1975 Austin FX4 Taxi

By Justin Benz on June 13, 2011 in Austin Healey

New job in the shop at Precision Restorations. 1975 Austin FX4 British Taxi for restoration.

Disassembly has begun!

Ralph is starting to strip the body today.

The taxi is almost completely stripped to bare metal today.

The Austin is completely stripped and ready for post blast evaluation.

Ralph has started repairing the rear of the Taxi today.

Body work continues on the taxi.

Ralph is still hard at work on the body of the Austin.

Body repairs continue.

Ralph is finishing the grinding on the roof and then will start repairing the dents and waves.

The body work is moving nicely along for the Taxi and is almost done.

Ralph is working on the repairs to the front fenders today.

Ralph has the front fenders back on the Austin Taxi and is working on blocking them down today.

Ralph is finishing up some of the repairs to the front end and is working on the inner structure of the hood.

Sanding continues on the front end and the hood is on and aligned.

Dan has primed the body and painted the underside of the hood.

Painting and clearing all the loose panels.

Dropping the gas tank and then the rear end.

Removing the old steel brake lines and getting ready to start bending new lines.

Rear end pulled for restoration. Dan is also work on restoring the brakes and installing the new brake lines.

The custom ram air intake is installed for the taxi.

Dan buffed the taxi and it is ready for reassembly.

Assembling the Taxi today.

The hood is installed on the taxi. Now just a couple weatherstrippings, new lights, a headliner and we are ready to go.

The steat frames are blasted and the new seat cover and headliner material is in shop for the FX4.

First seat for this classic Taxi has been recovered.

We are installing the front carpet in the interior for this 1975 Austin Taxi. It is a great looking update for this classic car and will wear well for years to come. Dan is also working on some of the mechanical reassembly, such as reinstalling the headlights and wiring.

We do a lot of classic car restorations every year, but most of them are American classic cars or muscle cars. This one is a British classic, and a Taxi at that. Our client picked this vehicle up when he was over in Scotland for the military. At that time it was a working car.

This vehicle came to us with a diesel, which was not to much fun to drive. Our client is planning on driving this car back and forth to work every day so he asked us to upgrade the vehicle with a more user friendly setup. We chose a 2.2 Liter out of Chevy S10, this will allow for better everyday driveablity with the fuel injection and higher horsepower.

Besides the upgrades to the mechanical systems, we completely restored the body and paint for the vehicle. It got stripped down with 80 grit then etched and sealed. Once the body was sealed Ralph cut out and repaired all the rusted areas with new sheet metal and waterproof fiberglass filler. Once the body was straight and rust free Dan primed it and the block sanded it. Following that Dan mixed up a high gloss black paint from Spies Hecker.

Finally, we installed a new carpet, stiched up new black leather seat covers and made a new front for the dash.

Working on the front fenders.

The loose painted panels are out of the booth and buffed.

Pulled the engine and trans.

New springs are getting installed and so are new brake lines.

Finishing up the rear steel brake lines.

The S10 doner car has been purchased for the 1975 Austin. We will be salvaging the engine, computer and transmission from this car.

Tearing down the S10 motor for the Austin.

Cleaning up the engine bay before the new engine gets installed.

Installing the new S10 engine in the Austin.

Installing the new transmission today and the custom radiator and fan.

Getting further along with the engine install on the Austin FX4.

The drive belt is installed and so are the radiator hoses.

Dan is hooking up the speedo convertor for the Austin. This will convert the electric speed signal from the s10 computer to the mechanical signal needed for our speedo.