Thread: New from Canada

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Hello folks

I'm brand new to this site and figured I had better say hello before I start asking stupid questions

A bit about me ... scratch that ... a bit about my project ...

1955 MGA Coupe body
1992 S-10 Extended Cab frame with wheelbase shortened 28½" and 8" cut from frame horns (front and rear)
Motor is currently the matching 4.3L V6 and Auto-Trans from the S-10. Had to move motor mounts 16" back and 5" down to make it fit under the body.

Status : Body is resting on frame, motor, trans and driveshaft are in place, Body Mounts (x8)are next in line to be fab'd. Then it's firewall & floors. After that, body work can begin.

Work Journal and Pics of progress can be found here ... CLICK ME

hey Maguis welcome to the site from one hoser to another. I like the ride, it looks good to me riding a little higher like it does. Man finding a decent old car body in ontario is tough. My wifes has cousins out there near ottawa and when i was out there i saw a lot of rust not many decent old cars.
good luck with it .

Welcome to the forum. I've never seen that body before, it's really pretty swoopy looking. Was that just a Canadian version, or did all of them have the same one?

Smart way to get modern underpinnings with that frame swap, enjoyed pictures.

Don

Thanks for the warm welcome.

As for the body of my beast ... well, it has taken me 7 years to figure out what the ____ I have. All I know for sure is that it once started out life as a 1955 MGA. Even that i wasn't sure of until a few months ago. The Frame Serial Number is what I am going on for classifying this car. Previous owners have done some serious styling changes to whatever type of MGA it used to be.
I have a feeling someone with some serious coach building skill was either trying to replicate a '62/3 Ferarri 250 GTO or possibly an AC Cobra Daytona Coupe ...
Either way, it's very unique, and not worth a dime ... for a while I was afraid it might be a limited prod. model, making it worth restoring, which I did not want to do ... I wanted something with some lines and curves to it, and since I couldn't get an early 30's Chev Pick-up of any kind for under $100 ... I ended up with this

The Chevy frame and connected bits make it dirt cheap for new parts (ball joints, tie-rods, shocks, brake parts, etc... ) in the future when I am ready for final assembly.

So far I have 400 invested ... 50 in the MGA and 350 for the S-10 since it was actually certifiable for the raod when I picked it up, rough shape, but still driveable.

Welcome to CHR. Sounds like a very interesting project, can't wait to learn and see more.

And the adventure continues ... Napa called today and my body mounts finally came in. Only took them a week to get them ... had to get a couple shipped from Vancouver, some from Quebec, others from other depots ...

Why? ... ummm ... don't laugh at me ... but I'm not using typical body mounts. For both size, shape and $ reasons ($15/unit vs. $70/unit for standard Chev body mounts) ... 1988 BMW Transmission mounts are perfect ... apparently they don't keep a large stock of them for some strange reason - I only wanted 8 of them.

Good news is I can start building brackets for the body mounts now. That has been holding the project back a bit since it's hard to build floors, firewalls, interior bits or even start body work wihtout having the body attached to the frame

Imagius...welcome to the forum. That's gonna look great when it's finished.

By the way, what part of Ontario are you from? Although I live in Rochester, NY, I had the pleasure of working in Canada for 2 years. The compnay I worked for (FTT, Ltd.) was based out of Scarborough, Ontario.

Pat

I'm an hours drive north of Scarborough on Lake Simcoe. Spent the last 14 years commuting from here to Toronto. Hey ... I know where FTT is ... Finch & Markahm Rd. right? ... Our shop was at McCowan and 401.

Imagius....you're pretty close. It was Nashdene and Markam.

I think the owner of FTT had a cottage on Lake Simcoe. Isn't that above the Cawarthra Lakes headin' towards Peterborough??

I actually sold my own company from the states to them and I was hired as a consulting manager. I really loved working in Canada. Great group of people. They referred to me as their Yankanadian Brother!

Unfortunately the company went bankrupt right after 911 and was bought out by the original owner.

Hope to share some emails.

Pat

Location ... Nope, that is all more east than north form there. I am due north of Toronto. Quite literally, you could take Markham Rd. north for 55 minutes and you are within a mile or two of my house.