Next step (after the measuring and thinking and calculating etc, which doesn't count) was to make up the engine mounts.
I love CNC for small run manufacturing, and prototyping too--I have a deal with my local laser guys where I bring them G-code files to their specs, and they can run off prototype parts without having to do any setup or translations, which keeps it cheap. So nowadays I do all my sheet metal parts on the laptop, do a desktop test print on card stock, cut out the parts, form them over the edge of a table, weld them together with hot glue and Scotch tape, and if the paper parts fit I have a metal set made and build a prototype from them.
I generally plan on making one test-fit assembly that isn't quite right, but is close enough that the second shot will get it. It saves a bunch of calculating time if I assume I'll make a mistake or two, plus I'm such a crapola welder that I don't weld finished products...which means if I think it might work like a charm the first time, I have to bring in a professional to weld it. This way's faster.
Here's a cool technique for laser parts: to reduce fixturing and fitting sub-assemblies, I rely on origami. For a nice bend line that'll be exactly the same from part to part, I cut a line where I want the bend, leave it connected at the ends with tabs about as wide as the thickness of the metal, and then one can bend the part by hand and weld the cut back together after the part is installed.
Here's the left pickup plate (the part the left engine mount--trans mount, actually--attaches to), it has legs that fit (and weld) under the cradle tube and a center brace about mid-plate. The photo shows the cuts in the brace and how it folds, plus there are pix of the right pickup brackets (where the right motor mount attaches) already folded, plus how they fit on the 2" tube.
