I love it! Out at the drag races yesterday, and a guy with his girlfriend walk by the car and she asks, "What kind of car is that?"
He answers that it's an Anglia, and she points at the trunk and says, "Well why does it say it's not an Anglia then?"
He took a double take, and the look on his face was priceless!

 

Been dealing with a less than good alternator mount since switching heads. My old mount hooked to the front header bolt at #1, and then into the front of the head. My adjustment was a piece of 3/8 allthread rod as there isn't room for a regular arm under the hood. with the new heads I lost the olt hole in the front of the head and my bracket always tried to move at an angle, making the belt run at an odd angle too.
Finally ordered an adjustable mount from Summit that hooks to both front header bolts, and can slide forward and back to align the belt. But the new mount sat the alternator even higher on the engine, and that wouldn't allow any type of arm to brace and adjust the alternator from the top side.
Since my engine is on solid mounts I decided the only way I could bolt an arm on was to come off the frame. With 1/2" clearance between the belt and the hood, and the belt and the frame, the belt has to be pretty close to perfect length, but it fits. Cut some aluminum angle and made a frame bracket, then got the anvil out and did a little bending to the arm, andfinally got it all to fit and adjust. Mounted from the bottom it tightens the belt as I move the alternator down towards the frame, so it's at it's loosest at the end of the arm.
Pain in the rear little job that took 3-4 hrs to finally figure out!

 

DONE!!! I just read all 49 pages on your car. Your work is absolutely amazing and i love the new paint job. What did you do before you retired as you said you used a bender at your old shop and clearly you know how to fabricate?

Anyways like i said looks great. If you dont mind, can you please pop over to my thread for a second i have one small question i am going to post after i send this.

I am really looking forward to seeing some 1/4 mile numbers and when i seen that you were at the races i thought i was in luck. Do you have another project sitting out in the tent waiting to be started now?

 

Wow! You red all 49 pages in one sitting! Thanks!
I was an electrician prior to retiring, so spent a lot of time with a pipe and tubing bender. Nice to still have access to the old shop occasionally, as my HF bender is pretty worthless for 90 degree bends. It does 45's or less fine, but wont hold the round shape at greater bends.
Been working on cars for about 50 years, but this one is the most intensive build I've done. did a few straight axle installs in 55-57 Chevs, and an old '40 Chev coupe that I did likewise with 413 Mopar engine and Torqueflite. All were pretty fun cars, but big, and not nearly as fun as the tiny Austin.
The '71 Camaro is actually in the canopy now, with car cover and tarp over it. Only drive the Camaro 1-2 times a year since finishing it. Kinda sad, but the Austin is so much fun that it gets most my attention.
We are having the nostalgia drags the end of August nearby. It's all pre '65 cars, and I plan to give the Austin it's first trip down the strip at that event. It's a pretty casual fun event with no trophies, and all heads up racing. They try to pair up similar times cars, but you can also just line up against your buddy and have some fun. Until then I'll keep having fun on the street and reffining/tuning it to be ready to wring it out at the old time races.
My plan for the drags is to start out very easy and make some half throttle passes, then gradually work into harder runs as I get a feel for the car's manners. Haven't drag raced since 1989 when I retired the '71 Camaro, so I know my reactions on the light and the strip need some tuning!

 

Oh sweet, i will definately be looking forward to reading about your times. I really dont care about turning corners or running a course. I am all about the thrills of a straight line!

 

I like doing both, but not into road racing. The Austin does OK on winding roads, but it's sure not the same as the '71 cornering. But I didn't build it to corner, just to look like an old 60's drag racer, so it's doing what I designed it to do; go well straight!

 

Developed a little miss on one cylinder and figured out my MSD was causing the plug wire to fire through the insulation on my small wires and that fouled one plug. Swapped out the wires to larger insulation, and replaced the bad plug. Fixed the miss. Pretty close behind the head /firewall clearance, so that and the high output was a bad mix.


Also changed the lettering font on my "Isky Cams" logo. Went back to my sign guy and he made up the new ones. I like them better.


Yesterday I found a listing on the local Craigslist for old Valvoline Racing Oil 20/50 wt. $5 a can, firm. Called the guy and he had a whole case of 24 cans and sold all 24 cans for $4 a can! Can't believe somebody still had the good old zinc based oil and in cans not plastic bottles! Now I just need to find that can opener!

 

I'm sure your hard as nails teeth will be good to open those cans with.

 

I'm gonna open the bottoms off the cans, and then sell the empties at the swap meet!

 

You may know this, but Amsoil makes a special high-zinc motor oil called Z-Rod designed for classic and high performance cars.
AMSOIL - AMSOIL Z-ROD 20W-50 Synthetic Motor Oil (ZRF)