1960 Hillman Husky (wagon)

Howdy from Colorado. The wife & I bought this about four years ago. We realized pretty quickly that the 1392cc wasn't going to cut it, it was blowing the smoke of death and the tranny made really bad noises too. We found a drivetrain available out of a Hillman Super Minx and had that installed (bolted in, no muss no fuss). I'm not a mechanic, don't have a garage or a lot of skillz.

Doing the swap got us up to 1725cc's (same as an Alpine), disc brakes in front, larger drums in the rear and a better hiway gear. An Alpine donated its tranny to our cause and life was good.

Fast forward another year or two & this motor it turns out has a fatal flaw or two so it too will need to be replaced. We've had in storage for a few years a full race dry sumped Lotus twincam that's going to go into the Hillman. Tranny will be a close ratio four speed Cortina box out of another projet that's become 'yard art' at this point. Will only run on race gas until we change cams but there's a restoration shop in town that sells 112 so we're good there for short trips. Will post pictures when I figure out how to tack them on.

Cheers, Cris

ps)) we tagged this as hot rod - custom because it's kind of what we're building here is a hot rodded (all British) Hillman, in the non painted (besides pinstriping) patinaed ratty rodish mode (& Hillman wasn't a choice on the pulldown list).

Sweet ride. Can we get some pictures?!?!

RossD wrote: Sweet ride. Can we get some pictures?!?!

+1.

I, too would love to see pictures from sunny Colorado.

Step 1 Get a photobucket account.

Step 2 copy URL

Step 3 paste in the box that appears when you click the camera icon at the top of the yellow field in "Your Comment".

It is nice to share hard learned info.

In reply to wheelsmithy: Awww, gotcha. Be right back. Thanks. Cheers, Cris

Interior bomb-blast shot, with 'old' black buckets.

Front end, sporting a Desoto 'explorer' head ornament & lack of bumpers. Came with bent up originals unattached.

Hillman front with recently fabricated front nerf bar & leftover old mini bit Lucas driving light. Interior 'now'. Hillman Husky buckets from a '54 with fresh upholstery, rear (folding) seat visible. Sound deadening too, going uptown.
Current engine, 1725cc's, iron head. Can you spot the new 'bit'.?

Rear 3/4 shot, single barn door, again with the no bumper look, original 'shot/toast'. Nerf has been added to the rear too now.

Ran into some drama with Photobucket, data to the right of the changed picture. Will add a few more soon.

The twincam's at the fab shop, no photos of that for now. Cheers, Cris

Looks freakin awesome!

Somebody here has one but I cannot remember who.

http://www.britishv8.org/Other/RyanReis.htm

In reply to NOHOME:

Ohhh, that's swanky. I've seen a picture of that one before. My body's been taken over by the tin worm, we're letting it go that route. Bondo & dents will stay, there seems to be too many shiny cars out there. But this one's gorgeous.!!! Thanks for posting the link.

Will 3/16th or 1/4 line support fuel for dual Webers.? I know they have a low fuel pressure requirement but wanted to double check before I bought my line.

thanks in advance,

Cris

HillbillyHeathen wrote: Will 3/16th or 1/4 line support fuel for dual Webers.? I know they have a low fuel pressure requirement but wanted to double check before I bought my line. thanks in advance, Cris

It should, I have dual 40s on my VW and use 1/4" line

Update, the twincam & 4speed tranny have been fitted into the car. Mounts are fabbed, header being finished next week. Will post photos of install once the webers are hung.

Cheers, Cris

Love it! Looks like a fun project! I've had a soft spot for these since the family had one when I was in high school...always wanted to see one as a bit of a scaled-down hot rod.

Your shop? If so, you are holding back on us big-time.

Nope, not my shop. I don't even have a garage, well truthfully I started one, 30 wide by 24 deep (blasting to get level ground) but then found a racecar online & pissed away the rest of the garage fund (sigh).........

