New custom 2" narrowed Michigan Metal Works control arms in raw steel.




Painted the MMW control arms in chassis black, and you can see the manifold I painted in wrinkle black. Still lots to do.


The Ford Exploder 8.8 rear in it's new home with narrowed 31 spline moeser axles, rear girdle, 3.55 gears. Just waiting on new leaf springs and shackles to finally get it in there 100%

 

Nice cabinets those stainless steel ? Some of those 3 pronged chrome bullet headlight covers like on old Hudson's and buicks would look good on that Morris

 

Little bit of an update, still fabricating the front suspension and getting things buttoned up in the engine bay. Anyone got pointers on the top bag mounts, below is a picture, obviously I need to shorten them and add gussets to it, but my question is how high do they need to be? Right now I have the lower arm parallel to the ground, bag not inflated with plate resting on top. Do I want to make the plate lower, higher? Is there some measurement it should be at, these are slam airs...




Fabricating front suspension, removal of bumpstops, etc to get back to the main frame.



Fabricating front suspension Bag's test fitted, need to shorten top plates and make gussets.

 

wicked love the old morris there is a guy out by my dads that had two a sedan and a pickup guess which one i wanted

 

Probably the pickup, my pops wants me to build him a v8 pickup morris next. To be honest, not sure if that's gonna happen. If I went that route I would probably put a s10 frame under it and drivetrain, then maybe swap to a v8. This Toyota frame to be honest has been the biggest pain in the ass. It is slowly getting there, but the aftermarket is no where near what the s10 would have been.

 

agreed but good luck finding a minor truck my buddys dad offered that guy 15k for it sitting in a field -he wouldnt sell it shame to see it rotting away

 

I know the Morris Pickups are kind of like hens teeth, but still 15k is way too high in this market. We looked at a completed one last week with a datsun drivetrain in it and it ended up not meeting the reserve and stalled at $8k or so. I was expecting that to end in the 13-15k range. The market just isn't what it used to be. I do it as a hobby selling Mini's, and I can see the dramatic change over the last 5 years in resale. You can still sell quality ones, but it takes time, more people want a cheap project car and don't realize there going to sink a easy $10k into it, when it would have been cheaper just to get a better base to begin with. Anyway, can't wait to get the damn suspension done, and crank the engine up. Last time I drove the donor car feels like 6 months ago. I need a midget helper in here or something.

 

Been slow on this project since I bought 4 more classic Mini's. But I did get most of the air suspension mocked up, tacked in place, etc.



Now QUESTION, how the hell do you get the top control arm bolts/mounts out of the damn stock control arm, is there a trick, do you have to use a press??? I got one bolt out, and I see it has pressed in bushings with a splined shaft of some sort. Won't budge. I hope it won't be like the rest of the project where I need to drill a bunch of holes and burn the bushing out. Will let you know when I finally get it aired up, getting close!

 

Awesome build! Can't wait to see this thing done!

 

4 More Mini's!!!! holy crap dude, Did you sell the van to get those? I like that little trailer that thing is sweet!
Does that black one have a ragtop roof?

 

Nah, sold the van to buy a crew cab colorado xtreme 6 weeks ago, but finally sold the van last friday. All the Mini's are for sale, red one is spoken for, burgandy and blue one may be spoken for and heading to florida, will know in a few weeks, and the black one I am wrapping up shortly. And yes, the black one has a sliding webasto roof. Very nice car, fresh paint, new motor, brakes, etc. Need to find that one a home shortly. Trailer is just mocked up, still needs paint, arches, tail lights, etc, but already used it at a mini show a few weekends back to tow down a couple hundred pounds of parts. I did also just buy 2 more cars 2 weeks ago not pictures. Since I sold my personal red one, I bought a 1976 Clubman Estate I am going to bag, and turn into a road side service theme car for my "Shop". And then I also bought a Trabant Polizei Wagon from East Germany for my wife. She doesn't know about it yet, but will in a few weekends. Lowering that one this Friday, and cleaning up the interior, re-installing the police siren/blue beacon light, etc. Way to many projects going on, got to wrap most of it up in 6-10 weeks, whenever the baby gets here, then gonna take a break for a little bit.