Thread: 1940 Vauxhall hot rod build

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Gday forum. just thought id post a picture of my Hotrod project. it is in progress and keeping me poor.

Gidday,Lightfoot...Another Vaux..kool,you and Barnsey got sisters have you?? What you running in yours??There was a guy wayy back in Aussie rodding history who built a Vauxhall,cant remember his name..Hawkes,Hawkesury[?]or something,,his sprung to mind when I saw Barnesys car.Glad to see you here,,nice place,good people,no attitudes[not even allowed one]

I have seen Barnsey's rod on here and i must say i am impressed, no relation though as far as i know. At the moment mine has a Holden v8 with a tunnel ram and a ratchet strap for a gearbox, my trimatic is being built at the moment. it has a HR front end, centura diff and coil overs in the back.
i only know of 3 other vauxhall rods(from google and ebay) but dont know anyone personally.
Its good to finally find a forum where a turbo or a fiberglass bodykit isnt a pre-requisit.

welcome lightfoot. that is a really sweet rod. i love the vauxhall design. very classic.

Welcome Mate! Looks like a great project

Originally Posted by Lightfoot1987

Its good to finally find a forum where a turbo or a fiberglass bodykit isnt a pre-requisit.

Steel is real!

Originally Posted by Lightfoot1987

I have seen Barnsey's rod on here and i must say i am impressed, no relation though as far as i know. At the moment mine has a Holden v8 with a tunnel ram and a ratchet strap for a gearbox, my trimatic is being built at the moment. it has a HR front end, centura diff and coil overs in the back.
i only know of 3 other vauxhall rods(from google and ebay) but dont know anyone personally.
Its good to finally find a forum where a turbo or a fiberglass bodykit isnt a pre-requisit.

Ok,Lightfoot,only three others that you know of,,thats kool,I will try to dig out my vintage Australian hotrodding review mags,and the OLD Custom Rodders,and see if I can find the one that was built back in the sixties/seventies..Dont think you will get much mileage out of the ratchet strap,eh,,too much slip....
Turbo or body kit??boy,have you been knockin on the wrong doors...
As I said before,all good blokes and sheilas on here,and they love pictures and whats happening down in the lower hemisphere..
Rammed 308 is kool,bet that screams...Stock crank,or stroked??

yeah, i have seen one used as a wedding car with a 308, two being built(one with nissan V6 one with Chevy V6) and then barnseys and mine.
I just picked up an old 4 speed today that im going to stick in to give the strap a break.
I am racking my brain trying to figure out a brake pedal arangement at the moment, the joy of hot rodding.
the motor isnt exactly a 308... its a fresh baby 253. i havent run it properly yet due to being transmissionless but i have started it a couple of times and it sounds mean, will be putting in a stroked 308 in the future when my bank balance allows for it.

I have added 2 new photos, one is of the front as it sits at the moment.
the other is when i bought the car all original very english.

Nuthin wrong with a little 253...I think they have short mans disease..The little beggars fair wail when they are stamped on...
Pedals are a pain in the butt...Cant help there,,just a matter of measurements and robbing the guts out of something..You guys must have enough dead Holdens and Falcoons over there..
Yes,very ENGLISH in original form,arent they?? Mate,it looks like ya got rid of the stiff upper lip....

wecome always good to see another Vauxhall being built.
There are a few getting around now.
these two are mine, i sold the purple one to a guy on the central coast, as far as i know he parked it in his shed and covered it up and thats where its been ever since.
it has an LJ torana frontend, centura diff, 3.5 Rover V8.
I have still got lots of build pics of it if you are interested.




this Red one comes from Maitland near newcastle, it has 253 engine


this one comes from sydney, it has been two doored and the split screen modded and replaced with a one piece screen to look like the english vauxhall1 piece screens, only aussi bodies had the split screens, it has a V6 Supercharged chev engine, and is still under construction.
you can follow the build here.
http://ozrodders.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20566


I have also got a few old pics of a couple more here somewhere, a red one an orange one and a light blue one, all built in the 70's
there is also a white one out there somewhere which is an older rod, it is running a 350 small block, still searching for pics of that one. I have seen pics on one of my other forums of a fenderless one that was also built in the late sixties and was running a small block, don't know if that car still exists or not, but i will try to find out.
cheers barnsey, and welcome again to the forum.

Thanks for the welcome and the pictures barnsey, i feel so young and sheltered now. they are all fantastic looking cars, makes me feel sad that mine is still in the shed. i would love any pics you have for some ideas and inspiration.

I am in the same boat as far as still sitting in the shed lol
It was hard to sell the purple car after spending so much cash and time on it. but i needed cash to start my buisness and the first guy that looked at it bought it. it only needed wiring and trim to finish, sold for 6g's
I am slowley peicing the red car back togeather, but am finding it hard to get some free time off work so i can spend more time in the shed, thats pretty sad as i am my own boss lol.
i am hoping to have it back on the road by christmas. I have removed the M90 and have replaced it with a B&M 144 the new blower is mounted on the manifold side of the engine and looks a little bit more like a late 60's period style.
when i built the first car, i mounted the booster from a gemini and an xf falcon master cyl under the floor between the chassis, only problem with that is it needed to potrude through the floor into the cabin area, as you know the chassis are not real deep.
when i updated the pedal box in my red car, which is now purple i bought an under dash unit, so the pedal box mounts under the dash with the booster attatched, and the master cyl mounts to the firewall.again i found a problem with the firewall sloping back too far, so i had to extend the firewall where the master cyl is mounted, if you look at spooks 2 doored car above in this link http://ozrodders.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20566 he has used the same sort of setup, but it mounts sideways under the dash. he has also changed his dash. are you going to keep your car that color, I think it suits really great.
cheers barnsey
p.s I have another Vauxhall that i will start after i get this one finished and back on the road. there will be a lot of things that i will do different next time, I have learnt a lot with these two builds, so i am hoping to put everything i have learnt into practice on the next one lol
keep us updated with what you are up to, it looks like a great build so far, and that body looks to be in great condition as well.
cheers barnsey

I am in the complete opposite boat time wise, i am between jobs so i have too much time and zero money.
there is alot of food for thought regarding the brake pedal, i was thinking of putting a 90 degree one like in the 2 door car but dont really want to move the battery,my boot is too small as it is because the coil overs stick up into the boot area. i like the idea of the master cylinder bolted to the firewall but you had to move your battery aswell didnt you.
I have no plans to paint the car, when i bought the hot rod it had a sort of green body with no interior and a bit of rust(picture bellow). then the dark blue car came up on ebay in original condition so i snapped it up for 4 grand, they said it had no rust and i thought, yeah whatever you say ebay, and when it arrived i checked it over, not one speck of rust, it was mint, even the original interior is all there, not perfect but pretty mint. everyone said dont hot rod it and i was contemplating becoming a restorer... but i nearly rolled it on a back road and pulled it apart that weekend. so long story short, i am not going to paint it.
I am considering fitting the fat guards off the old car but propably leaning towards widening the original ones(like on spoonmans car).
oh well back to the shed, i have added a few pics of the rod when i bought it and some i took today.

i just realised this isnt really a build log, whoops. ill have to start making more progress now.

Those are great .......... just love the "English" vehicles