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Anglia Gasser Retirement Project

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  • Anglia Gasser Retirement Project

    Here's a new project I'll throw out here for those interested in old gassers. I've been staring at this thing sitting in the corner of my garage for the past 4 years and decided I better get a move on or I'll never get it done. I call it my retirement project, but really my goal is to have it nearly complete by the time I retire in, oh, 5 years or so. I've been a fan of these cars since I was about 6 or 7 years old. My Dad took me to the drags quite regularly since about age 5 ( around 1960 ). Pomona, San Gabriel, San Fernando, Irwindale on a Sunday about once a month or so. Big thrill for me, since that meant I didn't have to go to church that day.Yay!
    Anyway, about the car. I acquired it 4 or 5 years ago from a buddy of mine. He had it sitting out at his place in the high desert for a while with some plans to build it. Well, that changed when he managed to score a complete vintage 60's Anglia panel (Thames) gasser out of someones garage in, I think, the Victorville area. It's extremely cool and I'm very jealous. So this Anglia sedan became available. I've always wanted one so I asked what he would take for it. He replied "Trade me a guitar for it". Since I have 20+ guitars in my collection, I said "DONE!" I traded a nice 1994 USA Fender Strat in a tweed case for the car. So, I've put away a few parts for it here and there and I've finally managed to actually get started on it. As you can see in the photos, it's just a shell on a chassis that had alredy been back halfed with a ladder bar setup with a narrowed Old/Pontiac rear end. I'm planning to keep that but add coilovers in the back. The front has an Opel front end grafted on. The jury is out on whether I'm going to keep that. I like it, but the tires stick out of the fenders. No good. If I can figure out a way to make it narrower, I'll do that. I have a complete fiberglass tilt front for it, it had fiberglass doors but I traded those for some stock steel doors.
    So, over the last couple of weeks I managed to get my first real work done on it. I ordered a 10 point cage from Jegs, and tacked it into place. Now, I'm trying to learn how to weld, and I think this is a great project to learn on. BUT, the roll cage is not the place to learn (I make pretty good booger welds at this point). So, I custom fit all the cage pieces and lightly tacked it into place and I'll have a real welder finish it up for me. I have a couple of chassis guys in mind. So, this is where we are with it right now, it'll be a slow moving project, but I'll update once in a while. I know there are some gasser guys on here that will dig it!
    Attached Files

  • #2
    Nice score!

    So you were watching drag racing at the time my dad was running his 37 Chev Coupe down there (Pomona, Lions, etc).... small world.
    Doing it all wrong since 1966

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    • #3
      I'm not a gasser guy but I love the little Anglias. I'd really love to build a road racer version, but I'm weird like that.

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      • #4
        Very cool, love Anglias and had a stock one briefly that I would love to have hot rodded. Hauen, here's a road race style one for you

        Found these pics amongst a load of old stuff and thought somebody might like to see, It was its first outing and pics were taken in Richmond Park which was very close to Geoffs house, Not sure of year but would guess at around 81 i have a load more that i will scan later and post http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h229/stevelangylang/Other%20stuff/File0001-2.jpg http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h229/stevelangylang/Other%20stuff/File0003.jpg

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        • #5
          Sweet! My good friend's dad had a prostreet Anglia back when we were in highschool. Basic 350/350 combo, but we were let loose on the streets a few times with it. That was a mistake...

          Now I want one.
          1970 Camaro RS - SOLD | 2000 Camaro SS - Traded in for a Hyundai...
          1966 Ford Thunderbird - SOLD | 1963 MGB, abandoned V8 project, FOR SALE/SCRAP

          1978 Cutlass - Post Lay-off daily driver

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          • #6
            Heres a link to an article on a friend of mines.\

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            • #7
              Looks like a great base to start with! Anglias are great gasser material!

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              • #8
                Just got the car back from my fabricator friend in Bakersfield. He did all the final welding on my roll cage and it looks great. AT least I know that part is done correctly.... I just ordered a rear coilover kit from Jegs, so thats the next project on my list. I'm going to do the welding on this myself, so we'll see how that goes....
                Attached Files

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                • #9
                  Fantastic!
                  There's always something new to learn.

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                  • #10
                    Looks good.

                    Let me make a suggestion on the door bars, depending on the sanctioning body wherever you might race it (this is OK in LSR). S&W Racecars makes a swing out door bar kit that allows you to remove the pin and one bolt and take the bar out of your way. This is a HUGE help in building and installing a dash, doing wiring, etc. I plan to make this mod to the S-10 soonish so I can install the pedal set from Phitter - it's pretty inaccessible as it is.

                    Dan

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                    • #11
                      I may do that Dan, we'll see how difficult getting in and out of it turns out to be. Right now it's not hard to step in and out. I'm pretty sure swing out bars are legal. Also, I don't plan to run the car fast enough to require a certification.

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                      • #12
                        That is suuuch a sweet project.

                        Front suspension will be interesting... I see how narrow that is. The one linked to earlier may have some good ideas...
                        ...

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                        • #13
                          Looks great.

                          Great decision on the cage. That's certainly something a pro should finish up.
                          I'm still learning

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                          • #14
                            Yeah, the front suspension is the most troublesome part of this project. I can get a complete Mustang II setup from Fatman Fabrications, but as always, I don't have the budget for that right now. So I'll try and work with what I've got, I think I can cut a few inches out of the middle of it and make it work. I'm not in a hurry with this thing, so why not? If I screw it up, I'll just try something different up there.

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                            • #15
                              check out welder series - SBG turned me on to them - I believe he used their M2 kit in the front of his caddy powered sports car project - basically the parts show up as flat plate patterns mostly cut out save for a few small pieces holding it all together - you fold the parts into shape and weld them up. Very cost effective - and easily modified for width in your case... then it's just a matter of finding a narrower rack for the steering, or shortening some tie rods perhaps.

                              Last edited by milner351; July 12, 2013, 09:35 AM.
                              There's always something new to learn.

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