New guy here with a Hillman Husky

My dad has had a 58 Hillman Husky sitting in his garage for the last 20 years, and he's letting me have it (as soon as I can get it transported down here to AZ and have a proper garage to work on it). What's a Hillman Husky? It's a British 2 door wagon that is very similar to a Minx from what I understand. The body is in good shape, for the most part. The floor is rusted through, but the tunnel is intact. There are a few rust holes peaking through the quarter panels, but it should be easily repaired. The engine and transmission are non-existant.

I'm thinking about a 1.8 BP transplant from a miata - including the subframe assemblies. Stock, the Hillman had something like 45 horsepower. 120-130 should make it move. Plus I wont have to worry about British engine quirks. I'll re-wire the entire car with modern electrical too.

You should fit in well here. Make a thread over in the project cars section and keep us updated. It's always interesting to watch someone learn their way around old quirky machinery.

To use Miata subframes and suspension, you'll have to have flares to cover the wheels. Cool.

Brilliant! Welcome aboard!

Looking forward to the build thread...

This should be fun. Bonus points if you've never done this before.

DeadSkunk wrote: To use Miata subframes and suspension, you'll have to have flares to cover the wheels. Cool.

Yeah, from what I've gathered, the track width is about 6 inches greater on a miata (49 vs 55 inches). So that does present a problem. Wheel base is about the same though.

mclumber1 wrote:

DeadSkunk wrote: To use Miata subframes and suspension, you'll have to have flares to cover the wheels. Cool.

Yeah, from what I've gathered, the track width is about 6 inches greater on a miata (49 vs 55 inches). So that does present a problem. Wheel base is about the same though.

Problem solved: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/one-more-example-of-how-box-flares-make-everything/12227/page1/

Fantastic little car. Does look quite solid.

Shoot. I'd grab an RX2 rear axle (53" end to end, this is wheel flange to wheel flange) redrill the axle flanges and drums for 4x100, then narrow the front subframe and steering rack as necessary and thus keep it a stick axle. Have fun!

Nice project. Like the XR back there, too!

RX2's seem pretty rare to me, any other cars (that are more common) that I could get the front and rear suspension from?

I did a whole lot of axle hunting when I was building my Jensen, it has a 52" rear axle width. There's just not a lot of cars out there with that sort of rear axle width and most of them are much older import cars. I stuck with Mazda stuff because there's a lot of interchangeability and boneyard upgrades.

RX2's, 3's, 808's and RWD GLC's share a common rear axle housing with some detail differences. There's still a fair number of those out West which I believe is where you hail from.

First gen RX7 axles are very similar and more plentiful but are much wider, like 56". They aren't hard to narrow, though, and Moser Axles can shorten/respline the axle shafts for you. They are available with a decent clutch type limited slip, too.

The best thing is that all the RX7 stuff plugs right into a RX2/3/GLC axle housing, making a 'bolt together' setup easy to achieve. Even Miata stuff (1.8 cars) bolts in, along with some oddball stuff like Kia Sportage front diffs, etc. In fact one of my projects is to source a 4:77-1 Sportage front diff and rob the R&P for my hybrid rear axle. The Miata Torsen diff drops right in if that's your style.

On further study I think a mustang II suspension setup might work well. It looks like the front could be narrowed down enough to fit.

The Locost guys might have some interesting info for you. How about a Chevette set up?

This link http://oldcarjunkie.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/rear-axle-measurement-sources/ has a diagram as wells as some other links.

Miata is one answer. LS-X anyone?

i always thought these were cool cars

i think i would like just a stock one to run for parts and drive around in

or you could have fun with it