Tiger Tamers 1964 Hillman Minx Project

[Tiger Tamer]

And of course, where there are rust bubbles coming through the outer panel there will be more in behind it. And it didn't disappoint. There is a stiffening panel there that has rotted out in it's bottom half mainly and will need replacing.

It gets worse in the left corner so more of the valance had to be removed.

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Once I had removed the inner stiffener panel I could see I would need to replace only the bottom half of the outer under car panel as well. Top half was nice and solid. Once I had that done it got a good wire brush and a couple of coats of Brunox to prime and treat any surface rust. With a little help with the heat gun it then got a couple of coats of a topcoat paint. In between all this I made up the new inner panel and painted the inside of them as well. I have most now welded in and the last piece for this side still needs a bit more adjusting. Then I will need to do the right side.

[Tiger Tamer]

A small update. I have rebuilt the internal panel and epoxy primed it and put some topcoat paint on to stop it rusting again. I also so a piece of sponge and soaked it in paint so I could coat the welds on the inside of the panel. I have also started on the outer panel and tac welded in the left side corner. It has curves going in opposite directions which is quite tricky to do but I seemed to do it with the planisher, not perfectly but ok. Did a bit more on the larger center section and primed the inside. On the right side the rust seems lower down on the inner panels so i am only going to remove the panel about half the height of what I have done so far hoping it will be enough.

I did blow some holes through above the first round hole on the left. I used a carbide bur to open them up to solid steel and will leave them. No need to repair them being there.

[Tiger Tamer]

Yea, nearly all done. Still the bottom of the drivers side to do which won't be that much. I had to cut the large panel I made again as once I had the center panel in the outer didn't quite fit correctly.

It's turned out ok for a novice. Quite a bit of curvature to it. If I got a job in a panel shop I might be allowed to sweep the floor lol. Which is obviously something I don't do very often looking at the pic's.

[Tiger Tamer]

I finished of the metal work yesterday and gave it a coat of epoxy by brush and left it overnight to harden. Then gave it a light sand with 80grit and some scotch brite which took the shine off the low spots.

Today I used a very very small amount of filler (yes I know what your thinking) which is why it only took me approx three hours to do. Anyway I cleaned and degreased it and sprayed another coat of epoxy primer on it. I can see i need to add a bit more filler where the arrow is and shape the opposite side more to get them more symmetrical. Probably not hugely important to be perfectly the same but closer would be better. There are still a few high spots etc to iron out but overall I am pretty happy about it.

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I have flared the passenger side guard now which has enough flare in it so the axle can touch the bump stops without the tyre rubbing anywhere. So now I will need to redo the drivers side which is a bit annoying, but we will get there in the end. But not today.

Since I have been tin bashing for quite some time now I needed a change so I decided to do some work on the electrical part of the project. I will attack the simple stuff for now. I need to figure out these looms I have and what Connections on them that I don't need. KPower in the states make nice looms for RWD applications but seem to make them for the K24 engines now. I have emailed them to see if they would work for me. They are making them for the mx5- BMW applications so I need to know if they can be made to work with a good old Lucas loom. Should I rewire the car with a modern 12 circuit loom like painful wiring ?.

Anyway I made up a tray for the battery in the boot and made up the battery cables. Then pulled the starter loom partially apart to figure out what wires were needed and to get an idea what they were for. The knock sensor was broken when I received the engine so I bought another for it. Though it does have a different connection, but I am sure it did come with it. I fitted the sensor a while ago and of course I have put the connection part somewhere very fucking save. The only way I am going to find it will be when I am looking for something else that I have put somewhere safe. 

I am waiting on a distrubution block connector for the engine bay to connect the positive cable too. 

 

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Now that I have the rear valance rebuilt, I can seal and paint the under the car panel and refit the fuel tank. 

I had cut a hole in the top of the tank and was in the process of making a fuel hanger, but I decided I may as well use the hanger from the surge tank I bought, so I had to enlarge the hole and make a larger mount for the hanger and gauge sender.  Pump hangers are quite expensive to buy on their own and I probably be lucky to sell the surge tank so I may as well use the hanger. I will give the tank to my wife and she can use it for a vase or a wine chiller .

