Hot Rods Morris Minor Gasser build

I am starting on my next Morris Minor project. Another 1958 that I drug home.
Thanks in advance for the encouraging words from those who followed my last
Morris Minor build. Titled" my morris minor hot rod."
This will be a C/Gas class car to run with Quain Stott's Southeast Gassers. I hope to have it done by next summer so I can join the fun. Being as I turned 67 last month I am not
able to work all night like I used to in the past.
Besides that ,people keep wanting me to work on their cars and since the funds for the build come from their wallets. I need to continue building other peoples dreams as well as my own.
I am using a 306 in Ford and a Liberty prepped top loader. Will try and post progress as the funds are available to buy parts.

 

Those things sure are tiny. I thought about building one but decided they were too small, I'll follow along and see if I change my mind. Looking forward to your build.

 

Southeast Gassers RULE !
How about putting up some LARGE pictures for us to see

 

You sure like things small and compact. What's with that shortened '57 sedan delivery in the background?

 

I love 'em....photos of my brother's 61 minor......406 sbc, powerglide/8.75" mopar 3.91, posi. Drove it on the street occasionally, drag raced [10.32 ET] and we even ran it at Bonneville!

 

Many years ago, there was a tan colored Morris Minor that used to run at Bremerton Raceway. In fact, it was the cover car for our schedules one year. Really nice car, SBC with mechanical injection, and a 4 speed. Short and squirrely, and they rolled it one year destroying the car; driver OK! There's an antique/second store I go to fairly often, that the owner had one. Neat little cars. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

Teenage memories.....
I got one airborne once.....
The owner wasn't to happy about that.

This will make a cool Gasser, I'll watch it come together.

 

That is a great project. Looks like a solid starting for a gasser. The short wheel base will be a handfull, when you are banging the gears. Lots of fun!

 

ITS ABOUT TIME! I've dreamt about about a Morris Minor Gasser for awhile now. They are lighter, shorter, and cheaper than an Anglia. I'll be watching this one for sure!

 

Love it, looks great


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It will not be as high as that one.This will be a race car,not a street cruiser. It will be built according
to the Southeast Gasser ride height rules. 11 in at the rocker panel in front and 10 in the rear in front of the back tire. I am completing all of the dirty work , cutting away all of the firewall,floor pans, inner fenderwells. I will get some pictures posted tomorrow.
.

 

Here are some more pictures. Pretty boring stuff,stripping out the car and cutting away the old firewall,floor pans inner rockers.
Southeast Gassers announced a D/Gas class for next year at 10 lbs per cube. So it looks like I may be building the worlds heaviest Morris Minor .It will have to weigh 3060 with me in the car.
Somebody commented on the shorty wagon. That started life as a 4 door wagon,it now is a 2 door sedan delivery with a 92 in wheelbase. After I cut out all of the rust,that's all there is left. No seriously ,it is for a customer . I have replaced everything but the tail fins ,so all you purist's don't get your panties in a wad about cutting up an icon. I saved it from the crusher. I will post some pictures of that on another build.

 

Since this is not my first V-8 Morris Minor build,this one should go faster. I run 2x3 box tubing down the inner rockers and then tie those to the new main frame rails. It also gives me a good place to tie the cage into. I will be using the original rear springs on floaters with the required 42 in ladder bars.
That put them almost to the vent windows. The car would work better with 30 in ladder bars ,both for packaging and less tendency to wheel stand. Per the rules I will be stretching the wheelbase 1 inch at each end. Giving me a whopping 89-90 inches. Should drive like a Cadillac.
I got for free a front axle from a 54 Ford f-100 with disc brakes, so I need to cut about 10 inches out of the middle so the front tires will be even with the inner edge of the fenderwells. I will narrow and drill it and get some shorter springs. I have some mono leafs that came off the axle if anybody needs some .
I also have a 65 F-100 rear end that I need to narrow. I am going to run a 4.86 gear to start with.
Looking for a used small block Ford tunnel ram for a 302.
Going to try and use the original steering wheel and column. They had one of the coolest stock wheels ever made. Going to adapt the original floor mount pedals.

 

"Should drive like a Cadillac".

A Cadillac on meth, haha.
I have one of those steering wheels too.
They look great cut down a little.

 

Not sure how far along on the engine you are, but I know this piston n rod guy..,

 

Why not run A or C/Gas? The Minor would have no problem getting to that weight.

 

I'm loving it, This build makes 68 new cars being built right now for the Southeast Gassers. We now have 46 active cars running and 68 new ones being built to our very strict rules.
And everyone said strict gasser rules would never work.

 

I have the rotating assembly put together. I got a great deal on a set of Mahle pistons and Eagle rods.
Building the car for C/Gas and being able to run D/Gas with ballast makes it the best of both worlds.
2 other guys and myself teamed up on a 67 Firebird back in the 70's and built a F/Gas car. It was not competitive , so we added enough weight to get into G/Gas and it ran under the index.
That's when NHRA ran a full modified eliminator plus stock and super stock combo, plus bracket racing at a lot of southern and Midwestern tracks.

 

Subscribed.

 

Got some more uneeded metal cut out and the inner rockers and rear crossmember in.
Will cut out the middle for a driveshaft loop. I always base the build off the rear cross member
so it needs to be square as the frame rails and cage are based off that. The bars at the inner rocker
will get welded and tabs added underneath. That mounts the body. Since this will be an all steel car
no reinforcements to mount fiberglass parts are needed.
Even with the added tubing at the rocker panel my last morris weighed 2400 lbs all steel with full street equipment. That's with a iron headed 302 and an aod.
Here are some pictures of my last Morris street rod ,daily driver. I am having trouble with downloading the stuff I did today.

 

What type of rear suspension did you have in the daily driver Morris?
Got any pictures of the suspension?

 

It was a Pete& Jakes Ladder bar set up designed for a Model A and coil overs with a panhard bar.
It rode great with 175 lb springs. If you go my morris minor hot rod. The build is shown in detail.
In fact I may use them again on this build and just use coil springs and shocks.

 

try again to load some photos. Inner rocker bars and rear crossmember. Rockers will be fully welded and the floor pans will go on top. It will have a removable trans tunnel. Mig welding everything on this car . To be really period correct I should stick weld it. Maybe some gas welded headers, but finding metal coat hangers anymore is tough. Built my first set of headers while working at Midas muffler in 1967 for a small block powered 49 Ford. Go to Midas today and tell them you want a set of headers built. Yeah right. I think they charged $ 200.00 and that included a full exhaust system.

 

Does anyone remember my old Faded Memories Plymouth/Willys Gasser? Sure do miss that old hot rod. Wonder what ever happened to it? Picture from Hot Rod reunion in Bowling Green 2004.

 

Just cogitating. What about a front axle out from under one of those American General mail jeeps? They're narrow and might be lighter than an F-100 axle. You might be able to use the whole frame. It's got about the same wheelbase. Think about going 120 in one of those. It wouldn't be much different than a jacked up Morris!

 

Cool build, I will be watching. My buddy had this one for a while. After he sold it, it actually wound up on a special episode of Street Outlaws. Wild little car called "Minor Insanity".

 

I am in Crystal River. Nothing new to post. Had to take time to paint a vehicle and I am waiting for my steel order to come in so I can finish the frame and start on the cage. Unless you want to see pictures of
the pile of junk getting bigger from the trunk of the car being cut out.

 

My steel order came in today and between wet sanding sessions on a customers truck ,I took a little time to cut and fit my front frame rails and get them tacked in place. Got to go to the welding supply store and get some gas for my welder so I can weld them in.

 

very cool build