting away.

Roof Repair

Friday evening and Saturday morning were spent on fixing a hole in the front of the roof. Its a bit of a strange hole but I guess water got in from the front then wicked up the seam sealer to a weak spot or something. Or a from scratch that rusted out. Either way there was a hole in the roof and a corresponding hole in the under structure. I've dreaded fixing this one as it's very visible and on a very curvy part.

Started by cutting away the rusted part of the under structure. Which revealed more rust. Particularly in the pinch weld. so that had to be open up and cleaned out. Ended up having to cut out a pretty good chunk of the under structure. I wasn't worried as I had a replacement bit from the parts car.

With that out i sand blasted it to see how much of the upper structure needed replaced. Not as much as the lower, no surprise, but I had toyed with just putting in a backing piece and filling up the hole with weld. That idea was out.

Looking at the roof piece from the parts car I found that it was assembled by spot welding the lower to upper structure pinch weld then AFTER welding folding over the flange. The fold much like a door skin but the seem spot welded before folding. This meant that if I drilled out the welds from the bottom I could leave the nice folded edge when removing them. In hind sight I could have done this to the original structure and perhaps reused that folded over part from my car. Too late now. Anyway sand blasted the parts car pieces and started fitting patches.

Ended up removing the spot welds in the corner by the door some of the water had gotten into those seams and even the first part of the side structure. So drilled all that out and blasted clean.

Turned out not too bad. Not perfect but a skim of filler should all that should be needed.

Rear Light Holes, Hatch Latch Support

Starting to think about priming the rear structure of the car. There are a bunch of little fixes and details that have been working on. Here are some of them:

Drilled the holes in the rear valence. Was a bit scared to drill the light holes but looks like they turned out nice. Also put in the holes for the bumper support, license plate light and license plate. Welded in nuts on the inside for the license plate to make it easier to put on and hopefully more likely to keep out water.

Welded in the hatch latch support or whatever it's called. Had that floating around for awhile and am glad to have it attached.

Repaired the lower left corner of the hatch weather seal. This had rusted away as is pretty typical. Looked like some metal munching mouse had taken a little bite out of it. But now it looks all good again.

Seam welded the fender to the lower valence pinch weld closed. This originally had a painted decorative cover over it. I'm considering not adding the cover as it looks like a water trap to me. The welded seem ground smooth looks pretty similar. Will see what it looks like with the car fully primed. I can always add the cover later.

Lots of grinding and sanding on the 100's of plug welds (over 500 just in the fenders and rockers). If I had realized how much finishing of the welds was required I'd found a way to get a good resistance spot welder. Little late now as I don't have that much left.

Top Of B-Pillar Repair

 As mentioned before there was rust where the B-pillar meets the side/quarter light window frame. There was also a small dent in the outside of that frame. So I cut out the plate that was rusted to about half way up the frame. It became obvious why it rusted. Where the quarter light window rivets to the frame water had came in through those holes. With no opening at the bottom (thanks triumph) the dampness rusted a big hole. But it also rusted the inside pretty good and there were some pinholes near the bottom as well. Bummer.

I cut the same part from the parts car but was not optimistic that it would be a lot better. It was better but it also had some thinning metal at the bottom. I was considering using it when I noticed a crease on the window frame side from when the roof was crushed pushing it against the glass. From the disassembly I was able to see there is NO primer of paint in there. Remarkable that it wasn't worse after 50 years.

Back to my original piece i finished removing the backing plate. Quite a lot of rust but near the bottom was the only really bad stuff. Sorry no picture. Not sure where it went. Sand blasted the whole thing which showed some patching was required. Decided instead of cutting out chunks and welding in patches to put in a piece of backing material and weld through the thin spots to build them up. Figured it was faster and less likely to get everything out of sorts.

While the back was totally open I hammered out the small dent. Then noticed some other warping near the bottom on the quarter light side. Perhaps this contributed to the water getting in.

In making a new patch piece for the back I decided that instead of trying to form the crease down the center I would weld a stiffening rib on where would be the inside. This worked nicely even though the welding was a bit terrible. But it did warp the plate and I had to straighten it. After straightening I put it against the car only to see that on the side window edge the car isn't straight at all but curves as it goes down. With a little work I put that curve back in. Epoxy primed the inside the welded it on.

Drip Leg/Water Separator

 It's usually really humid here and the small water trap on my air line was not getting out the water. Trev's blog, one place I go for metal working tips, showed how he made a drip leg that worked well for getting the water out.

Thought I would do the same but instead of welding it together would make one out of threaded together parts. So I did. I think it turned out nice. Not shown in the pictures is I mounted it to my shelves in the garage and added a 10 ft section of 1/2 pipe to make the "cooling" section. The shelves are a bit of a mess so I didn't take a picture of that.

Saturday I did some sand blasting to try it out. It had just started raining. Ran through about 100 lbs of media and then checked the traps. Nothing in the little water trap at the end of the line. This is working great. Opened the valve at the bottom of the drip leg expecting a big rush of water. Nothing. Weird. Drained the compressors and there was a little but not much. So perhaps today wasn't a good test. I dunno. But It's setup now and in theory should work well. Will see how it works on future days. But Saturday the blasting went well.

Oh to make the trip leg I needed a fitting that would let a pipe go through but still seal on it. For this I used a 1/2" x 3/4" Copper x Male Adapter and drilled out the ridge that would keep the 1/2 pipe from going all the way through. Then I sweat soldered it on the pipe where I wanted it. That worked perfect.

For the main drip leg (not the added 1/2 pipe) the parts list is as follows:
1/2" x 3/4" Copper x Male Adapter
1/2" x 3/8" Copper x Female Adapter
1/2 copper pipe
3/4" x 3/8" Black Bushing
2" x 3/4" Black Bushing (2)
2" x 3/4" Black Reducing Coupling
3/4" x 6" Black Nipple
2" Black Tee
3/4" Full Port Threaded Ball Valve
2" x 48" Black Nipple
And of course some quick connect couplers

I couldn't find the 2" stuff locally (small town) so I bought most of it from www.supplyhouse.com Prices seemed good and they shipped quickly.

Oh in other news I work out my blasting tip. Time to change it for a new one.

(oh there was no post last week as I had company and didn't work on the car much)

LH Side Welded

 After about 50+ man hours of work and 3 weeks the car looks......Well about the same. But instead of screws holding it together it is welded solid. Starting to feel like a car again instead of an art project.

It feels a bit weird to have to ask myself "what do I work on next". Been on the same part of the car for sooo long.

RH Side Welded

 Well the RH Rear fender and rocker are welded on to the car. Spent a few evenings doing one last hammer and dolly on the patches and punching the holes. Then welded it on. All except the end cap which I'm keeping open so I can paint and maybe even seam seal later.

Sadly the car looks about the same as it did when everything is screwed together. But it is much more solid now. I've had a strap holding the lower A pillar in position for so long (without the rocker the lower A pillar is mostly just one thickness of sheet metal). It was nice to finally remove it.

It all turned out pretty good except the vertical gap between the door and rocker panel. Despite it looking good when screwed together after welding I noticed it's not as consistent as it was. It's a bit tighter a little bast the middle of the door and then back to good. Humm. I'll try the shrinking disc on it later. Perhaps it can shrink the metal back so it is better. But that can be a future project.

The one white tunnel picture is the inside of the rocker panel showing that the bottom edge has been painted (will do the top when I flip the body over). The brown spots are blasting media that must have slipped through the upper seem. Guessing from the inner sill to stiffener. That blasting media gets everywhere.