Touch-up welding

Stripped the chassis down this afternoon (not that there was much to remove) so that I could finish welding the diff mounts and transmission bracket mounts.

Diff mount (as seen from the bottom up):

Trans mounts (as seen from the bottom up):

Back in the saddle

Wow, mid-August already. I'm well overdue for an update, so here goes.


First of all, a huge thanks to my generous neighbor, Jason, who donated a set of Miata wheels, gauge cluster, and speedo cable to the build!














By the way, if you're looking for a ready-built Se7en, Jason is selling his motorcycle-engined autocrosser for CHEAP:

http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=2613

Last weekend, I finished the transmission bracket, which is basically an "L" with a gusset in the "elbow." It's attached to the chassis via two bolts, one on each end of the bottom of the L.

It is isolated via rubber bushings. Here is a pic of the bushing assemble before I had the bolt carriers welded to the L and chassis.

Today, I moved on to the mounting brackets for the "ears" of the differential. The differential was already positively located with the lower torque bracket (done by previous owner) and shimmed to the correct height at the "ears."

First, I cut four plates, two upper and two lower:

Then, I cut two horizontal supports per side:

And welded it all up:

I then added triangulation down to the lower chassis rail:

Next, I'll be painting a few things to keep the rust off, then moving on!

Mounting a Tranny (cont'd)

Further progress was made Sunday. Now all that's missing is the 1x1 crossbeam that will be welded to the chassis, and the drilling of the bolt holes. Oh, and the mounting bracket will get a gusset in the "elbow" of the L to reduce stress on the weld. Unfortunately this part of the bracket has to clear the speedometer cable so I can't make the gusset as beefy as I would like. The transmission will be isolated from the chassis by 1/2" rubber bushings made from a hardware store rubber stopper (not pictured).

Bracketeering

After a short while off, the Seven is getting attention again. On Father's Day I finished the engine mounts, and this morning I lowered the engine/transmission into place. It fit nicely, exactly where I intended. That feels pretty good :) Next, I began work on the transmission torque mount. I cut out a cardboard template that I will use to make the upper and lower mounting "ears" of the bracket. Again, the metal is 1/8" steel plate. Holes are 1/2".

Next will come a piece of angle iron welded to the rear edges of the upper and lower ears, and the angle iron will be bolted to the chassis. If this is not totally clear, just wait -- you'll see soon enough!

From the depths of the C...

So, you're guessing that the project is gone, sold, forgotten, or abandoned. WRONG! I've been busy with some other stuff, including work on my new $1600 daily driver:

We needed to cut expenses, and the WRX (*not* the Se7en) was the logical place to cut (see, I think you'll agree that my priorities are in the right place).

We've been busy with visitors, and I've been doing some maintenance work on the 318i. It still needs struts and control arms to be installed, which I will do next weekend since I have 3 days off. But I did do some work on the Se7en this weekend. The engine mounts are finished, and I can move onto the transmission mounts! I did some cutting and welding (and re-welding) on the mounts, so that they will now allow the engine to be lifted free of the car when the bolts are undone! Good idea, I think. I'm also pleased that I finally figured out the proper setting on the MIG so that I get good penetration on my welds. The welds on the mounts are BEEFY.

It's In, I Swear!

Here are some random pics of the engine and transmission in its final position. I still need to make the transmission support bracket.
























The normal 1.5 - 2 inches of sump hangdown that you get with a Miata engine:











Plenty of room for a nice steering column setup. The gentleman who built this chassis offset the transmission tunnel to the right a tad, to enlarge the driver's area. Good idea for a number of reasons (though it did make positioning the engine/trans take a little more brainpower than it otherwise would have).

...and We're Back.

Sorry for the delay in posts, dear readers (assuming that any of you readers out there actually anticipate the next entry). No, I haven't stopped work on the Se7en! I've just been a bit busy with work and haven't posted any blog updates.

So... developments since the last post:

1. My friendly neighbor and fellow GRMer (http://www.grassrootsmotorsports.com/) Jason is stripping down a Miata to make a track car, and in the process he's removing all of the "soft bits" as well as putting some proper wheels and tires on it. Ergo, he's graciously offered to give me, free of charge, his "daisy" Miata wheels w/ roll-around tires, the gauge cluster, and the speedo cable. [Jason is also selling his racecar Se7en (bike-engined no less), so there will not be the unlikely coincidence of two Se7ens in the same neighborhood.] His generosity will afford me more money in the budget for other things, though I am not quite sure where it will be used.

2. I got a new throttle body to replace the one mashed up in the donor car's wreck:













Unfortunately, the back side looked like this:












After some scrubbing with carb cleaner, it was much better:












3. Engine mounts are progressing nicely! Holes were drilled, the engine/transmission were positioned, and the mounts were tacked into place:












Unfortunately, the one slot I put on the passenger's side mount was not large enough, so I'll need to elongate it.