What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Hedd_Jones]

The Mk1 eyeball suffices for a scuttle tank car.

[Greig Smith]

Well to be strictly correct about the title of this thread, I've done nothing on our Austin 7's, but that doesn't mean we've been resting on our laurels....

After last year's Simola Hillclimb where my friend Gino ran our green single seater 7, the bug had bitten and he stuck his head above the proverbial purchasing parapet and began to search for a suitable Simola 7. His search took him to a classic car seller in Johannesburg with pictures of a shiny red Ulster Special for sale, this turned out to have been sold more than a year before, however the vendor mentioned that it was once again for sale, but that it was rather closer to his home town. Gino took a drive over to the current owner who said yes he'd had it for a year and was rather sick & tired of battling with it and was willing to let the car go for a substantial discount just to be rid of it. Calculating that a full engine rebuild was somewhat less than the discount on offer, Gino quickly became the owner of one LWB Ulster special. Engine & chassis are '35, head is a '37, block is a '28 with brand new 60" over sized pistons and never been sleeved, 1 gallon cast aluminium oil pan. Chassis is a LWB with a curved front axle, dropped radius rods, lowered and bound springs, coupled Girling brakes with a genuine Bowdenex conversion on the fronts. Basically a nice package with all the relevant go faster bits dressed in a very pretty little aluminium body. I know the builder in Cape Town, no live Ruby was dismembered for this one, it's an amalgamation of parts from several sources over many years.

Local tuning efforts failed to produce any meaningful results so while on my way down to visit an Alfa Giulietta friend visiting Knysna from the UK, I stopped overnight in Plettenburg Bay with Gino and his family. A short drive revealed some unsorted issues, principally the oiling up of the spark plugs in less than a mile.....back into the garage & I whipped the head off & quickly determined that the bores were glazed like chrome. It turned out that 2&3 plug leads had been reversed when he had bought it and the resultant petrol washing of the bores coupled with the siamised inlets had resulted in all 4 bores being polished and the rings had never bedded in, hence the pumping of oil past the rings. This is why no past owners could ever get it to run properly...

We nipped out and bought a large stone hone and I did a very quick-and dirty in-situ hone of the top half of the cylinders & washed them out as best I could and popped the head back on - Gino managed 90 kms before the first plug oiled up, so we knew we were on the right path. 2 Weekends ago he trailered it up to us in Port Elizabeth and we set to work, head off again, the oil pan was drained & removed, the big ends were removed and the piston & rods popped out the top. The generator & distributor were removed and passed over to Dad for refurbishing and the block was then lifted off the crankcase. Gino had sourced a suitable ball hone and we set to work. 3 grinds of 30 seconds each produced a suitable cross hatch pattern in each cylinder. The block was carefully washed clean & set in the sun to dry - I repeated this process three times. The pistons were washed and the ring gaps checked & rotated. New gaskets were fitted and the block was returned to its rightful place and the pistons reinstalled. Big ends were torqued up, the oil pan was refitted as was the head. 

The next big job was the banana branch manifold which had been brazed together and then the brazing ground down to being paper thin and the manifold was breaking apart under the heat wrap. I cut off the damaged flange and sectioned the pipes to out the offending brazing. Once all trace of brazing was gone I jigged up the offending end and tacked it with the MIG. Once it was properly aligned it was seam welded into place. I guillotined suitable fillet inserts which were all duly MIG welded into place to cover the holes left by cutting out the brazing. Unlike the original welder I didn't grind down the welds in between the pipes, but rather built these areas up and ground them down flat to ensure good fillet welds between all the sections. I also took some time out to cut and shape the carburetor flange into a suitable shape. Job done it was painted with black primer and refitted. Jet hot coating will have to wait for another day. The next stage of the plan will involve a suitable Ulster pattern exhaust with a Brooklands silencer, a curved pipe ending in a pretty little fishtail above the rear mudguard like the originals.

The generator took a lot longer as a wire had come adrift internally & we ran out of weekend. Undaunted Gino returned home armed with Austin 7 books and returned to Port Elizabeth the next weekend where we continued the work. Dad had rebuilt the distributor and the SU which turned out to have a bent needle. Unfortunately none of our spare needles were suitable, so the piston & needle were set up in the lathe and using a short length of copper pipe Dad straightened the bent needle. Spinning on the lathe confirmed it was straight. While he was doing this I pulled the gear lever out and heated and bent it to stop it hitting the underside of the dash (Thanks for the Nippy gear lever thread pictures Tony). Carb rebuilt and refitted, battery connected and suddenly the car burst into life. A few tweaks, some adjustments and voila. Thanks Dad, you're a star !

I drove it to the local vintage car club's Pre '69 evening, (where it was the highlight of the display), the drive revealed 3 things, (1) the brake pedal bush was worn allowing the pedal to flop from side to side, (2) the throttle pedal is positioned too high up and (3) Gino is very lucky I didn't find it first....... 

Back in the workshop and Dad came up with several brake pedals and selected one which needed a light reamering to suit the pedal pin. Gino & I heated the shaft and re-shaped it to better suit the wedged steering. I welded a large washer on the original pedal as some bright spark had cropped the original round pedal down to a small square. Gino will re-locate the throttle pedal later as he wants to make a small floorboard change first.

With the weekend over we sent him home to his patient wife & daughter and he reported back that he  now gets 30+ mph at 5000 in 3rd, 40mph at 3300 in 4th and cruising comfortably 50mph at 4200 in 4th with 7 lbs oil pressure as the big sump keeps things cool down there. Up somewhat from the anaemic 38mph flat out in 4th when he took delivery. No oily plugs thus far, I'm pretty confident that we've solved the problem. Yes it's a bitsa, a Special, an Ulsteroid or whatever title anyone wants to use, but it's now a fantastically well sorted little car which he can use as a daily driver, fetch his daughter from school, take his wife for coffee and then blast up the hill on 3rd May.... we're in adjacent pits for the Hillclimb, because he's my main competition !!

Aye
Greig

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More pics of the repairs

Forgot to mention that it's got a mechanical rev counter driven from under the distributor via an MG T Type reduction drive, this was not working and upon inspection Dad found a worn drive gear which he promptly replaced from one in his stash and the little rev counter is a real beauty now that it's working.

Aye
G

[Jays]

Nothing as exciting as Greig’s.
Spent the day which was pretty cold and threatening sleet, moving the oil pressure gauge across the dash to the other side of the speedometer and covering the resultant hole with a correct patent plate. Then replacing the dodgy horn button with a more period one....the horn itself another matter, see my other post!

[agmatthews]

Today I stripped off....

...all the paint on the '29 Chummy SWB chassis.

It's almost time to start putting things back together... exciting times!

Here it is almost stripped bare!

   

[David Stepney]

Didn't go out in the Seven today. Definitely not Austin Seven weather!

[AustinWood]

No, Sevens prefer deeper snow!

[Jamie]

Today I stripped off....

...all the paint on the '29 Chummy SWB chassis.

It's almost time to start putting things back together... exciting times!

Here it is almost stripped bare!

May I ask what you use to remove the paint and dirt?

Regards,

Jamie.

[AllAlloyCup]

Today Finally completed the metalwork and lacquering of the body tub 
and all the alloy removable panels from my Gordon England Cup project!

Now back to sorting out the Clutch and engine installation.

Regards

Bill G

aka AllAlloyCup




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[David Stepney]

No, Sevens prefer deeper snow!

Yes, but I live further from the Arctic Circle than you do.
And you ought to have seen it over the Berwyns this morning!

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Took a drive over Dava Moor to see a friend and help put his petrol tank back in.