Mart's Real   Hot Rods  Mart's Ford Pop!  - Probably the best documented unfinished project on the web!  Updated July 2005. All together.. Aaaahhhh! Aint she sweet? This project started when I found an ad for a Ford Pop on Zane Llewellyn's Bristol based website. It was complete, stock, and the price was right. I hired a trailer, borrowed a car capable of towing it, and dragged it back from Shepton Mallet, way south of here. It was a little bit scruffier than the photo suggested, but will make a good basis for a project. The idea is to produce a neat, low buck car capable of daily use. Unfortunately I had to make a change of dirsction, I had intended to use an Alfa Romeo 4 cylinder motor, and was well down the road of making it fit, but in reality it didn't really fit very well, and I decided to rework it using a more user friendly 2litre Pinto and 5 speed box. I will leave the pages that deal with the Alfa installation in case they are any help to someone using a similar engine in another car.  How the old gal looked in August 2003. It looked more or less like this when sold unfinished early in 2005. So please browse around the accompanying pages to follow the progress. (two steps forward and one step back!)  On page 1: Check out the newly purchased car, and find out just exactly what I had bought.  (Pages 2, 3 and 6 Deal with the Alfa running gear which was subsequently replaced with Sierra (Pinto)/Anglia parts.)  On page 2: The front end of the car is stripped down, the engine removed and the firewall cut away to allow the Alfa Romeo engine to sit in the right position. (Almost on my lap!)  On page 3: The starter motor is replaced to gain enough footroom.  On page 5: This page will show the mods to the rear axle. Just pics of the stock axle at the moment.  On page 4: The front of the frame receives a healthy Z'ing to achieve that low stance yet retain some sort of axle movement.    On page 6: The front brakes are converted from mechanical drums to vented discs.  On Page 7: The project is revisited with a fresh approach, Pinto motor and Anglia axle are factored in to make things simple. Simple is good. On page 8: See what was involved in making the rear wheels from Hillman centres and VW rims. On page 9: Lets fill that gaping bulkhead and get some pedals in the old gal.  On page 10: Anglia/Morris Minor hybrid steering gets hooked up, front and rear legs added to form an X member and an exhaust goes in. Mart.

Proposed spec: (Original build)  Body:                   Stock 2 door saloon. Stock wings front and rear.  Chassis:                Based on stock, Z'd in front, maybe pinched at the rear.  Engine:                 Alfa Romeo 4 cylinder. 1600cc.  Transmission:        Alfa Romeo 5 speed, conventional type.  Rear axle:             Alfa Romeo live axle, narrowed to suit. Alfa alloy drum brakes.  Front axle:            Ford Pop. Transverse spring. Vented disc brake conversion.  Wheels/tyres:        Undecided: Probably modern 15" alloys with big/little modern radials.  Proposed spec: (Later rebuild)  Body:                   Stock 2 door saloon. Stock wings front and rear.  Chassis:                Based on stock, Z'd in front. Crossmembers added to mount front and rear suspension. No boxing.  Engine:                 Ford Sierra (Pinto) 2lt with Weber carb, electronic distributor.  Transmission:        Ford Sierra 5 speed. New shift lever using reworked Pop stick.  Rear axle:             Ford Anglia, on transverse leaf, lever arm shox and fabricated torque/radius arms.  Front axle:            Ford Pop, rubber bushed split wishbone. Transverse spring. Vented disc brake conversion.  Wheels/tyres:        Minx steels (VW rims on rears), 6.40 and 5.60:15 crossplies. Vintage hubcaps of unknown make.  Steering:               Ford Anglia 105ESteering box with early Morris Minor upper column.  Pedals:                 Rover Metro.

Copyright Martin Holden. Solihull, England.

 
 

All contents property of Martin Holden, Solihull, England.