TINY, TUBBY & TUFF

Hi all !

We've been working on a '55 Hillman Husky and a '62 Fiat 600 for a time now, but suffered a huge set-back last year when a tree came down and destroyed both the tent workshop and the Fiat inside; luckily, the Hillman was spared except for a dent in the roof.

It's taken until now to get everything back together and a new shop enclosure up and running again.

We'd considered resurrecting the Fiat as something of a Jolly or Mini-Moke styled vehicle as the front clip seemed salvageable, but I really didn't want that sort of ride, so I searched out and found a '58 Austin A35 as a replacement, as my parents owned one when I was a kid and there was a sentimental factor involved.

With the new shop all set up, we've been able to get back into a regular Saturday (occasional Friday) "work schedule" concentrating now on the Austin and Hillman and Geoff's VW Split Window walk-through Van.

The van has all of the underpinnings stripped out and is being sand blasted at present, the Austin has had the dents in the driver's rear quarter pulled (slide hammer style) and is getting prepped for a skim of short-hair fiberglass.

The Hillman has had the most work done to date, and the transformation is remarkable. When Bruce first got the car there was an over-all coating of tar/undercoating covering nearly every surface. The fenders were rusted and rotten throughout with axe blows, dents, and cuts through the tops of the front fenders. Rear door was missing the bottom five inches as were the rear quarters, roof was dented, hood destroyed, and no floors at all other than the transmission tunnel.

With Todd's initial work followed by Jay's extensive fabrication/installation expertise (check out Jay's beautiful motor mounts and precise engine placement in the photos below) an L4 Ford engine and trans from a Ford Ranger was swapped in and we located a sweet DANA 44 rear end from a Postal Jeep. Todd made up some "factory perfect" new ribbed floors along with frame pieces for mounting the rear springs and welded everything right up. The front brakes are now Chevrolet disks, although we have a back-up front suspension and brakes from a Sunbeam Alpine just in case.

We'll post some before photographs later this week or so, but here are some recent shots of the work done as of last week. Making some good progress. When looking at these keep in mind that this one was a rusted, rotted, wreck when we began; every single square inch needed attention.

We'll post more photographs and updates next Sunday, hope that you enjoy these.

I'm watching this, I have a hard time finishing one project let alone three at the same time !

The Fiat makes me sad. All of the other cars make me happy.

Great work here! Helps keep my inspiration going for the Husky.

I love British cars but never paid any attention to the A35 until seeing one kicking butt at a Goodwood race a couple of years ago. It had the appearance of a mouse with the heart of a lion.

Very interesting projects you've got going on. Someday when you have time, tell us what you think about the tent shelter you have set up. That too may be interesting to many of us.

Back at work on the little cars on Saturday. Spent more time finishing up the driver's side rear quarter on the Austin. With all of the pulling and hammering, then the fiberglass and sanding, we managed to get the final fiberglass all in place and sanded down. Unfortunately it was just too hard to tell if the panel was right. Too many different surfaces and colors to see straight, so a quick dust of filler primer and it was a really nice surprise. Even with just the metal and fiberglass all primed up it looks terrific. Next week a little polyester filler in the pin holes and along the upper swage line to get it perfect at the very end. Considering where this panel began and that I was seriously looking into have a quarter shipped form the UK. I'm thrilled.

Also striped out the rest of the engine bay and did a quick cleaning. The abundance of grease and grime did a terrific job of preserving the metal . . . for the most part.

A quick measurement; the lower area between the frame rails is 16 inches across, the width between the upper fenders is 28 inches. I picked up a neat little Ford Capri V6 and four speed (same package as the TVR Tasmin) thinking that a mini-motor might be kind of cool. The weight of the car will be less than the original 1,550 pounds, so it ought to be pretty reasonable for today's driving/roads.

Hopefully another update next weekend as the weather is getting warmer ! !

Oh, as for the tent/shelter, it couldn't be better ! ! ! Stood up to this Winters storms and winds without a hitch or any sort, warm and dry, big and airy, just terrific. We put it together with just three lame old guys and only took a couple of Saturdays. We dropped in a plywood floor with edging boards, makes it like a regular ol' garage/building in there, and the high ceiling with cross bracing is perfect for hanging lights and such. It's a ShelterLogic product, I'd HIGHLY recommend it to anyone.

Which V6 did you get, the 2.6 or 2.8? Easy way to tell is the number of exhaust ports, the 2.6 only has two, and they sound very interesting. The four speeds out of those cars have a long, smooth shift action that most cars don't offer.

