S&T 015 - Managing weld distortion

Show & Tell 015 - I'm making a frame to mount a Reliant Robin engine, gearbox and pedals which then drops onto an Austin 7 chassis.
I can just about shift the engine by hand, but not ideal for my back or precision. After pondering frames and a car jack I put a beam in and bought a chain hoist and I'm delighted with it. Compared to a traditional engine hoist it's tiny to store and needs zero floor space to use.
Weld distortion and tiny alignment issues are adding up. Many would tack weld the whole thing then take care with finish welding sequence to control distortion - and then use brute force at the end - but I'm making larger and larger sub components.
I held off welding until ALL the cutting was done to give myself maximum
"wiggle room". I'd done a couple of practice projects six months prior (two sets of shelf ends and some speaker stands) but no other "project welding" for 20 years so this is very much "a start" and "practice" and trudging back up the learning curve.
The Austin 7 chassis here is mine being used as a jig. The "customer" is the young son of my late friend who helped build my car back in the early 90s but died before completing his. His chassis is slightly different and modified. By building one big heavy over-thought complicated module "here" I hope to minimise installation time "there".
The wooden mock up frame went through a dozen iterations roughly a year before I was able to get back to the project and start cutting metal.
Filmed end of day 22nd Feb 2024.
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Thankyou to Junkyard Tom for getting me to film stuff at all. Alas me then doing an edit has been beyond me to this point so I've started these "one take phone cam updates" as something achievable. Done beats perfect. Hopefully in time they'll be a more polished version with the "live action" making footage.
/ @tomsjunkyard
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Metal Shaper Tom has fitted a Reliant engine into an Austin 7 chassis with a lot less fussing about. He's been a professional coach builder man and boy so there's lots to learn and enjoy there.
/ @metal_shaper_tom
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Sorry for the crackly sound. Thanks to Fitzee "cutting and butting" patches into rusty cars in Newfoundland I now understand why (plus a whole lot about metal working, and life) -
/ @fitzeesfabrications
• How I started a simple...