Once welded in I sealed the welds with fuel tank sealer. The welding went quite well really and I only had two tiny weeps of sealer come through the weld which is what it's job is to do. Tomorrow I can fit the tank and hopefully get main fuel line sorted.

Another boring pic of the fuel tank.

 

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A few parts turned up this morning. The fuel pump, filter and an accelerator pedal from a BMW E46, for a throttle by wire set up. I thought it might be hard to find one, but there was one on trade me for 45 bucks, so I grabbed it. 

The pump is a Walbro 255L and the filter a Bosch which are apparently the same as the ones used on the V8 Supercars. So there's gotta be another 20hp right there, lol.

So I got to work and fitted the pump to the hanger and fitted it to the tank which I had fitted to the car last weekend. I had to make the access hole larger in the boot so I could get proper access to the pump without having to drop the tank to do so.

I also fitted the filter and then wrestled with some 3/8" hard line for an hour or two which goes from the filter through and up into the engine bay. I think I will do rubber from the tank to the filter. Be much easier to go over and around the diff. 

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The pic's of the plumbing so far.

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I made up the bracket for the gas pedal and fitted it to the car. Forgot to take a pic but now have it in the paint drying booth.

It is getting closer to start up time but will still be some time. I have lots of finishing off jobs to do but the main things that need doing are the drive shaft, the wiring, instruments. I am quite tempted to just go with the package that Kpower do. Full engine wiring and dash wiring kit, fuse box, a Link G4X ECU and a Haltech digital display that you can create your own gauge layout display. It's a fair bit of coin to pay so before I do, I asked the certifier if the next time he was over our way could he call in and take a look at the car. I would hate to spend a heap of money on electronics and be told I should take up knitting.

So I will carry on doing the finishing jobs before putting in the order.

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I started working on the consul again. I had already made a quick pattern out of thin mdf so I copied that and cut it out of 12mm ply. I had to put lots of cuts to both sides of each side so I could get the curve into it so the seats clear it when forward. Mixed up some nice thick west system epoxy and clamped to hold the shape while the glue sets. 

I need to get this worked out so I can work out where to mount the heater vents and controls. Fitted a battery and powered up the heater controls. The 3 speed fan works on all settings, but nothing happens when I use the vent control. The cabin vent isn't opening which is a bit annoying. It was a new Vintage air unit I bought a while ago. Hopefully I can find out why.

Another little job I need to do is bypass the old Lucas voltage regulator that will now be made redundant. Feel free to chime in if you know.

There is usually a full width parcel shelf but I will cut it down and mount it to the side of the consul when finished.

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I figured it would be best to make up the consul to be in two pieces so I can get at the gear selector cover and bolts without removing the whole thing. I do need to make up some ducting for the heater cabin vent, so I want to leave the front section in place in the main. The piece I have cut off will be extended through the front seats. Before I got too carried away, I thought should see if I could stretch and glue the vinyl to the ply without it puckering. Instead of using a contact adhesive I decided to use epoxy, so I needed the fasteners which were staples to hold it securely until the glue set. I figure once the epoxy sets the vinyl will be well attached. Anyway, it worked well. I used a little more of the fast-curing hardener and sat it in front of the fire since it has been so bloody cold.

I made up some brackets to hold it in place and welded them to the trans tunnel. Then secured the front section to the brackets. The car had a parcel shelf that went from one side to the other which won't work now so I cut it up and had the drivers side semi fitted. It's made of heavy cardboard and was tatty so I have decided to make it hard and make it out of aluminum, so I deconstructed the cardboard shelf for a pattern and went off into town and bought some 1.6mm sheet from a friendly sheet metal shop who wished me the best of luck with that. He's probably right lol. Obviously, we need pic's.

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Drivers side mainly built. I still need to do the piece around the steering column. It looks a bit industrial in the first pic but I can reglue the padded vinyl or try and find some new to glue in. The rest will get a texture coating and paint. Overall, it has come out not to shabby, so I'll take it as a win.

