Here's how the car looked after the customary faffing about that
everyone does with a new project car. Ya gotta see what ya got, right?
On a one-stop buying expedition to ace metalman Al Steven's place, I picked
up three fenders, a boot lid, and whats relevant here, an Alfa Romeo twin
cam motor, five speed 'box and live rear axle. In this shot, one "new"
glass fender has been trial fitted at the rear, front fender removed, and
the extent of rust around the lower parts of the body explored. Bodywork
above rear fender polished up nicely.
Both front wings were removed, then half a dozen bolts later and
the whole front end is off.
Trusty chain hoist and gantry pressed into use once more. Old four
banger and 3 speed relegated to the "try and sell one day" parts pile.
Lot of time then spent removing all the items bolted to the bulkhead. Take
a deep breath, break out the angle grinder and.........
Chop out the bulkhead.
The moment of truth. Using the old "dangle it in the hole and see
what hits" technique, the Alfa motor was only able to sit anywhere near
the proper position once most of the bulkhead was assigned to the shit
pile. The motor sits slightly canted to the left. It's got to sit further
back than this, though, to give clearance for the track rod and drag link.
(Rightly or wrongly, I want to run a beam axle. This motor is a big, awkward
lump.
To get the motor in, the chassis will need heavy modification.
Here the K member has been cut almost through. The wishbone has been unbolted.
Steering and shox removed. Did I mention I'm going to Z the frame?
Eh voila! A bit of space to work in.
Thats better. Motor now sitting further back and lower down. There
is a distinct lack of footroom alongside the motor, even with offsetting
the motor and tranny an inch to the left. I had reckoned on moving the
drivers seat about 6" back from stock, and moving the pedals rearwards
a like amount, but after setting the seat in that position, I decided I
didn't like it, and decided there's only one way to gain enough footroom:
change that pesky starter.
Flywheel now sits where rear of transmission used to be. It's the
position of the solenoid on the starter thats causing the footroom problem.
There's just not enough room to get three pedals in a row between it and
the kick panel.
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