Only for those with deep pockets

[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!