Ruby open tourer found in London

[Edgar Lowe]

Received today an email from the 96 Classic Car club, if anybody is interested please contact number below:


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Ruby in the dust...

1.7 million carat gem

unearthed in London garden

 

                  

Join us  in London
Normally Second Sunday of every month 



An intriguing call from a 96 Club member led Simon Duval Smith, our Technical Officer, to an automobile archaeology excavation in north London. "We bought a house in Muswell Hill and when we opened the shed at the bottom of the garden, we found this old car that has not moved since at least 1970," said the member's friend. Simon leapt on his chopper and rode north, not knowing what he might find - a long-forgotten Bugatti, secreted from the scrap metal drive during the war? A Hispano-Suiza that had fallen foul of the MOT test introduced in 1960? The truth was slightly more prosaic - a 1936 Austin Seven Ruby Open Tourer; while not quite as rare as he might have hoped for, not many Open Tourers have survived unmolested. 



Many Austin Sevens have had their saloons or cabriolet bodies removed and discarded to convert them into 'Ulster'-style racing cars or trials specials.
After social distancing himself through the house, which is being cleared of several skip loads of the previous occupant's hoarding, Simon and his vintagent fellow explorer Colin Marr fought their way through half finished garden brickworks and a lot of hazardous waste to find the little Austin half-buried in the remains of a jerry-built shed.

Usually when called out to these finds, one discovers a car that has been out in the elements for many years and is mostly rotted away but the little Seven turned out to be in excellent condition bodily, with almost no rust to the panels, freely opening and closing doors with quite good panel gaps and a full set of sidescreens and hood in place. Dotted around the car were two spare gearboxes and a spare engine, and a lot of new spares, including tyres, a new wiring loom and even a pair of new trafficators...
Amazingly, the front tyres on the car were still inflated... Simon persuaded the builders to lift the rear of the car in the air so he could check the chassis and found it quite solid, with many years of oil leaks having prevented significant rust.



The interior is complete and mainly needs the seats re-covering and a good clean, the dash and instruments are complete, showing just 11,000 miles, unlikely to be 111,000 miles as it would take a lot of patience to drive a Seven that far...

So, how did it come to be stored for so long - with the tax disc in the windscreen dated May 1970? The story is that the previous owner of the house quarrelled with his wife, got divorced and probably had to re-mortgage the property to pay her off, he then defaulted on the payments and the house was seized by the bank. Perhaps he kept the car hidden in the shed to prevent it being included in the divorce settlement!?

In the intervening years, the lane behind the house has been built on and now there is no way of removing the car except by dismantling it and carrying parts through the house or removing a fence at the rear and transporting the complete car through an adjacent property. Of course no task is too onerous for our Technical Officer or indeed for many of our resourceful club members...and, as the headline says, a Seven is half the weight of a Ford Model T, or about 750 pounds, or 1.7 million carats... so quite easy for a few strong people to carry through nextdoor's garden...

The car needs to be removed very soon as the builders want to start work and the house owners want it gone. It will not be expensive but the job is not for the faint-hearted, it is not a car to be viewed out of curiosity. In short, Simon will give you a full description and even a live video walk-around of the car if you are interested but if you come to see it, you will need to be ready to remove it straight away.
More pictures available from Simon, call for details: 07896 921115.

[bob46320]

DIY. SOS - and a big crane ?

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Several of us were offered this “gem” at the start of the week by “Quentin”, who also informed us that there were already two bids on the table.

[JonE]

its gone viral! - round the the London club this morning before 7!

for info - sept-dec 36 and Hampshire reg.

(Fox News alerts that bids have gone so high that they are now going to demolish the terraced house so it can be dragged out conventionally...)

[Bob Culver]

I would have thought 110,000 miles about the minimum any Seven has done. A colleague has an RP with documented 250,000 and wear to match. Such mileage may take patience and not a little skill but if the alternative is public transport it can require very much more patience (esp here with no  inter city rail.)
What is the inlet manifold?

[Mike Costigan]

I agree, Bob, 111,000 miles by 1970 is nothing out of the ordinary. At that time several of us were doing around 20,000 miles per year in our Sevens; I think John Fitch held the record one year with close to 30,000 miles in the year.

[Austin in the Shed]

It must have been breathed on, down draught large carb and bunch of bananas exhaust.
Isn't it funny that even now in 2020 they still turn up .

[Martin Prior]

We, too, were approached by Quentin about this. The car is definitely worth saving, but the logistical problems will be huge! As a commercial proposition, the cost of extraction would probably exceed its current value. An army of enthusiastic volunteers could probably do the job, but not under current social distancing requirements. I suspect that craning it out is the only practical solution, but how much would that cost, I wonder?

Much to my surprise, I found that it is listed on the A7CA Chassis Register, albeit as an "old entry".

Years ago, I had the same problem when I was offered a 1933 Commer van. £35 would have secured the vehicle, but it had been entirely surrounded by new buildings and was eventually cut up on site. Let's hope that this A7 doesn't suffer that fate.

[Mike Costigan]

...  I suspect that craning it out is the only practical solution, but how much would that cost, I wonder?

It wouldn't be the first time 


  Chummy Rescue-05.1000.jpg (Size: 456.29 KB / Downloads: 329)

[Bob Culver]

Students used to lift Sevens into all sorts of places, with the engines in, although not good for the mudguards. But most enthusiasts now somewhat past student age.