Transmission Tunnel Part2

After I had the tunnel out of the omega I could start to do some damage to the viva. Up to this point I had done nothing that would damage the cars original status. Sorry to say but all originality has now gone. First of all I measured the size of the tunnel I cut out from the omega against the viva. This gave me an idea on where to start i then measured out the length from the mounts on cross member to the mounts on the gearbox. But i noticed that the tunnel had a lot of bracket points to where you could bolt the gearbox. This must be for different engine types. So length was not a mojor issue. So height i hovered the engine on the crane to roughly where the engine would sit. I could weld the tunnel to the floor of the car and get away with height no problem they matched perfectly.

So i marked on the inside where i would need to start cutting by laying the tunnel inside the car this gave me a great outline. So i took a deep breath and cut the tunnel out at about 3cm in from my line so that i would hav a lip to weld to.Next i lined up the new tunnel in the great whole in my car. It look like something out of a cheap flinstones movie. I made sure that i was sitting level and tacked the new tunnel in place.

Transmission Tunnel

For the omega engine and gearbox to fit I would have to increase the size of the tunnel. So I thought the best thing to do was increase the tunnel by using the tunnel from the omega this would guarantee that the tunnel was the best fit plus as an added bonus I could use the mounts on it.

So before I started cutting the tunnel away I decided to strengthen the car by welding steel tubes across to stop the car folding like a pack of cards. I did not mess around I just measured the width of the areas and welded them in.
Next I decided to cut the tunnel out of my donor omega. Wow was this a job. To get into it I had to take out the seats and most of the dash board, which in a luxury model like this proved not to be easy. I took the maximum amount out of the omega so that i had loads of shaping left overs.