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61 Morris Minor with 95 Camaro Engine

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  • 61 Morris Minor with 95 Camaro Engine

    This is going to be a long build cause it's for my pops, and I have to fit him in between paying customers! Been working on it for about a year on and off. Since I build a lot of british cars and he always wanted a hotrod, I figured why not build him a slammed Morris Minor with some grunt. So I picked this one up in Delaware last Thanksgiving and surprised him with it. Goal is to have a clean, slammed, and decently fast car with modern bells and whistles. So I pulled the 948cc motor out that made a whopping 34hp, and replaced it with a wrecked 95 Camaro fuel injected 3.4 V6. Power to weight should be around 300hp, 1800lbs.

    Now the technical stuff, pulled the old drivetrain, put in a 86 toyota pickup truck frame with disc brakes. Body dropped it, all new floors, 3.4 Camaro Engine and 4l60e trans are in, ford 8.8 rear end narrowed 9 inches from a 94 exploder, vw scricco griffen drag radiator, narrowed front control arms 2 inches, and went from little 13x4 wheels to 15x5 front, 16x8 rear. Air suspension is finally all fabricated. Now just a bunch.... a bunch of metal fabrication, and tweaking everything to get it off to paint hopefully within the next month or two.


    Here is a little RENDERING I did a long time ago of the paint scheme/stance, etc.


    Here is where it all started. Big brown potato being towed home.


    Everyone thinks it looks like a beetle.... it's not a damn beetle!




    That was how low I got it static, but then I decided to bag it to get it on the ground.


    Wrecked Camaro I picked up for $700, pulled everything I needed and sadly sold it for scrap for $500.


    The new meats!


    Engine/trans coming out.


    Custom control arms made up by MMW.

    Then the fun started with doing the air suspension, and getting rid of all the old crap.




    More trimming.


    All buttoned up, top plates fabricated, air lines ran, just need to weld some bump stops in there at some point.


    Yeaaaaa, wheels tuck!




    But ended up having to cut stock inner fenders out, used trailer fenders instead. Gained me about 3" all around.








    Little bit bigger rear end. A bit overkill, but bought it for $100, and it had the 3.55 gears in it I wanted. Plus same polt pattern as the toyota front discs, and 31 spline axles.


    Some rear rake. Need to widen rear fenders 3 inches, even after narrowing axle 9 inches.


    The stance, aired out it will touch the chin spoiler on the ground and oil pan.

    Anyway, won't be to much development the next few weeks, but in feb it will kick back up again when the baby starts daycare, and wife goes back to work! I got to get it running/driving by march when I start a $20k Mini project for a customer. Hope it's your guys bag, if you haven't realized by the other thread, I like weird cars.

    1976 Mini Clubman Estate, 1980 Trabant, 1961 Morris Minor, 93 Bagged Astro, 98 Astro

  • #2
    Haneline 5n1 5.5" gauge fits in the dash perfect, plus has GPS speedo. Can't wait to paint the dash black, then it will really pop.





    Pulled 1" out and hemmed them over. Rear fender added 3.5", turned out great, just need to figure out 3 inches of the front transition and should be good to go.






    Finally put all new gaskets on everything.


    The start of wiring the engine.


    Custom headers made up.


    Headers installed, very tight fit of course.




    New Black Lokar E-Brake cut in.


    Almost all the wiring done on the motor side of things, just need to find a home for the coil packs.

    1976 Mini Clubman Estate, 1980 Trabant, 1961 Morris Minor, 93 Bagged Astro, 98 Astro

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    • #3
      Finally got all the brake fab done! Brakes work, all bled out, e-brake works as it should. Next up was the driveshaft is finally fabbed up. Chevy to ford 8.8. Measures in a a 35" long driveshaft. Some nice grade 12.9 12 point bolts for all that torque, lol!







      SHE HAS SEEN DAYLIGHT! And under her own power! Finally got 60% done of the car harness (similar to painless gm 12 fuse panel), fabbed a power steering reservoir mount, made the lines, tucked all the wires I could in engine bay, fabbed a new short intake for it, welded in seat brackets. Now I just need to get the exhaust done, install air conditioning, and air management for the air ride. Currently its just a manual fill. Oh and a bunch more welding on rear fenders, wheel wells, trans tunnel, etc. Onto the pics:



















      1976 Mini Clubman Estate, 1980 Trabant, 1961 Morris Minor, 93 Bagged Astro, 98 Astro

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      • #4
        Exhaust done, headers into a flowmaster scavenger pipe, then into a fullboar maxflow ss muffler, and out with a stainless double rolled dual tip in the center. Turned out pretty good, wanted to fit a resonator on it somewhere but kind of ran out of space, may visit it later if it is too obnoxious. Also got the tank and compressor ready need to take 1" of the mounting legs to get it to clear in the trunk. Anyway onto the pics:





        Finished fabbing wheel wells.








