1972 Hillman Hunter Estate

Cars looking great dude. have you still got those fence panels by any chance?

You know it's getting bad when you turn up at your mates workshop to see about getting the car on the ramp and his lad asks if it's MOT time again

Decided it was time to lift the carpets and see how bad the floor was after getting wet over the winter ( thanks to a mix of vandalised front screen and lock-up garage with a hole in the roof - both letting water in )


The good news is that most of the holes are supposed to be there - it's only the T-shaped one by the accelerator that isn't
A quick spell with the cutting disk on the grinder and we can see what's ok to keep
Tip : I'm new to this area, asked at a local metal sign manufacturers where I could get some sheet steel for the repairs and got told to help myself from their scrap bin Big Karma points to them!


Very happy to get a flush butt join on the left & bottom edges in the photo top edge is a lap-joint same as the original, then put a lip on right side to mount onto inner sill
Everyone has their own way of doing things, for me :
cut out the rot (45* cut on the left follows a strenghtening rib, top follows a cross-member, etc)
cut new metal an inch oversize and place it on top of the hole
from underneath - scribe the shape of the hole on the new metal
either cut to size, or cut 3mm oversize, rest it in place, trim car to suit the new patch (a cutting disc on a grinder helps a lot!)
some good info here :
retrorides.proboards.com/thread/154051/protecting-floorpan-paint-before-after



Not the best photo but left and bottom are nice and flush, top and right are seam welded all around. Smart
(factory finish would have been spot-welds but I don't think this will ever be going in for concours )


Also took the opportunity to rip off the remains of a mangled and corroded jacking point which has been annoying me since the first time I looked under the car



I'm still looking hard for ways to upgrade the front brakes - any ideas would be very welcome!

There's never a dull day when you have a Retro

We haz working brakes!

... and ...

After checking behind the sofa for loose change and finding nothing useful, I decided to raid the piggy bank and spend some cash rather spend time trying to free up the old calipers enough to scrape through another MOT

The main ingredients for the project were newly made calipers from Rally Design for the grand sum of £40 each
( total for a pair of calipers + pads + VAT + postage was about £130 but that's all brand new gear )
www.rallydesign.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=10537


We also found some rather nice braided (motorbike ) brake lines in our magic box of "things that'll be useful someday"


Another pic (just because we can ) of the new kit


The good news is the new calipers bolt straight onto the struts, we can even reuse the original mounting bolts - RESULT!
Shame we couldn't use the braided lines as they were too long so they had to go back in our magic box


On the right we have the original setup 
On the left we have new caliper & pads with new hoses and fittings, and near-new disks that came with the car as spares


Is it worth it?
HELL YES !

The brakes now lock the front wheels with very little pressure, it took a few days before I managed to avoid doing emergency stops at every give-way line and set of lights
Now the pads have bedded in and I've got used to the new setup, the brakes now rate as being very nearly the best I've had on any car

The handling and braking at the front end is now officially sorted (and tested on the run to RRG13 ) so now I'm looking for options to sort out the back axle - any ideas welcome...
retrorides.proboards.com/thread/155670/rwd-ford-axle-hillman-hunter

cheers

hi nomad been a lurker on here a while my mrs got me a 69 hunter royal auto for xmas will post a few pics this week just wondered what side ur front wing is and what other bits u got as I'm missing a lot of interior odds n ends pm me if u can, will be interested on ur td idea  am thinking along similar lines myself but was looking at transit tdi and modded bosch pump

Are Hunter and Minx parts interchangable? If so I daresay some of what you have may be of interest to Seth for his Minx estate.

Interesting spares places below  

Sunbeam Rapier & Hunter Estate use the same floorpan & running gear
The place below is advertising *lots* of Rootes spares including Hunter, may be worth checking in future if you need any bits.
www.sunbeam-alpine.co.uk/

And just so our Australian readers don't think they're getting ignored, you might want to check...
www.abouttimespares.com.au/showpartslist.asp?cat=101

I remember this from RR13, great motors and very underrated, keep up the good work.

^ That's why I love this place

The offer is appreciated but I'm hoping I've got a solution 
Recently picked up a spare Sunbeam axle, as long as half-shafts are the same I can swap out mine (with poorly oil seal) for one from the Sunbeam

Will be in touch if I find the 'shafts won't swap over (may be a while as I'm getting keys for new house tomorrow...)

Happy times


ps. cheeky link added to sig for housemove sale