Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 111 Threads: 5
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Location: Pembrokeshire
I have to agree with Dave Wheatley on this, it may not be the prettiest of cars or built to the highest standards, but it was built for a purpose and it would appear to be doing the job it was built for, probably at a fraction of the cost of some of the other cars in the pictures and gives its owner a lot of fun using it, and that is what it is all about. The satisfaction one gets from beating a vastly more expensive superior car or even just finishing an event when others have failed is unbelievable.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 243 Threads: 23
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Location: Rokeby, Victoria, Australia
Car type: '27 Chummy, '34 Special, '50 Traction Avant
I thought the whole idea of a special was to have fun, it's not a fashion statement. The owner probably loves it and why not, he looks like he is enjoying himself.
Also there is no need to be rude about it, good on him at least he is having a go.
Cheers
Mark
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 1,979 Threads: 90
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Location: Ripon
I agree totally with the idea of getting out there and doing it. I also tend to favour function over form but I question the security of the mounting of the panels. Would they pass a scrutineer's critical eye for safe attachment of bodywork to what I take to be a tubular frame beneath? Rivets at 75-100 mm centres strike me as totally inadequate...
In even a minor impact I think the panels would tear away from the structure.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 849 Threads: 123
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Hi...This is David.H
David Harrison...I turned up on the Saturday afternoon & chatted with a number of people -Brits & French - but the programme didn't list all the runners & riders so I am not quite sure who I met! I have an very neat RK saloon that I re-imported from California with an AG tourer that needed more work than I wanted to do, so has moved on. I still hanker after a decent open Seven though. My first car was a 1930(31?) box with the lid cut off. It made this French special look REALLY professional! (but this was in 1958!)
David Harrison(!)
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 1,979 Threads: 90
Reputation:
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Location: Ripon
Yes, a shell bolted to the chassis but isn't the shell of the RN fully welded at every seam? Or perhaps I'm being over cautious?
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 111 Threads: 5
Reputation:
7
Location: Pembrokeshire
If my memory serves me, rivet spacing should be 4 x rivet diameter? so for a 1/8 inch rivet it should be 1/2 inch spacing between them. then there is the question of what is underneath the panels, I once dismantled a old Reliant van, they used pop rivets into a ash frame a good thump with the fist was good enough to remove the panels from the old rotting wood..
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 849 Threads: 123
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At the risk of getting into an argument about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.....
The "Pop" rivet is still a registered Trade Name. The United Shoe Machinery company had it all to themselves for years. They originally made eyelets. In the UK & until the patents ran out Tucker (Eyelet) in Birmingham were the company that really developed the sales for general (non aircraft) use after 1945 outside the USA.
As a matter of interest (to me anyway!) Louis Huck was a really talented engineer who (also in the 1940's maybe late 30's), invented the "Huck" Bolt (a 2 piece structural pre-tensioned fastener- not a blind fixing) to replace nuts & bolts if you have no need to disassemble the joint. His name was also on the Patent for developing the "Rivnut" - a blind threaded insert, initially also for the aircraft industry (to hold the de icing rubber inflatable sections on aircraft wings for BF Goodrich.) This again became a generic product widely used in all industries today. Just like Pop & Huck there are hundreds of copies and developments of these pioneering highly efficient fasteners.
Blind rivets may have been thought of before the Austin Seven, but were not widely (if at all) commercially available during it's lifetime. They were around for special builders in the 50's & 60's through Pop,Avdel Gesipa et al.
Huck & Rivnut are also still registered names & I would have put an R in a circle after them if I knew where to find the symbol on my keyboard!
Joined: Mar 2015 Posts: 5,447 Threads: 231
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Location: Scotchland
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