Build Update

Again I haven’t blogged for a while, but that is because I have been devoting much of my time to the actual build. Since the last post, I have been working on building the motor/transmission hump in the floor and finishing the battery rack. I will try to get pictures posted of everything soon.

My original desing of the battery rack was fine, but the top rack that holds 3 batteries ending up being about a half inch too tall. I ended up moving the top rack back towards the firewall about 6 inches and tilting it slightly so it doesn’t hit anything. Last night I painted the rack, I still need to repaint it to be sure everything is coated nicely.

For the transmission and motor floorpan, I ended up going a slightly different route so I wouldn’t need to worry about the car twisting as I cut the floor out. I sat the transmission on the garage floor and built a cage around it with 1″ square tube. Once I had the cage built, I cut holes in the floor for the cage to push down into. I then tacked the cage in the car from the bottom so the transmission or motor would not hang any lower than the bottom of the car. I used 16 gauge sheet steel to then cover the cage and weld onto the existing floorpan from the inside. I also used 3/16 thick steel in the area of the bellhousing, so if I would actually shell a clutch, I would have some extra protetion against the flying parts. Once everything was welded solid and the cage was completely covered, I cut the firewall and original floor under the cage. I left a few inches of the original floor and bent them up to match the new tunnel’s curve, then welded that solid to the underside. With the new floorpan, I will have to cut the radio and heater control area out of the dash, and build a new heater b0x. I am hoping that I will have enough room between the tall bellhousing area and the dash to put in a single DIN stereo at a tilt.

Left yet to do is glue my rubber protection strips onto the battery rack (rubber baseboard), make my 4/0 cables for the battery pack, mount the motor and transmisison together (when the adapters are finished), shorten a driveshaft, and wire in all of my components.

I also made my accellerator potentiometer box. I used the throttle pulley off of the factory throttle body and made my own base with a rod in it to attach everything to. I purchased a 0-5k heavy duty throttle position sensor (TPS) from a electronics distributor to hook onto the end of the shaft.