Sports bodies for a special or replica or travesty (depending on your point of view)

[Hedd Jones]

Ill find tou a pic of the long cup later

[Ian Williams]

The LWB Ulster's look wrong because of the body proportions, the stretch has been put in the cockpit area which upsets the aesthetic balance. Have a look at the really attractive body's on other marques, T35 Buggati for example, there is an important aesthetic relationship between bonnet length, scuttle/cockpit length and tail length.

[Ritchie Wilson]

Nigel Hamlin Brown made a very nice body on a Ruby chassis and wrote a blog about it. Being wood could make it more do-able. From the blog I understand he is designing and making a sports body for a 3 litre Alvis atm.
He is sometimes on here and, as a designer and artist, would have some ideas about A7 bodies I'm sure.
I thought he could design a new NZ flag (there was a competition) but couldn't bring myself to suggest it.

[Bill Sheehan]

Nigel Hamlin Brown made a very nice body on a Ruby chassis and wrote a blog about it. Being wood could make it more do-able. From the blog I understand he is designing and making a sports body for a 3 litre Alvis atm.
He is sometimes on here and, as a designer and artist, would have some ideas about A7 bodies I'm sure.
I thought he could design a new NZ flag (there was a competition) but couldn't bring myself to suggest it.

Urgent - If not too much trouble, please email me on ausevenoz@gmail.com ---- I may be of help.   Cheers,  Bill in Oz

[DavidL]

Found this picture for Nigel Hamlin Brown but not a blog...

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d7/82/29/...45af27.jpg

...which led me to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBeiFVHFRRg

...and:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building...rip-Canoe/

Shows what CAN be done...but obviously a lot of work and skill there. The thing with a special is to work to your own limits, and something like the Ron Champion "build a sports car for £250" book is the modern one to pick up along with all the Patrick Stephens and John Haynes classics.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Build-Your-Spor...n+champion

You need the "have a go" attitude, which also requires a willingness to "have another go" until its a standard you'll live with. There's also the option to get the tricky bits, perhaps the bonnet, done professionally or go on one of the courses to do that bit supervised.

I'm a fan of "Specials". My own car is a ply structure with single curve ali skin - staggered seats and a pointy tail with the bits that might have been double curve under the luggage lid (like an Ulster spare wheel cover) and within the cockpit opening. Took less than a year beginning-middle-end with a really full on job and social life, but had a bit more energy back then...just remembered, some years back I put photos online...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/londonsquirrel

Its now on 19in wheels and needs new mudguards - I might do a pukka wired edge job, or laminate plywood, or buy motorbike items.

The ali rad cowl in the old photos was made from a wok lid, as is the foot bulge. Rear lights made from drinks mixer tins, aero screen home made, rev counter from a 60's Triumph with a hand painted face. Headlights are 2CV inners, flat plexi "lenses", the shells are propeller spinners for large scale RC aircraft. One of the design criteria was being able to fit through the house when finished as it was build in a back room and garden of a terraced maisonette. At least it was ground floor.

Needs putting back on the road, and finishing, and maybe that will be with a more practical body - the best suggestion to me on another thread was a Cambridge type.

---

Cheaper edition of the Ron Champion book - and you don't need the "and race it" part.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Build-Your-Spor...SDN4PTBXKV

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Build-Your-Ow...Sw6aJa26qp

---

...and of course the Bill Williams book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Austin-Seven-Sp...s+austin+7

[Mark McKibbin]

Found this picture for Nigel Hamlin Brown but not a blog...

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d7/82/29/...45af27.jpg

...which led me to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBeiFVHFRRg

...and:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building...rip-Canoe/

Shows what CAN be done...but obviously a lot of work and skill there.  The thing with a special is to work to your own limits, and something like the Ron Champion "build a sports car for £250" book is the modern one to pick up along with all the Patrick Stephens and John Haynes classics.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Build-Your-Spor...n+champion

You need the "have a go" attitude, which also requires a willingness to "have another go" until its a standard you'll live with.  There's also the option to get the tricky bits, perhaps the bonnet, done professionally or go on one of the courses to do that bit supervised.

