The short chassis AG tourer I have acquired appears to be a bit of a "hot rod" (well warm, anyway!)
It has a 4 speed box with unknown rear axle, but probably original, & 17" wheels. The speedometer has been changed from the original (that I do not have) to a 2.5"(approx. dia.) Smiths MA 42873/1000. 5 to 77 mph unit that is a bit beaten up, but seems to work.
The dash has been modified to take this smaller diameter unit.
Does any one know if it is likely to be suitable?....and does it matter!
David

So now I can see the regulator, I can understand why it will wind down (gravity assisted!) but only partly up. Both the quadrant and the cog it meshes with are very worn. Comparing a spare ?Austin-Healey Sprite regulator quadrant (which I feel certain was common to many BMC vehicles), it is pretty much identical - and indeed could be used to replace the original item. However the original cog is of a different diameter so would not mesh. 
Would appreciate any advice here please. Don’t really want to go the way of a rubber wedge to hold things up!

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I have a MG TD (yes, Shock! Horror!), as well as numerous Austin 7’s. I recently read a thread on the MG Enthusiasts’ BBS about values of old cars. I quote (with all due rights reserved etc.):

“The popularity and value of any pre 1960s car is on the decline. I have been trying to sell a 1933 MG J2 for over a year and very few people are interested. Compare this to Ford Escort Mexicos and Mini Coopers which a few years ago you would find in a scrap yard and they are now advertised at £50,000! This applies to all sorts of things. We had a superb roll top desk which at one time would have sold for £1000. It was too big for us so I asked a local auction house to sell it. They said transportation would cost more than I could sell it for! Eventually I sold it on eBay to a single bidder for £80. Compare that to UK G Plan and Ercol furniture from the 1960s which sells for a fortune.”

I have recently noticed that the Austin 7 market is beginning to soften in the UK slightly. Coupled with this, my local Austin 7 club (BA7C) is now mostly populated by retired, grey haired gentlemen of a “certain age”. It is becoming increasingly more difficult for the club to run its day to day business and events are poorly supported, viz. the BA7C rally 2017 attracted less than 50 cars, compared to Longleat and Spye Park in the ‘seventies and ‘eighties with 200+.
I can relate to the furniture comment as well, I am interested in long case (grandfather) clocks. I recently bought a perfectly original 30hr “cottage” white dial clock dating from 1780 or so on eBay for £100. A few years ago, this would have fetched £1200 from an antique dealer and £500 from a second hand furniture shop. Nowadays, such items are difficult to give away.

Another MG BBS contributor from the USA states (again I quote with all rights reserved):
“Generation X and Millennials have less interest in cars than Baby Boomers, especially older cars. The number of new license application is declining although the population is still increasing. 
Many current owners of collector/antique cars reported they no longer enjoyed driving their older cars on congested highways with overly aggressive drivers.  
There was some speculation that the collector car industry (and associated parts suppliers) will continue to collapse and might not be viable in 25 years. This could be exacerbated if new safety and clean-air regulations prevent older cars from even being registered.”

Maybe it’s time to reduce my collection of cars. I don’t want to but I also don’t want to lumber my executors with a load of old junk they have to dispose of if the future.
What do the Austin 7 cognoscenti think?
Discuss.

What ho all.

I might be a buffoon in my thinking and I've obviously not been too observant of late (been tied up in my day job), but I've been led to believe that the radiator surround that I'll be fitting to my Ulster Special should sit inside the shaped cow horns?

Whilst the curvature seems right for this, surely this isn't correct or is it?

I can't see that the radiator surround/shell that I have, a newly made one can allow the cow horns to sit inside, since the shell has stiffeners at the points where it would naturally sit. Also it will foul on the bolts that hold the cow horns down...though I could use countersunk bolts, but this was clearly not the appropriate remedy. 

Can some of you put me out of my agony please, and set me straight.

I know I've been chastised slightly for this (no more comments on this please) but I'm using a Ruby chassis and I've bought what I assume to be the correct shaped cow horns.

I could post pictures later.

Many thanks.

Arthur

(07-02-2018, 10:30 AM)merlinart Wrote: What ho all.

I might be a buffoon in my thinking and I've obviously not been too observant of late (been tied up in my day job), but I've been led to believe that the radiator surround that I'll be fitting to my Ulster Special should sit inside the shaped cow horns?

Whilst the curvature seems right for this, surely this isn't correct or is it?

I can't see that the radiator surround/shell that I have, a newly made one can allow the cow horns to sit inside, since the shell has stiffeners at the points where it would naturally sit. Also it will foul on the bolts that hold the cow horns down...though I could use countersunk bolts, but this was clearly not the appropriate remedy. 

Can some of you put me out of my agony please, and set me straight.

I know I've been chastised slightly for this (no more comments on this please) but I'm using a Ruby chassis and I've bought what I assume to be the correct shaped cow horns.

I could post pictures later.

Many thanks.

Arthur

1930 Mulliner Box saloon with suicide doors.
Sorry to ask the answer to what I feel sure is a simple question. How do you remove the winder handle? Do you carefully prise it off, and therefore is there a spring clip either on the handle or the spindle. Thank you.

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What ho chums

I'm still on the look out for an old CG Ulster body, perhaps one that has been replaced by a new aluminium body. I already have an aluminium one.

This is for one of my very daft projects, but daft projects keep us all sane!

Any help will be much appreciated.

regards

Arthur

I was given a book recently entitled "Austin Cars" published by Pearson and written by T.B.D. SERVICE? The book has an inscription on the flyleaf which I find charmingly nostalgic, sadly the car does not appear on the Chassis Register or registration number check, it may of course not have been a 7.

   

I really hope Chunky and companion really did enjoy many "Happy days" in the car!

I read the section on 7 engines and came to the paragraph about engine noise and vibration, which seemed concise and definitive, which went on to describe diagnosis. It mentions how to check for end float noise on the dynamo gear and instructs one to remove the cover plate and press a tommy bar against the drive gear. Could this be an explanation for the curious plate on the timing gear housing I wonder?

   

Hi I would appreciate any leads to source a pair of aluminium backplates to better complete the brake conversion of my Austin 7 .i have rang many suppliers and specialist to no avail . I wonder if any members have returned their brakes back to original and may have a pair of aluminium backplates that I could purchase .

My car is a 1930 Ulster rep, so should, as I understand it, have the throttle return spring, BF 26 with the kink in the long end. Two of the cherished suppliers can supply the later spring, but not the one with the kink. Does anyone have a source for the earlier, BF 26?

Hello all,

In my previous life, before my kidneys packed up, I used to do car paintwork. I did a good job at a modest price though I say it myself.  

My "new" Seven although a grand old girl has quite a bit of cracking in the paint, which bearing in mind what I used to do for a living, offends me a bit.

I can't tackle this sort of thing any more.

I'm wondering if anyone can recommend someone in the Norfolk, Suffolk, Camb's area who might be able to tidy her up for me. I'm not looking for concourse, just a reasonable price paint job to make her look a bit tidier in her 80th year on this earth.

Any thoughts, recommendations?

Thanks

John.