Wow- Martin's welds are works of art. The whole cradle is amazing.

OK, let's see just how far away I can take this from 914 content.
WARNING: Potentially boring content alert!!

Whenever making mounts that locate other items using a bolt, it's obvious you want to align all the holes as accurately as possible. In production situations with their plus/minus and variation, alignment is generally accomodated with slots and/or holes with a bit more 'slop' than you'd think was needed. Look at the 914 engine bar's outside mount - there's the vertical bolt and its slop to the hole in the bar, then the bolt's slop to the U-shaped plate that sits on the chassis' mounting plate and the slop between the two bolts to the U-shaped plate and to the chassis mount plate... In all, LOTS of room to move things around so everything can be assembled.

Jokes about how I do things over and over aside (!), I don't have to think about "production" so I get to (have to? ) work with tighter tolerances. In the case of the cradle mounts, I do have clearance between the bolts and everything through which they'll pass. But how to control the available fastener clearance? I don't want to risk the slop all ending up to one side, making things tight on the other side. That'd make assembly lots less fun.

So, to manage that, here's a fabrication best practice: slice up an aluminum can and wrap the fastener and anything it passes through to ensure the fastener is centered in everything! Now you know you've removed any "slop bias" and things will be nicely aligned, come assembly time.

Is this sort of prep tedious and time consuming? Yes, it is. Especially that 1/8" strip for the tab! But also a worthwhile. Particularly if you're a bit OCD, like me.

beautiful fabrication work! Are you going to add any triangulation members or rely completely on moment transferring connections?

The engine mounts and related bracing have yet to be added. Once that's all in place, we'll see what's what and if it appears it'll need anything more.

Slick

Question warning, as you might get mad at me for asking it now (maybe it was discussed earlier and I missed it), but: What's the plan for NVH isolation?

I remember Richard Parr telling me about a customer who had a rough go trying to get his engine running right until they figured out the problem was driven by vibrations from the engine being hard-mounted to the chassis.

(And no, I didn't think about this until you reminded me of the design of the 914 engine mounts…which include the transmission mounts…which got me to thinking about the cool solid engine/trans mounts Parr was talking about.)

@horizontally-opposed Pete - Yes, the cradle will be hard-mounted to the chassis but the factory Ferrari rubber mounts are being retained at the trans hanger and both sides' engine mounts. So isolation-wise, it's identical to how it was mounted in the 360.

OK, I'm a slacker. I had designs on doing a big(ger) deal YouTube channel for this build but that's just not in the cards. So, I'll just start and keep posting the vids I've done. Note these are essentially raw footage so no complaining!

For a while, these'll take you back to previously completed work but maybe you'll enjoy seeing some add'l details on what's gone into this build.

Here's "Day 1":


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ONAEuWHrIc

A bit OCD.....?

Sorry, couldn't let that pass unnoticed.

More about how the sausage is made:
Getting ready to final weld the fire wall tabs. To make it simple to get everything centered, I took a piece of scrap and made up a "centering plate". The center is marked in Sharpie / pointed out with the arrow. This will align with a center mark on the fire wall and set the left/right location.

What about up/down, you ask? The fire wall tabs were designed with with a notch that fits the lip on the lower edge of where the fire wall meets the floor. Those locations were determined by eyeballing where I wanted the bottom of the drive train to end up in relation to that lip.

What a pain. Getting the cradle under the engine while it's on the jack is impossible. I have to jack the engine into place, install the trans mount bolt, put screw jacks under the engine mounts, lower the jack, wrestle the cradle onto the jack/under the engine and jack the cradle up into place. Did I say "what a pain..."?

But the payoff/sighs of relief are real! All the eyeball guestimation measurements worked. Things fit. Thank heavens...

Once the fire wall tabs are tacked in place, I can fab the suspension console-to-cradle mounts. Then once that's done, I can FINALLY, locate the engine mount side and top plates.
But I couldn't resist a test fit to see how I did on this set of eyeball measurements.
Pretty well, it turns out. Again, thankfully.

Something folks may not appreciate is that even though every cradle component was designed in CAD, when it comes to fitting all the parts in the real world, and welding distortion happens as the building progresses, each piece needs to be dry fit and tuned, as needed.

So for all you aspiring comedians, that "PR" doesn't stand for Personal Record, it's "passenger rear", indicating this piece has a particular home.

And here's another "catch you up on the past efforts" vid. Note that I explain a bit about the 914 that all y'all know about. This is for any folks who may follow the build via YouTube and don't necessarily know 914s. Thanks for your understanding.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JebyCNFblro

@tygaboy Hey Chris, Great update video. Thanks, Michael

Here's the last catch-up video. I'll make one more that brings everything current then start doing a better job of keeping up-to-date video coming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfb7mdkAzPE

Nice work and great videos!

-Steve

Looking great Chris! Need to make my way to the Barn to see what you have been up to first hand.

^ Shoulda known, and looking good Chris!

I need to become more self-sufficient, particularly when it comes to TIG welding. But it's just so hard when Martin is available and does such incredible work. But I did finally man-up and did the welding on the cradle's front cross brace. I'm getting there.

