Reg, Ruby van

[PDavies]

Can anyone remember a chap called Reg he was part of the Solent club and lived between Romsey and Salisbury,  shootash area . He lived Austin sevens and drove a ruby van. I would like to find out what his full name was , the registration of van and any pictures or info on him.
Thanks .

[Hugh Barnes]

You could start here, perhaps...

http://solent-austin7-club.co.uk/

[bystander]

Would this be Reg Pickett, one of the old guard fonts of all knowledge in the A7 world? Long deceased, but he was in his eighties, I believe.

[John Cornforth]

Hi

A bit of a long shot, but if you get no other info you could ask Richard Pybus at Glebe Garage in Sherfield English.  This is very much an "old car" type of place and only a mile or two from Shootash on the A27 Salisbury Road, so they may have heard of him.

[PDavies]

Thankyou to all that have replied. Very helpful cheers.

[Derek Sheldon]

Reg lived in Carter’s Clay and ran a Ruby. Very clever man , I believe he spent his working career in the motor industry on the racing side. He also edited the information in Doug Woodrows book and designed many of the tools in there.

[John Cornforth]

Hi

From what I have gleaned, Reginald John Pickett was born in 1916 and died in 1998. In the 1939 register his occupation was "Centre Lathe Turner".

[Paul Cooper]

I knew Reg very well, he was one of the five founding members of the Solent Austin Seven Club in the early 1970s, Keith Roach and myself being two of the others.
Reg was an Austin man through and through, prewar, he served his apprenticeship at Austin’s Main London Depot and Service Department. I’m sure he was originally a Londoner, and would tell me (as a Birmingham lad) that the quality of engineering at the London Depot was better than Longbridge could achieve!
He was the “go to” person for crankcase front main bearing lip repairs, amongst other things including full engine rebuilds. I seem to remember his Ruby van, certainly in the early days of the Solent Club car registration details were recorded so they should be able to help.

[Derek Sheldon]

A little more on Reg. His daily runner was a blur Ruby RSK493 which he had souped up with Reliant crank . I remember one summer evening members were invited to talk about their cars , out of the 25 cars assembled 22 credited Reg to having done work on their cars. During the time that I was editor, producer and distributor of the Solent club magazine i got along well with Reg. he sadly passed away during 1998. The Club had their first annual Reg Pickett memorial run on 1st Jan 1996

[PDavies]

Thanks to everyone I’ve now got some good information to talk about with my dad
I thought his van was burgundy so I got that wrong.
See what colour my Dad remembers .
I do remember being amazed as we went through what seemed like lots of sheds full of Rusty bits , Austin 7  gold mine !!!!
He wrapped the half shafts to stop them scratching my bike .
All the best Paul