Budget Bitsa Build

[IslandBlue66]

Budget Bitsa Build!

OK, purists and rivet counters be warned, this is not going to be a car for you!

This is very much at the lower end of the market, my budget and skills are limited!

The aim is to end up with a usable, reliable and reasonably presentable car, it's not going to be a show queen or a track car. It needs to earn it's keep as a second car for me to justify keeping it.

The basis of the car is a 66 shell, it had already been modified by a previous owner.

It's had a complete floor out of a mid 90's mini, a new front end, new boot floor, doors re skinned. It was re sprayed inside and out including inside the engine bay underneath and inside the boot, door pockets etc. This work was done some time ago (15 years) so some of the body work is now showing it's age again. It is however a very solid base to start from.

Suspension had already been converted to dry, and it already had S disks fitted to the front. (although the previous owner had not fitted the S master cylinder....)

It also came with a right hand tank.

I had a loom made up by Autosparks with a conversion for an alternator. Headlining is a Newton Commercial job.

I fitted and ran an A+ 1275 and an A+ 998 last time the car was on the road. 5 or six years ago. Both were very second hand and not in the best of condition. Crunchy gearbox's and plenty of smoke!!!


Engine wise I went for a warmed up 998 unit.

Standard A series block, bored and honed to accept +0.60 new flat top pistons and rings.
The crank has had a small amount of weight removed and has been balanced.
All new bearings and thrusts through out.
Standard flywheel and clutch.
The Cam is an SW5, New cam followers and adjustable duplex timing gear.
The head is a 12G295 standard valve sizes, converted for unleaded. It's had a skim to bring the compression ratio to about 9.2:1
Howley Alloy inlet manifold with a single HIF38 fitted wih a K&N air filter.
Maniflow small bore 3-1 exhaust manifold, RC40 twin box system.
Gearbox is a Rod change unit
Close ratio GT/S gear set
3.44 diff with a hardened diff pin
Central oil pickup
All new bearings, synchro's baulk rings etc

Hopefully I should get about 55bhp with decent road manors and a reasonable life span. The car needs to be drivable around town in modern traffic conditions and have enough legs for the occasional longer trip.

Only got crappy pics from my mobile at the moment.... I will try and take some better ones as I progress.



https://ibb.co/cOg6tG

https://ibb.co/hmR6tG

https://ibb.co/iztKDG

[trevorhp]

If you need any help just shout there will be plenty of advice and useful stuff as always
Good luck

[spoon.450]

Good luck with the build. Cars like this can end up very interesting with lots of character.

[Rusty old S]

The Blue Bitsa will drive again !!!