Austin Healey Sprite LS6/200-4r

[DiDueColpi]

Jim!
I know that sleep is for the weak, but when do you rest man?
And more importantly, how do you get your woman to work on the car? Especially in the cold.
The lovely Lynne would have me looking longingly at a knot hole in a pine  before she did any of that.
Pretty impressive, looking forward to more.
Happy New Year
Fred

[Anarchy99]

Happy New Years to you also!! She enjoys the work and actually gets mad at me when I give her something she deems too easy. I would be cranking out more on the car now but we are waiting for the temp to rise a few degrees, it's 21 right now and theres frost all over the car. Around 9 we should be rocking and rolling again.

[Anarchy99]

Got the body all finished up yesterday, still got to wet sand and buff, etc but I'm glad it's in clear finally... It turned out awesome and I love the color. I still have to finish the hood prep and paint it red also.

[BlownMGB-V8]

Are you going to reinforce the edges of that hood cutout?

Jim

[Anarchy99]

yeah, I'm going to clean it all up and brace it accordingly. We already braced the rear pretty good but I'm thinking about putting bar stock on it to give it a 90 degree edge and more of a finished look. On my Camaro I just put the door edge molding and it turned out pretty good, but I'd like to try something a little bit different on this one.
I pushed it out in the sun and got some better pics





forgive the water spots, etc on the car it's morning moisture...

[HealeyRick]

Jim,

You sure work quick!  With that red paint and supercharger through the hood, your car is starting to look like my avatar.  Happy New Year!   Looking forward to the report of your first drive.

[Anarchy99]

Yeah, I'm actually thinking alot about detachable wheelie bars at this point... we'll see. I should be able to get alot more done this weekend hopefully.

[Richard/SIA]

I had one of those hoods, or one VERY similar many years ago.
Lost in a fire during storage.

Would you consider selling it?
Would you consider letting me repair it  as a plug and make a mold from it?
I have to say that to look "Right" with that bonnet the rear of the car would need to be restyled.
I think the rounded front and square rear would look a bit odd.

[Anarchy99]

The denner bonnet is getting put in the shed waiting for a nice bugeye where I don't need to put a hole in the hood to fit an engine. It's ready to be picked up at the corvette shop... I figured corvette guys would fix it right. We'll see. The car has some drastic changes since the last time I posted, I'll crank it first(here in a few days) before I post up pics and vids.

[Anarchy99]

I lied... here's the pics:
I made some drastic changes to get the car ready for the nice weather... Bitch all you want, I kinda like it better this way, way simpler, engine is proven, and all my projects will be on the road a lot faster now that the blown ls6 will go in the vette. If I had a few parts that are in the mail, the car would be out scaring small children already. Console and gas tank will be back from upholstery beginning of next week, everything under the car is in except driveshaft, got the new yoke and it's an inch too short, new one on the way along with new throttle cable and tranny cooler. Other than that and the new speedhut gauges I'm waiting on, it's ready to go. Sounds like a lot but it's really not.




almost forgot, also still waiting on the new front brakes... should be here any day now.

[88v8]

Well, quick work again. Look forward to seeing it done.

Meanwhile I'm not seen any cause for bitching.
And the good thing with people being so fat n'all, pedestrians won't be able to hide behind that hood scoop lol

Ivor

[Anarchy99]

Yeah, I don't mind the blower right there, I was used to looking around it on the Camaro. I'm going to toss the old engine into the Camaro today or tomorrow and then the ls6 into the corvette. It'll get engines into projects and get them out of the way. I'm very anxious to get the little car on the road... should be any day now really. One side affect of tossing new seats in it is they have more padding and sit up a few inches higher... hopefully my head doesn't stick to the bottom side of it or through the roof.

