1982 Morris Ital Estate 1.3L to BLOWN 6.0L (Yellow Peril)

Yeah it would be un-real, my goal is definitely to be a TUBSHP mini as there will never be a proper scene in the UK but to be invited out events anywhere to hoon would be the dream! 

Enough dithering. I had a week off, pulled my finger out (and the rear axle) and got stuck into making and welding loads of bits. 

First off, finish off the O/S A post. In some ways it's better in others it's not as nice but it's all solid!


I've smoothed the front wheel tubs and cut off the lip that was spot welded, one for a bit more wheel clearance and two because smoother arches have less places for dirt and water to get stuck behind. Yes this will be a show pony for a bit, but I'm also going to drive the wheels off it so it needs to have some forethought into what happens when it gets wet.





I dropped the rear axle, well I only needed to do half a job as half the mountings were made of thin air! So we had a few shoe trying on options:

A: Burnout spec, tyre off and super tucked! Will end up a little further in once tubbed though. 



B: 285/30/R18's but with some of the arch lip trimmed so it sits a little nicer. 


C: Muscle/Street Machine spec, I want to run some deep smaller diameter steels on the street because we have too many flipping pot holes and I hope it'll make it look more sleeper (I mean the blower out the bonnet will give it away but you catch my drift.) 


With the A posts being solid, I decided the next step was the join them back into the main structure, so the remains of the sill went bye bye.





The bottom of the B pillar needed a repair.


My sill panels didn't have the stop step so I had to make them from scratch, in 3 pieces because of tooling limitations. Now I will say this, making a panel is easy, making a 2nd to match or mirror it is bloody difficult!!





I had a 50% success rate, a couple of these didn't meet my quality standards and have already been repurposed into other repairs. I then tacked one on and it fit! I will point out this. I love making panels but it always surprises me, I know how I'll do it in my head, carry out the steps and yet even when I (to a fashion) know what I'm doing I'm always surprised when it works out how I wanted!




The doors then went back on, need some minor alignment adjustments but pretty much bolted on and lined up. It's a huge moral/confidence booster that I haven't totally buggered this car up and twisted the shell. Also makes me feel a little closer to getting to do the fun fabrication not the fixing fabrication haha! 


To confirm the doors are right I put the front wing on, but found the body belt line near the gap was filler and dents so I'm currently making this panel to fix that. I'm a bit gutted about this N/S wing, I paid strong 2nd hand wing money for this and it's been on at least 2 cars prior to mine and is full of dents and filler, but I it's on me for not checking it over properly, the seller is a decent chap too and the other wing bar a couple of dings is mint. I think I should have kept the original wings and used this white one to repair it! Anyway, pram now re-stocked with toys it's taking shape!



Common rust area on a Marina/Ital is the lower front wing.



While I was all prepped to make my own, Dad stepped in and had a go as he also loves panel making, it saved me a bit of time to so is always massively appreciated! 



Of course in true Yellow Peril style the removal of said sill revealed just how horrific the rear spring hangers are! 



Which leads me onto a couple of questions/opinions/comments I have:

What would you say is the minimum gap between tyre and inner arch areas? Taking into account body roll and tyre deflection through corners. I want it to sit right without huge gaps (except when in proper burnout mode) but want to make sure there is enough tub to accommodate. Once I've got this worked out I can cut up the rear, set up my wheels and tyres to work out axle width.

Next is, stick with leaf springs or got all out 4/5 link? I want to have it lower on the rear but drop blocks feel a bit corner cutting, but would be a much more straight-forward solution and it's not like this is going to be pestering sports cars on track all the time. But I do think 4/5 link would be better and give more adjustability and tuning but I don't know if I could package it all into the car and retain a rear seat. I know this will sounds crazy but this car is having a full interior including rear seat, even if it's only big enough for 1 due to the tubs. I want mates in this car while cruising and turning tyres. 

As always any constructive comments appreciated. 

Thanks all, Braithwaite!  

I've added some words and re-arranged so it should make more sense now haha! 

Thank you buddy. I think the Australian term I should use is something like "I'm not here to f*** spiders." Which means iirc not here to mess about, just get the job done hahaha.

Well that's a hell of an update, great work!!

Given how dead your existing spring mounts are, the planned tubs and how much power you're planning I would say a 4 link would be very sensible.

In for a penny...

Nice metalwork.
Another vote for 4/5 link. Properly done it's a better ride than leaf springs and much more tuneable if designed for it from the start.

Comments all greatly appreciated. I shall do some napkin scribbles of my ideas and share with the group later.

I think this is a cool build and you're doing a god job whit it.

Regarding the suspension, if it's not supposed to be a full out dragrace car, I would go with a 3-link setup with a torque arm. Easier to build and set up.

The problem with 4-link suspension is often, not in every case, that the links are close together because maybe at shortened axle or very wide wheels, then you very easily get bind in the links.

Best regards,
David

And then I remembered I had started a thread... (Plus you'll want to read this to the end for the good stuff)

Sometime has passed since my last post (apologies I'm not sure what happened).

Once the repair section was tweaked I then pinned it on to check and mark the outline.



Then welded in and dressed, I'm still learning so had some warping to take out which was a PITA, but I've learnt and got better since.



I had always decided that for panel gaps I wasn't about to settle for the original BL standard so after some YouTube research on how to make a gap I set about adjusting the front wing to suit.



And then adjusting the doors, I decided to use all the panels I intended to fit onto the car when it's built so that meant fitting up the NOS rear passenger door.



Which then had to be modified as the frame for the window was on the wonk but now all the gaps match the front wing one and the doors sit flush with everything but I will double check with a seal in to make sure, I'd rather do metal work mods now than once it's painted and fitted up!

Having faffed with all that and checked it all still fits I was ready to weld the inner sill into place, but not before having to modify it because it was a cheap cover panel with no seatbelt anchor point and a cut out for the floor profile when the originals didn't.





But with that in I was starting to see that the passenger side was almost solid, until I offered the outer sill up and found the inner was 40mm short in depth... but that came in handy as it allowed some 40x40x3mm box section to be hidden behind the outer sill. 




This will become part of the chassis structure and join to the main rails, also means I can jack it up anywhere along the length of the sill and not worry as well as give me a solid place to join the car to the chassis table (yet to be built). 

With all this going on I felt that just cramming 5x the engine capacity in the car wasn't enough, so I bought this as a motivational piece to help encourage me to get on with making it solid! As they say in STRAYA, you gotta be blown to be known. 



Yeah, that is a polish 6/71 GMC Blower with BDS tensioner and Hampton carb and end plates. Twin Holley demon carbs and the restraints to keep it secured should the worst happen. I needed to get one before fitting the engine anyway to make sure I left plenty of room in front of the engine and I wasn't convinced my scale model was up to the task. I'm pleased as punch with it but won't be fitted until some formalities are out the way haha. 

Thanks all,

Braithwaite.