Does this swallow make a summer?

[JonE]

Doesn't seem to be much else Austin 7-wise listed for the auction?

[Dave Mann]

Is it any easier getting into a open Swallow? I found that I couldn't get into a Swallow saloon without removing the steering wheel.

[Ray White]

I was getting in my Swallow saloon today and thinking along similar lines; either the car has got smaller or I have got bigger. I think I know which, really.

The "best in the world" two seater is a lovely car. It shows what can be achieved if you are determined enough.

I tend to settle for 'tatty original'...

[Bill Sheehan]

Ruairidh - if it's any  encouragement, to me it already looks better in the photo than when I first/last saw it in 1977.  I recall long grass, collapsed greenhouse, other debris.  Good Luck, Cheers, Bill in Oz

[Ray White]

I'm not sure about the mascot though...

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Everything looks better than then Bill!

Ray - in 1989 we were touring France, as a family, in the '26 H12/4 Clifton and decided to phone our neighbours to see how things at home were. Imagine our horror when they told us that the house had been broken into and totally ransacked!

A few weeks later (the Twelve is incredibly slow - incredibly) we returned, expecting the worse. To our delight the burglars had in fact tidied up the house (Bill will be able to verify this...), one of the few things they had escaped with was the Swallow mascot...

[Ray White]

What an astonishing story!  

I have visions of cleaning ladies making good their escape in an Austin Swallow...complete with mascot

[JonE]

Another Austin 7 appears at Edmonds. Later aftermarket vents?
https://www.prewarcar.com/284145-1927-au...s-auctions

[Ray White]

Looking at that charming 'R', I can't help wondering if nothing could have been done to save the interior? Maybe it was just too far gone but in too many cases I think a refit is just the order of the day. I spent countless hours restoring the original leather of my Swallow. When I got the car it was rock hard and the door cards were being gradually eaten away by wood worm. In the end the only new items were the carpets (missing) and the roof lining (hanging like rotten curtains). Interestingly, if I ever claim to have added anything to our sum of knowledge about Swallow interiors it was the discovery that William Lyons opted for brushed cotton to save costs. It was an easy thing to buy and cut up a bed sheet! I copied the original lining exactly and even soaked the material in tea to age it. It's an OLD CAR, after all.

[Zetomagneto]

Nice car, shame about the colour, not another wedding car is it.You see so many 12/4s this colour 
looks totally wrong imho