200R4 update

Okay. Not much time during the week to work and today we are getting some crappy weather in the form of rain and sleet where the car is to a bunch of snow where I live. 35 miles can make a hell of a difference in weather. We got the upper crossmember cut out. The tranny went up another 3 inches. I would like another inch to inch and a half if I can. Right now the dipstick tube is hitting the pinch weld in the tunnel. I have to notch out the spot where the dipstick will be. Just to make sure there is enough clearance we are going to cut the pinch down to about a quarter inch and tack weld it together in a few spots. That way the tranny won't hit it under torque. I am almost clear of the e-brake cables now. The motor is sitting pretty well now. Another inch and a half and it's good. The other side of the tranny that is not hitting has a tab with a hole bored in it that almost hits and probably will when I go up higher. We are going to cut it off. Tom played around a bit and came up with a partial lower crossmember mock up. It looks good - I'm pretty sure it will work. He used angle iron, cut and welded. he boxed it in at the end to slip around the existing crossmember. We are going to build the final with heavier steel and drill the hole in the crossmember bigger on one side, smaller on the other. Then we will slip in a piece of tube steel that will give it something to pinch tight against. I have pics of the cutaway upper. It's hard to see in the pics because we painted the cut black. Progress is being made. I am missing some valve cover studs, so today I ordered the studs, the GM tranny mount, the fan blade, and subframe connectors. Once the motor is in place we will try to get the headers in. Even though the old Hookers came out the bottom, I think the motor will have to be out to get the TTi's in. We'll see. This post is worthless without pics, so here we go.

I tried different lighting, but it's hard to see. The upper crossmember was cut away on the right side of the tranny in the pic to allow clearance to move upwards.
View attachment Cutaway upper crossmember.jpg
View attachment Cutaway upper crossmember 1.jpg
View attachment Cutaway upper crossmember 2.jpg

The view into the tunnel. Just a bit higher. Before we were below the e-brake cable.
View attachment Tunnel view.jpg

Here is the mock up partial crossmember Tom designed in his head and built with scrap that was laying around with no plans. It looks damn good!
View attachment Partial mocked up crossmember.jpg
View attachment Partial mocked up crossmember 1.jpg

Here is the partial slid into place. We will bolt the final in place and will slide a steel sleeve inside the upper to give us a pinch point.
View attachment Crossmember mock up.jpg
View attachment Crossmember mock up 1.jpg
View attachment Crossmember mock up 2.jpg