Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 882 Threads: 48
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Location: North Wiltshire
Car type: 1927 Chummy, 1938 Big Seven 1/2 a Trials Chummy
My first Austin 7 in the mid 1970's was a very late Ruby, chassis number 290524, registered in January 1939, much later than this one. The car still exists and is still (I believe) the latest known saloon; there are later vans and possibly an Opal. The bodywork was standard mark 2 Ruby with a normal panel under the spare wheel, normal wing edges and normal scoop under the grille. It was original and tatty when I had it and had a normal amount of rust present everywhere. The late features were a plastic handbrake handle, Mazak radiator cap with a bar across it, slightly pressurised cooling system (water escape via a spring loaded valve), in addition to the steel sunshine roof, hidden hinge bonnet, rod brakes on the rear, metric wheel bearings and no registers on the wheels/drums. I owned the car for 5 years and did many miles in it.
I would suggest that the featured car has either been "customised" with P38 or a is a poor or misguided older restoration using the same material.
There were no modifications of this type to the body design by the factory.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 1,049 Threads: 108
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Location: Cheshire
01-05-2018, 03:34 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-05-2018, 04:05 PM by Colin Morgan.)
A quick check shows the good news that the car (with number) is presently taxed and on the road...
Colin
Hi
Thanks for the information on the youngest Ruby - suggests this car has been modified by an owner. However, there wasn't much sign of fibre-glass - must have been more a matter of cutting, fabricating and welding, though I didn't run a magnet along the long tail... Still wondering why so many small fiddly hardly-visible changes on one car.
Colin
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 148 Threads: 6
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01-05-2018, 04:33 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-05-2018, 04:34 PM by Nigel was in Brittany.
Edit Reason: Reg wrong
)
Mike mine was / is ( FWE 442 ,now VXS 456) . I have a ledger entry from Sheffield archives showing about 50 Austin Sevens bearing FWE being registered on 31 /12/38 and 01/01/39
Joined: Apr 2018 Posts: 507 Threads: 129
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Location: Staffordshire
Car type: Ruby mk 2
Looks like the ignition and lighting switch upgrade.
Was this fitted to the late rubies?
Or a later add on?
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 1,049 Threads: 108
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Location: Cheshire
It is in keeping with the 'Blue' theme throughout...
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 926 Threads: 22
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Location: Near Cambridge, UK
Car type: 1928 tourer (mag type), short chassis Gould Ulster
This thread reminds me of my first Ruby bought in 1963 in Cambridge for £5 if I remember rightly. It was registered FWE468 on 29th December 1938, which was 6 years to the day after the 1932 RP which preceded it. It seemed like a standard de luxe Ruby spec with steel sunroof and drip rails rather than gutters. I understand that it was one of 3 Rubies used as a Hire car by Marshalls (the Austin Distributor in Cambridge) during the war; another was FWE444 but I cannot recollect the other. Those cars had the standard body shape and square fronted running boards.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 1,049 Threads: 108
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Location: Cheshire
22-05-2021, 04:22 PM
(This post was last modified: 22-05-2021, 04:23 PM by Colin Morgan.)
There doesn't seem to be anything strange about this car - so FWE 435 that has some odd features does not seem to be as it left the factory.
Having said that - is the apron below the cowl a different shape on the blue car - it looks a bit more horizontal - or is this just how it is fitted?
