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phunkie hiboy
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« Reply #105 on: October 17, 2013, 08:58:01 PM » |
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I’ve been able to spend some time this week, here and there. I chose to do something that required removing the last mechanical items from the car.  "Met"amorphosis After removal ………….  "Met"amorphosis This is the set up that is being used to replace the drum brakes, a late MG Midget front disc brakes. I’ve seen quite a few of these conversions done in the States, but not here.  "Met"amorphosis With the old suspension removed the next job is to fit a front anti roll bar. These little cars didn’t come with one as standard and with the soft suspension, they suffered with a bit of body roll. With a bit of research, I reckon an up rated 1500cc MG Midget bar will do the job. Their weights are pretty similar. As an aside, most of the suspension and steering used ‘50s period BMC/Austin set up together with a BMC “B” series engine. The new “state of the art” Midget lower suspension arms were fitted, with new bushes and assembled onto the car. Drop links and brackets fitted to the lower arms and the anti roll bar fitted to the drop links.  "Met"amorphosis  "Met"amorphosis A pair of brackets were fabricated to attach to the front engine mount cross member and the ARB securing brackets. With a bit more fettling these will be ready for powder coating.  "Met"amorphosis And here we have the finished article ………..  "Met"amorphosis  "Met"amorphosis Now back to the bodywork. I’m going to attempt to fit the rear end body work at the weekend, so maybe another update then!! |
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Built without compromise, by the more luck than judgment method.
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Olds
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« Reply #106 on: October 19, 2013, 10:41:51 AM » |
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Lovely work Sir! Damned handy them using BMC components. This is the set up that is being used to replace the drum brakes, a late MG Midget front disc brakes. I’ve seen quite a few of these conversions done in the States, but not here.
For some reason the idea of suitably updating a classic seems alien to some in this country. You get the " but it's not original" brigade. No it's not, it's better and more suited to todays driving conditions. |
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« Last Edit: October 19, 2013, 10:44:19 AM by Old Newbie »
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Getting older but no wiser! Just using bigger hammers.
The answer to most problems, fire and lots of it.
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Chevy Rick
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« Reply #107 on: October 19, 2013, 11:46:03 AM » |
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Lovely work Sir! Damned handy them using BMC component Nash Motors negotiated with several European companies. On October 5, 1952, they announced that they had selected the Austin Motor Company (by then part of BMC) and Fisher & Ludlow (which also became part of BMC in September 1953 under the name Pressed Steel Fisher), both English companies based around Birmingham, England. Fisher & Ludlow would produce the bodywork, while the mechanicals would be provided, as well as final assembly undertaken, by the Austin Motor Company. This was the first time an American-designed car, to be exclusively marketed in North America, had been entirely built in Europe. It became a captive import – a foreign-built vehicle sold and serviced by Nash (and later by American Motors) through its dealer distribution system. It is believed that the first pre-production prototype was completed by Austin on December 2, 1952. In all, five pre-production prototypes were built by Austin Motors and tested prior to the start of production. The total tooling cost amounted to US$1,018,475.94, (Austin: US$197,849.14; Fisher & Ludlow: US$820,626.80) which was a fraction of the tooling cost for a totally U.S.-built vehicle I wonder if there are any Hudson badged Metropolitans left in existence  |
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« Last Edit: October 19, 2013, 05:07:37 PM by Chevy Rick »
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phunkie hiboy
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« Reply #108 on: October 19, 2013, 05:22:12 PM » |
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I wonder if there are any Hudson badged Metropolitans left in existence Quite a few, you see them on eBay, having said that there's none on there at the moment. It's the NKI ones that are rare, as few as one or two. |
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« Last Edit: October 19, 2013, 05:24:41 PM by phunkie hiboy »
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Built without compromise, by the more luck than judgment method.