I'm a fan of "Specials".  My own car is a ply structure with single curve ali skin - staggered seats and a pointy tail with the bits that might have been double curve under the luggage lid (like an Ulster spare wheel cover) and within the cockpit opening.  Took less than a year beginning-middle-end with a really full on job and social life, but had a bit more energy back then...just remembered, some years back I put photos online...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/londonsquirrel

Its now on 19in wheels and needs new mudguards - I might do a pukka wired edge job, or laminate plywood, or buy motorbike items.

The ali rad cowl in the old photos was made from a wok lid, as is the foot bulge.  Rear lights made from drinks mixer tins, aero screen home made, rev counter from a 60's Triumph with a hand painted face.  Headlights are 2CV inners, flat plexi "lenses", the shells are propeller spinners for large scale RC aircraft.  One of the design criteria was being able to fit through the house when finished as it was build in a back room and garden of a terraced maisonette.  At least it was ground floor.

Needs putting back on the road, and finishing, and maybe that will be with a more practical body - the best suggestion to me on another thread was a Cambridge type.

---

Cheaper edition of the Ron Champion book - and you don't need the "and race it" part.  

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Build-Your-Spor...SDN4PTBXKV

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Build-Your-Ow...Sw6aJa26qp

---

...and of course the Bill Williams book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Austin-Seven-Sp...s+austin+7

The Youtube although it has nothing to do with building a Special is definitely something to aspire to and I've gone and bought the non race Ron Champion book, so thanks for the post!

[DavidL]

I was involved with this one - he wanted it to look like it had been made in a factory and while he achieved that it did take a lot of time to get there... Doors took as long as the rest of the body, the bonnet was done and re-done and re-done. Some good tricks/lessons such as not folding the skin over the frame but using thicker material, file the radius, rely on filler. Very cheap paint as well but its standing up well. Being stored in the warm and dry helps of course. Compared with mine very heavy, but its robust and "all of a piece".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuuRnY01ulw

---

Lots of what he does with a bandsaw could have been done with a belt sander, or settle for something with less shape.

[Nigel]

Hello Urgent Austin,

I started a blog on my A7 Special - but didn't finish it, I will someday.

https://nigelhwright.wordpress.com/

Hope some of the pics help. There's more if you want them.

Cheers

Nigel

[Ian Williams]

Another blog worth checking is;
http://www.asciimation.co.nz/austin7/
This is about Simon Jansens first attempt at constructing a special and shows what can be achieved by a total novice with a little determination, and a willingness to research and learn.

---

Further inspiration maybe, this is my old special, I started construction in 1985 at the time it was my first attempt, LWB ulsters had not been invented and there was little choice on a modest budget. I had seen the Paxton bodies made of plywood and thought I can do that myself, so I had a go, the car evolved a bit over the years and was not quite as nice as this initially, but I learnt as I went along. The car has now gone but I could sketch up the construction if you really were keen to try for yourself. One thing I failed to fully appreciate at the time is the importance of the relationship between bonnet length, scuttle/cockpit and tail length, when I look at this car now I can see that the bonnet and tail are too short and the cockpit too large. With my latest special, covered on another thread here, I have addressed these points, one thing that really helps is lengthening the steering column, I have found an easy way of doing this by combining parts of a Big seven and Ruby steering column.

   
   

[DavidL]

Thread for "cardiffrob"

http://www.austinsevenfriends.co.uk/foru...hp?tid=838

...and for Ian Williams as mentioned above:

http://www.austinsevenfriends.co.uk/foru...hp?tid=332

While I look at it and think "way more than my cut and screw job" (Trevor the same) my godson and friend are having a go and their experiments with annealing and forming edges were a first time success, so its not THAT hard to fit a skin over tubes or a wooden frame or over ply edges.

In the 20 or so years since I did mine the "game changers" for me are knowing how easy it is to shape wood with a belt sander and the annealing trick.

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...and of course the other game changer is access to a forum and youtube...

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...am itching for another go at a build !!! Advice for others, if nothing else, DO have a go AT LEAST at a mock up out of hardboard and card and random bits of whatever. I think you'll either get hooked at that point or its really not your thing.