Earlier in the spring my head gasket went out on this car. I ripped it apart and it sat for a while. Then this week I finally manged to get the car running and it runs great! Figured I'd do a couple of things like replace the lower motor mount because it was bad and I had acsess to a lift.

Well, upon closer inspection and removing the mount. The cup that holds up the mount rusted away from the cradle. There was not enough useable metal to weld it back up. Everything was severely eaten by rust. I really wanted to just lit the car on fire and roll it down a hill.

A trip to the junkyard to get a 1996 engine cradle and after painting it and ordering up new bushings for everything. Holy crap bushings are expensive. I spent 6 times more on the bushings than the cradle. I'd rather do this right once and be done with it.






New cradle.



Old bushings.

Prepping the cradle for paint.



In one of the mount spots I had to weld in some more metal because it looked rusty so I supported it a bit more. As soon as my bushings get here and some other parts going to get this installed and hopefully this car will drive again.

Cool! Good luck with the project.

Yeah cradles can be a real pain, GM uses these stupid cage nuts now that are very weak, any rust on the threads of the bolt and the cage will break and just spin. Only way to fix it is cut the floor out and weld the nut back in. The newer Acadia/Traverse/Enclave/Outlook'* are like this, the drivers rear always breaks. Every single time i have to R&R a transmission or engine on them they ALWAYS break!!

Alright sorry I haven't been in a while. My computer broke and I've been super busy with this project and work. So here is a much needed update.

Old and new cradles





All new bushings.










Fixing a broken louver.





Now she runs and I took her out for a photoshoot!













Upgraded my SWRC pad to the one with more buttons.





Quick video of her running. Runs great now. Also the new swcr working properly.

car looks like new

Thanks! It'* been a lot of money and time to get it this far.

Nice job on the cradle and mounts, car looks good, and I am sure it feels good now to get it it and go, knowing it fees better thanks to your own hard work!

Looking good! I'm a fan of that body style, glad to see you are making it last.

Wow! That GP really looks sharp!

Now to drive it as much as I can before the first snow fall and everything gets coated in salt.

Yikes I haven't updated this thread in a while... Here is what I did today. New dog bones, a unbroken washer fluid bottle and a little cubby for the center console.