'66 Sunbeam Minx Project - F20C/6sp/4-link/Discs...

[Jonboy]

The Rapier looks like a Studebaker Hawk that was left in the dryer for too long. That's trick!

[Kristian j]

Originally Posted by Jonboy

The Rapier looks like a Studebaker Hawk that was left in the dryer for too long. That's trick!

For that we can blame Raymond Loewy!

[Frizzle Fry]

Originally Posted by aussiejohn

Frizzle,

Great job, I have followed it from page 1 once I found it. In Australia, the Rootes Group imported the Hillman range and there was the Husky, Californian, Minx and Imp, all with "Hillman" preceding them. Rootes also imported the French Simca range of cars and were allied with Chrysler in some way.

We also had the Sunbeam Rapier but no Sunbeam Minxes. We had the Sunbeam Alpine, a four cylinder sports car, along with a few Sunbeam Tigers, many of which are still around although I suspect that many have had the 260 V8 replaced by a 289 or 302 Windsor.

All of the above cars were factory built right hand drive, to suit our requirements for driving on the left side of the road. This makes it interesting driving my 1974 Corvettes because of the poor vision when pulling out from the (left) kerb into traffic. My '67 GMC is a lot easier due to the higher seating position, bigger back window and the pure size of it compared to most cars on the road here. Intimidation works for me!

Keep up the great work, it's quite inspiring, but I can't imagine that I'd ever have the skills to match your effort.

Regards from Down Under.

Hey aussiejohn, thanks for chiming in. I drove a RHD mini cooper here for a month and I agree it can be a bit sketchy when trying to pass or pull out from the curb. Some people are all about the RHD cars here, but for me the novelty wore off pretty fast. Drive-thrus and toll are problems too. Car was fun otherwise.

Originally Posted by Kristian j

Hi
Here is a picture of my Minx.

My Rapier looks similar (the bad picture)

Well, now you know the difference between a Hillman Minx and a Sunbeam Rapier! :-)

Nice/clean Minx there. Those Rapiers are cool. I actually considered adding a window frame to a Rapier door and converting my car to a 2-door by moving the B-Pillars back and welding up the rear doors. I'd like to drive it sooner than later so that idea has been shelved.

I'm an active member of the Hillman Yahoo group, so I've become pretty familiar with all of the Rootes offerings. My favorites are the Imps and early Husky's, followed by the Minx Estate and sedan.

[watahyahknow]

Originally Posted by Frizzle Fry

Hey aussiejohn, thanks for chiming in. I drove a RHD mini cooper here for a month and I agree it can be a bit sketchy when trying to pass or pull out from the curb. Some people are all about the RHD cars here, but for me the novelty wore off pretty fast. Drive-thrus and toll are problems too. Car was fun otherwise.

i was in malesia a while back getting sleepely out of the plane the taxidriver was a guy working the airport illegally and had his taxi in the parkinggarage there
like i said i was sleepy and automaticly whent to the normal passengerside of the car intended to open the door when the driver asked why i was standing on that side ....... looked in and the steeringwheel was on my side

as for RHD and drivetrough :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww9F5azzn-c

[Kristian j]

Frizzle Fry, You must have been working with the rear end. Can't find it. Do you have any idea on which page. Roughly..

Thanks
Kristian

[Frizzle Fry]

Dana 44 Rear

Here

and here

more here

here

and here

[Frizzle Fry]

Seats: DONE!

In the spirit of keeping everything as difficult and time consuming as possible on this build, I decided I must maintain the option of bolting in the original seats. This, along with some 17" steelies with the original hubcaps, will by the optional OG mode I may don from time to time.

Here's the OG DS (too flat for my driving style but classy/cool)


To keep the bolt-in-ability of the OG seats I had to use the offset mounting surface offered by this central platform. Both the problem and part of the solution shown here. That's one of the original rails that would mount on the platform. I set the inner rails down/back due to the narrower new seats:


The new seats as delivered lacked in the lower kick-back department; the seat-bottoms were too level. I reclined the bases to within a milliradian of what felt correct via butt-gauge (insert related jokes here).




Test position:








For the outer tracks I used the Procar provided pieces (with requisite mods of course).




Outer platform fab:






Test fit and level:




Outer mounts tacked after leveling seat:


Built up:








Inner:

On to the passenger's side

Now I run into this: The Procar tracks are not side-specific. So the slide lever would normally be on the left side for both seats. This would not work with my set-up since I needed the low-profile Minx inner rails:


Fortunately it was only a matter of adding the lever-arm to the right track.

But... If I was going to be cutting/welding lever-arms I might as well optimize their positions, right..?

Here's where the slide lever was positioned from Procar:


Cut/weld lever arm in new position:




Result; a much more natural reach:


Same drill on PS as DS for the rest, except with more tin-foil:












Final position:

[mcbassin]

Excellent work on the seat mods. I love the attention to details most people will never see.

