Frame paint stripping

OK, the yellow paint is off. There is still a lot of Hunter green and red oxide primer to remove. The original green paint is burned away at the 2 vertical braces between the lower frame rails and rear-wheel stays. It is also burned away at the front engine mounting tabs. I expected to find this. I also found paint burned away and disk grinder marks on the bottom of the main tube under the gas tank. Maybe they tried a front engine mount here and then realized there was no room for the carb???

The big surprise is that the green paint is also burned away at the 4 bolt stuffer mount bracket. Also, the original welds are nice, tight TIG welds. The welds used to add the later parts look to be much larger stick welds. Now I suspect that the original engine mount was the 2 5/16-18 UNC under the clutch bolts and the 2 1/4-20 UNC fan shroud bolts. This also explains the torch cuts through the side mount bracket to allow access to the left side stuffer bolts. I had to make the upper torch cut larger to get an Allen wrench on the bolt. I have no idea how they put the engine in this thing. Could they have bolted a partially assembled engine to the stuffer mount and then welded it? As bizarre as that sounds my 1968 Bobsy Vega race car required the engine to be assembled after the short block was installed in the chassis.

The bare frame weighs in at 27.2 pounds. Here is one of the front engine mount cracks.