all engine mount bracketry complete

Over the last few days I duplicated all the DS brackets on the PS.  So now all the mounts are complete for now.  Sort of a milestone here! The work over the last few weeks has made this whole assembly incredibly stiff.  Here is the view of the bay with all subframes in there:

So that completes my list from July:

So I took a little while to think about where I ought to go next.  Pretty much, next I will be building the steering.  With that means the routing for the column, which brings the pedal position into things.  So I will be mounting up some interior bits and laying that stuff out next.

I tend to focus completely on tasks at hand, and don't let things like cleaning distract me.  The shop has become a mess.  I am not ashamed to show it off:

Cleaning it up is third on the new list, after close out shifter hole, and put dash frame back in.

Finished the DS connector bracket

Tapped:

 Here it is back in the car and bolted together:

Cap screws from outside the car: 

Welded on a gusset.

This bracket added a ton of stiffness.  To recap: there are a total of 3 brackets on the driver's side. 

1)  The main one.  attaches the subframe to the frame rail

2)  adds redundancy and some triangulation to the main one

3)  connects the engine subframe to the suspension subframe.

With just the main bracket in, I kicked the subframe and it visibly shook at a low frequency.  This was about cut in half with the addition of bracket #2.  After I finished #3, it is like kicking a wall

Next up is to repeat the last week's activity on the PS.

DS subframe connection bracket

Amazon had these porter cable angle grinders for $30 so I grabbed one.  It is identical to my Craftsman one.  Which is to say it isn't very good.  Someone would make their million dollars if they made an angle grinder with a quick change arbor.

 I started the bracket that will tie the suspension subframe to the engine subframe.  Used the score and bend method from before:

 I lathed a couple rods to tap at 7/16 UNC and welded them on.  Then I shot the mating surfaces with weld through primer and tacked the bracket to the suspension subframe:

Next time I will drill out and tap the bracket, transfer the holes to the engine subframe, bolt up, weld the scored area, and make a gusset and weld it on.

DS subframe mount complete

Welded on the doubler.

Here is the underside where the new subframe tube mounts onto the frame rail doubler. These are my first upside down welds.  The technique seemed to be: dwell for a short moment on the 16ga frame rail, then drag the pool onto the 3/16 and dwell longer.  I did a series of spot welds without letting the weld totally cool before advancing.  The last thing I need is for the puddle to fall out leaving a humongous rip in the frame rail.

Here you can see the piece that plugs the hole, and the tube welded on.  A Gusset will be added to the back so that all the force in the tube isn't getting resolved into a piece of 1/8 sheet only.

If I sit on the bumper and kick the subframe it is probably at least 4x as stiff front to back now.  It is really hard for me to estimate what crash loads would be like on any of this stuff, and I haven't found how to design for it in any of the books I have been reading. Fortunately there are 3 more brackets to make for a total of 7 tying the engine into the car.  I am really trying to push for overkill on this to protect myself from my ignorance.

Bracket final fab before install

Continued pushing on with the doubler today.  Welded on the rods today, then brought the holes up to tap size and tapped them:

Tapped holes:

My biggest drill wasn't enough to make big enough holes for the rods to go it.  I had to use the plasma to enlarge the holes a bit:

Here you can maybe finally see what I am up to if you had trouble picturing it.  The bracket will fit up onto the frame rail.  The tube will Connect to the bottom of the bracket, and go down and to the left and meet up with the subframe.

Lining up the DS subframe reinforcing bracket

Trying to hold all the pieces in place that need holes and need welded takes way more hands than I have.  Also, I don't like clamps for that sort of job.  First I drilled the holes in the flange at a small size.

 I transferred the holes to the doubler at the small size.  Then I tacked the two together (below).  I figured out that tacks I want to separate later I should ignore the settings for the welder, and use a very insufficient voltage.  That way the wimpy welds are easy to cut later.

Not shown are the rods I turned.  If I just tapped the doubler I would get about a thread and a half holding the bracket on.  So I used the rods to double the doubler.  Tripler?  Anyway.  Shot it all with weld through primer and will pick it up next time.

Heater is kicking butt BTW.  Warmed the shop to a balmy 47° from 33° in about 35 minutes then ran at less than 50% duty cycle to maintain it.

Lowes

Tonight I stopped into Lowes to snag a couple cap screws to hold in the bracket I am welding up.  Oddly, at the register the cashier told me she wouldn't sell them to me since the bar code was rubbed off.  She tried once to type them into the system and didn't find anything.  Then she offered to call hardware.  When I said please, she said they wouldn't be able to help.  No offer to get someone, to help me.  Just sent me away.  I started to go back there to look for some screws with an in tact bar code, but then I got ticked at the disrespectful and lazy way I was handled and flung them into a display and left.

I wish there was some sort of card they could give people who spend like $5000 per year in their store that you could show them so they would make a little bit of effort.  Not the first time the Hatfield store on 40 ft Road has jerked me around.  It will be the last.

Sorry to bug you all with this, but I think it comes with the territory of parts and tools bought and endorsed in pursuit of the build.  Especially since the post just below this one has >$100 worth of stuff bought at either Lowes or HD in the last 5 days.