69 Hillman Hunter Royal

[69royal]

brought from an ad on ebay as a 95/ finished and complete restoration project , my mrs decided to treat me for xmas a week later i arrived to collect my new project only to find all trim missing along with a lot of the interior and some interesting body repairs but it ran had a rebuilt engine and brakes and was still 90/ solid so hand over scrap value and banged it on the trailer and took it home





so full of enthusiasm i started having a poke around to see what i got and the verdict is essentially its a solid car but the best way to describe the ahem resto is jakal and hyde, mechanically its mostly all good new discs,pads,refurbed calipers etc, engine rebuilt new oil pump, shells water pump etc electronic points conversion etc , gearbox flushed serviced etc,
 then we come to the body work roof gutters 90/ gone on drivers side 60/ gone ns/ but has had new inner and outer sills fitted pretty well just need a little tidy in the shuts, and a really nasty repair to the ns front wing ill let the pictures do the talking



 
and this is how she curently sits in her new home for the next few months let the de bodge begin 

[retrolegends]

Looks to have major potential, what are your plans?

[69royal]

so plans are to straighten it out strip the hand painted red and rainbow flake off it and respray it yellow, it was originally a pale yellow but i gonna go brighter , i also got a set of civic jordan seats for it, drop it and get it on the road asap, longer term convert it to manual with overdrive and twin carb alloy head as seth has done to his, this aint a big money project and never will be but should be fun,reliable and daily family transport when done 
heres a pic of the look I'm aiming for

[retrolegends]

Oh Yes! Sort of a Hunter GLS on Acid then!
That's going to look brilliant.

[qwerty]

Really good looking cars. Look forward to watching your plans unfold.

I like the idea of a South London look one. Low on 13x7's.

[Seth]

Jan 23, 2014 21:46:29 GMT qwerty said:

I like the idea of a South London look one. Low on 13x7's.

More like South Tehran look going by the inspiration photo.

Will follow with interest 69Royal

[spartacus]

I never imagined that car could look that good in that style, do it!

[darrenh]

you cant announce the de-bodge commenced with a picture of it supported by the sills on old wheels

any pictures of the nearside front headlight before you ground the bog out ? looks fun !

[69royal]

lol i was waiting for someone to mention the car on wheels under the sill, in my defence i only had the new shop a week and was only supposed to be dropping wheels off  as none of my kit is in there yet, but u know how it is i opend the boot and found a jack n socket set my mate put the kettle on an "lets see what them rims fit like" turned into stripping the strut out and fiddling with the wing 
this is the best shot of the wing before i attacked it want u cant see is the fact he had blended the grill into the front of the wing and the fact that its approx 1/2 shorter than the other side



in this pic u can see the second patch of primer half way up the wing well its filler up to there and whoever repaired it has beaten the top of the wing in approx 1/2 all the way down then built it up with filler

[mrabody]

The Hunter Royal was an Australian Model. It should have a Hunter Dash and instrument cluster but Singer trim. If it is, that could explain why its relatively solid (be sure to check front floors and outriggers - they all seem to go there.

[Hillmanjames]

Awsome, I love hunters!

If you ever get sick of it or want to sell it ill have it

[69royal]

@ mrabody ur bang on it is an australian model has the strip dash other than that i dunno on the interior as most of it is gone along with the external trim and badges but i do have a folder box full of all the receipts of its life down under including engine rebuilds, insurance cover notes etc seems it lived in new south wales i suspect it had a vinyl roof at some time sort of like a budget scepter

and hillmanjames cant see me selling this one tbh hoping my baby boy will wont it when hes old enough

[69royal]

so bit more done today tackled that lovely wrinkeld ns front wing corner, started with this


cleaned it out and it was quickly clear that i had my work cut, out the top of the wing had been stretched down and abou 3/4 of an inch of filler whacked on and the wing was sanded to the rough shape, 


then made some templates up in cb but as i don't have a folding machine all parts had to be bent in the vice an over the anvil with hammer and dolly




as can be seen still some work to do like shrinking the wing back sorting swage line on wing top etc but considering its my first bit of body work like this I'm pretty pleased i know i should probably have straightend it more before i welded new steel but it was to soft an floppy at least now its solid i can work it a bit more now

[69royal]

this is how the top of the wing looks u can seen how badly stretched it is 

[georgeb]

D'you know, I'm going to bookmark this. Could be interesting and I like the end vision. 1725 I assume, or did Oz get another engine?

[darrenh]

Jan 29, 2014 23:42:36 GMT georgeb said:

or did Oz get another engine?

probably a 3.6 straight six

good work on the wing repairs

[georgeb]

Jan 30, 2014 11:55:04 GMT darrenh said:

Jan 29, 2014 23:42:36 GMT georgeb said:

or did Oz get another engine?

probably a 3.6 straight six

good work on the wing repairs

I know I'm getting old but even I can count a four pot

[lotdave]

Nice project my dad had a yellow gls years ago with the lovely holbay on twin 40's he used to like racing me in my mexico!! good old days

[69royal]

thanks for the kind comments guys, to answer a couple of questions this has the 1725 engine but the single carb iron head version, this will eventually be getting the alloy head and twin carbs and possibly a bike carb conversion but with house move in the next 4 weeks i can only grab the odd few hours here and there at the moment i also have a lead on a complete engine o/d gbox prop and back axle out of an old hillman gt for a ridiclously reasonable price the only downer is the 400 odd mile round trip lol

and heres a pic of the first set of wheels i brought but due to offset they wont go under the arches so 6.5x14 wont go

[retrolegends]

Good progress, your doing well in those odd few hours your getting.