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Haha thanks, maybe wait until I start putting metal back in to pass judgement!

I will say your thread has been very good for seeing how E21s go together (sheet metal wise) - it will come in handy when i start fixing the rust on my car!

So, another good weekends work put in on the E21, stitching up the holes I cut last weekend.

But first I set about finishing off the gear linkage while I had easy access. Started off cleaning up and welding the carrier back together.



Then I assembled the short shifter I've had kicking around for about 3 years (bought back when I had an E46 but never fitted). This meant I could tack the linkage rod together in the right orientation. And there you go, one baby gear linkage!



I also modified the old rear carrier mount to accept the E46 style bushing - basically it's just a half round 'clip' that holds the bush on the underside of the trans tunnel. No pictures unfortunately!

With that done, I moved on to welding up the big hole in the middle of my car. First I cut 2 long strips of steel 30mm wide - I dont need to raise the tunnel quite that much, but having the extra steel will account for the uneven cuts when i removed the tunnel. Then I spaced the old piece of tunnel up from the gearbox, and the sides outwards to give some extra clearance around the gearbox. All thats left is to trim the 2 strips to size/shape and start tacking them in!


I'm just leaving the strips overlapping the old sheet metal. Although this isnt the prettiest method, its stronger and easier to weld (and alot quicker), and given this will all be covered in seam sealer/sound deadening/carpet/center console, I figured looks are probably less important than strength! To finish the job, i made up some closing panels for the front and welded the whole thing up (in a t-shirt, meaning I now have 'sunburnt' forearms).


While i had the welder out i finished off a rust repair i started a few weeks ago. This had been repaired previously, but only the outer skins were done, leaving rust on the inside.



Underneath the car, i decided to move the transmission mounts on the body backwards by a few inches. The transmission bracket should be easier to make this way, and the whole thing should be stronger too. The alternative would be to extend the bracket forwards to meet the mounts, but then the bracket would have a large cantilever.
Removed the mounts and trimmed to fit their new position of the floor.


Then welded back in


Finally I covered the whole lot in red oxide primer and called it a day. The rest of the gearbox mount can wait until I have the propshaft.

Nice progress again mate!

It's been a while, but last weekend I managed to make some more progress on the E21.

First job was to finish mounting the gearbox, but first i had to attach the gearbox to the engine again and make sure my tunnel modifications were adequate!


Also seemed like a good time to test the shift linkage, fits perfectly!


So, on to the mount itself! i had though about trying to reuse either the E21 mount or the E46 one, but both would have required a lot of work, so i just made one from scratch. I went with 40mm box and cut it down the middle to get a 20x40mm U section. It also happens that the right hand side of the mount needs to be 20mm higher than the left.


Then just keep adding bits until all the bolt holes are joined up and weld it all together



Then a test fit to make sure it fits!


I also added a couple of extra bolting point to the car, as per E36 and E46. Probably unnecessary, but it took all of 20 mins and should make it stronger, and drilled 2 access holes so you can get a socket on the underside of the rubber mounts. Finally some paint - epoxy primer and VHT wrinkle black (as thats all i had). It looks a bit crap to be honest, but no one will ever see it and at least it wont rust!



The mount only took me a few hours; it was finished by saturday afternoon! So I turned my attention to the pedal box that I bought several months ago. you may remember i had already mocked it up in roughly its final position, I just needed to fix it there permanently. To that end, I cut up the old pedal box to use the firewall mount and tacked it in place:


Then cut out the firewall and did a quick mockup to check for master cylinder clearance. It's pretty damn close, but i can live with that



Then all thats left is to weld up the hole and drill some holes:



I added a second mounting point at the bottom so that the pedal box is held in place without the master cylinders:


And thats about as far as I got, i've drilled the big holes for that master cylinders to go through and covered the lot in primer, but i need to buy some clutch and brake switched and get those mounted before the pedal box is finished. On the driveline front, I have a prop that will work without shortening it, but I need to move the CSB mounts on the car to suit but to do THAT really I need to at least mockup the new diff to get the positioning right... The diff is a whole project all on its own - i've got to mount the diff to the beam and make driveshaft adapters and make a whole new rear support thing for it... all kinds of fun i just can be arsed with right now... i think i'll carry on welding for the time being!