some other tasks

The front shocks are on the car now which is sitting back on the ground. The front end is sitting kind of high but that should settle once the weight of the engine, body, etc are installed.

By "squaring" the chassis and suspension I had to shim out the rear suspension sub-frame slightly which caused problems for the rear body section, part of which bolts to the back of the rear suspension sub-frame. Back when I was just beginning construction of the body, I kept telling myself to precision "square" the chassis and suspension before going too far but I didn't listen. So, now I had to make some modifications to the tail so it can go back on the car. The aluminum tail was riveted to some framework that also acts as a rear crash barrier. Since I earlier-on thought the chassis would be red, I sprayed the rear framework red before riveting the rear sheet-metal in place. To get the tail to fit I needed to modify the frame-work slightly but doing it without removal from the tail wasn't viable. Today I drilled out multiple stainless rivets, cut off one of the lower mounting bosses, prepped the end of the brace for, and made a new, mounting boss. Then the framework was mounted back into the tail but with Clecos this time to everything can be lined up on the back of the car to tack weld the new mounting boss in place. The tail sheet-metal will then have to be removed for proper welding access to the new mounting boss. After that the rear frame-work will be prepped and painted black to match the rest of the chassis and it'll be riveted back into the tail.

Without help, over this weekend, I couldn't move the car or the tail to continue the work so I decided to look for some other tasks to take care of.

The sheet aluminum door hinge covers had some redundant mounting holes in them so I TIG welded them shut, ground the welds smooth, and screwed the covers back onto the car. Now what?

The steel motor mount brackets that bolt directly to the engine block always seemed kind of agricultural in quality to me and much too heavy. Who cares if you're building a 4,000 plus lb. Quattroporte sedan right? I started trimming off the not needed pieces and drilling and boring some lightening holes. It probably won't save that much weight but It'll make me feel better to stream-line these clunky things a little.