[Anarchy99]

Got the console and tank back from upholstery and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. At the very least It's better than looking at a nasty gas tank or a bland looking console. I put the matching emblem on the back of the tank as the front, just forgot to snap a pic. Started making panels to put the interior back together, that's what the black board in the back is., still have to make holes in it for the fuel lines and the roll bar but it's close. I also still need to make the holes for the speakers, they will go under the dash in the close out wings by the driver passenger knee area. Just 4 inch speakers, nothing crazy, and only using 2. I'll make the finishing piece that will make the dash blend better into the console, just haven't had time. Also need to fill in the square hole and make 4 holes for the new gauges. It's getting there. On a side note my transmission cooler got here from ebay today and was literally falling apart out of the box with 2 broken fan mounts on it. We'll see how the seller wants to handle it, it's just frustrating.
Oh yeah, don't worry, floors and wheel well area will be getting carpet, just haven't gotten it down yet.

[Anarchy99]

Don't beat me up too bad for my switch panel... still wiring and the pics are just with stuff test fit, should be finished with wiring by the end of today or early tomorrow... Still cutting on the hood setup, the snow kind of killed my progress that I had going on, working out of a car port doesn't help. More to follow

[Moderator]

Got the console and tank back from upholstery and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.

They look great! I especially like the way your tunnel turned out. I want to do something similar. Do you have any advice? (What sort of padding and how thick? etc.)

[Anarchy99]

If this doesn't give you blood flow in your man parts, I got nothing for you... video btw in case it doesn't give the option to click on it.


sorry, I don't get on here a lot. The console has no padding in it, just vinyl over the aluminum. The only reason why is because space is at a premium in the car right now and I didn't want it to be too bulky. Its already a very tight fit. I'm very pleased with how it turned out and the video doesn't do it justice for just how mean the car sounds.

[Moderator]

Now that's a nice rumble!

[74ls1tr6]

This needs to be said "Small car with Big Engines", It must be an illness :-)
Sounds very heath from this end!

[roverman]

I don't ID. those shifters, for a 200 4R ? Looks like a gagle of Lenco's ? The most hp/torque, you put through a 200 4R ?  I  need to chat with your trans builder ?   Great work in progress ! Thanks, roverman.

[Anarchy99]

To say that this car is a handful to drive would be a gross understatement. I need sticky tires and my front brakes that I ordered awhile back to get here before I really see what the car can do. Saying all that though, it's soo much fun to drive. Basically idles at speed and obviously plenty of power. I just need to finish the front end and toss it back on but I may just put cheap turn signals and headlights on the front end and drive it as is for a little while... kinda fun that way. Forgive the videos, the first was after I buttoned up the majority of the electrical late at night and I was pretty tired. The second was the first test drive, rowing through the lenko style shifter... It achieves exactly what I wanted and makes driving the car alot more fun. The third was basically me zip tying the camera to a spot in the back of the car so you could see how the shifting works... forgive the wind noise and I still need to adjust the shifts on the TV cable a little bit but you get the idea.






The trans is built to handle over 600hp. It came out of my 69 Camaro that was procharged before this setup. The buick grand national guys have been building the 200-4r's for awhile to handle big power

[88v8]

Caramba! It goes!! Well done!
Need to have your head firing on all cylinders when you're using that Lenco. Apart from being a good hat-stand, does it have any advantages in a street car?

Ivor

[Anarchy99]

No real advantages but it sure is alot of fun to drive with this type of shifter. U can also just put it in 4 and go with no shifting

[Anarchy99]

The weather was nasty but we got a lot done today. New hood welded onto the fenders and most of the body work on it done as well. Hopefully I can get the rest of the body work on the hood finished tomorrow and at least get it in primer and on the car. I have good help, I can't take all of the credit.

[BlownMGB-V8]

From those photos I'm not sure you get ANY credit!  Better get that girl some gloves.

Looking good.

Jim

[Anarchy99]

accomplished my goal of getting primer on the hood. Test fit everything after I made the cut and it's pretty tight fitting so I'm happy with that. There are a few spots we still need to fix on the hood, mainly cracks that we missed before primering and a few small imperfections in the body work... all in all, I'm very pleased with how it turned out and I should be able to spray it red after work tomorrow or the next day and get it on the car finally.