With the cradle all welded up and the fire wall tabs shimmed in place, the assembly gets final fit, leveled and centered, and the mounting plates are tacked to the fire wall tabs. This ensures everything is in the correct orientation and mounts meet dead on with the surfaces they each bolt to.

With that done, everything was removed and the tabs/mounting plates were bench welded. Then it all goes back in, is checked for center and level and the fire wall tabs are FINALLY tacked to the fire wall!

Unbolt the cradle and fully weld the tabs.

Rememer these aluminum can shims? Well, how'd they work out?

All four mounting bolts slide right through the bungs and the mounting plates with even slop all around. And btw, there's not much of it. I didn't leave much room for error and, thankfully, didn't make one. In all seriousness, the fit is essentially perfect. I couldn't be happier.

@Andyrew Andrew - I thought of you every time I checked the gaps...
Again, I couldn't be happier with how all this fits! Sure, there's a bit of upside down welding to go, but with gaps like that, how hard can that be?

And the final acid test. Here's the cradle, bolted in place - only at the fire wall mounts - "floating" at the back. Yep, that reads dead level.

It was a great day at the Red Barn.

Chris, great work! Thanks for letting me visit yesterday. Good seeing you and seeing your amazing work. Your approach to your projects and ability to problem solve is inspirational.

Wow- Inspirational is an understatement. Maybe I'll just have YOU restore the CSL instead of shipping it off?!

@Tferrer Tyson - Careful, it might end up with an LS or a Ferrari swap!
But something I just noticed: "Ferrer" shares a whole lotta letters with "Ferrari"... maybe it's meant to be?

Awesome work, I can't wait to hear the exhaust note from this beast, it's going to howl!

Well, that's one way of getting rid of the D-jet...

Love that rolling bender Chris. You have nice toys . Don't you love how that Chromoly welds? Have you been able bend the .095 45-60 degree w/o any small kinking. Great build as always.

@76-914 Kent - Are you talking about bends for something like a roll cage? The tubing will bend fine to 180 degrees, assuming the proper die. The smallest radius you're suppsed to use is 3x OD so on the 1.5, it's a 4.5" radius. I used a 6" radius on all the 1.5" chassis stiffening tubes in my LS build. Hope that helps.

Yes it did, thx.

Right side rear engine cradle mount fabbed and tacked in.
While I added that plate on the rear of the suspension console, as I looked at everything, I ended up simply adding an extension to the plating that had been previously added to the front side. I think it makes for what will look more cohesive, once it's all done.
Note that the base mount is 3/16" plate. It has a slight bevel on the underside edge to help in clear a weld on the cradle and this makes it look much thinner than it really is.

Still some trimming/tuning to go, then boxing across the face but this should give a good idea of how it'll all work.

On to the left side - which should go lots quicker, now that the design and approach have been worked out.

Left side in process with console vertical extension rosetted in place and rear plate tacked in postion.
The vertical piece will also be welded to the console on the backside, too.

Yep, the second time was WAY faster. After adding the same small, front plate extension, the cradle was bolted in at the front and at the right rear. I verified level then placed a scrap 3/16" plate on the cradle mount and scribed a line on each of the plates.
Remove the cradle, use a zip wheel to slice off the excess material, bolt the cradle back in, prep the actual 3/16" mount base, verify everything AGAIN and tack everything in place.

So after what seems like forever, the engine cradle mounts are fabbed, fit and (if I do say so myself) FABULOUS!

OK, OK, so I still need to install the engine mounts but, come on! I couldn't be happier.

I'll level with you, it's good to see this is a match.
(Thanks, I'm here all week! Don't forget to tip your servers!)

And here's something you don't see every day: one 914 chassis, essentially ready to receive a Ferrari 360 drive train.

Awesome build Chris, this will send the precious pasta people to the Nut House when this rolls into Cars und Coffee

Especially if he keeps the "Ferrari Pink" color ...

What's the opposite of "clamp"? The console's odd angles made it awkward to get the plate firmly pressed against it for rosette welding. Use a clamp backwards and "presto"!

Anyway, it worked a treat and the plate is welded on.

Noodling on ideas for boxing, with this design leading at the moment. The height of the opening allows access to the mounting fastener. Looks kinda cool, too.

From "Cannonball Run" Ferrari driver, 'And now my friend The first rule of Italian driving...what's a behind me isa not important'
Click to view attachment

Today was me welding on my own, rosetting the spreader plates to the chassis, then the tabs to the spreader plates.
It was extra challenging because it was out of position welding: upside down with the car only about 18" off the ground so I couldn't get my head to an optimal viewing distance from the work area. Such fun! But I got it done.

Looks like a good area for some of your beautiful dimpling /ribbing?

@tygaboy Chris - the opposite of "clamp" is "pmalc". I believe its a silent "p".

I'm here to help.

- Tony

Looks great Chris

Nothing beats TIG for upside down welding. No shower of sparks or slag.

Classic example of "why didn't I do this sooner?"
And yes, I'll run with jack stands in there, too. This was the first time all the way up. What's best is that in this position, the drive train slips under the bumper!
Life made a bit simpler.

That looks great, but have you checked to see if you have clearance with the engine in place to put a socket on that bolt? If the engine is wider than the cradle at that point, you might not have room to get a wrench or socket in there.

Not saying I've ever been bitten by sorta detail before, but....