Midgetec

Finally back in action after another long dry spell. Took Friday off, with plans to hit it hard for the whole weekend. Had a friend (Michael) over to help, which really made things go quicker.

So, when first getting ready to fit the Duratec, I had cut out part of the steering rack support to make room for the engine when removing and installing. Time to finish this bit up.

Here is a shot of one of the "stubs" where the rack acutally mounts:

And here's the other side:

A little surprise on this one, as there is a crack on two of the tube's four sides. This will require a bit more work. We drilled a hole at the end of the crack to stop it from traveling, then filled it in with the MIG.

Prepped and ready to weld (note aluminum foil - an easy way to protect the area from weld spatter - Thanks, Michael!):

So needless to say, I'm wondering how long the crack had been there, and whether it could have ever turned ugly on the track??

Alright, so since this tube served not only as a rack mount, but also stiffened up the front end, I'm going to tackled this in two steps. First will be to tie these loose ends down to the cross member below. Then later, there will be a hoop that connectes the two spring perches together, and also will provide an upper motor mount attachment point to provide a little more solid mount. I never was totally happy with the mounts down below because of the relatively thin rails they're attached to. Hopefully, I'll make enough torque to justify the extra mount!

Here are the two supports I fabricated to connect the stubs to the cross member:

And here's one after it's been welded in.

And now with everything in:

And with the rack mounted:

Went ahead and put the wheels on just to see what it was going to look like:

Pretty wicked for a lowly Midget!

Next up, filling that nasty hole I made in the driver's footwell...