What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Ivor Hawkins]

It looks like you’ve welded up one of the patent plate holes...or am I losing it!

[Steve kay]

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Put the recently arrived ali sump on to the engine. This allowed me to muse upon how very fortunate us Sevenists are, debate here on the forum very helpful, much technical advise and our gang of cherished suppliers very able to help. Thanks to Dave Dye and Jamie, recent bits from David Cochrane and Tony Betts are attached elsewhere. I hope that nobody from Colnbrook ever looks at this forum. Jamie's silicon gasket might be banned in some remote corner of the Blue Book due to excessive modernity and I will be cast out by some scrute in the future.

[Mark McKibbin]

It looks like you’ve welded up one of the patent plate holes...or am I losing it!

Yes a later Patent plate had been fitted so had to weld up the top holes, the bottom ones will be hidden by the new plate which will be fitted lower and it's not as high.  I would have welded the bottom holes up as well but I thought I was pushing it without blowing a hole.

[squeak]

If you to clamp a flat piece of copper behind that hole before you weld it up, less chance of blowing a hole, less panel distortion and a neater behind.  As always practice on a scrap.

[Howard Wright]

Hi Steve

It looks from the picture that you’ve squashed the gasket out of alignment?  Hope that is not the case? I have found you don’t need a lot of torque on the bolts to seal the gasket and once you are happy that is working just run a Stanley knife around the edge.  Not that scrutineers would be that critical surely?.

Cheers

Howard

[Steve kay]

Howard

You have noticed what had initially escaped me, there is a difference between putting a silicon gasket on with a tin sump, and an ali sump. For the ali sump, the two flat surfaces need to be scrupulously clean and dry, thus avoiding the lubrication leading to the sideways movement all too evident in the photo. Luckily the silicon orchards of Norfolk are full of ripe gaskets, and thanks to the kind and always dependable Jamie, one is winging its way to me just now. Thanks also to Ruairidh for firm but gentle corrections of technique. Where would we be without them!

[Hedd_Jones]

I've been cleaning 2 bearing cranks

[Howard Wright]

Don’t you mean the “Silly con” orchards?



Howard

[Ian Williams]

Gents you do not need a silicon gasket with an alloy sump, I would suggest one could even argue they are undesirable in such a situation, 515 or 518 will give you a 100% oil tight seal.... With a tin sump its a completely different matter.

[Bob Culver]

Hi Dave Mann

If you are to use a panelbeater his view of the material will be interesting. I recall as a small boy around 1950 my father had a panelbeater neighbour work on his car and I can recall him telling my father that the steel was very tough (even compared with the then normal). On family moderns dings can be pushed out mostly with the thumbs!
Whats with the spokes. Did you undo without fully removing the tyre? Presumably they did not pull through?