Presents
Minor Problem
Click here for the 12/15/2005 update
Click here for the 09/02/2006 update
Click here for the 12/12/2006 update
Click here for the 05/15/2007 update
Here we have several shots of the 1959 Morris Minor 1000 from the outside as we received it.
Straight body panels for the most part (minor dings), almost no rust to speak of on the exterior panels(surface and a small amount of rear quarter corner rot).
Front
Driver's Side
As received... Interior
Some interior panels were missing and the seats were in very bad shape.
Original Center gauge was yellowed, but in good condition. The Rear seat was a loss, fortunately we don't need it.
Dashboard
Center Gauge
Rear Seat
As received... Engine Bay
The original engine was recently rebuilt and allowed the vehicle to be driven up from the purchase point in Los Angles, even with only 30 HP.
Average viewer sees...
Overall View
As received... Under carriage
This was surprisingly clean for the age of the car. Only dirt and simple oil residue.
No heavy caking or oil on the middle of the under carriage. Exhaust system was fairly new.
Toward the engine...
Toward the differential...
Concept...
We love the shape this vehicle has as a hot rod.
We are working from the setup of about 4½ to 5 inches off the ground at the front clip lower edge and about 10½ inches just in front of the rear wheels.
Several other items we wished to achieve. Normal width tires in the front, no skinny top fuel funny car fronts on this project.
Rear tires as wide as we could fit. Modern V6 power plant and drive line. Retain all of the outside lines without modification.
Retain the stock color and style of the interior. Custom roll cage, 8 point strength, to reinforce the existing roof safety boxing.
What we want...
Work progress... Parts
The first hurdle was picking the tires.
We wanted these first to get our placement, so we could then design the suspension around the wheelbase and tire selection.
First stop, 15 inch diameter, Weld, Pro Star 96 wheels. Fronts are only 6 inches wide and the rears are a whopping 14 inches wide.
Further, we finally found front tires with 195/65 profile and the rears are a total of nearly 18 inches in width and 28 inches in overall height.
Now the selection of the front suspension. Decisions, decisions, decisions...
For cost reasons, it was decided to acquire a full front cross member with brake assemblies from a 1987 Chevrolet Corvette.
We would attempt to narrow this to accommodate the wheels to fully turn lock to lock, with the car at it's normal ride height.
Power train comes our way as a lucky find. A 2002 Chevrolet Camero was in an accident and totaled.
The drive train had about 50k miles on it. It's a 3.8 Liter V-6 (3rd generation) with a Tremic 5-Speed transmission.
We were also able to pull the entire wiring harness, gauge pod, pedal assemblies, computer control boxes, etc.
Last, but not least we wanted a full 4-Link setup in the rear and purchased a base kit to design our frame around.
Front and Rear wheels...
Front Suspension...
Pep and Gears...
Base Rear Design...
Work progress... Front Rails & Crossmember
Knowing everything had to be built around the stance and wheel base we wanted, we needed to calculate the new width for our cross member.
It was critical that the tires not rub from lock to lock, and so we placed one tire in on the assembled cross member.
The assembly was then slid to one side until we could turn the wheel/tire from lock to lock without touching the fender.
After some calculations, we determined we would have to narrow the Corvette cross member a total of 13 inches! 8-O
Once the 13 inches was cut out and the two halves tacked together. We retried the new assembly with both wheels, and verified our measurements.
Now that we had that out of the way, we needed something to hold the new crossmember in it's proper location...
Using cardboard for mockup, we figured our angles and drew out a pattern on wood. Using the wood to verify our measurements, we then transferred to steel.
Picking 2x3 inch square tubing with an 1/8th inch wall for strength, we fabricated the front frame rails.
How are we gonna get that in there?
Bracing for cutting...
Old Crossmember cut...
All cut out... with New Crossmember...
Front Wood Pattern, and 2x3 Inch Steel Tubing, 1/8 inch thick walls...
New front suspension and frame...
Work progress... Rear Rails
Now that we had our front suspension locked down, we turned to the other half of the car.
The 4-Link frame design was implemented in wood to make sure we had the right measurements first.
Then each piece was cut from the same 2x3 inch square tubing we used on the front half.
The plates for the 4-Link were welded on and each rail was finish welded and tacked in place for verification.
Base Rear Design...
Rear Wood Pattern...
Rear rails tacked in place...
Work progress... Firewall & Front inner fenders
Okay, skeleton is figured out, now we need some skin to cover it up.
First thing was some of the simple floor panels, just flat pieces that needed a pattern. Next was the front inner fender wells.
We started by making more templates in cardboard. Fenders and Firewall were both templated together.
Next we uncurled the curved pieces of cardboard, traced and cut our patterns out of steel.
Curving 18 gauge steel is no easy task, so we went slow and careful so as not to put a big crease in our new fenders.
The inner pieces are 20 gauge steel, so it's much easier to curve them to the compound surface of the inner fenders.
Now comes the hard piece, the firewall. This was a large, 18 gauge piece, that had multiple bends. But it seemed to come out okay. 8-D
Next came fitting that big piece of multi-bend steel into the car and tacking it in place to again test fit the engine and tranny.
Cardboard... for the economy car. 8-D
Got the fenders in place...
Test fitting the cardboard firewall to engine and tranny...
Test fitting the real firewall to engine and tranny...
Wow... Even room to work on it...
Work progress... Transmission Tunnel
Firewall fun done? No way! We have to begin the transisition into the transmission tunnel.
That will be in our next installment... Click here for Update 09/25/2005