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phunkie hiboy
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« Reply #109 on: October 19, 2013, 07:48:24 PM » |
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Well, I feel that I’ve actually achieved something today. After all the niggly little repairs to the sills, underside and the new rearend bodywork, we now have rear wings and rear panel on the car!! This is the rear assembly ready to go ……………..  "Met"amorphosis  "Met"amorphosis And the car, with the “B” post front panels cut down, all ready to receive the rear end bodywork …………..  "Met"amorphosis  "Met"amorphosis So still on the frame at the front and with the back floor chocked up and the rear frame removed, the bodywork was introduced using an engine crane ………….  "Met"amorphosis  "Met"amorphosis Pulled and heaved and levered the bodywork onto the car. Welded the joints on the outside of the “B” posts and as I couldn’t get the spot welder to the inner seams, I drilled and rosette welded them.  "Met"amorphosis  "Met"amorphosis  "Met"amorphosis  "Met"amorphosis The rear seam, boot floor to rear panel, was then spot welded. After making a tool to pull the shock towers down to the boot floor, the originals were spot welded, Ive started to rosette weld through the drilled out spot welds and to weld all round the seam to the floor.  "Met"amorphosis  "Met"amorphosis Sorry about the last picture, bit fuzzy, I’m off for a couple of beers now and watch some nitro racing!! |
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« Last Edit: October 19, 2013, 08:35:39 PM by phunkie hiboy »
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Built without compromise, by the more luck than judgment method.
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phunkie hiboy
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« Reply #110 on: October 20, 2013, 02:19:03 PM » |
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Lovely work Sir!
Damned handy them using BMC components.
For some reason the idea of suitably updating a classic seems alien to some in this country. You get the "but it's not original" brigade.
No it's not, it's better and more suited to todays driving conditions.
Thank you, Dave For my first five years in the trade, (read apprenticeship) I worked at BMC main agents. So what I learned then has stood me in good stead. All I'm actually doing here is using standard parts from other BMC models to upgrade handling or performance. It also works the other way round, a friend, who trials a Midget wanted a rear brake set up when he found out that on the Met they are 1" bigger in diameter than the Midget!! Not only are the suspension and brakes BMC derived, but also the engine. All cars had "B" series engines, early ones had a 1200cc engine then the series 2 had a 1500 engine same as A55, wolseley 1500 and 15/60, riley 1.5 etc. Then came the 1622 in the A60 etc, and then the 1800 in the MGB. All pretty much interchangeable if you know how.   We're also using tuning stuff from the period as well, The head is stamped July 1958, the carbs are 1500 MGA as are the Vokes air filters. As for the "but it's not original" bit, The UK Met owners club are not all purists and their aim is to see as many Mets back on the road, they're not worried weather they are standard old things or full blown tube frame V8 versions!! |
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« Last Edit: October 20, 2013, 02:29:10 PM by phunkie hiboy »
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Built without compromise, by the more luck than judgment method.
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morrag
Hero Member
Karma: 49
Posts: 2875
Carpe diem!
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« Reply #111 on: October 20, 2013, 04:08:44 PM » |
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Beware the Ides of March, But!
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phunkie hiboy
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« Reply #112 on: October 20, 2013, 09:57:08 PM » |
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Bit more welding on the body and we'll be able to take some of that out
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Built without compromise, by the more luck than judgment method.
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Manky Monkey
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« Reply #113 on: October 25, 2013, 07:59:11 PM » |
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Loon & I must come over to your place & check this out Chris. Very professional looking job.
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On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
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phunkie hiboy
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« Reply #114 on: October 26, 2013, 09:34:45 PM » |
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Loon & I must come over to your place & check this out Chris. Very professional looking job.
You know you're always welcome, not much to see though. Give me a call before you come just in case I'm not going to be there. Now with the rear bodywork fully welded on  "Met"amorphosis And the “B” posts fully welded top, to the roof, and bottom, to the sill  "Met"amorphosis The fillets that hold the roof to the body can be refixed  "Met"amorphosis And also the lower parts of the inner “B” posts. I had to remove these as I couldn’t fit the rear on due to the shape of the inner sill, that they fix to  "Met"amorphosis Also managed to remove some of the bracing, I can get in now to make repairs on the floor  "Met"amorphosis Before I left for home today, I threw the doors in the holes to see if they still fitted. They seem ok, if a little tight at the rear, but they did fit really badly when we first got the car  "Met"amorphosis  "Met"amorphosis Some more soon. |
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Built without compromise, by the more luck than judgment method.
