Highland Sports Coupe project...

[JonE]

another coupe from an early 70s grey mag... might as well archive it here as its as good a place as any?    

[Peter Naulls]

Great photo Jon, thank you for sharing it. I bet he got warm in there!

[JonE]

another one...! from an old grey mag..    

[Peter Naulls]

Thank you Jon. I rather like the curious split rear window; other Mulliners (if it is a Mulliner) seem to have had a conventional single pane.

[Mike Costigan]

It isn't a Mulliner; the Mulliner had front-hinged doors with no cut-out, and as you say, a single back window.

Edit: OK, I may have to eat my words. It's certainly not the standard Mulliner coupe, but I've just found this on the internet; the tail is a bit different, but it is an artist's illustration, so maybe the photo is of a Mulliner Sunshine coupe:


  1929 Mulliner Sunshine coupe.JPG (Size: 46.78 KB / Downloads: 682)

[Renaud]

I very much like that sympathetic little car.
Then some extra lwb inches of hood would be very welcome for my personal, and debatable of course, taste.

[JonE]

Both the Aus and two window Mulliner finds look dumpy. The Highland, with door coming further back over the wheelarch, has far better lines.

[Peter Naulls]

Progress has been sporadic to fit around customer projects for the last few weeks but but here are some slightly out of sequence pictures to bring us up to date!

I always approach metalwork with some trepidation (not really my skill) but the bulkhead worked out well. Using some scrap hardboard and MDF I made up templates and adjusted them until I was happy...

   

...then folded up the steel sections, keeping it all as neat and tidy as I was able. The legroom is significantly more then in any other Seven I have sat in so I was generous with clearance behind the engine and above the flywheel. We could fit an Ulster petrol tank but the shelf is slightly longer so a custom-made one might be more sensible. As yet undecided on that. The flitch panels were formed over a wooden jig and will be cut to length later.

The eagle-eyed will notice that the handbrake lever is taller than the shelf and has had to be removed. Some elegant re-shaping will be needed!

   

The gearbox cover is modified Ruby. Floor washers are Morris 8. There may be some minor adjustment to the holes for the controls later on.

   

Next the body was upturned before painting all the woodwork underneath with several undercoats and finishing with satin black.

   

A friend of mine has put photos of the coupe and other Austin projects on a website for me. It is a work in progress and I will add extra pages next year: www.peternaulls.co.uk

[Duncan Grimmond]

Absolutely fabulous! And an impressive website too, crack on!

[JonE]

I really like the integral gearbox and handbrake cover. Will that work in practice though when dash is there?