..............project and a small update. The provisional dry build has come apart and has been dropped off at the powder coaters........quoted a 2 week wait which is a little disappointing and frustrating but of course it's that time of year when everybody wants to get on with their builds - motobikes,bicycles and car parts. Anyway spent quite a few hours going over the frame looking for corrosion to clean up, removing a couple of brackets and putting in a hole for the ignition switch. Also did the usual to the rear brake plate with some drilled holes. Gives the impression of lightness even if it doesn't really make much of a difference and guess that most people don't even notice something that's so tucked away..........All very time consuming but makes me happy though !
I got to know Adam nearly two years ago, a friend of friends and the owner of two Guzzi's one of which - the older Tonti model - I ended replacing a gearbox return spring for him. Even when the bike was back on the road he'd call in for a cuppa and chat every now and then as he only lives 15 - 20 minutes away. Anyway I haven't seen very much of him at all over the past year because he's been very busy breaking into the Art world - as well as having a 9 - 5 job and a family - with his bronze sculptures. He's actually getting some made in alumnium and a bronze resin. Here's some pics of his pretty special work but best to take a look at his website and facebook page www.aerorganics.co.uk
My friend Martin picked this project up a few years ago and it sat for quite a while under a sheet in his front garden. The year before last a number of us gave him a hand to put a concrete base down at the bottom of his and then he constructed from scratch a wooden workshop. He finished that earlier in 2016 and then moved the car in and has been welding and fabricating floor panels with the odd one purchased from the parts suppliers. He's finished the underneath on one side and has so turned the car over to get on with the other. Here's the email that he sent with relevant information.
Saved this from the crusher - 1954 2 door Morris Minor, plans are to first restore the body shell and then install the engine and transmition that I have so far collected - a 2003 83K Ford Focus ST170 2.0ltr 16v engine (170bhp output) using its originalinjection and using information gathered from the net - hopefully use the Ford ECU. This engine is of course designed to sit in the car in a tranverse manner but luckily the rear wheel drive Sierra 5 speed gearbox bolts straight on so I have one of those too along with a MK2 Escort axle that is pretty much the same width as the original Morris one but much stronger. Plans are to make a 5 bar rear suspension with coil over shocks(just like our bikes) instead of the leaf spring and lever arm suspension and for the front - you can buy(can I make?) coil over shocks and lower A arms to replace the torsion bar and lever arm suspension. Body work I'd like to keep it pretty much as an earlier model - as you can see in one of the pics I have a 1948-50 front grill to straighten out, this puts the small 5 3/4" headlamps down in the grill as first designed and not as most will remember ontop of the wings(to meet American laws). It will have wider wheels that I'd like to keep period looking if I can, Colour? I can't make my mind up - off white, light or mid grey, pale beige, pale green? a period colour any way but that's a long way off for sure!
I had to go through a box of my old LP's a month or so ago after a period of very heavy rain the garage leaked and the one box that was on the floor got wet. So I had 50 - 60 albums and 12" singles drying out in the house. Sadly a number of the covers and inner sleeves have become warped though I think all of the actual vinyl is ok. Some good has come of it because I've rediscovered some good and great old music.
I was aware of the band Suicide in the mid 70's but think it wasn't until 1980 / 81' that I really started listening to Alan Vega (Suicide - Alan Vega & Martin Rev)
Four posts back I included a pic of one of my friend Pete's current restoration project. Well here is a pic of the original owner, Alan, in the 1963 photograph after visiting Pete just before Christmas. I've included this pic in that original post too