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Manky Monkey
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« Reply #115 on: October 27, 2013, 11:30:17 AM » |
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Why it's very nearly finished!
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On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
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phunkie hiboy
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« Reply #116 on: October 27, 2013, 02:43:04 PM » |
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Why it's very nearly finished!
You think?  |
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Built without compromise, by the more luck than judgment method.
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poprodder
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« Reply #117 on: October 27, 2013, 04:52:08 PM » |
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only needs wheels an engine!!!!!! lol
outstanding work there, nice one.
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phunkie hiboy
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« Reply #118 on: October 29, 2013, 09:05:42 PM » |
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Engine's on the engine stand and the wheels are in the loft!! Had a little bit of time to spare late Monday afternoon, bit bored with bodywork, so started looking at the front suspension. Here’s both units and the difference can obviously be seen  "Met"amorphosis Stripping them down, the Midget one on the left and Met one on the right  "Met"amorphosis From the photo it can be seen that the king pins are mounted differently to each other. The Midget one is mounted to the lower arm and goes up through the swivel/spindle assy. The Met one, however is mounted to the upper arm and goes down through the swivel/spindle assy. So, we need the Midget swivel and hub, the Met king pin and upper arm. The lower arm is the same in both cases and we already have new ones of those.  "Met"amorphosis To enable the Midget swivel to correctly fit the Met king pin, the bushes need to be replaced. In the States they have new ones turned up out of bronze or similar material  "Met"amorphosis And fitted into the swivel like this  "Met"amorphosis But what I discovered whilst carrying out the measurements on both swivels was that the upper bore diameter to carry the bushing was the same, and as I already have new Met bushes the top ones will fit straight in. The lower ones, however are larger, but if I remove just under 1mm out of the diameter of the old lower bush the new lower Met bush can be pressed in. I bought an adjustable parallel reamer on eBay last night, to do this job, and it should be here tomorrow. The final thing to do is ream out the new buses, but with no reamer (I have one for the Midget bushes but they’re a different size!! So as I have a second pair of Met king pins, I can use one of these to make a reamer to do the job. Just need to run an angle grinder cut the length of the king pin at an angle so that it makes a cutting edge. As new king pins aren’t available using a slightly worn pin as a reamer pays of because the king pins we’re going to use are slightly worn as well. Some more once I done this little job! |
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Built without compromise, by the more luck than judgment method.
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phunkie hiboy
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« Reply #119 on: November 01, 2013, 07:13:19 PM » |
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These are the stock replacement Met king pin bushes.  "Met"amorphosis The top bushes needed to be modified as the grease point on the Midget swivel is in a different place due to the calliper position. So just a slot to allow the grease to get to all of the bush and king pin.  "Met"amorphosis With the top bushes in the lower original bushes were reamed out to take the stock Met ones.  "Met"amorphosis And the lower bushes pressed in.  "Met"amorphosis All in now  "Met"amorphosis As the lower bush/king pin is the same diameter as the Midget one, I have a Midget king pin bush reamer, and the lead in before the cutting teeth is quite long, I installed the reamer in backwards. So just reaming the lower bush, not both.  "Met"amorphosis Now, I haven’t got a reamer to do the top bushes, so I used an old spare king pin and cut some grooves in it.  "Met"amorphosis This was then inserted right way in and after a fashion, it seemed to work. Once I’d gone right through it was still a bit tight, so I used fine valve lapping paste on the king pin (top end only) and a cordless drill attached to end threads, and effectively lapped the bush in. So we now have a pair of rebuilt swivels ready for paint or powder coating, can’t make my mind up!!  "Met"amorphosis |
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« Last Edit: November 03, 2013, 07:25:20 AM by phunkie hiboy »
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Built without compromise, by the more luck than judgment method.
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