Only for those with deep pockets

[Zetomagneto]

Hi Mike, if you think this can be done for £10k to this standard do it and I’ll give you £15k
for it, there’s a nice tidy profit .

You’ve just added more fuel to the fire just for fun lol

I don’t know, these lock down days!

[Charles P]

I started this thread with the expectation that it would generate some correspondence, and I have not been disappointed! As expected, opinions have polarised into the two extremes.

Ruairidh is quite correct, this car created quite a crowd at Guildtown last year - I was amongst the onlookers. But I was not looking with appreciation, more with amazement; I thought the 1970s American approach to presentation had long been discarded! Ruairidh may well be correct to suggest that a year or two of use will tone down the 'bling', but no amount of neglect, abuse or creative 'antiquing' will ever reinstate the original factory finish to items like the crankcase and gearbox.

I'm with you on this Mike.
The over-polished "two pack" look makes me feel queasy but then again I'm also no fan of the studied decrepitude school of leaving paintwork appallingly scruffy either. But as has been said the process of time and an aversion to polish will temper most of the finish and that will be easier to achieve than all time spent buffing. Underneath the gloss it's one hell of a car.

Charles

[Tony Betts]

hi mike,

you are right, there are many on this forum with serious skills.

but £10k, i take it you are quessing these people already have all the parts on the shelf to start with. if so thats not really £10k.

although if anyone can build one to this standard for £10k ill pay them £16k      sorry gene.

tony

[Austin in the Shed]

I'll go £17k, I think you would be hard pushed to find the right bits,no labour for this.

[Mike Costigan]

Hi Mike, if you think this can be done for £10k to this standard do it and I’ll give you £15k
for it, there’s a nice tidy profit .

You’ve just added more fuel to the fire just for fun lol

I don’t know, these lock down days!

Indeed, a can-full of petrol works wonders, so let's pour some more on the flames!

Tony started it by quoting some substantial prices for the parts he would use to build up his example. I just reverse-engineered the exercise to come to my £10,000 figure:

There's a very nice example of a 1925 chummy on the market at the moment at £14,000; it has been on the market for some time, starting about six months ago at £17 or £18,000, so it's quite possible some hard bargaining could bring the purchase price down to around £12,000. But let's be generous and give him his present asking price. The car has a nice original registration number which could well sell for £5,000, but let's be pessimistic and say we only get £2-3,000 for it. DVLA will issue a nice Bloody Fool number to replace it, so the car will still be registered.

Then we can start capitalising on our asset: a good original chummy body complete with doors, catches etc will probably sell for £4-5,000, and a set of original wings and running boards, painted and ready to fit, say £2,000? A three-piece bonnet for £500, pram hood frame and good hood with screen fixings £1,000, side-screens ready to use £500, dashboard, seats and upholstery another £500. So we end up with a complete rolling chassis with all the right bits and in good running order, DVLA registered, for a couple of thousand pounds!

Yes, we need to spend some money on a few fittings: Tony has suggested £500 for a correct speedo, but we have the chummy one which should fetch a couple of hundred in exchange, the Solex 30MOV may be two or three hundred, but we can get that back with our Zenith FZ and manifolds. The Gordon England sidelights will have to be bought, and a new steering box of the correct angle, but that's about it. Everything else can be made by our expert fettler for minimal cost so £10,000 should be ample - there might even be enough in there to include a Phoenix crank!

We've now been ostracised from the entire Austin Seven community, but who cares, we've got our authentic Gordon England Brooklands for less than the price of a chummy and a bit (well, rather a lot) of effort!

[Ian Williams]

Ah Mike I would agree that one could construct a similar car sans the bling for the figure you quote, but would argue that you would be wrong to use the term Authentic Brooklands, none of them are really that authentic are they?

[Zetomagneto]

An auction for a car in the cloud, thanks interesting wonder what the final bid will be, £34000?

High octane now, breaking a good Chummy, selling its registration, this is a hoot, ive got work to do.
Will come back this eve to see what’s happened, Mike may have been lynched by then.

[Mike Costigan]

Ah Mike I would agree that one could construct a similar car sans the bling for the figure you quote, but would argue that you would be wrong to use the term Authentic Brooklands, none of them are really that authentic are they?

None are original, but I think authentic is a reasonable word to describe an accurate copy. Why not one with bling? If our intrepid builder (I had you in mind as one of my culprits, Ian!) has the skills to build the car, why not the patience to add the bling?

Incidentally, how does the seller come up with the figure of £505 for a complete car in 1925? The basic car was £285, wings ten guineas, windscreen five guineas and hood seven guineas; I make that nearer £305 ...

[Dave Wortley]

A beautiful car in spite of the polishing. Would love it but will stick with the RN and Ulsteroid. I understand they are a little impractical to work on with undertray etc. Not really one to take to your local supermarket!
Cheers,
Dave.

[Alan]

There’s actually quite a few Chummies on Car and Classic Car at the moment. Obviously nobody wants them. We could start a production line.