        Pulled her outside












        1976 Mini Clubman Estate, 1980 Trabant, 1961 Morris Minor, 93 Bagged Astro, 98 Astro

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        • #5
          Morris pulled out of the garage to finally let it idle and warm up the exhaust. This is the first time I have been able to attempt to run up to temp. Exhaust is clearing up, thank god. However noticed a few issues. One, idle is up and down, air filter is loud as hell, exhaust smells extremely rich and the plugs are def showing rich, something is not right with the power steering, hence why the belt is loose, if I had it all the way tight the pump would jerk the steering wheel violently, will be calling KRC today about that. Other than that, progress is progress. Wish the light at the end of the tunnel was in sight... The exhaust note though makes me very happy.


          1976 Mini Clubman Estate, 1980 Trabant, 1961 Morris Minor, 93 Bagged Astro, 98 Astro

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          • #6
            Well that is it for now, gonna post some questions in tech to hopefully get this thing "Mechanically" done so I can get it outta here and off to paint... or upholstery!

            1976 Mini Clubman Estate, 1980 Trabant, 1961 Morris Minor, 93 Bagged Astro, 98 Astro

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            • #7
              Cool project, and welcome!

              What's the plans to get 300hp out of the iron head v6?

              I saw a '59 about 20yrs ago that was set on a chopped Cutlass frame, retaining the v8.
              Links:
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              • #8
                A bit too low for me, but other than that it's a cool project. Looks more like a Kaiser....in a small way.
                95 Beretta 3100 with 3400 intakes and TCE TB
                High flow cat and a Magnaflow muffler
                Grand Prix trans with 3.33FDR

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Purple pit View Post
                  A bit too low for me, but other than that it's a cool project. Looks more like a Kaiser....in a small way.
                  It is on Air... But yes it can get on the ground, and go up to a comfortable cruising height.

                  1976 Mini Clubman Estate, 1980 Trabant, 1961 Morris Minor, 93 Bagged Astro, 98 Astro

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by ForcedFirebird View Post
                    Cool project, and welcome!

                    What's the plans to get 300hp out of the iron head v6?

                    Just kidding, that is going on my Mini. Well I'm gonna see how it does with it's current setup of stock, minus a lot of deleted stuff. But I have thought about a small cam and port/polish the heads. We have talked about a small shot of juice, I am fabricating from scratch a turbo setup for my 76. If that turns out okay, I may look into that, not sure how the tuning would play out on the obd 1.5, but there are always options. I have a feeling though it will be a good power to weight ratio as is. But should be easy to add on later when we get bored of it.
                    Attached Files

                    1976 Mini Clubman Estate, 1980 Trabant, 1961 Morris Minor, 93 Bagged Astro, 98 Astro

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by notabmw1 View Post
                      It is on Air... But yes it can get on the ground, and go up to a comfortable cruising height.
                      Is the ride bumpy on air? In all the years I have never been in a car that had it.
                      95 Beretta 3100 with 3400 intakes and TCE TB
                      High flow cat and a Magnaflow muffler
                      Grand Prix trans with 3.33FDR

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                      • #12
                        It can be bouncy without shocks, really depends where you set ride height at, bag size, etc. My van used to run 150psi up front to get to ride height with 2" drop spindles and RE-6 bags, I then swapped them for a RE-7 bag and that dropped pressure almost down to 100psi, so it gave it a softer ride at ride height. Rear is never a problem because you have more room to do almost whatever you like.

                        Click image for larger version

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                        1976 Mini Clubman Estate, 1980 Trabant, 1961 Morris Minor, 93 Bagged Astro, 98 Astro

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                        • #13
                          Cool, thanks for the info!
                          95 Beretta 3100 with 3400 intakes and TCE TB
                          High flow cat and a Magnaflow muffler
                          Grand Prix trans with 3.33FDR

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                          • #14
                            That idle sounds way too lopey for a stock engine... Don't get too attached to it because once you get the rich condition figured out it may smooth the idle out. What ECU is running this setup?

                            Got Lope?
                            3500 Build, Comp XFI Cam 218/230 .050 dur .570/.568 lift 113LSA
                            Fully Balanced, Ported, 3 Angle Valve Job, 65mm TCE TB, S&S Headers.
                            Stage-1 Raybestos/Alto 4t60e-HD, EP LSD, 3.69FDR
                            12.61@105 Epping NH Oct 2015 Nitrous 100shot (melted plugs) 13.58@98.8 N/A 3200LBS

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by 3400-95-Modified View Post
                              That idle sounds way too lopey for a stock engine... Don't get too attached to it because once you get the rich condition figured out it may smooth the idle out. What ECU is running this setup?
                              It is running the stock PCM that has been tuned to disable security, and up the max speed. That's it. Otherwise stock tune.

                              1976 Mini Clubman Estate, 1980 Trabant, 1961 Morris Minor, 93 Bagged Astro, 98 Astro

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