Great to see another Hillman fan on the site, we're in the midst of a resurrection of a '55 Hillman Husky, a '58 Austin A35, and a '66 VW walk-through van.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/tiny-tubby-tuff/78093/page1/

It's been extremely slow going, we had to move the "operations" twice and have still to reconstruct the work tent in the newest location. Hopefully things will get back on a schedule in another month or two.

Wonderful to see you attacking the little Hillman. A neat ride to start with and potential at every turn. If you neeed a tip or two or have a question that's stumping you, we might have an answer for you.

Something that we just figured out is that Chevy S10 front rotors fit onto the stock Hillman front drum brake spindles without any modification, a direct bolt-on. We're trying to put together set of caliper brackets just now, but that ought to be pretty simple in the end, maybe just cast a pair out of aluminum, then fit up a pair of S10 calipers, plumb, and done.

Luck with your project, looking terrific so far ! !

TC

In reply to TeamEvil: Thanks for the kind words. I used a Hillman Minx front sub-frame & it's suspension bits. This upgraded me to discs in front and was a bolt-in.

I like your plan on using the postal truck rearend. Could have sworn I'd read that they needed to be shortened to fit, maybe that was for an Alpine. All my info is blending together it seems.

Cheers, Cris

Nope—

Postal Jeep Dana 44 was a direct bolt-in, even the spring perches lined up. We're using MGA spring plates with the lower shock mounts in order to utilize the stock Hillman lever shocks. Just sort of a tip-of-the-hat to vintage "originality" in the face of a full-on racing strength rear end. Both the Hillman and Austin are full of faux-vintage and anachronistic details. Makes things more fun, and keeps our interest high.

With the new location for the tent secured and the VW bus moved out and on to another owner, we may try an MGA Gasser next. Ford powered nose-bleed stance, but with an aftermarket fiberglass coupe hard top and touring-style luggage rack. Another mix of different bits and bobs for plain old fun. Sort of shooting for the look and performance of the old NHRA Modified Sports Car class but with a bit of the vintage "plaid hat" street style.

Wish that you were closer, I have a nice running Capri/TVR Ford V6 engine, trans, and Capri rear end which I'm not using that would almost drop right into your ride.

In reply to TeamEvil:

We just converted away from the lever shocks as they were toasty. Purchased a kit made for an Alpine & modded it to fit.

Can't go with the Capri v6, too much invested with the Lotus swap at this point. But, that wouldn't be a T9 5-speeder now would it.? Where are you (must resist, just say NO).? So just where does one find a Postal Jeep rear end.? Are they like elephants and just go to one place in the country to die off.?.?

Shot of the only real surgery that needed to be done make it slide in. There's a raised portion where there's no paint that needed to be removed. Nothing at all compared to what you've been doing.

;-0)~

Here's a shot of the engine bay. Looks pretty good in there. You can see the matching 'rib' on the right side of the photo that didn't need to be removed to get the twincam in there.

Headers from an Elan fit in with only 'all four' tubes needing to be cut apart-rotated a tad & rewelded. Looks like the drysump tank will be going 'up high' in the passenger (right) side against the firewall with the filler inside the engine bay & the tank suspended up from the floor to keep floor space for my wife's feet to the max' available. Fire suppression system bottle will go under one of the front seats or perhaps the rear seat, who knows.! Lots to figure out yet~

Cheers, Cris

You can find used and rebuilt Postal Jeep rear ends/Dana44s all over the internet. Skip Ebay and such and go right to the dedicated Jeep parts and performance sites. Off-Road sites are also a great alternative.

The Dana 44 has been the drop-in rear end of choice for narrow track vehicles forever. Parts and complete units are everywhere and the cost is under four hundred dollars on average. Got an email just recently regarding one current available on Ebay, but Ebay IS Ebay so caution is always recommended, you know?

We fell over the one that went into the Hillman, found it on Craigslist of all places, but the rebuild and brake parts came from one of the many Jeep Salvage sites.

It's just a PERFECT alternate when R&P options, strength, parts availability, and cost counts. They're not pretty and weigh a ton, but they're the ones that get the job done.