26 Nov 2009
Time passes...

Okay, yes, I admit it: I haven't updated in months. I took way too many hours this semester and it's shown both in the amount of time I've not been able to spend on the cars, and on my grades in my classes. Only the car will be discussed here though.

The pictures here have been languishing on the camera for months, since early in the semester before I figured out just how in over my head I was.

In some cases, I'm not sure what I was trying to show... I've taken my best guess there.
The engine for the Chevelle has been moved into the garage. No sense in letting the elements get to it under a tarp. I still don't have the gears to put the transmission together; without the transmission, I don't see much sense in putting this in (and I don't think I have the flywheel-to-engine bolts, either). No estimate on when I'll get the gears.
Engine is bolted in on the El Camino. Driver's side:
It's wierd; pretty sure I sandblasted, primed, and painted the mounts here.. but they're all sorts of scarred up. Good thing this isn't a show car.
I had to adjust the passenger side mount to move the engine bolt holes back some (arrows show direction). Since bolting this to the block is the first step, distance wasn't so important -- but I believe it was roughly 1/2 inch.
... and here it is, bolted to the block, mount attached, and welded to the plate to fix the relative position.
Unfortunately, there's a problem: The bottom bolt hole doesn't really line up with anywhere that there's "metal" to bolt to. I'll have to use this plate as a template for a new one, or weld more metal along the bottom.
Ran into a minor snag with the clutch bracket; the hole in the firewall doesn't really line up with where the shaft wants to go. Will have to cut a new hole, not sure yet how I want to seal it to the firewall.
Engine mounted with the bad pass bracket. Level, straight, ready to move on once I a) fix the plate, and b) fix the notch for the AC lines.
Did I mention that the Chevelle Challenge was a failure? If I had the gears (and rebuild kit) for the tranny I could get the engine in, the front sheet metal together, and all that; but with no roof, I don't see any point in putting the wiring together where it'll just get rained on.

Spring I won't be taking nearly as much of a classload - one class only, more than likely, and I'll hav e more free time. I've got some heavy plastic sheeting; I may end up "making" a temporary convertible top for the car... but no sense in doing so if I don't have a need to get the wiring done.

Am thinking, however, that the car has been in this coat of primer for too long; I can see surface rust coming through in a few spots and the primer has peeled in a few others. Wouldn't be a bad plan to strip the rest of the car down to bare metal and put new primer on. Too cold out now though.

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