Re: 1995 Mustang Super Stocker
 

I had a couple of hard landings at the hit, which most likely caused the bend or at least contributed to it. The aluminum front motor plate didn't show any signs of stress.

I do a lot of welding and fabrication. If the steel was sourced offshore, then it's not ideal. That's not to say that domestic steel wouldn't have bent, but I doubt it would have to the degree seen in the photos. All of the offshore steel that I have used is substandard at best. You can tell immediately when you hit it with the tig torch.

Re: 1995 Mustang Super Stocker
 

Can't argue about quality of the steel, I agree. But, if the front (with any material) isn't bending, then it leads me to wonder if the rear is moving up or down (instead of fore and aft) on the hard landings - crossmember possibly flexing would sort of "pivot" on the front support and help to bend the midplate?

Tossing ideas out here because if nothing is moving, nothing can bend, I don't care what material it's constructed from.

Re: 1995 Mustang Super Stocker
 

That's true. I haven't had any problems since welding two mid-plates together, but I'm going over the suspension before getting out this year to see if anything is binding or moving around.

Re: 1995 Mustang Super Stocker
 

Not a Mustang or Super Stocker, but here's something I made for one of my personal hotrods. It's a 3pc setup where the bell, block plate, and midplate are all separate pieces. This gives me the additional option of removing the complete engine/flywheel/clutch as an assembly without having to disturb the trans/driveshaft/shifter. Having the support ears "up" rather than "out" keeps them completely away from the headers. In this pic you can also see three added bolts that serve to keep the bell attached to the midplate when the bellhousing bolts are removed...

https://grannys.tripod.com/bellhousinginstalled.png

The car does have a crossmember under the rear of the trans, but it serves more as lower support and fore/aft travel limiter, it does not bolt to the trans itself.

Here's a pic of the block plate installed on the engine, I made the center hole bigger to aid clutch cooling...

https://grannys.tripod.com/shopmuleblockplate.jpg

Here's a pic from the inside showing one of the aluminum brackets I made to spread the loads across a wider area of the car's thin sheetmetal firewall...

https://grannys.tripod.com/shopmulef...nforcement.jpg

Like I said this is not a Mustang, but it is similar in that it is a unibody car. This car has had the midplate attached to the firewall for 12 years now, no problems.

https://grannys.tripod.com/TNT800w.jpg

Here's a link to some info about the rest of the car, there are some pictures on there that document my process of fabricating this bellhousing from scratch...

http://grannys.tripod.com/20102.html

https://grannys.tripod.com/bellhousingproject18.jpg