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While I am busy making the console I wanted to fit an audio unit. I really only had room for a normal size car radio unit but on a trip to Jaycar to get a fuse box I found a larger unit that had a touch screen and more apps and a compact size that I thought I could make work. It's made you know where and there is probably a reason why it is a lot more compact and lighter than other units I have seen on the net. Perhaps if I am using Google maps I may end up in China.

Anyway it was going to take an overhaul of what I had done to the console but it would fit in the center section of the original dash so that's where it is going. So I cut the correct sized hole in the dash panel, made up a surround and welded it in. Then tac welded the unit holder in place and there we have it. It's not fully pushed back into place in the pic. Still about 40mm to go for it to sit even with the dash top. The gauge pod will need to be remade as it's not quite symmetrical and faces down instead of up a little. it will need to be on the same plane as the audio unit.  

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All the dash panels were stripped back to bare metal, primed and painted with base coat clear coat in metallic grey. I also took the heater switches off the rather basic plastic holder and reused the round setting things that tell you what position the dial is and stuck then to the console panel with the double-sided tape you get to stick your rego sticker on to a trailer. Handy tape that.  I also had to reposition the light switches to the console as the audio unit took their original position.

I found myself a workshop manual which gives me the wiring diagram which is very helpful, so I have been stripping off the loom tape and removing wires I will no longer need. I can get rid of all the old starter, generator, control box ign wires to the coil, distributer and probably a few more yet. 

Anyway, I assembled the console to see how it was all fitting together. I seem to be wining so far.

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Anyway I will put the pics here as I upset the size limit.

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It is time to tackle the wiring. Something I have not delved into in any great depth before. I did rewire the Tiger myself but that was with a kit designed for the car with the wires having their function printed on them. 

Anyway, I mounted the battery in the boot and probably should fit a fuse here close to the battery. Not sure what to fit here so any suggestions welcome. In the engine bay I fitted a double terminal connection which I thought both terminals would be live when one was connected, WRONG, but it is now. The second terminal is a big fat bastard as well which makes connecting wires to difficult due to wire to terminal size but I worked out something that will work for now.  I have seen better distribution blocks now so will change it later. for now what I have will work. 

From there I used a 30amp wire which connects to the ign wires that were connected to the generators control box. That has a 30amp fuse in the circuit. That gives me the main power supply to the ign.

Then from the ign I have used the power wire that feeds the wipers, horns interior lights, voltage stabilizer through a fuse box that gives them all their own fuse. Originally they all went to one 30amp fuse. Then I hit the bravery button and connected the battery and NO SMOKE. The lights came on and I had the light switch upside down but that was it. 

I will take as a win but if anyone thinks I am skating on thin ice, let me know. Cheers.

 

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Stage two for the day was more wiring. I managed to get the vintage air to get the air direction flap to open for the cars interior. So another win for the day.

Then it was onto the audio unit. I opened up the instruction manual and there was no wiring instructions in it. So I did a google search on it and in about 3 seconds AI provided the answer. Strangely I couldn't find it anywhere myself. AI has been quite helpful with the wiring as well. I know you need to be careful and check the information but man it's fast and quite often gets it from reliable sources. 

So equipped with the correct wiring for the audio unit I extended the wires and connected them to where they needed to go, and it worked, and also NO SMOKE.  Another win for the day.

Yes I did fit the head unit in the dash upside down but I can soon fix that as it won't have welded itself in there through a short as there was NO SMOKE.

Time for a beer.

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I bought the speakers as Jaycar had the 5" front on sale for less than half price. The 6.5" were at normal price but I grabbed them as well. Today I fitted the front, so now I have sound.  Tomorrow the rears.

I have also made up a new dash panel. It still needs work and is not a perfect profile match to the rest of the dash but close enough that I will be able to fudge a blend between them. I don't have anything other than a vise, a couple of bits of angle iron and hammers so it's turned out quite well for using the cave man technique.

The reason for the new dash panel is I have gone digital with the Haltech i7c. I did want to keep with Smiths gauges but to be honest I got SFA information out of Robinsons, so I decided to go plug and play. The Haltech display has 4 different displays, or you can create your own if you want. Since the audio unit is digital It will all fit in ok.

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The 4 displays of the dash unit as they didn't load with the other pic's. Not sure about the white display with the handwritten bits below.