Hi all
I have started to get strange interest in supplying Japanese martial arts weapons through my blacksmithing. 

The latest request is from the US. I a struggling to find a suitable courier, so thought I would ask here for those suppliers who must have to ship relatively heavy odd boxes to the US.

So any thoughts/advice on couriers you have found reliable and reasonably priced would be much appreciated.

cheers

Andy 
Current location: enjoying the heat and wind of South Africa

Does anyone know where I could purchase a remote gear change for a 4 speed gearbox, many people list them but they are always out of stock.

Hi, can someone on here help re brake cross shaft. How much movement should there be radially between the two tubes, & how relevant is it to balancing my brakes? If I disconnect the front cable & apply two clicks of the hand brake the rear brakes are hard on. When I connect the front cable four clicks of the hand brake locks the front but both back wheels are free to rotate. Any advice or suggestions please. 
Kevin. Ps car is 1933 PD.

Re-chromed MkII Ruby windscreen frame in excellent condition. Re-chromed by mistake, I thought it was MkI Ruby!! £60.00 + Carraige. Sold

Confirmation of screw thread please?

 - the two slotted grub screws which blank off the two oilway drillings, next to the oil pump and one on opposite side which rises towards the oil pressure gauge connector - 1/8" BSP (parallel)?

And do we know anyone who stocks these grub screws?

(n.b. 3 bearing engine)

Thanks
Chris

Hello All

New to this web site i am restoring a 1937 Austin Ruby and cant work out what screw size it is to screw on the window winder handles if anyone can assist be great 

Thanks
Conal

I have a short video clip from the early 1930s filmed by my grandfather of the family climbing out of his 1927 saloon which I was going to post on the austinsevenfriends facebook site, but there doesn't appear to be much activity so unlikely to be shared. I also looked at the Austin Seven Clubs Association facebook site, and although there are more recent postings it does not appear to be used very much. Is there another site/group favoured by Austin 7 owners I have yet to discover, or is facebook outdated or no longer approved of?


 It's difficult to keep pace with this digital world and I'm only ten (not true, except for IQ).

Hello All,
            My son Peter has recently got me going on Instagram, and that sudden burst of IT activity has prompted me to update you on progress with my car.

I gave in to the inevitable and due to my height had to move the drivers position rearwards, just so I could get into the car, for the same reason, I have also repositioned the hand brake to the left hand side of the cockpit.

I am down to the last few 'big' jobs before the car will be ready to run. I have just beaten out the driver side rear spring fairing, which was a bit of a practice run for making the more complex passenger one; more complex because it is wider and has an integral bulge to accommodate the passengers hip. In my quest to emulate the original bodywork, I am sticking to my original plan to planish these panels rather than roll them smooth between the anvils of an English Wheel.

Tomorrow we are collecting the newly completed radiator, which is quite a work of art with its staircase of cooling fins maintaining parallel airflow while having a 45 degree front. I will fit it to the car in the next few days leaving me with the last really major job of varnishing the rear of the wood frame and covering it in Irish linen.

I have nearly all of the bits and pieces to finish the car, however, I do need a period Smiths temperature gauge, but after 10 years of looking I have never seen one, accept in the period cockpit picture of Slippery at Brooklands in 1926. So if anyone has one to sell or knows of one.....

I also need the deep Austin scripted alloy bearing caps for the rear wheels. I have seen the replica ones for sale but would really like originals. I may cobble some together by welding up some front ones!

I am missing one vital component for the car, which is been made for me (fingers crossed) by a silent and uncommunicative supplier, namely the rev. counter drive, which on Slippery was taken from the magneto drive. Bizarrely, without this I cannot finalise the aero screen fit as the drive cable pierces the scuttle just behind the screen and fits into the back of the rev.counter. I dare not procure a cable without knowing the fitment at the engine end....... so I am nervous about getting it even slightly wrong and messing up my scuttle!

To summarise; the car is nearly ready to run, I am anticipating a lot of teething problems, most especially with clearances of the suspension and all thous fairings, allowing for this I will not paint the car until she is fully settled in.

I hope you enjoy my attached pictures, please remember that the cars body panels are lightly fastened together at the moment while I sort all the fit and finish, oh, and that scruffy steering wheel is my works shop one!


Regardes, Mark.

   
   
   
   
   

This was in last week Classic Car Weekly.
A 1988 ordinary Mini Mayfair which you can buy anytime in first class condition for £5k.
But because it was first owned by Spike Milligan and £16k spent on restoring it, they now want a hefty £50.000. (www.brooklandsandscars.com )

What about swapping the car as 1936 Austin 7 Opal once owned by Sir David Steel the formal liberal leader famous for saying to his followers Go to your constituency and prepare for government . His car was sold in 2016 for £3500= needing some restoration.

[img]blob:http://www.austinsevenfriends.co.uk/7a45514f-537e-4de8-8c6b-8b53fa52aec8[/img]

   
   
   

After posting in Groaner's Corner, (which would probably be the appropriate place for me!) and following Timothy P's advice, I shall introduce myself.

I am David Stepney and live in Bala. After not owning a Seven for about 35 years, I have bought myself a 1933 RP saloon to replace my Porsche 944 which was (a) becoming eye-wateringly expensive to maintain and (b) I could no longer get into and out of it with any dignity.

The reason why I bought my Seven is rather an odd coincidence, so I shall start at the beginning.

When dinosaurs roamed Cardiganshire (in the 60's) and I was an apprentice motor mechanic, I bought a fairly disreputable RP saloon the registration number of which was TH4219 which conveyed me to and from college for about two years until I fell in love with an equally disreputable Daimler Conquest. I sold the Seven to a friend of mine who was a body repair lad who said he wanted to restore it and that was that.

I had kept a lot of spares including a 'high' chassis and in about 1979/80, built myself a special which I then sold in '83/84 to buy a Riley Adelphi.

About two years ago, I was doing a bit of shopping one summer evening in Bala when I saw an Austin 7 parked outside the Coop, so I went to have a look. Imagine my surprise to see that it was TH4219 looking very much better that the last time I had seen it. I didn't get to speak to the owner, but it set me thinking about another Austin Seven.And now I have got one.

It was first registered in Fife on 4th July 1933 and, by doing a bit of detective work with Wyatt, it appears that it was probably built during the first two weeks of June. It was then bought by someone in Altringham in 1968 and restored in the early seventies but had been in dry storage since 1994. It had been got running when I went to see it and after arranging insurance and tax, I got my grand-daughter to drive me up in my  'modern' to collect it. Bearing in mind that the car had not been run in anger for 25years, we stuffed my car with tools, petrol, oil and just about everything I could think of that i might need in coaxing an 85 year old car the 70 miles from Altringham to home. In fact, the only thing we used was the petrol, the little car behaving itself very well on the way back.

It's not without it's faults. It's definitely an 'older restoration' but is eminently presentable. The clutch had to be replaced as it tended to slip  on the hills around here, and I have had the fuel tank professionally cleaned and sealed. The rear axle is noisy, the gearbox rattles and the rear main grumbles  but nothing that can't be fixed and the car is still perfectly useable. In fact, I took it to Dollgellau today to collect my new glasses. a round trip of about 35 miles.

here are a couple of photos: