Does anyone have any good links to the general maintenance of the Austin BIG Seven? i have the handbook but its not really that great, i am looking to check my wheel bearings soon and i am pretty new to car maintenance, and links or videos would be great thanks 
EDIT, its an Austin BIG Seven

Following on from the thread about naming our cars it lead me to wondering about other ways we personalise our cars with radiator mascots & other fripperies - does anyone have any of theirs they'd like to share? (& to those who only want their cars to be 100% original please disregard this thread! ;-))

Hiya, just introducing myself, i purchased a big seven a few days ago, i am fairly happy with it.
It was a big gamble as i know very little about classic cars, so i may be asking a few questions as i go along,
I am struggling to upload a picture at the moment as the file is too big, i will get a couple of pictures up when i work it out..lol
   
   

I recently came across a new set of good quality pistons where one was damaged. The skirt was broken below the lower oil ring groove, probably done when it was being installed. Looking at it, it occurred to me that one could mill away the skirt to remove the lower oil ring and end up with a shorter, lighter piston like the sports slipper piston but with a complete skirt. Obviously you would have to modify all four pistons and re-balance them, but they would at least be usable. Has anyone done this in the past? Can anyone see any glaringly obvious reason why this would not work, especially in a standard engine.

We're just back from another Scottish Austin Seven Rally at Guildtown, an event we always look forward to.

This was the scene on Friday lunchtime, working out the 3D jigsaw puzzle. Three people plus full camping gear into a very small car.

   

The journey down was hot and sunny. We paused in Aviemore for ice creams (where the tarmac on the High Street was melting) and Pitlochry for dinner.

   

Arrived early evening and set up camp, and into the tent just in time for a dramatic thunder storm.

   

Excellent road run on the Saturday, passing fields of unidentified flowering crops ...

   

...and following Tony's gorgeous one-and-a-half seater.

   

The Saturday night ceilidh was as wild as the weather and great fun. Sunday's rally gave us a chance to pick up one or two spares and admire Sevens of all shapes and sizes

   

   

Prize-giving brought us a big surprise; for the first time ever we won the long-haul award! Many others had travelled much further (including our valued autojumblers) but we did it without a trailer!

The journey back was uneventful apart from relentless rain. The Ruby performed flawlessly and had another 300 miles on the clock by the time we got home. We missed seeing one or two of the regular attenders this year, but it's still one of our favourite events and well worth a visit next year if you've never been.

Many thanks to the organisers who put in so much time and enthusiasm.

   

A question. Does it matter which way the little end bolts face when reassembling a Mag engine? The bolt heads were facing away from the valves on disassembly. What are your thoughts please?

John

In follow up to the discussion on the 'Austins Victorious' thread, here are my videos and photo's from Saturday, and including some of our journey up from the New Forest on Friday and back Saturday evening.
As discussion of events seem to be going better in the main forum I will post them here (rather than the events forum) for the time being unless there are any objections.

We had a brilliant weekend (as always) at Pre War Prescott, as I said in the other thread, it is one of our favourite events and one not to miss.

Starting with Video of our travels including my run up the hill...


Video of quite a few cars on the hill, due to the way it runs, it wasn't possible to ensure getting everyone, so apologies to anyone I missed...


And finally a few photos of Sevens. Please do click any of the photos for my Flickr Album, 238 photos, covering most all of the 'Pre War' Machinery.































And to finish off one from Friday Evening on the driveway of Stanway House...

Another Leeds waterski special?
eBay item number:


273374592593

After spending a lot of time trying to locate a valve seat cutting tool I finally gave up and made one.
               

Either I had to buy an expensive seat cutting kit or spend a lot of time at auto jumbles (swap meets) hoping to find a suitable tool that would do the job.  Since I didn't envisage doing a lot of valve seat  reclamation I opted to make a tool for occasional use.

The cutting bits are shaped silver steel hardened and tempered, with set screws in the body to allow for adjustment as required. A quick test on a spare cylinder block confirms that it will do the job.


If you have made tools or things to allow the repair of your Austin we'd love to see them.
Cheers,
Stephen 

I started a thread re reflectors for R47 headlamps, I now cannot find it despite several searches.
Thank you to those who replied with helpful suggestions.
I have now bought a new pair of reflectors from Willie at Austin Reproductions, they are identical to the original apart from the bulb holder , well made and good value for money bearing in mind the cost of refurbishing and resilvering originals, they are an outright purchase, not exchange units.