Use of a grinder on the body:
I’m not going to post any pictures for this because all the arias I’m talking about can be seen from previous pictures.
The dogebone bracket for the original (2.
engine was cut out. To do this and make as few holes as possible I used a grinder to grind off the spot welds from the top. First I found all the weld spots and marked them, then grinded about 95% of the way though the top sheet metal. Do one spot at a time then pry up the metal, that way you can be sure which spots need more grinding. If there is life still in the spot weld don’t pull harder it should just come off nicely (with very little force). After you have the piece out then grind down all the spots so when painted you can’t see a disaster. (see the engine clearance pictures) I did the same thing with the battery tray because I’m relocating it to the front of the car, for better weight distribution. However; if desired the battery tray can be saved but will have to be modified if so. I didn’t go this rout so I don’t have any instructions for this. Perhaps in the future someone will post a solution.
Some of those little brackets for mounting screws that are on your fire wall (except for the bottom two, which are quite useful), that stick out more than an inch should be removed. It makes it much easier to rout things later. However every application is going to be a little different, since every installer is going to rout things a little differently. After you have done a dry fit to see what has to go and have figured out where you are going to rout thing, then you can remove the redundant points of irritation. (see the fuel and heater hose pictures)
The right side trunk lid hinge; this hinge will have to be trimmed if using the manual transmission, how much will depend on your placement. I had to remove the pre-tensioned rods as well. I measured the placement with the automatic transmission and found that with the right placement (mounting to the left) everything should fit fine between the hinges, and the stock setup can stay. (see the dogebone picture)
There will also be a lot of grinding your cradle as well but that goes without saying.
As a note, I think this should be considered because I almost had a little problem with this. When grinding in the general vicinity of your windows, do yourself a favour and cover them up with a good fire resistant blanket. Otherwise you may end up with a mess to clean off your window.
Aaron
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