Installation of the motor mount

After receiving the freshly welded motor mount and front battery box back from Mr. Butler’s father, Michael and I decided to give them both a fresh coat of paint before installation. We started with a basic primer to give the metal a smoother finish and capped it off with a gloss black coat. After the paint was dry to the touch, Mike and I decided to place the motor mount into the car and bolt it down. It was a successful fit.


This is a before picture of where we had marked a guide line of where the two peices of metal needed to be bonded.


This is the after photo of where the metal was joined by a stick/electrode welder. The white areas are where a great deal of penetration was concentrated so that the weld would support the amount of torque that the electric motor is going to put out.




This is a picture of the weld that is holding the foot on the front battery box. These two feet, one on each side, will be welded to the sub frame of the car.


This is a picture of Michael cleaning up the metal with a grinder brush.


Shooting a coat of primer.


A quick snap of my hand while it is spraying a coat of primer on the battery rack.


Mike taking his time while giving the motor mount a coat of black.


Mike touching up the thin spots.


I later sprayed a second coat of black on both the motor mount and battery rack. About two hours later Mike and I installed the completed motor mount.

Shaving down the k-member

Today Mike and I decided to remove the engine cross member (k-member) and advance it to meet the car’s needs. Since we are using an electric motor and have to fabricate our own motor mount anyway, we decided to remove the old internal combustion engine motor mounts to lighten up the car and improve the engine compartment’s looks. After dropping the k-member from beneath the car, we used a grinder with a cutting wheel to remove the old engine mounts followed by a grinder with a grinding wheel to round off the sharp corners and edges. This made the k-member more appealing to the eye and also shed about nine pounds of dead-weight. Our next objective was to remove all of the road scum and dead paint so that we could give the k-member a fresh coat of black. Mike brought in a pressure washer which made the grime removal easier.

The factory motor mounts came where they are adjustable, but instead of just unbolting the motor mounts alone and taking them off, Mike and I decided just to eliminate the whole mounting bracket. This required cutting the weld with a cutting wheel.

Cutting off the right side.

One down, one to go.

Clean cut

Now the left side.

Notice all of the road grime that was caught in the pocket behind the mount.

Before smoothing the edges.

Getting a clean edge.

Just a pic of midway completion of grinding.

This is a picture of another grime catching spot before we cleaned it up.

Probably 10 lbs. of oily dirt that was scraped away from the k-member surface.

Pretty gross isn't it?

Completed Grinding.

Finished right side.

Finished left side.

Front pic.

Hanging around!

Getting ready to shoot on a coat of primer.

Not finished, but still looking better.

Finished coat of primer.

After the first coat of gloss black.

After the second coat.

Re-installing the freshly painted, lightened k-member.

Re-checking the bolts.

The Beginnings of the Motor Mount...

Here lately, Michael, Mr. Butler, and I have been working on designing and fabricating our motor mount. We've come to the agreement to use a piece of two inch angle iron with a piece of flat bar welded on to it to bolt the motor onto the sub-frame. We are plannning on bolting the motor mount into the last bolt holes where the sway bar bolts to the frame. The motor will then bolt to the motor mount by two bolts that will lock into the front of the motor.

Over the last few days we have made pretty good progress in creating the mount. Here's some pictures of our progress.

We first began with a 5 foot piece of steel angle iron. Now we all know right away that this is too big to stuff into that little engine compartment in our EV. So the first plan of action was to measure inside of the sway bar mounts for the length that we needed to cut the piece of angle.

After finding the measurement, we used a grinder with a cutting wheel attatchment to cut the steel to the correct length.

This is a picture of me cleaning up the edges of the steel after Michael cut it with the cutting wheel.

After placing the steel into the area where it is to be mounted, we discovered that it was just a little bit snug, thus i shaved one edge off for a perfect fit.

Inside of the sway bar mounting brackets are places where the brackets were welded to the sub frame. Instead of grinding down those welds Mike and I decided to notch out places on the engine mount instead. Thus, not creating a disturbance to the factory welds.

After getting the notches right, it was time to drill the mounting holes. For this we used a drill press so the the holes would be straight and clean. From there, I took a round file and smoothed out the sharp edges caused by the drill bit.

Job well done! Mike and I have completed yet another piece of the puzzle. By using this one simple mounting system, we have cut down a huge amount of weight and space savings. It will also be easier to remove and is universal to the Fox Body style Mustangs.

Brake Line Upgrade....

As stated earlier, we have decided to convert the rear drum brakes to disc, but in order to do so the fittings on the ends of the brake lines had to be upgraded. This is so that the lines can be connected to the calipers and properly allow the fluid to flow throughout the brake system. Below are the pictures of how we completed the process. Enjoy!

In order to change the fittings on the end of the lines, we first had to remove the old fittings with a pipe cutter. This meant removing a little piece of the brake line itself in order to get the clean cut. But no worries though! We still have enough line to be able to strech the line to the desired length.

In the background you may notice a red box with silver tools in it. This is a brake line re-beveling kit. This is the tool used to expand the tip of the line to create a tight, non-leaking end that enters into the caliper and then is pressed in tight with the brass fitting.

This is a shot of me cleaning up the end of the line with a file in order to get rid of the burs and sharp edges.

The next step is to slide on the new fitting. Make sure if you ever change these on a brake line, to put the fitting on before you expand the end.

This is the new fitting placed on the end of the line. The drill was used to clean up the edges inside of the brake line after we had cut it with the pipe cutter.

The next step is to lock the tool into a vise and use a sharp tipped squeezing tool with a die on it to expand the end of the line.

After using the die to expand the end, take the die off and use the sharp tip to press the line into a funnel shape at the end. This process should create a doubled, smooth edged tip on the line.

The next thing to do is repeat on the other side.

This should be how your final beveled end should look.