Water ski?

[Tony Press]

Duncan, certainly did not mistake you for any of the judgemental classes as what drives their expensive and polished cars to spectate as Prescott and similar, but don't follow our humble example and drive them through the night on nav rallies, lean them sideways on auto tests and for the younger and fitter owner,  bounce the living daylights out of them on trials. Avanti Austins!

Obviously no one has seen the cartoon in the latest Automobile !

Cheers, Tony.

[fatcatvera]

It seems I'm missing something here (it must be because I'm new to your community...?)

What is your issue with this car?  It's a special built on  the same principles as specials were built 80 or so years ago - a chassis with an interesting sports body attached to it - this is surely how many of your cars have come about in their first instance.

Yes, I appreciate that with modern bureaucracy it may be difficult to register the car 'correctly', however is that the only issue or is there something more about this?

[Andy Bennett]

Fatcavera
The references are to the once a year appearances of 'specials in need of finishing'. One did indeed have water skis for wings, hence the original title. Calling this one a boat tail recreation is certainly creative thinking. I thought boat tails had doors for a start.

If you look through ebay feedback you will see the ones where he has sold an Austin 7, they are the negative ones. Having said that there are plenty of positives for parts.

A previous buyer was on this forum and was honest in his deep regret at what he found when he looked closer at what he had bought.


Andy B

[fatcatvera]

Understood. Thanks for the explanation.

Ray

[Mr Pharmacist]

Edit: This is my first post - hi everyone! I'm currently looking to buy an Austin 7.

After seeing this ad and realising that the car was pretty local to me I went to view it last night.

From my poitn of view, and not knowing a huge amount about these cars its was 'ok'. It looked good - body work looked well done from my brief look in a dimly lit garage - he said it belonged to Fuzz Townsend until a couple of years ago. He bought it off Fuzz a couple of years ago and added the boat tail himself. The engine runs, but it sounded rather rough. I wasn't able to drive it as it was getting dark (he has land where it could have been driven) so no idea if the drive train / brakes were in working condition. There were several leaks under the car - differential, engine and some other place that i'm not too sure where it was coming from.

The 2 biggest issues to me are the price - it needs a fair amount doing to it i'd say, and £8k starting price on ebay seems way too much to me, and more importantly the fact that it has shortened chassis and no V5. I posted a question on the A7 facebook page last night about registering an shoterend A7 without a V5 and there has been some debate about that subject!

[Martin Prior]

Edit: This is my first post - hi everyone! I'm currently looking to buy an Austin 7.

After seeing this ad and realising that the car was pretty local to me I went to view it last night.

From my poitn of view, and not knowing a huge amount about these cars its was 'ok'. It looked good - body work looked well done from my brief look in a dimly lit garage - he said it belonged to Fuzz Townsend until a couple of years ago. He bought it off Fuzz a couple of years ago and added the boat tail himself. The engine runs, but it sounded rather rough. I wasn't able to drive it as it was getting dark (he has land where it could have been driven) so no idea if the drive train / brakes were in working condition. There were several leaks under the car - differential, engine and some other place that i'm not too sure where it was coming from.

The 2 biggest issues to me are the price - it needs a fair amount doing to it i'd say, and £8k starting price on ebay seems way too much to me, and more importantly the fact that it has shortened chassis and no V5. I posted a question on the A7 facebook page last night about registering an shoterend A7 without a V5 and there has been some debate about that subject!

Heavily modified and no V5 is something to be absolutely avoided, especially at the asking price.  If it was straightforward to register it, then the seller should have done so. 

For £8,000 you should be able to find something that's on the road and with its paperwork in order.

[Mr Pharmacist]

Yes - the alarm bells were ringing before i even went to view - if it was 'easy to register' as claimed by the vendor then he would have done it. I only went to see it as it was local to me and the more you view the more you learn.

[Davemayle]

Yes - the alarm bells were ringing before i even went to view - if it was 'easy to register' as claimed by the vendor then he would have done it. I only went to see it as it was local to me and the more you view the more you learn.

Fuzz sold it on eBay (I think it went for just over the 2k mark). Seen here:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GThh62hxaF0

D

[Duncan Grimmond]

£8k for about £3Ks worth of bits with no provenance and no V5? He's having a larf!
The modern pork-pie tail/stop/indicator lamp in a funnel on the near side tells a story though...

[Dave Prior]

£8k for about £3Ks worth of bits with no provenance and no V5? He's having a larf!
The modern pork-pie tail/stop/indicator lamp in a funnel on the near side tells a story though...

It's back on ebay and now at the frankly eye-popping price of TWELVE THOUSAND POUNDS

I also notice he's lost some of the more revealing pictures and the description has been heavily redacted to leave it almost entirely devoid of information.