Started this build last week as a "what I'd do if I had one" theme. I took Tamiyas Morgan 4/4 kit, painted a nice two tone blue and then went and swapped the whole motor. I took the Italeria Fiat Abarth rally DOHC 4 cylinder and trans and dropped that it the kit ford's place for alittle more power! I added large 4 wheel disc brakes in place of the kits disc and drum, for added stopping power. I'll just assume the frame can handle the added power.
Here's where I'm at so far-





The motor fits in pretty well but the inner fenderwells have to be removed for clearance for the header, forward injector tube and the lower LH side pump drive. I added almost a 1/4" to the driveshaft length since this combo was alittle shorter. Also took an electric radiator fan from the spares box and made it fit on the back of the radiator since there's no motor fan and grabbed 4 rotors from some spare '32 ford streetrod kit parts to use here as well.
{and to think I origonaly thought of shoe horning in an american V-8!}
Need to start the interior next...

Looking great so far Bob !!

Cheers, D

That looks great Bob. The engine swap and disc brakes is an excellent idea.

Thanks guys...I'm rebuttoning up my chaparral as we speak{added a driver} then it's back to the morgan.
That italeria motor is a near drop in{remember the inner fender cutouts needed}. All I had to do was knotch the bottom of the tranny, right under the top wedge section in back, to fit the frames pre exsisting cross bar and viola - near perfect alignment on all counts. The 4 discs were the same way....yeah, I got lucky!! I need some kind of a roll bar now.
My plan is to keep the wire wheels even though that will make the discs unseen. I wanted to make this a rally car but those little doors don't lend themselves to a decent white circle for rally numbers and my plan of the union jack on the hood{oops - bonnet} went with the addition of the italian motor.

She's getting closer now. Here's the dash-

Side and front shot of the body on-


I painted the top a second coat just now so no pics of that yet-

Wow Bob, that looks superb !! The dash woodgraining is great, and I love the soft finish on the upholstery. What paint did you use there?

Cheers, D

Thanks damian, the interior paint is testors flat spray #1955 African Mustard - it was handy and looked good for the job. The dash wood grain is the usual procedure{for me at least}...base coat of tamiya "sand" or any tan color, dry brush streaks of any dark brown{tamiya nato brown was handy this time} and finish with a coat of tamiya clear orange to deepen the effect. Experiment with any of the colors to get what you'd want out of it...a yellow clear would yield amedium depth look and and plain clear would mimic unfinished wood I'd bet. Add a top coat of gloss, semi or flat clear too to add to the effect.
Oh, twist the brush when adding the darker grain and you could get a knot/burlwood look{need to try that someday!}

The Morgan is coming along fine. Love the woodwork.

I don't know because have you ever driven one of them British cars because I used to own one of them 1970 Triump spitfires and with the 4 cylinder it had in it done a real good job the only problem it had was the rear end was gear bound because to when the engine hit top rpms the car was only going 100 mph and couldn't do another mile per hour if it wanted to

Now one time this friend of mine that had his so called fast Monte Carlo so I told him I could beat him to my house from the bar, well on the way was a bunch of turns onto different roads so every time he started to catch me it was time to hit another road then I would leave him on take off, but before every turn I could see his head lights coming up on me fast.

Now if it wasn't for all the turns he could of beat me easily for his top end he had but my Triump would smoke the tire coming out of the whole then smoke it again in second but no more smoke off the tire for third and fourth gear, but real fast it could hit 100 but then the engine was wound so tight it could not go another RPM faster but it had plenty enough power if I only had a higher geared rear end.

Then after my Triumph I got a new 74 Corvette and I know that Triump could out run and out corner that corvette with it's 350 cubic inch engine and the Triump cost a lot less also the only problem with the triump was don't hit a bump in the middle of a curve when you got it topped out or the axles on the rear end would turn down then lifting up the rear end then you are in Gods hands to where the Corvette had a leaf spring over the rear end and axles so this wouldn't happen.

The only time the Corvette showed superiority over the Triump was handling at high speeds then the Corvette done better on the curves.

Now one other night this guy came up beside me when I was in my Corvette and he wanted to race but after listening to his car I could tell he had a low rear end so I just kept increasing my speed until he was close to top end at 110 MPH and then I put my automatic into third and top gear so then he seen I had a lot more top end then he had so he let off his gas peddle after I went into third and top gear.

I knew he would be able to beat me in a quarter mile run but I knew I had a lot more top end then he had so I turned the race to my advantage and it would of been the same with my Triump it might of been close in a quarter of a mile but I know in a 1/8 of a mile the triump could beat the Corvette for sure.

I'm calling her done now-









While I was finishing her up and installing the hood halves I managed to break off 3 of the 4 pins so I cut some wire and super glued them in place of the origonal pins...works better than before now{should've broke them sooner!}
This would be a fun one in real life with that Fiat Abarth TOHC motor in it!....

Man that is just stunning!

Very nice, Bob.

Jim

Thanks guys...I like these lil shorts cars...may have to do more.
I need to find out what that silver roadster was in "the Birds" movie... I think I remember it was a 4 seater...

Me too, in my garage.
But there isn't any.

Like the colors you used.
Looking real good.

Erikssson.

She looks absolutely wonderful Bob.

I really like this one. The color combo is right on. Bravo!!

Wow great car, wonderfull detailing! Ahh, but didn't you put the steering wheel on the wrong side? 8^)

..I can't control that part....oooh, bad pun!