Classic Brits

Here's a few photos of two of my toys
'39 Austin ten






'49 Lanchester LD10
How I found it


How it is now

 

cool, i just pick up a morris that i plan on keeping stock with the sub 1 liter engine, and do a little hop-up on it and drive the piss out off it, good luck with your project.

 

How about my Morris Z van??

 

Both of these are standard at the moment but I do have a 1.6 zetec out of a ford Escort and 5 speed box lined up for the Lanchester then it will be my daily,I use it a lot now but the windscreen wipers don't work which is quite risky here,they'll be fixed soon tho

 

Hope this photo works its a vauxhall

 

Morris Z van is cool I keep seeing one at local shows it doesn't look anything like that tho

 

The Austin is a cool little car. HRP

 

A friend of mine in high school (1957) had a Morris that resembled your Austin (same color, too), but it had a Shorrock-blown MG engine with various other power tweaks. THAT was a sleeper that left a lot of surprised American iron in the dust!

 

That is an awesome looking little Vauzhall. Any more photos?

 

As kids, we 'played cars' many times in a neighbour's 'blocked' & dusty LD10. Much afternoon play, thanks for the memories!

BTW, your car looks to be a fine survivor. They are not common. Any thoughts? They seem big to me, because I only have childish memories of the 'BIG' steering wheel. Thanks again, nice to see one in bright sunlit pics. I only knew that car by feel mostly- it was laid up in a dark shed.

 

lol...no wipers in Lancashire is a bit like saying, I live on the side of a mountain but don't have any brakes... I would think Rainex sells like gold dust up there!

 

Paddys day

 

Those big plates make them look even smaller.

 

I now have an opening sunroof and windscreen

 

I really like that Vauxhall. That thing looks like an awesome car to make into a show custom.

 

I had a 54 Sunbeam Talbot four door . Chev 327 with four speed and narrowed 12 bolt. It had flip out turn signals. Suicide doors in back pull back metal sunroof Duntov 3/4 race cam. And 3" gangster white walls .http://autoweek.com/storyimage/CW/20060626/FREE/60616009/AR/0/AR-60616009.jpg&maxW=630 My car look just like this, but for Chevy running gear

 

my '52 Austin A40 Somerset as I got it





I do have the front bumper although it was shaped like a "V" when I looked at the old girl. She also runs like a Swiss watch!!!

 

great looking bunch of cars. and I thought I had a cramped workspace.

 

Not all Brit cars are tiny. Lately I have a hankering to do a Jag with all Jag bits - XJ6 IFS XJS IRS with outboard brakes and the classic XK six....

 

The LD10's "miniature luxury car" aspect has always appealed to me.

 

Would love to get my hands on a '50s Magnette to play with.

 

And stuff a small Daimler hemi in there and keep it 'in the family'....

 

I like the "all Jag" scheme above. I had a 3.8 MkII years ago; it was a terrible example but still huge fun to drive. With an IRS and the "Mark IV" body style, it would be very cool.

 

Yes!

BSA purchased Daimler in 1910 and Lanchester in 1930. Both were sold to Jaguar in 1960, by which time no Lanchester cars had been made for five years. The hemi V8s date from just before the Jaguar merger. The family connection therefore exists, though it is a bit tenuous.

Both Lanchester and Daimler still "officially" exist. It would appear that Daimler is now as dormant as Lanchester has been since 1955. Like Jaguar they are today owned by Tata Motors of India.

I've long thought that a 392 Hemi in a Daimler-badged Jag S-type would be cool. Call it a Daimler V8-650.

 

But why would you when you can still keep it in the family? The 392 is a big old heavy lump which would be a bear to shoehorn in the narrow Jag engine compartment and make the car nose heavy. There is a perfectly good big Daimler hemi (Majestic Major) which is not only light at just under 500 lbs but can also make a lot of horsepower as Jaguar found out to their chagrin in the 1960s.

Wiki say:

The 4.5 litre engine was used in the Daimler Majestic Major DQ450, which is now rare, but was a respected high performance saloon in its day. The engine was also used in the Majestic Major's limousine derivative, the DR450. The 4.5-litre was tested in a Jaguar Mark X and lapped the Motor Industry Research Association's high-speed test track at 135 mph (217 km/h) but was reportedly not put into production precisely because its performance was better than the original Mark X's.

That very engine sits in my barn and was planned for a swap into a hot rod Daimler 250 by the previous owner of the engine. After spending a fortune having it rebuilt, he ran out of funds and I acquired the engine for a future project. I also subsequently acquired another intake manifold to play with - visions of quad IDA Webers float around my head from time to time....

