Kustom Bitz is doing an EV conversion on this 1955 MG ZA Magnette.  The job is a complete restoration and driveline conversion, it doen't look much at the moment but we have been pulling it apart to completely strip the paint for a full rotiserie restoration on the body.  The sills need replacing and the rear guards need some rust repairs but apart from that the body is mint. You can follow the restoration on https://www.facebook.com/MGEVMagnette We will be installing an air cooled Hyper9 AC motor and controller with two LFP battery packs, one in the boot and one in the front engine bay. The electric motor will sit in the gearbox tunnel with a Torque Trends USA Long tail housing reduction box, with integral park lock, like an auto trans has. The base EV technology that is going into this car has been around since the 1990s and I have been selecting, repairing and working on IGBT drive technolgy in the automation industry since that time, so combining my restoration skills and EV technology make sense to me. Intended as a city run around it should be a pretty stout combination as the Hyper9 puts out a similar torque to a stock 289 Windsor but from zero rpm all the way up. Rated at approx 200hp. The body is light weight at just on 1080kg stock, weight gets pulled out, engine and gear box [all cast iron], and the batteries is similar in weight so ends up around the same once finished.

The Toyota Crown ute is progressing along, the body is fitting the modified original chassis and this is how it will look when it's dropped ... I think it has the right stance ... The framing you can see is holding the upper body together as the floor and lower sections are rusted away and have been cut out, then to be completely refabbed by us.  The frame allows us to lift the body on and off as we please during this stage.

Kustom Bitz just completed a 35-41 chassis, stepped up at the rear and a reversed centre X member allow this chassis to sit 40mm off the deck. It runs a Rod Tech IFS, big block chevy and L80E auto, a 9 inch diff with floating hubs, all on modified original rails. Kustom Bitz has developed our own boxing plates that suit the original rails near on perfectly. Original Ford rails are curved from front to back there are no straight sections, so to get something that fits right we had to jig the chassis up and map them out.  This is what we do, when it just needs to be done right to make it a well engineered car.  This allowed us to make a nice transistion for a high step at the rear. We have designed in 6 inches of travel at the back, so this car can have a normal, almost stock ride height then dumped to the max when parked.

This pic shows the competed engine swap before the front sheet metal went on.  Customer was after a factory looking engine swap as if Ford intended the 351 Windsor was always ment to be there.  We built a torque monster roller cammed 351W driving a C10 Auto and 31 spline locker 9" diff.  Custom fabricated Tri-y headers stepping up at every transition to 3" to maximise scavenging and mid range torque then exiting through a 2.5" sports twin system with H pipe.  It sounded tough and was exciting to drive.

The Australian models of the 38 Plymouth [and dodge] had the wipers down on the bottom of the windscreen and service parts just dont exist, not to mention they are fairly flimsy anyway and well worn and rusted by now.  The solution was to fit this electric wiper kit from New Port Engineering to the top of the windscreen like they were on the US models.  However the Aussie body has some differences in the top of the windscreen that mean the holes have to sit higher for the meachanism to clear on the inside, so you can't use their template supplied otherwise you end up wiith holes that you need to fill again. Apart from that these New Port Engineering wiper kits are very well made and the new wiper arms look the ducks nuts.

The bonnet on a Morris J Type use dzues style fasteners, so it comes completely off.  They can be problematic, the paint chips around them and not to mention if the bonnet falls over and dents while its off.  So Kustom Bitz has, as part of our restoration of this old J type, made the bonnet hindge.  A custom made bonnet frame was made and the original bonnet skin was repaired and attached to our new bonnet frame.  This also meant a custom lower front panel had to be made also because of the bonnet shape, to allow it to open into a slight recess.  More pics can be found by following our Facebook page. 

Kustom Bitz is currently restoring and modifiying a 1958 Morris J Type delivery van. Shown here is the wooden buck I made to be able to repair and shape the existing mud guard piece and widen it a little for fat tyres.  This mud guard has had more hits than the Beetles but I managed to work it back into shape so it can be used again. You just can't buy good guards for this model so that requires us to go the extra mile to make a properly fitting front pair of mud guards. To watch the build progress follow Kustom Bitz on Facebook. Click on the link in the top right corner of the web site.