What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[austin]

A cracking days trialling on the Surrey / Kent border today. Plenty of mud & water to contend with but it did make for some interesting sections to tackle.

One of the family saloons doing it's normal job of surprising people on how good it is for this. 1st & 2nd in class and 3rd & 4th overall.

[Denis Sweeney]

It’s me and the better halves 50th anniversary in spring of next year and I suggested taking a trip in Ruby to France, Paris even, but she declined the offer as she says it would be a threesome ??

[Howard Wright]

Hi All

The clocks going back, an extra hour in bed and a beautiful morning all led to a trip out in the Special.  It was very chilly over Radnor Forest but the views are special.  


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Our destination Hergest Croft a beautiful garden renown for its rhodies and azaleas in Spring and the colour in Autumn.  It didn’t disappoint.

I had to take this photo of the gates.  Superb craftsmanship with not a single weld in sight!  Everything pinned together with pegs (would you call them rivets?).


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Cheers

Howard

[Chris Garner]

Howard. My father produced many gates, their complexity being similar to your photograph. In those days they would be using wrought iron, not now commercially available. Low in carbon it is very malleable and resistant to corrosion. It is not conducive to being welded. I well remember my father beating out " petals " to make into flowers as decoration in a gate.

[Howard Wright]

Hi Chris

That is very interesting.  I had thought it was more to do with the age of the gates (the house was built in  1906) when welding would probably been in its infancy.  I hadn’t twigged that wrought iron was not so easy to weld.  In any case your father was a true craftsman!

Cheers

Howard

[Duncan Grimmond]

Fire-welding or forge-welding is a different story and is still commonly used with Wrought iron (which is still being produced in reasonable quantity). It predates gas welding by many centuries...

[Dave Mann]

Thanks Duncan, you beat me.

[Duncan Grimmond]

Most folk don't know that much of today's "wrought iron" in usually bent mild steel. I wouldn't have known this had I not met the redoubtable Chris Topp (now sadly deceased last Saturday) who used to work with Dorothea Restoration Engineers. He specialised in working with wrought iron and I had the pleasure and priviledge of working with him on the restoration of "Turbinia" the first turbine powered iron hulled vessel noted for "cutting up" the Naval Review in Portsmouth. Charles Parkinson, having been dismissed by the Royal Navy with his idea of turbine powered steam vessels, sailed it down from Newcastle and literally ran rings around the fleet. It is pretty much a rather large boiler with turbine in a very small sleek hull and is now in Turbinia Hall in Newcastle for anyone interested to view.

[Peter Naulls]

I spent two fruitless hours trying to make my new, very expensive LEDs fit. "Direct replacement" they are not so the Halogens have gone back in until I speak to the supplier tomorrow. Hoping he has sent me the wrong ones.

[dickie65]

I found my 9E Nippy Block which was playing Hide and Seek !!

( Or Which Black bin bag is it in ! Is it in the Garage? in the Shed ? on a shelf ? Under the workbench ? On the workbench !! )

I also had a game of Hide and seek with a set of 1 1/2" Big End shell bearings which I had put in a safe place four years ago. !!

I am ordering some new valve parts for it as I will not be re using the original Tulip Valves with the square hole for grinding them in or the original pistons with the brass buttons in in the gudgeon pins.