What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[David Stepney]

Went to Dolgellau to the 'Hwyl yr Haf' fun day. Quite disappointed that there were only a few cars there. The Seven was the only prewar car present. There seemed to be more tractors than cars.

The Seven generated quite a bit of interest though, with one 89 year old man remembering that his father had one when he was little!

A group of four boys about 12 or 13 years old then came up and asked all sorts of question including if they could sit in it, so they did and took photos on their mobiles.

Notably, the president of the Meirion Classic Car Club brought his twin cam MGA, which managed to fluff a couple of plugs after getting stuck in traffic in Barmouth, so a few of us spent a little time sorting that out, another member brought his Berkeley and 1979 Rover SD1 3500 also turned up in totally original condition with 25K on the clock One of the tractor lads brought his much used 1955 series 1 Landrover.

Photos of what did turn up:-

[Steve kay]

   

Wasn't needed on the Tour de France, so the Ruby acted as the sag wagon for the Hereford V-CC ride. Two tandems are just visible behind the Ruby, causing speculation as to comparable wheelbases, and which machine had the better power to weight ratio.

(The answer to various questions and comments is that I intended to say that the comparisons were between a tandem powered by athletic humans and a saloon car powered by a certain side valve engine. Tandem acceleration into 20s much better, sustained speeds in mid 30s on a hot afternoon better for Ruby)

[Hedd_Jones]

We went to the Audlem Festival of Transport. Unfortunatley it was a tad wet.

[Steve kay]

So it was very wet in Cheshire, and very hot and sunny in Herefordshire. Any reports or photos of the weather in Shropshire yesterday?

[Hedd_Jones]

I was in Shropshire when I left home to go to Cheshire. It was exactly the same as Cheshire

[AustinWood]

We had a great weekend going to the Scottish Austin Seven Club's rally at Guildtown.
Set off from Melrose at 9:00am on Saturday. Not able to leave earlier because of my companion Lily's shift pattern.
The journey north started off with rain getting heavier and heavier and a lot of standing water. The Austin doesn't much notice standing water but the moderns were struggling a bit! For some reason I've never understood my RK fabric saloon is virtually leakproof. Just a couple of small trickles on the inside of the windscreen from the wiper holes. It's the only waterproof Seven of the 7 I've owned.
Once north of the Forth the weather gradually cleared and we had a good run to Guildtown, just north of Perth. We immediately set out on the tour round Angus/Perthshire which was excellent. Near Blairgowrie the petrol ran out, so topped up with the spare gallon and used the TomTom to get to the nearest petrol station. Filled up and used sat-nav again to get to the lunch stop. Here we caught up with the main body of the cars. Over 40 in the restaurant car park. Excellent soup & sandwiches. Finished the tour and after a quick look round the rally field headed to Kirriemuir for Lily to investigate Peter Pan & J M Barrie.
Our B&B in Pitroddie. It was excellent and we had a good meal at The Inchture Hotel. A surprise was that the hosts are friends of a colleague of Lily's at the Borders General Hospital 86 miles away.
The rally itself was great. Excellent weather and 80+ Austin Sevens. A lot of coverage in other threads.
We had to leave early, about 1:00, shift patterns again!
Total of 300 miles for the journey and the car ran perfectly.
My modification using a separate small 6V lead-acid battery for starting works very well.
The battery is 6”x2”x1” and sits happily alongside the main battery. Normally the two batteries are in parallel but when operating the starter the main battery feed to the switch panel is switched out. This leaves the small battery feeding the ignition with 6V and the large battery operating the starter.
My car has always had the problem that it is reluctant to start on the starter unless the engine is up to temperature. Starts instantly on the handle. The Bacon Slicer starter sinks the voltage too much for the ignition, especially with the Accuspark distributor.
It's a simple, low cost and very effective modification. The Accuspark makes the car run much more smoothly and cruising at speed is much more comfortable.
Heading north we went through Edinburgh used side roads except the unavoidable new Queensferry Crossing. On the return we used the M90 from Perth to Kinross then the old A9 to Edinburgh where we used the by-pass. The traffic was heavy but we didn't cause too much congestion as there were very few trucks, it being Sunday. Glad we weren't going the other way on Edinburgh City Bypass – it was stationary. Normal cruising was around 50mph.
Altogether an excellent weekend.
Busy again next weekend. Heading to VSCC Prescott in our 1972 Citroen SM.

[Mick Hanna]

Today, with the help of my mechanic friend, we've finally got my Ruby running properly, although it needs to be taken out for a good journey fairly soon. Despite much fettling since June 2018 and lots of additional faults jumping into the mix, the final solution has settled on a weak coil, a manual distributor that was failing to earth satisfactorily and provide a spark (new condenser amazingly arrived within 24 hours from the Seven Workshop but by then we'd just fitted the Accuspark assembly with its replacement ignition module), and some decidedly questionable spark plugs, that were fairly new but had probably been abused by the recent rough running of the engine - and the SU put aside for the tried and tested original Zenith carburettor. The ignition timing was reset, this time using a strobe light. It really helps to have fresh eyes and a logical brain to come up with solutions.

Once the plugs arrive I intend giving the car a run and if all is well, refitting the SU to see if all is well, as I much prefer the advantages of the SU.

Anyway, I am now suffused with a warm glow of satisfaction and the Ruby's dishonourable discharge into the back alley and possible scrapyard destination can now be postponed.

I might still make the Sheffield PWA7C end of season run - Yippee!

[David Stepney]

Went over to my agricultural engineer friend's today. Whilst I was there one of his customers dropped his John Deere 7700 tractor in for repair.

I simply couldn't resist the comparison:

[Reckless Rat]

Fitted a new steering arm from Dave Cochrane to replace the RP's original which turned out to be cracked. Beautifilly made and a good investment.

[Alan]

Whatever you do, don’t tell Bob. ??