Try USA1 Radiator. Not sure if they are still around, but if so they can build a custom one for you. They did for my '56 F100 and the truck never got over 187 degrees, even running hard.
man get someone that knows what they are doing to help you with the rear end set up in that car. I think it is going to come apart big time on you if not drive way weird???????????
I don't think your panhard bar is going to work like that. The heims should be mounted so that the bolts go through them horizontally, not vertically. I don't think they will allow full suspension travel the way you have it, which could lead to failure and an accident.
Certainly looks cool and you're making quick progress but can I ask about the strength of the chassis? These old things are used to about 20bhp going through them, and I know you added a few sections, but do you think it will withstand the torque from your new engine? Wouldn't it have been safer to knock-up a new frame to drop the body over? For a car so high with that much power, I'd be looking to fit a cage too. These things just fold up if the worst happens. Not dissing your work, just looking at it from a safety-first angle.
hi.b427.morris austin anglia prefect same horse differant jockey i had a two door with the same body lines as yours mine was taged as a morris 8 i will try to dig up some pics keep up the good build kev
back again b427 just a quicky turn the heat up on your wellder all men know good pennatration is better in high stress conditions kev
kevron I have a 1937 Morris8 I didn't know that they made a two door version would like to see some pics
Your enthusiasm for this project is very cool... but like some of the others have eluded to, the way you are going about building it has some of us concerned. First off, the car is a unibody car. So basically what happens is when you cut away ANY part of a unibodies' structure away, it becomes very weak. The firewall for instance was an integral part of the front suspensions strength, but then you cut it away and welded in a flat firewall that has little triangulation on the front suspension. Also, because you are putting an engine in the car that has a considerable amount more horsepower, you actually need to triangulate the front end even more. If not, it'll crack at the worse... and drive like shit at the least. The solution is to weld some type of member high on the firewall, preferrably behind the firewall so it doesn't look like shit, and then run a round tube to the front of the "frame" where the front of the spring mounts. Moving onto the rear suspension... I know guys are talking about instant center... but that's the least of your worries. The bottom tube on a ladder bar is supposed to be parallel with the ground, and then the three holes on the front bracket are supposed to be verticle. That bottom tube is so far away from being parallel that it doesn't really matter if you can adjust it an inch and a half either way. But... the stuff that really scares me are the shock mounts, panhard bar mounts and pinion angle. The shock mounts you have are in single sheer when they should be mounted in double sheer. Here is an example of single and double sheer. It is important to mount all structural suspension components in double sheer. The other thing that concerns me about the shock mounts is that there are no heims on the ends on the single sheer mounting. If they were mounted to a fabricated square tube chassis with proper lower double sheer shock mounts made from 3/16" plate, I wouldn't be so concerned... a lot of drag cars are done this way. But, because this is a street car that is top heavy, with a short panhard bar, it is going to roll about the bat hard bar a lot more than a lower car with a longer bar... this "rolling" effect is going to put a lot of stress on those shocks where they bolt to the car and axle. Single sheer won't cut it. The next thing is the fact that you are welding suspension parts to a unibody. Unitized bodies are meant to be light, and strong... but the metal that they are made up of is very thin. Welding thicker metal brackets directly to a inibody is dangerous. It can be done... but what you need to do is distribute the load of a small member of a great area that it is capable of all by itself. Here's an example... if I were to weld a roll bar tube directly to the sheet metal floor pan of a car... and then roll the car at a high rate a speed... the roll bar tube would poke a hole in the floor of the car car because the force is distributed over a small area. The proper way to weld a roll bar to a sheet metal floor pan of a car is to make a plate that is 1/8" to 3/16" thick that is at least 6" x 6" and then weld that to the floor. The roll bar tube is then welded to that. Then, if you roll the car at a high rate of speed, the weight that the roll bar tube is exerted over a greater area and doesn't stand a chance of punching a hole in the floor pan. Your upper shock mounts look marginal... but your panhard bar mounts are downright scary. Especially the one on the body, it will break. The way to do the upper one is to weld a piece of 1/8" thick steel on both the frame rail and then on the underside of the floor board. I would want at least 25 square inches on each... preferrably more. Then you can weld your bracket to the frame one and a gusset to the one on the floor board. Pinion angle... it looks off. Your motor seems to be angled down towards the rear and your pinion perpendicular to the ground. I have to ask, how did you set this up? With your ladder bars the way they are, you are going to want some negative pinion angle... probably at least a degree or a degree and a half. I say this because your suspension is not going to act like a normal ladder bar suspension under load... the rear end of your car is going to raise up under load... a bunch. The only thing that might safe it are those shocks... regardless, I'd set it up at 1 1/2 degrees. A normal ladder bar suspension is set up at zero to a half a degree. Very different from a leaf spring car that needs 3-4 degrees... I don't want to seem like I am bashing your ideas or your vision, in fact... I'm inspired by your excitement to build a gasser styled car. It's just that none of want to see you build something that could break and hurt yourself or worse yet your family or someone elses family. Sam
Here we are almost 10 years later. Still driving the Austin about 5,000 miles a year, with annual trips to the drags. It's still running and driving great. Still haven't killed myself or anyone else. One trip to the roadster show where it took first place in the Nostalgia Hotrod Class. Goes straight down the strip with no handling issues along the way. I guess I must have just gotten lucky.
After about 7 years running these Jeep seats, I decided to break down, and make a winter project out of replacing them. They're not too bad, but have zero adjustment in any direction, and the seatback angle doesn't fit me well enough to do a trip of more than a couple hours before my back hurts. I bought them because they have a period look, but if I'm uncomfortable I need something better. So the local wrecking yard had a sale on all seats for $15 ea., and I found a pair of dark gray manual adjustment buckets. I'll strip the headrests off, and dye the leather black before they go in the car. I got a nice day today, so I pulled the Jeep seats out, and set the new buckets in. I could tell right off things were going to be tight! The Austin is only 44" inside door to door, and the driveline tunnel interferes with that measurement too! The new seats sit lower, and have to. So the mounting point is tight against the tunnel, while the other side is tight against the window crank for the rear doors! With firewall setback for the SBC, I sit in the backseat area, so the seatback is close to that rear window crank. I need to space the seats up about 3/4" so I'll weld 3/4" channel to the base and then offset it to the outside, which I hope makes about 1/2" more clearance on the driveline tunnel, and gives me that much clearance to the window crank. Everything is tight on this tiny British car, so a half inch here or there can make the difference in fit or fail. Sounds like more good weather tomorrow, so if it is I'll get the channel welded on the seats, and get them mounted in the Austin and go for a drive.
Got the strut welded to the seats today, and painted up. Also got the seats dyed and the sealer put on to protect the newly dyed leather. Just sitting in the car for now, and only need to bolt them to the floor when I get a chance. And Ed Iskenderian's signature on the dash when he was in it back in 2012.
The Jalopy Journal