[watahyahknow]

realy good idea wrapping the tinfoil over the foam rubber

i once had some work done on the rail of a seat and a small weldslag dropped on the foam and melted into the foam on the back of it
we doused it with water and figured it was out but when mountin the seat it started smoking again and we had to hurry and get te seat back out so we could turn it over and put more water over it , we also cut out the slag this time it allready got burrowed 4,5 inches deep intoo the foam
if we hadnt noticed it it prolly wouldve burned the car and the garage it was in

[Frizzle Fry]

Thanks guys. I have to admit that the tin foil idea came about only after a hot slug started to bore its way into the first seat. I quickly turned it over and it fell out while still hot. Necessity is the mother of all invention!

[theastronaut]

Awesome work mounting the seats!

I've used those same tracks before in a Nova. One thing we did was to swap the original adjuster release cross wire out for a piece of 1/8" welding rod bent to fit the hooks. Won't stretch over time like the original wire that came with our set. Maybe yours came with something more substantial but ours were just thin wire. Gives the adjuster lever a much more positive feel too.

Another thing you can add that no one will ever see, but it make the car much better to live in.

[Graeme_B]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Excellent work on the seat mods. I love the attention to details most people will never see.

Totally agree, however the many followers of this build do get to see via FF's photos and explanation. It’s the detail and precision that draws us back!
Still in awe of you skills. Thanks for the continuing updates FF.

[Frizzle Fry]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

Awesome work mounting the seats!

I've used those same tracks before in a Nova. One thing we did was to swap the original adjuster release cross wire out for a piece of 1/8" welding rod bent to fit the hooks. Won't stretch over time like the original wire that came with our set. Maybe yours came with something more substantial but ours were just thin wire. Gives the adjuster lever a much more positive feel too.

Another thing you can add that no one will ever see, but it make the car much better to live in.

Thanks man I actually used the lower profile Minx pieces for the inner-rails and they are passive: no detents. This is how the OG seats were mounted and worked fine. So no cross connection required.

Originally Posted by Graeme_B

Totally agree, however the many followers of this build do get to see via FF's photos and explanation. It’s the detail and precision that draws us back!
Still in awe of you skills. Thanks for the continuing updates FF.

Thanks Graeme_B. You're right that the documentation of the work is where the unseen is seen. It definitely plays a role in pushing the quality up. There was a time (over ten years ago) when I didn't post my work because I didn't want anyone to "steal my ideas." That was very mis-guided thinking. We are far better off sharing and bouncing ideas back-and-forth than working in a bubble.

Philosophy class dismissed

You guys will not believe what comes next. Here's a large clue:

[Kristian j]

You guys will not believe what comes next. Here's a large clue:

Good Lord, now he is starting to cut away the whole body!!! (and turn the Minx into a GMC model?)

[Graeme_B]

Holy Heck!! That stuffs up the "sleeper image"

[Frizzle Fry]

That front right corner had some bondo work that always bugged me. The bumper alignment was off and there was cracking starting to show. The painter I'm working with wants the car stripped to bare metal. So I did some exploratory probing and found that a previous repair had taken serious liberty with body filler there. I have to hand it to them; they had some sculpting skills.

So I've removed the damaged area and have a good section from the spare Minx I parted to replace it with. Why not replace parts one at a time? Because it's all welded together with extremely inaccessible pinch-welds. This was the best approach.

[Kristian j]

What a cute little house next to the car!
And the car!! A perfecly good Minx turned inte a wreck :-(

Mr Minx fanatic.

[Graeme_B]

Whew! thats a relief. Had visions of some weird front end being "blended" in.

[Kristian j]

Originally Posted by Graeme_B

Whew! thats a relief. Had visions of some weird front end being "blended" in.

Now we can all relax and enjoy the magnificent work!

[Frizzle Fry]

You guys didn't want me to graft on a Taurus nose? What's wrong with you..?



How about this one ...no?


Just because you can, doesn't mean you should:

[watahyahknow]

over here they used to craft mercedes type grilles on the old vw beetles made them look like an greek guy from the side

[67ChevyRedneck]

The nose isn't all that different that one of these babies!



I know they're fiberglass, but you can make anything out of metal. Smooth out the lower piece that sticks out so the fender wraps around the front, incorporate the vette grille and headlights and make your own bumperettes... sexy!

But I'm glad it's just rust repair, I want to see this thing actually get done, mostly because I want to see that damn Tahoe get done!!!

[watahyahknow]

my father used to own a corvette like that in the 60"s same colour too , he had to sell it after my sister got born and my mother got tired of having two kids on her lap

if he kept/stored it he prolly couldve bought a house from the salesprice

[Frizzle Fry]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

But I'm glad it's just rust repair...

It's actually not rust repair; more of a collision repair. More accurately a botched previous repair repair...

[Kristian j]

When you did take that front end away, I suppose you noticed the "shelf" at the end of the wing, just below the windshield. The serious rost spot on that body. Mud and gore stay there and the front wing rust from the inside. I usually put an inner ving on my cars to solve that problem. But maybe you live in a dry climate.