new Nippy owner

[Dennis Nicholas]

 My Nippy special is one of those with a BMC A engine.  Started as a wreck with no engine so fitted a 948 cc BMC A engine and gearbox.  Piston broke in that at 70,000+ miles including daily transport and MCC classic Trials so now fitting BMC A+ 1275 cc (1300) mated (by a kit) to a Toyota T50 box.  Same dimension and easy swap with modified box mount. 

Dennis

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Dennis, I appreciate you are now fitting a 1275 A+ engine, but what was the Nippy like on the road with a 950 A series engine? And going up hills?

quite fast when required. No problem accelerating up hills.....great fun up Porlock passing most moderns in safety as occasion allowed.  On one MCC trial near Teignmouth hill started in farm yard then through gate immediately unseen onto steep grassy uphill.....I should have stayed in 1st through gate but for some reason went to 2nd through gate and startled to see steep hill and revs dropped to about 400 RPM ...to change down to 1 would have lost grip and no further forward motion so stayed in 2 and foot to floor...chugged all way up and could hear spectators "thats how an A7 should sound and go"!!!!!   great cheers as I made it over top much to my relief.  A bit scarey to drive on its 19 inch between sections when pushing on to make up lost time.....like the long run down to Blue Hills Mines.  Normally on road used 15" and nice and stable.......good on 16" but could not get tyres a good few years ago. 15'...thank you 2CV etc.  I am always mindful of the power being put through the back axle...the later 1939 with the longer taper thicker half-shafts.....so no silly high revs and drop clutch in quick.

1275 only going in after 948 piston demise and  because cheap at time and from a crashed 40,000 miles car (Ital?)  Has heater too, now upgraded to a 2 speed blower heater from a Mini.......global warming??....Devon will be warmer when I get back on the road again 

Dennis

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Is it possible to modify "in house" picture posting to accept larger files?  Modern digital camera files even on modest lower settings are probably larger than the "acceptable limits"  Certainly some of mine seem to be.  I have no problems posting any size file on another car club forum I post on.

Dennis

If you use Windows 10, open the photo using the built in "Photos" app. Right click in the picture then choose "Resize", just below half way down the menu. You get the choice of Small, Medium, Large or Custom. Save the resized file somewhere in your file structure where you can find it and then upload the reduced file. I choose Small or Medium, reduces several MB files to a few tens or hundred kB.

Ah, I am all fruity here.....Apple MackBook and Apple Mini with Apple app "Photos" and have app "Fotor Photo Editor".....but without written instructions finding it difficult to do any photo editing (not to mention age making brainwork difficult).  Edited pictures seem to get saved "somewhere" but with a different file ending.  I just don't have time to spend hours trying to learn special handling processes only to forget how again within a few days!!
I was trying to put up the front view of me going up Bamford Clough with caption of cars details beneath.
I could email someone the relevant photo if they could trim it down and put it on here?  Get details tells me it is 6MB.

Dennis

[Mike Costigan]

Dennis, you can email the picture to me and I'll sort it for you; send it to editor@a7ca.org

[Mike Costigan]

  1980 Nippy on Bamford Clough.jpg (Size: 226.71 KB / Downloads: 429)

[Ralph Miller]

Ha. I dare say that who ever put my bitzer together might have seen that pic........although I think my bitzer was put together back in the 60's.

I took her out for a drive yesterday...a short one. I am on brakes today. I will get her all back together and take a pick.

[Dennis Nicholas]

Thank you Mike.

I saw someone actually filming this run but could never find who it was.....I would dearly love a copy of the filmed run.......it was quite a spirited drive!  21 years ago!

Same car just beginning to be put back together after a comprehensive rebuild......hoping to be ready for centenary.   Back to the painting..POR15 is such a faf  process and time consuming but hopefully the preservation properties will be well worth it.

Ralph...when brakes overhauled and assuming all new rubber seals I would recommend use of Silicone DOT5 fluid......still same fluid in mine at start of rebuild as some 20+ years ago when first filled.......may occasionally need a drain down and fresh fluid top up but the drained stuff can be left to settle and once any bits settled out it can be reused (probably best put through a filter to make sure no contaminants get back in..I have used coffee filters i think).  (Most of bad stories about Silicone due to people not using NEW seals. Silicone leaches into old DOT4 seals (or similar latest) faster than DOT 4 comes out hence seals swell and poor breaking.

Dennis

[Dennis Nicholas]

Just found another picture while doing a web search for ATR 860.


  E90s9k.jpg (Size: 40.96 KB / Downloads: 247)

This shows it with the "export" fold flat windscreen which also still has the fold up ability......seen folded down and slightly folded (backwards) up to divert insects.
The radiator core is Austin A35 mounted in a frame that also protects and stiffens rad cowl and acts as wing bracket mounting stiffening to save further cowl cracking.
The cycle wings are instead of the standard Nippy wings because I felt they were acting like parachutes at speed.  Wing stays made from bicycle front forks....they are curved just right, oval and hollow to take wiring up to the lights. (I still have the correct wings).  The infill (alloy) from wing to body was added to stop worst of dirt flying up (wife does not appreciate facial mudpack during trials!
Fitted with it's 15 inch daily road wheels.

Dennis

[Reckless Rat]

The photo of the trial doesn't really give any impression of the gradient, until you look at the observer and the dry stone wall. It's not that rough, but the overhanging trees cover everything in moss and it's pretty slippery.

I used to use Bamford Clough during my time at the Driving School for Land/Range Rover off-road training, as an opener. It's a simple climb in a 4x4. We'd then take the green lane that runs up to the top of Stanage Edge, past the pole and then down to Redmires. That was in the days before the council banned the green laners, and before the bottom part of the route up from Redmires was completely chewed up.

We did have a problem once when someone in a Landy decided to take his mother up to the pole to spread his Dad's ashes. Unfortunately he ventured too far off the track and got stuck. A number of rescue vehicles also got stuck trying to recover the said Landy, and it wasn't until the Forestry Commission came to lend a hand with their Unimog that things were finally cleared.

Apparently there's a JCB up there that got swallowed by the peat, so goes the legend.

[Dennis Nicholas]

New problem......the photos in 56 and 53 are now not showing......just tiny blue square where they were.  All previous photos showing ok.  Don't know if it an "Apple" program problem or Friends server snag??

Dennis

[David Stepney]

New problem......the photos in 56 and 53 are now not showing......just tiny blue square where they were.  All previous photos showing ok.  Don't know if it an "Apple" program problem or Friends server snag??

Dennis

I suspect it is a Friends server snag. I ran into the same problem when trying to upload some photos last evening on the "What have you done today with your Austin Seven?" thread. No pictures just faint blue rectangles where they should be. I don't think it is a file size problem either. The DC20 files are minuscule - measured in kB.