The engine is a 2.8, as I mentioned the same drive line as the TVR (280i) Tasmin. My buddy Todd had a Tasmin for a good while and I loved the power, a really neat little engine with a great exhaust note. I grabbed up a narrowed Capri rear end for it as well, but just might opt for the late model 3.7 Midget rear as they came with the stronger axles. One or the other will go in the Austin, the remaining one in the MGA.

With the weight of the Austin at about 1,550 pounds and the TVR at nearly 2,400 pounds, I'm hoping that the little V6 will work out well. I'm removing most of the inner metal bracing from the trunk lid, hood, and doors, plus pulling the under dash tray, cross bar support/facing and back seat; maybe another 100 pounds can come off of the total.

I also have a nice Mustang 5.0 drive train. The engine will fit width and height wise, but I haven't measured it out for a front to rear. The shelf will get cut, but it might not be enough for the V8. For right now, just working on the body and rear suspension/rear end.

Been working steadily on the Hillman and Austin, but mostly filling/sanding/priming/repeat as necessary so the progress just isn't obvious enough to show in a photograph. Hopefully next week will reach a point where some photos will tell the story.

In the mean time, Todd and his buddy came by and we all turned the VW Van over on it's side to get some sand blasting done on the chassis and belly pan.

It was as easy as it looks in the photos !

Another week and some real progress pics rather than just an elephant rolling over on it's side.

That's a straight looking type 2!

Yes, very much so. Surprising for the year and model. Most of the double-door vans led a hard commercial life. The underside is mostly surface rust and a couple of the outriggers rotted through, super easy fix. We're most concerned with the rockers right now, never done those before. Planning on ordering them up and just tacking the pieces in place then having Todd come over and do the finish work. Nice and strong and professional.

Here are a couple of photos from outside looking in:

What's the ratio on the Jeep/Dana 44? If my memory serves right, the DJ's came with REALLY steep gears to up the power of those weak 4's and 6's, and because Postal Jeeps weren't intended for highway use.

I'm thinking they might be 4.56:1. Since that chassis doesn't seem to have a lot of room for tall tires, you might be screaming down the road.

It's a 3.73:1

Ought to be perfect for the Ford L4 engine and Ranger four speed with the 215/70R/15 rear tires on Ford rims already fitted.

As we were originally planning on using the 3.9 MGB rear, we're already way ahead of the game.

nice stuff. Only other time i've seen an Austin like that it was in a really bad one-car accident. 635 clowns were killed.

But really, that's damn nice work!

I'll readily admit, I have a place in my heart for small cars for sure. My parent's Austin A35 was dead in the driveway throughout my whole childhood. Used to sit in it every day after school and imagine when it would be mine, then one day . . . Poof ! It was gone. I have been looking for another one my entire life, a blue two door with a red interior, and finally found one in Ohio.

Just LOVE them ! ! ! This really IS a fulfillment of a childhood dream.

Managed to get some stuff done on the project cars over the past two weekends. We only work on them Fridays and Saturdays and often just for an hour or four on any given weekend, so the pace is slow and erratic, but we're getting a few things accomplished in spite of ourselves.

Biff found his "before" photographs of the Hillman when he first picked it up (in Maine, of course) and some other photos of what it looked like with a "unifying" coat of rattle-car primer to better see what the car might look like as a whole. I'm posting some "after" pics along with these. Some of the "afters" have already been posted, but I thought that seeing the "before and after" pics together would be more fun and interesting.

Anyway, here they are:

We also got some stuff done to the bottom of the VW Bus and just a smidge more done to the A35 driver's side rear quarter. Not to the extent of the work on the Hillman, but the Bus is waiting for a successful sand blasting set-up and the A35 is waiting for the rear end to be picked up and the gas tank being dropped out of the car, so not a whole lot can be done to either project until . . .

Here are some photographs or both anyway:

So, stuff going on, one progressing well, two semi-stalled waiting for pick-ups and solutions. If anything gets accomplished this coming weekend, I'll be sure to post. Otherwise next weekend.

Color me impressed, great job on the body work, nice and smooth!

Thanks!

With the rear end for the Austin yet to be picked up and the sand blaster system yet to be set up, there's little that we can do other than the body work. That antique slide-hammer is a real treat though, I never knew how good they worked. The weld on pins weren't a financial option, but the old drill a hole and thread in the screw version works great!

For some insane reason, Bruce turns out to be a fantastic metal worker ! I mean he just picked up a hammer and dolly and went to work. We borrowed the slide hammer and he just picked that up as well, started drilling, and had the massive dent in the Austin rear quarter gone in well under an hour.

