Well... three cars gave their life, but not for this build. I like to think that the Fusion and MX-5 that I scavenged parts for just had the little "organ donor" box checked on their license
Nothing so far has been hard, from a fabrication standpoint. What's been challenging and time-consuming is trying to figure out all the inter-dependencies. Example: I started working on fitting the engine in the car almost immediately after buying the MX-5 (which is now gone). I could get it to fit, but not in a way where the steering rack would bolt up. So I raised the nose of the engine to clear the rack. Now the driveline angles are all wrong. So I raised the rear. Then it hit the cowl. So I decided to dry sump the motor (thinner oil pan). That added a bunch of unwanted complexity and cost.
I ended up rolling the dice on an aftermarket subframe which gave me the clearance I needed up front, and cutting the cowl sheet metal after a lot of discussion with the rules advisory committee about whether that was legal or not. That was the real breakthrough - once we determined that was legal it made the rest of it possible.
With the rear differential mounted and the engine roughly where it wants to be, I can order the bellhousing, mount the transmission, and finalize the engine location, mounts, and transmission mount once I get the driveline angles correct. That will enable completion of the wiring, work on the fuel system, relocating the ABS unit, etc. I still will need a custom oil pan. In an MX-5, the engine sits well aft of the subframe cross-bar. In this application, the front edge of the oil pan is above the cross-bar. So I need an oil pan that is two inches shallower in that location. Interestingly... one just popped up on eBay (something custom). Fate?
It's frustrating to me that it's taken me so long to get all this figured out, but there is no instruction manual and I've never done something of this magnitude before.
Anyway thanks for coming along on the journey.