Mounting a Coyote tranny with Colorado Kool-aid machine.

 The Aluminum molten puddle is a lot like the secret to joyful enlightenment. True happiness and inner peace. A state of perfection if you will. There are many things that can make an old refrigerator sized Miller 330 AB/P welder not create that shiny molten puddle of perfection. After trying to tig weld aluminum with this old boat anchor for 10 years I finally found it possible to make a bead with the correct amount of preparation, practice, and focus. I have been told many times I should give up and buy a new digital welder that would make life much more easy. However this old Welder has a story: When my shop was in Denver I had a sketchy automotive shop one block down 38th Ave. One day the sketchy mechanic said he was out and if I wanted his tig welder it was mine but his sketchy land lord/fellow tenants were on their way to seize anything left behind. So I high tailed it over to his shop on foot as that was all I had and started rolling the giant welder down the sidewalk. I could not get it across the intersection so I left it in traffic and went back to my shop for some tie down straps that I could use to better pull, tug, and haul with. I got it to my shop and found it would not fit through my shop door! The tenant behind me let me take out some drywall and 2x4s to get it into my shop. And then I began the struggle to learn how to weld aluminum. I think I nicked a hole in the torch's gas line during the moving process causing intermittent issues and many foul words for many years.  A customer identified my welder, with it's unique decal logo numbers as one of the welders he worked with at the Coors brewery in Golden just up the road. Who knows how many beer kegs the machine once put together.

I built a jack as practice before tackling the engine and trans mounts. 

Luckily someone else has previously cut the car up so I don't feel as bad attempting my fabrications on it. The car has previously had a Subaru, Ford SHO, and other engines. It is recorded as being totaled at least twice.

I am going a different way than all the other CHCA cars and doing soft mounts with the thinking of less cracking....

Some of the previous repairs and alterations make me feel not so bad about my welds...

But I have a long way to go before I reach true enlightenment. Hoping my future is not full of cracks....