Austin 7 Brooklands SS

[Jim Summers]

Hi all,

I am slowly starting the process of building an Austin 7 Brooklands SS, I will be using my dad’s early chummy that I will bring back from the UK to NZ, this is essentially a box of bits and is not an original, the benefit of this is it is a working and driving car with a phoenix crank in. So just a body to build...easy eh!

I have searched the entire web and have every image of the Brooklands SS body. I believe most of the images found are Tom Abernathy’s replicas. Some more web searching has concluded the plans have been purchased by Roach Engineering, I did cheekily contact them to see if they were willing to share the plans (long shot, but worth a punt).

I have enough info to reverse engineer a passible amateur DIY replica of Tom’s replica. The below is front of mind.

Body to chassis mounting points and brackets.
Steering box assembly
Accelerator pedal assembly
Chassis length – assuming its SWB but wheelbase length would be good.

I am thinking to do a fabric body with alum hood and wings. I am aware of 1 fabric body brooklands according to the web, any information on the owner of this would be great!

Cheers
Jim

[Malcolm Parker]

Having built a GE Brooklands replica, I would offer the following advice.

There is much more to it than simply dropping a new body onto a Chummy chassis and running gear.   The suspension will need to be altered as will the shock absorbers.  The chassis cross-members may need altering.  The steering column will need to be raked.  The pedals are problematical.  The braking system will need considerable modification.

The GE body frame is a very clever design and is quite easy to make, provided that you have the correct template for the lower box members that run the whole length of the body.   The body width at various points is critical.   Special brackets will need to be made for the body mountings and the frame strengthened in these areas.   The fact that the rear axle is 'within' the body frame raises many difficulties, the chassis height and suspension movement are critical.

Paneling the body frame is a specialist job, whether in aluminium or fabric.   The Brooklands has various fairings, apron and spare wheel hatch cover that are all quite tricky to make.

If you have an up and running early Chummy I would personally keep it that way, improving it as required.  It would be much simpler than making a Brooklands replica.  Also a rather more practical car!
Photos of the body frame.
                       

[Tony Griffiths]

Jim, that was very sound advice from Malcolm Parker. (Might he have some pictures of the finished car?) You may have seen these before, but if not, they might help in some small way:
https://www.lathes.co.uk/austin7-2/page19.html

[Malcolm Parker]

This was what I started with, a strange special probably made in the late 1950's.

  UV5595 Door Open.jpg (Size: 74.9 KB / Downloads: 320)
  UV5595 Rear View.jpg (Size: 75.9 KB / Downloads: 320)
The finished car (a bit too shiny for my liking but I didn't do the paintwork!)
               
It's in good hands now.

[Mike Costigan]

Just as a footnote, I considered buying Malcolm's car, but at just under six feet I couldn't get in it, so if you are a bit on the tall side you may need to think again!

[Jim Summers]

Thanks for the reply, great advice!
Have you got any pictures of the suspension modification you did, or can you provide some rough details of the process you did to get the body to fit as well as ensuring enough clearance for suspension travel.
If you have any drawings or details that you could share, that would be great?

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I don't have a huge amount on Brooklands models, but some drawings and photos have been shared here: https://gordonenglandregister.wordpress....o-archive/

[Malcolm Parker]

The main suspension modification is to fit springs with much less camber than the standard Chummy items.  The front axle is standard, not bowed, but a flattish spring is fitted. The rear springs need to be similar to 'sports' spec with about 2" camber unladen.  The rear axle being within the body means that the standard rear shock absorbers would foul the body.  I recall details on the Forum about the Brooklands set-up.
The body mountings are straightforward once you understand where they are on the body tub.
The front mountings are attached to the body at the very front on the inside of the main lower box member (the bit that sticks out in front of the first bulkhead.
The rear mountings are attached to the inside of the main lower box member at  the front of the large opening for the rear axle and suspension (ie the long pear shaped aperture)  The front end of this aperture is a vertical flat edge and the mounting is almost up to the edge from memory.    Looking at the side elevation of the body tub, you will see that the rear body mountings aren't even halfway back.  The bulk of the body tub is hanging in mid air totally unsupported by the chassis.  The design of the body is clever and reflects Gordon England's training as an aeronautical engineer.
The four body mountings are bolted to the ends of the two chassis cross-members.  I recall that we made up some simple folded steel 'box' type mountings when we did my replica.
I still have the paper template for the outer panel of the main lower box member.   This was taken from one of Tom's body frames back in the early 2000's.  I recorded the width of the body at various points along the length of the frame, mostly where there would be a plywood faced bulkhead.
First step in making the frame is to cut four pieces of thin plywood to the shape of the template. 
When Andy and myself made our frames we had an old internal flush door set up on trestles.   A centre line was drawn along the door.  Next temporary wooden frames were screwed to the door where there would be a bulkhead.  From memory there would be one at the very front of the main body side members, one where the dashboard is, one behind the staggered passenger seat.  Next, one of the plywood panels cut from the template would be clamped to the front frame and the plywood bent round the other frames being temporarily clamped in place.  Same at the other side.   the two loose ends of the side panels are brought together and temporarily fixed.
The body should now have a lovely even curve from head to toe.  If it hasn't, one of the wooden frames needs to be adjusted.
We used 4mm plywood for the frame, if I was doing it again I would use flexible birch ply.  We made the main lower frame members about 25mm thick overall, that is two 4mm plywood skins and a thin 17mm lath between.  We used old beech school desks that were cut up, ash or other woods are available!
Where the body mounts are fixed, instead of using the beech laths, I used a piece of tough plywood to provide something more solid.
The body frame then needs the various bulkheads making and these replace the temporary frames on the jig.  I have a little book on building a plywood yacht that came in very useful.  I will add that it is quite possible to alter the position of the seat to make the cockpit a bit roomier for taller drivers but space generally is at a premium.
Hope this helps.

[Duncan Grimmond]

Good. see those pics Malcolm, I'd forgotten how pretty you car is!