Building my first Austin Seven car

[Peter Naulls]

Daisy and Ruairidh visited the workshop recently to discuss the best way to approach the van body. With limited facilities they have asked me to produce the structure of the body for them. We're keeping it simple and lightweight and I will be leaving enough of the detailing and finishing that Daisy should learn some new skills - but not so much that it feels daunting.

Jean-Marie's designs conveniently share a lot of features with my new "Moray" 2-seater bodies so we have decided to make a fabric-covered van version of the Moray! I mocked up a model to try different shapes of side panel and fin. Now work has begun on the real thing.

The Swallow windscreen will fit neatly on the scuttle top and I will add ash pillars to tie the roof to the scuttle. Not sure at this stage if we will need doors; the cutaway sides are necessary to give elbow room in the narrow body but access would still be quite tight. For simplicity's sake access to the tail area will be through the cabin, so the seats will need to fold.

The design is beginning to look quite aircraft-like!