The charm of glass and chrom.
I’ve been making a lot of progress lately, but it’s been a lot of little things that are difficult to write about. I’ll just lump them all together here in one big post.
First I installed the new amber blinkers that I bought. Believe it or not the car originally had plastic lenses, but they not only looked bad, but broke while I tried to install them almost a year ago. I wasn’t sad to see them go. The design is horrible on these things. The only way to get them on is to coax a rubber seal to grip onto the outside of them. Installing each blinker was at least a 30 minute job. I sure hope those bulbs don’t fail anytime soon.
Probably a bit overkill.
Next I welded up a couple of motor mounts. I had cut up some 3/8″ thick steel and welded them in a simple 45 degree angle. I bought some motor mounts and slapped them on. These will be bolted into the frame of the vehicle, and an aluminum plate will be fabricated to span them and bolt to the motor. This plate will have to be welded by my friend, who is fantastic at welding aluminum.
Gratuitously polished
I also drilled and tapped the adaptor plate which mates the motor to the rear transmission extension. I had to spend an hour measuring out exactly where those holes were going to be, as I couldn’t just oversize them and use nut on the other side. The plate is up against the motor itself, and this is just not an option.  However, my patience paid off as the holes are aligned well. I still need to attach the forward/reverse shift apparatus to the plate, but the motor mounting stuff is complete.
Ready to hold up the mainshaft.
Finally, I pressed the sealed bearing into the rear extension. This new bearing replaced the older one that had to be swamped with oil. This new one keeps all of its grease to itself, so it’s much easier and cleaner to use. I was happy to no longer need the transmission gear oil.
Lots of progress, indeed!