Projects Austin Somerset Gasser Build (DragNasty)

What a lazy day. So much to do and we just sat on the couch all day long and watched NETFLIX. At least I played around with Photoshop a bit...

 

Holy crap that looks great.

 

man what a wild little car, I love it..

 

PHOTOSHOP is a wonderful thing isn't it?

 

Just terrific ! !

Build quality, of course outstanding, but your idea for the chop/two doors/roof line is genius ! ! !

It transforms the staid and stoic Austin into the equal of a Jaguar touring coupe. Very handsome and tough looking as well.

TC

 

awesome work!

 

Well we were finally able to get back in the shop today. We decided to go ahead and cut the rear inner fender wells out today and try to decide how we would be tubing it.



As you can see above, we had roughly cut out the area under the rear seat and into the trunk floor for the narrowed rear wheel arches. Which if you remember are the actual arches.



Above is the passenger side original inner wheel well.



Above we marked the driver's side inner fender well and then carefully plasma cut it out along with the trunk floor and supports that held the back seat.





Above, we played around with mini tub materials and just didn't like where the look was going. So I carefully separated the piece of inner fender well we cut off from the floor pieces and brackets.



The plan is to use this piece for cool rounded corners (that look right on the car) and just fill the middle...

 

After a ton measuring and leveling etc. We tacked a few sheet metal strips on the inner well to hold it place.



After we duplicated our plasma cutting feet on the other side, both inner wells are moved to the center just over 12". There is just over 24" between the two wells tacked in place below.

 

Your little car is big on "COOL"! Plus, I'm really likng your build thread "layout". The full sized photo's mixed with the limited text. Nice work!

 

Pretty damn cool build !

 

Cool build . Let me know if you need a good grille for your Austin. I have one in pretty good shape ...was sold it for one of my A40s but it is a for your car, I believe a 53 . Let me know if interested I will make the price and shipping good. Like to see the Austin keep on rollin".

Dennis Austin

 

I do need a grill. Send me a private message. Thanks.;

 

WOW! Worked in the shop today with the doors open for the first time in months. It felt so good.....so back to the tub work out back.



I burned quite a bit of time this morning cutting, taping and piecing together patterns to fill the tub areas. But it really paid off in the long run.









Back to the sheet metal spot welding (which I hate). I will do some finish grinding on these but honestly not a lot. I will be using seam sealer on the joints on the underside. Then the interior will get the "Dynamat" treatment and then likely black loop carpet...

 

Okay...so the two kids with a model car syndrome struck Dad and I again today, or maybe it was just having the shop door open and enjoying the sun!



With the tubs cut out it was hard to resist sliding the 12" Hoosiers up and under to have a little preview.



Suffice to say, we sat in the drive way catching some rays and smiling like a Possum eating....well you know!

 

Nice! Can't wait to see more.!

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OKAY WHAT DO YOU THINK?
From the get go I have had in mind to radius the rear wheel wells. I never saw this build any other way...as rhetorical a question as whether or not to have a straight axel...HOWEVER!



As you can see in photos a couple of posts earlier, we stuffed the Hoosier up under just for a little preview. I just wanted to get a shot from the rear with the meats on it. However after walking around the car and getting a full view of what it might look like with out the radius job I am second guessing myself...It is kind of growing on me....Thoughts anyone?

 

It just all comes down to what you like, it's your car. Since you asked I like them radiuses with about an inch of tire poking out.

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Oh yeah and it will be much easier to remove the wheel and tire as well.

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Trust me I get the removal part...It was a pain just stuffing them up in there with no rear end in it.

 

Yeah, I must disconnect the shocks and drop the rear on my nova to get them out. Adds just a little extra work.

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I like it both ways...... my friends hudson

 

I love the tucked in look myself. That said have you thought about fabbing up skirts?

 

Funny you mention that...My Dad and I were sitting around looking at it yesterday and I thought fender skirts might be kind of cool to have on there once in a while (just for a different look).

 

I like it as it is. Pretty sure radiused would look good too, but why not leave it for now? It´s easier to do it later than redo it later!

 

Your Photoshop post says it all.....looks waaay cool and besides exposed rear tires/wheels go better with the tube axle. Covered rear tires give it the NHRA super gas look

 

I say don't cut them, I like the way it looks tucked under like that. You are doing some great work and your idea of "over engineering" everything is just fine with me. Still can't get over using the model A exhaust pipe cut in half for you rear window area. very cool idea and also love the fact that you are doing all this with your Dad.

 

I like them radiused myself. Tucked in looks more pro street, and less gasser. Up in the front with a straight axle, and tubbed in the back is like the front is contradicting the rear. And of course the ease of removal as mentioned.

 

Damn, the work we'll go thru to have a cool car! I like it and have the same sickness. Really like your choice of transmission and all the fab work. One thing that made me chuckle was the Dynamat........

 

Actually we did a few other things last weekend of note, outside of getting completely distracted by the rear tire placement etc. I originally had a set of Bilstein Shocks for the front but honestly they were donated to me and I didn't really know much about them. So I opted to grab a new pair of QA1 9 to 1 rate shocks.



I don't know if that is the right call or not. That compression ratio is what we used to run back in the day to get the front end up and weight transferred quickly. I am a little worried that we might be making that transfer too quickly. I would like to see that process kind of spread out over the first 300 foot or so (not all right at starting line). I am hoping the longer ladder bars will help in that but until we pull the trigger on it there is no real way of knowing what we have...

 

I was shopping online the other day at Speedway Motors and discovered a chrome plated timing chain cover for $8.95. I figured that was cheap enough! It came in Friday so we also popped it and the high performance water pump on the engine as well.



Even though I am pressed for room up there I opted for the original long neck style since I already have all the brackets and pulley's etc. for this configuration. It is going to be tight though...more to come on that in a later post.