Never touched sheet metal before, ever. A natural ! ! !

accordionfolder wrote: Color me impressed, great job on the body work, nice and smooth!

x2!

Oh, one more quick photo showing how nicely the Dana 44 (from the usual Postal Jeep) fits under the Hillman. Popped right in, didn't need to be narrowed a bit.

With antique 15 inch Ford wheels from a friend, and tires from my father's late model Mercury Cougar, everything fits and looks pretty OK.

have any parts left over from the 600?

"have any parts left over from the 600?"

Loads of stuff, lemme know what you need, OK?

Been a while since I posted an update; so long that I had to do a search for the thread.

Big Swap Meet was a rain-out, so I bought something for the Mustang off of eBay to satiate myself for now.

While we have been progressing on the cars, albeit in the fill a small scratch, sand it, fill another and sand it sort of way that you don't trust to the final high build primer coat or the tube of spot putty . . . things have moved along in spite of us.

Three or four weeks ago, Bruce got involved playing along side a stellar pianist over the weekend, and the following week his weekend involved getting this little sweetheart !

But over the past couple of weekends we got back to work and managed to completely wrap up the body work on the Hillman. A long, LONG time coming ! ! So long a time that it doesn't seem real that it's really all done. The final bit involved cutting the rear tool tray out from under/behind the spare tire well and installing a terrific stainless replacement piece that Jay fabricated, bent up, trimmed, shaped and even came by to show how it should be installed in the hole left when we chopped out the original rotted/ruined one earlier.

This really, unexpectedly, stiffened up the rear of the body much more than I would have thought. The rear door closes smarter, it sits in the opening correctly and latches/unlatches as-stock. Just perfectly. With the added strength of stainless, it'll be able to be used as intended being a place for the lug socket and rod, scissors jack. tool roll, and a few spares.

Next up for the Hillman is a trip to Todd's to have the floors finish-welded, the lower firewall/foot well capped off in spots, and front frame members reinforced. Once done and back again, we'll sort out the original pedals and e-brake which we REALLY want to keep, along with the trans tunnel and seat brackets. After that, we'll do something else on the car that we've never, ever done before in our lives ! ! I love a learning experience, but get frightened when it's on a car that will carry real people. What in the world were we thinking ? ! ? ! ?

Big surprise, we also managed to get quite a bit done on the Austin recently as well. This car always seems to get set aside in favor of the Hillman, probably 'cause the Hillman was the first born and needed the most attention; plus each and every thing that we did to is rewarded us with a feeling of, "WOW ! Look what we just managed to do !" Now, with most of the difficult work already finished on the Hillman and it being delivered elsewhere, I imagine that the Austin will quickly reach parity. The body work on the rear and driver's side is largely done. With the damaged rear quarter and light housing taken care of earlier, the rest was almost easy. We popped a rear end under it and rolled it out for some pics and a turn-around to better access the nose for the next stage of body repair.

The driver's side rear light housing area was so badly damaged, that pulling the dents and creases altered the sheet metal in such a way that we had to change the shape of the undamaged passenger's side to match it. Seemed cruel to mess with good metal to match damaged/reshaped metal, but it was subtle enough. and the Austin rare enough, that a comparison to stock will never be made. Still . . . kinda weird feeling.

With the front end now exposed to the light and the car now able to be rolled in and out, we couldn't help but jump right in. After SO very much fussing around, Bruce calls it FOOSING around, on the Husky body details and finally finishing the daunting (for us) chore or actually straightening the Austin's rear quarter and side, it was a lot of fun to break out the antique slide hammer and begin the rough work on the damaged front end. Sanding and such is fun and relaxing for sure, and VERY rewarding as the body takes final shape, but bashing about on some really bad metal and muscling it into shape is good for the animal heart ! We even used a chain and lever. VERY "pyramid builders" of us. Doing it up "Egyptian-Style." After the metal was roughed out, we chose a side (passenger's) and began some grinding, hammering, fiberglassing, and filling. It already looks pretty good and the combined fiberglass and polyester fillers is less than 1/4 inch and yet to be power sanded and fully shaped. Hopefully it'll work put as well as the back end did.

And the driver's side front so far.

We've already started in on the passenger's side rear fender lip so we have a bit of a jump there. There's a small spot on the rocker and some tiny dings on the door, otherwise no big problems at all. But for now, the work will be on the front sheet metal as that's the worst of it yet to do.

Hopefully, depending upon Bruce's schedule, we'll be able to play some next Friday/Saturday and post some progress on Sunday, otherwise another week or more wait. Which I REALLY hate ! ! !

Awesome progress.