An early chummy photo submitted by Robin Boyce, with the invitation to write a caption.
No-one has responded so far - shame! Perhaps you haven't realised it is possible to add a comment to any photo in the Gallery? Just scroll down below the photo in the Gallery and click on the grey bar at the bottom.
Meanwhile, let's have your contributions in this thread!
I read something in a magazine about scuttle tanks being a fire risk after topping up, and advocating using shielded modern plug caps and 'adopting a proper screw top' for everyday use...
I'd be interested to know whether the bayonet fixings can be improved, need replacement washers that may be missing etc... and indeed do people adopt any other tactics other than just being generally careful?
I recall there was a discussion recently about a bar that fits across the back of the radiator and strengthens the cowl. A search doesn't seem to turn up what I recall. I'll note that Chris Gould's Ulster book says that the clearance between the radiator and fan should be 1/8th inch which doesn't seem to allow enough room.
Looking at the "little" barrel-shaped rear lights and pre-1930 wiring diagrams, some appear to be twin filament but I presume with no brake light function.
Do people convert these for modern brake light use... and if so, how?
I am currently restoring my late 1932 AH Tourer which was originally "Auto Brown". By the time I bought the car in 1966 it was cream, but patches of original colour remained hidden behind the runninng boards, and unfortunately removed during restoration work in 1968. I remember the colour as something like the that of the chummy pictured on page 20 in Rinsey Mills, or maybe the saloon on page 10. Am I right in thinking that Austin offered both "Light Auto Brown" and "Dark Auto Brown" (possibly the colour of the chummy on page 22) at different periods?
Can anyone help with a correct colour match for Austin's Light Auto Brown, please?
Having had so much fun with our other single seater special at the Simola Hillclimb in Knysna, South Africa, we decided to build another weapon for attacking the hill....
Rest assured that no living Sevens were harmed in the process, 95% of the stuff came out of boxes Dad collected in the '60's. Recently we were able to purchase a job lot of bits from someone who had plans to build an Ulsteroid and amongst them was a new Phoenix crank, re-metalled rods, Honda 57.7mm pistons and a set of close ratio gears for a 4 speed box. As we already have a '33 Type "65" as well as a '26 Chummy & '28 Top Hat Type R plus sundry other marques we have the open 2 seater thing covered already, so the Phoenix crank gave us the 'unburstable' bottom end to take the little supercharger Dad bought more than 40 years ago. A Rootes type triple lobe MAG blower made by Motosaccoche in Switzerland circa 1952, originally for a VW 1100 or 1200 flat 4.
With a SWB chassis that's been hanging on the wall for 40 years, we set to work - first straighten and weld up the cracks in the chassis, then look at the internet for inspiration. Both of us were really taken with the shape of the Kaye Petre replica, so the basic idea was formed and we decided to go with an offset driveline. One of the spare diffs was modified and the half shafts modded to suit. The basic offset of the engine was decided on and I welded up new mounts. We decided to drive the little MAG Blower off the nose of the crank using a Yamaha 650 shaft drive with universal - the jury is still out on this idea...
A suitable front axle was turned upside down and new spring mounts welded on, the leaf spring was reset to suit. I fabricated a suitable steel mounting bracket for the blower and the front shock absorbers. This plate is sandwiched between the spring and the chassis for stability and there is a brace back from the top of the blower to the chassis. New radius arms were fabricated along with all their fixing points and trimmed sections of angle iron with a suitable tapered hole were welded to the chassis to take the tie rod ends at the end of the new radius arms.
Basic chassis and driveline sorted, we turned out attention to the body frame. various spare rims yielded suitable jigs for body hoops, from 21" Model A Ford , 19", 17", 16" A7 wheels, 15" Alfa Giulietta & 13" Opel formed the basis for the slighly tapering tubular steel frame. Superleggera Coachwork in the making.
From here is was a case of bending duplicate pipes to suit the left and right sides of the frame as closely as possible. With this done I approached someone about wheeling out a body. This was a little disappointing as for the (rather high) agreed price, I was supposed to get a body completed ready for paint, instead I got a body half roughed out with no side panels that still needed a lot of work and he now wanted a lot more money Long story short, we agreed to disagree and went our separate ways. Needless to say my aluminium working skills are rapidly improving...it's just welding the darn stuff....
So this is where we are with the body thus far, I'll post some detailed mechanical pictures later. 80% completed and 80% still to go....
Cheers
Greig
Port Elizabeth
Sunny South Africa
Hmmm I notice that my careful re-orienting of all the pictures in my files came to nothing and it certainly didn't load them in the sequence I intended.... sorry about that, they were supposed to be in a chronological build sequence.
More of the body in progress....
Aye
Greig
A few more, we have developed our own Bowdenex conversion off the one that was fitted to our Type "65". Basically copying the fittings but using modern cable inners and outers and it's made a huge difference to our other Green special. You can see the front axle details a bit here, similar to our green car which was converted into a single seater circa 1949. There is at least a bit of Alfa here as the extensions off the axle to hold the spring shackles are two litre Alfa conrod little ends, the Green Job uses parts of a second front axle, but we didn't want to cut up another axle.
We've raided Dad's 60+ year old stash of bits for all the brake fittings and things like the hand brake lever etc. The steering box, steering wheel and the brake pedal actually come from the Green Job, when dad rebuilt it there was a box of bits he couldn't find and so he raided his stash. Several years later that box emerged when he moved closer to me, so the new Job has a physical connection with the Green Job. Also many years ago an Uncle had a single seater out here called the Consul Special, that ended up getting crunched and was scrapped, but Dad saved the throttle pedal, so that's going in there as well.
My wife Lucie in the Green Job - see the other thread about re-metalling the rods.....sigh
I know this isn't strictly Austin Seven related (but it should indirectly help with my restoration) but I am on the lookout for a Remline top tool box like the one pictured below. I recently purchased the bottom roll cab section and I have since discovered they are as illusive as Ulsters (in this country at least). I believe they are more common in America but I was hoping someone in the UK may have one going spare that they would be willing to sell.
This is my first post to this forum. I hope somebody will be able to help!
I replaced the steering wheel of my Ruby ARR with a recoated one. The inner part of the original (old) steering wheel and the new steering wheel does not look exactly the same (see attached photos)
When I reinserted the trafficator switch/inner control column through the new steering wheel into the steering column I could not achieve the gap anymore between the trafficator switch and the steering wheel, thus the trafficator switch moves with the steering wheel. First, I thought that the reason was the new steering wheel which does not look exactly the same inside as the old steering wheel. Then I inserted the inner control column into the old steering wheel outside of the car but could not see out any difference, so the solution must be somewhere between inner control column and the steering column, but where?
Does anybody know how to achieve the gap between the trafficator switch and the steering wheel so that the trafficator switch does not move with the steering wheel? The spare parts booklet shows felt bushes for inner column, top and lower. Are these the solution? If yes, I do not have them and also do not know where to get them...
I am most glad to receive any feedback to solve this problem and enabling me to reassemble by Ruby ARR.
![[Image: 158_03_01_18_7_58_53.jpeg]](http://www.austinsevenfriends.co.uk/forum/gallery/158_03_01_18_7_58_53.jpeg)
![[Image: vintage-rem-line-tool-box-chest-toolbox-...444787.jpg]](http://images1.americanlisted.com/nlarge/vintage-rem-line-tool-box-chest-toolbox-large-size-americanlisted_35444787.jpg)
