Framing the Trunk Lid

You know how some ideas seem really great at first, then they don't seem as good later!!!! Well this one wasn't like that at all, ha. It hasn't been easy working through the whole thing but it really is coming together nicely and the room it gives us has been worth the effort. We been distracted with some other things and I have a new batch of kids with only 1 experienced welder so the welding projects take a little longer because I'm training the kids as we go. When it comes to welding metal stock to sheet metal it can get a little tricky. Jaxon (Junior in high school, wants to be a welder) is practicing a bit before starts some of the finish work on this project. You can see in the picture below the little end caps that Jay made are a great fit but there are some small gaps to fill. Jaxon really wants to be able to tig weld this, but we'll see. You can also see the piece of angle iron that frames the edge of the once jagged opening.



Below you can see the lid itself with the new flange around it it closes nicely and in the end it will get a rubber gasket around the flange to ensure a good seal (no fumes in the cab). In the background you can also see how nice the new rear seat fits (leather, how fancy). The lid isn't quit finished yet, but you can see how nice its turning out. With carpet you wont even know its there.



The lid will be mounted to trunk style hings and attached to linear actuators to hold it up. Makes a lot more room, we love it!!!!!!!

A Little Breathing Room Would Be Nice!!!!

We know from day one that this was a big motor and it would take a lot to get it in, but we had no idea!!!!! As you can see from the image below we couldn't use a traditional engine hoist to bring the engine into place. We ended up using a floor jack and lots of muscle.


Once we got it into position (shown below) we realized that we wouldn't have enough room to work on the top half of the engine. We needed more room!!!!! After much brainstorming and some research on the internet we had a plan. We decided to cut ANOTHER hole in our van (its starting to look like a cheese grater).



So we cut out the WHOLE rear deck. From the fuel tank wall to the back (including the buildt in cross-member), from the right side of the original engine compartment to the left. In the picture it looks crooked, but it is just an illusion. The cuts came out perfect.



You'll notice in the next picture Jay Thompson (8th grade student at the time) built a very nice torsion bar to take the strain that cross-member would have. The new torsion bar can be removed with 8 bolts to make way for the engine and hoist.


When the trunk lid is finished, the torsion bar will be the only thing in the way when we try to work on the engine. We are working on the framing and hinge-work right now but will include more pictures as that finishes.



You'll also notice on the left side we have removed the spare tire compartment. This will be framed in and made into a access panel with a 3x9x24 inch compartment for the ECU, fuse panel and other electrical. This also made room for the air filter, and most likely the inter-cooler.

Emmet grinding the welds to remove spare tire compartment