 

I have only one thing to say about this engine.... DROOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Damn I got my keyboard wet!!

 

the body does not look like much at this stage[/caption]

this is the standard Z grill and it has since been shortened by about 100mm you can see my cut lines near the bottom[/caption]
Man does not live by seven's alone so I have been working on a new project which is sort of a seven circa say 1950 essentially its a 1946 Morris Z chassis (common to the Morris eight) with a light weight body of my own design the only body panel that it has from the original Morris is its grill piece the rest is based upon a square tube frame (sound familiar?) that is bolted around the perimeter of the chassis. At the front I have the standard suspension which is a beam axle on semi elliptic leaf springs that have had three of the six leaves removed at the back I had to improvise because I have been unable to find a set of Morris springs instead I have some modified Suzuki Sierra
rear springs, like the front I have removed leaves to soften the ride and to lower the ride height.


in the thirties having a pointy tail was considered very racing car like so I used a surplus Morris minor bonnet sectioned and joined to give this nice shape sheet-mental will be added to the sides and the plan is to get as close as I can to running open wheels by making guards out of beaten 3mm aluminium attached to the diff itself . once painted Matt black they should be close to invisible,[/caption]
I'm going for light weight agility rather than flat out fire breathing power My initial design called for the use of a Suzuki sierra engine that I happen to have already however I am concerned that Queensland's oppressive rules about modified cars would make the car strictly for off road use. To get around this I am seeking out a suitable period engine. However rather than looking for an original side valve lump and its three speed crash box I am looking for an early A series OHV engine and four speed gearbox. These engines are tough as old boots, compact and very tunable. the point is that back in the day a bloke could have built a car like this and it would have been considered quite sporting. The engine has been moved back by about 400mm for better weight distribution the seats will now be almost where the back seat would have gone so of course its only a two seat car.

Anyway now to the topic of today's post which is about the way that I have had to go about ensuring that I have a better diff ratio for our modern times and the fact that the car will be so light compared to the original my brother gave me a Morris minor diff with a very nice 4,22 : 1 ratio which is MUCH better than the 5.1:1 original and it is also substantially more robust and should keep the oil in far more reliably as well. I had hoped that the centre would just nicely drop in to the Z housing, no such luck with the Morris Minor diff being a bit bigger in all dimensions. It was also about 60mm wider.

I very much want to retain the original 17 inch skinny wheels and they inconveniently have a 6 x 98mm stud spacing which is just quite different to the Morris Minor 4 x98mm and meant some lateral thinking was needed.

The first issue was the extra width. In the first instance I thought that I could just live with the wider track at the back after all its only just over an inch extra on each side and it would ad stability. Then my Brother R suggested that I could do a cut and shut job using the outer ends of the Z diff housing welded to the Minor centre section. Some careful measuring I have concluded that by grafting the Z ends onto the Minor housing I will be able to retain my original wheels and that all I need to do is have the end of the Minor axles re drilled so that they will mate with the Z hubs .

To accomplish the plan I made a very simple jig to which I bolted the Minor housing it is all based upon a chunky piece of 75 x75 RHS and a few bits and bobs

Examining the drive axles carefully suggested that I could easily narrow the diff by an inch without having to have the splines re-cut by cutting off half an inch of each drive axle at the spline end it would be possible to make the rear axle closer to the original dimensions of the Z diff.

Of course the tricky part was making sure that I have the ends aligned properly with the center the jug made sure that they end flanges were square and as the Z ends were about 2.5 mm bigger in diameter so to make sure that it was where it should be. I also had to make sure that I kept the left and right ends on the correct side because the LH side is a left hand thread to ensure that the hub nut can not come undone while driving. By using a square and a thickness gauge I checked the spacing at 120degree intervals and when it was equal tacked the ends to the center again at 120 degree spacing. Once the three tacks were done I knew that the alignment would be good and I could fully weld the ends on. OK I do appreciate that the alignment may be a few thou out but this car will not by any stretch of the imagination be a fire breather so I think it will be OK.

Because the rear track is now going to be a tad wider I may just add some spacers to the front hubs to even up the track.

Next thing on my list of things to do is to weld on the saddles that locate the diff onto the springs While I'm at it I will add a bracket for the necessary "T" piece for the brake lines and some securing brackets for the lines as well then it will get a coat of paint and that will be a major part of my drive-line ready for action.
Vids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOR8_sOS-4A&list=UUwblvavsDD2dazHAY5zwU2Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPc2AtaGfMc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsDh88VwjxY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taI_mAuiHGQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0svJzuCasA