Cross Member C & D

Readers will remember that Victoria's crossmember C and D were removed when she was hot rodded sometime around 1978, I suspect. Fabricating replacements to the original specification was difficult owing to the complexity of the required contours, but also the fact that I had no intention of using the original engine. I am using the A-series engine -- with an automatic transmission, which means the rear mount is about 5 inches farther back. Thus I decided to fabricate something that was unfaithful to the original design, but practical. You can see the result in the photo above. Both are made with 1/4 inch steel plate. The benefit of this approach is that the engine if ever required to be removed, can be removed via the bottom simply by undoing some bolts and removing the cross members.

Other than this, the only other thing I accomplished this week was to go to the library and see if I could learn more about who originally owned the van using the city's historic photographs collection. I had no luck, but I did learn about an interesting historic incident that I did not know about. In 1952 local Austin dealers had difficult unloading their pricy Austins. So what to do? Well according to one source and this photo, they put them on a barge and in the straits outside Vancouver one night (and the cover of darkness?), they pushed them in the ocean. See the photo above. Note the wheels (which are marketable) have been removed. There are other photos that show the other cars on the barge. They can be accessed at the Vancouver library website.