History: I am converting to a side shift tranny on an early car, but the front motor mount(beam) that I got from someone in the club was bent and didn't fit. Everyone told me that that was impossible, but..... shit. I just realized I don't have the picture of the bent one..... Anyways, it was. Everyone also told me not to fabricate one, but I've never been good at listening. So anyways, my brother and I designed a new beam and he welded it up. It fits perfect, there's no interference with the shift linkage(or anything else), AND it's a even few pounds lighter! Why wasn't I supposed to do this?
Mark D.

Can I get one in forged aluminum?

What was your cost to make it?

How's it hold up to the weight of the engine and trans?

humm... interesting.

AA

Cus its a vital part of the car..

As long as your welds have good penetration... It looks great!

Everyone?

That's nucular!

people take things the wrong way...it had NOTHING to do with you not being able to make it, what was meant by it was that why spend the equivilant of hundreds of dollars of labor and tools needed for something you could have bought for $20.....

we've all been guilty of it, no harm no foul

looks good....

My brother is the 'fab' guy, and he's just as into this project as I am. It's all coming out of my pocket so I'm making the final decisions, but a lot of time expertise has come from his direction. I wouldn't be able to bring this car back to life without him. As a return, I told him that once it's up and running, I'll give him a key(he didn't ask for that, he just earned it).
So anyways, he brought up the idea of building one, and of course my first concern was with strength. He assured me that the 1-1/4" DOM steel tube that we used would be plenty strong. We still haven't test driven it because of FI problems, but it's holding the engine right now with a microscopic downward flex, but you get some of that with the I-beam as well. We'll see how it holds under load, but I think it should be fine. The end pieces are 7/8" barstock that was center drilled and cleaned up on our mini lathe. The center mounts are 1-1/2" tubing that is capped on both ends and center drilled as well.
The tough part was the hole for the linkage, and to be totally honest, I'm not sure how he got that all lined up right, but that's why people don't pay me to build them stuff. The jist of it is 1/8" flatbar gusssets that were cut the shape of the origional on both sides. On the top and bottom they're wrapped in more 1/8" flatbar and welded on all seems.
As for weld penetration, that's his department. I've seen his other work take some serious punishment before, so I'm not too concerned. He did say that his welder was 'acting up' a bit while welding the gussets, but he didn't seem too concerned about the strength, only the look. That's part of why they look kinda funky in that close up pic of the shift-rod hole. Still, no noticable flex in that area.
As for cost of the build, materials were under 20 bucks, but it was fairly labor intensive. I think he said he put in about five-seven hours on it total(not quite sure), but he was designing it in the process. If we had to do it again, it probably wouldn't be that much. As for WHY.... Well, just by how it feels, I think I saved five pounds. It also looks cooler than a rusty old I beam. I guess the real answer is 'just because'.
In the meantime I'm learning a lot about how this stuff is done. Between working on the teener, and helping a coworker rebuild an ovaltrack racer evertime the driver wrecks it(which is quite often), hopefully I'll be able to start frabricating some things myself soon........ Wow.... Long post. Hope I answered your questions and didn't bore you to tears in the process.
Mark D.
P.S. I think custom 4 to 1 headers are next.

If it were me, I would add a safety lanyard under the front of the engine just to be on the safe side. Since it moved with just engine weight on it, when the car is driving and that engine is vibrating right along it could bend it quite a bit.

Gee that's a great idea. Maybe I'll make one for my car. Oh wait, I already did that....

yours is a girder style no? like 2 tubes right?

did you bondo your welds to look that good? LOL

nice...

Both these pieces are ART. I'm in awe.

Damn right it did!

I guess now would be a bad time to say that I have a spare sideshift engine support bar that I don't need.

oops.

Anyway, looks nice!

-Tony

Looks great Ury. Does that used the stock shift linkage and rubber mounts/hardware? Also, what kind of tubing is that?
Mark D.

Yep stock shift rod goes thru the middle of it. I don't use the rubber mounts, this bolts right to the engine. Tubing is 1" mild steel, nutin' special about it. There are more pics in my blog what show it with the caster wheels attached.

From a profesional fabricator to you I say,"Good job fellas!" OH, and thanks for the ideas.


Me cut, me weld, me bolt, me win.

werd

Mecgen, I love your avatar picture. Do you remember where you got the origional?
Mark D.

Both look good, nice job, but I'll bet that truss design dosen't move a bit.

Movement is not our friend. Then again it's better than breaking.