Car SOS

[Ruairidh Dunford]

The plumbing grip was being put to good use.

[Bob Culver]

I saw that too.  Even if the thought occurred to them, most would desist with the camera running.
When the original owner drove he seemed to make a myriad minor steering corrections. Seems I was not the only one.  Or did they put the kpins in tight?
I suppose they have covered double declutchng etc on other programmes. No comment about the quick steering
I always find the semi mocking annoying with no mention of the virtues. They make the magneto sound like some irrational contraption. After the lockdown very many wish their moderns had a crankhandle and magneto.

[JonE]

Is it true the compression ratio reduced after the early models? I thought that Tim, always the theatrical input, was brought round and was cunningly providing the thought process that many classic owners will be passing through on watching that. Hugely good for Austin 7 ownership I would have thought, with younger folk getting interested in 'having a bit of that'.

[rubyman]

Great show really enjoyed it met Fuzz many times at NEC shows great chap, pity they can't show more hands on with the repairs

[Ian Williams]

I somehow doubt that Tim really drove the car that badly once he had covered a mile or two, I imagine as with most things on this program it was edited to appear that way for the "entertainment value" much like his hand signals etc. If you watch this show regularly there is a theme these restorations take, something gets destroyed and needs replacement Tim or Fuzz initially hate the car, etc, etc, these are light entertainment for TV, but done reasonably well with Fuzz at least a genuine enthusiast. I agree it was very touching at the end.

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And Jon you have all the measurements that I took of combustion chamber changes from 1923 through to when the HC head came out

[JonE]

all those measurments are here, but we only had 4.8/4.9 and rising from then on, unless anyone can see anything in the Ian's measurements that disprove the CRs recorded in literature? https://sevenrk.wordpress.com/2019/05/31...ion-heads/

[jansens]

That was nice, gentle entertainment. I always wonder if programmes like this give people a poor idea of what's really involved in restoring a car (time, effort and money wise).

For straight out entertainment I always liked Roadkill and Roadkill Garage. It's all about big American cars (mostly) but they have no pretensions on doing things right at all. They just do things that are fun with no fake drama. Usually involving old US muscle cars and trucks and ridiculously huge engines. Used to be on YouTube but unfortunately went paid view only. Some are still available online though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVs_xZ46...ex=14&t=0s I like how the capacity of one cylinder in a big block engine is more than our entire 750cc engines.

Another that is zero drama and just pure information is Stephan Papadakis on his channel. He is famous in the US modified car scene and really knows his stuff. He now builds really top end drift cars (over 1000HP). But his films are really to the point and interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJCB49QXoS8 In that film he strips down a 2JZ.

All very far removed from vintage stuff of course but entertaining none the less.

Simon

[Bob Culver]

Re cyl heads, from contemp road tests, Forum members observations of stock  RN vs RP performance etc I often wonder if the bhp output at rpm of the restricted 5.2 head is actually less than  the 4.9, although it better at lower rpm. Heads all seem to be nominally 1.5  thick, a quick check for resurfacing. Squish speeds up the burning,  renders engines harsh, so as pinging is not a problem no great advantage except that it fills up space and leaves room for reasonable gas passge.

[Ian Williams]

The interesting observation about the early head types and performance has more to do with the transfer port than CR in my opinion.

[Chris Garner]

The sequence of filming with my Chummy was thus:

1. Static shots of car, exterior / engine / interior.
2. Fuzz & Tim discussing the car, getting into it, investigating the controls, fooling about (!) etc.
3. Road filming with me in in the car with hood raised.
4. Fuzz and Tim out in the countryside, Cannock Chase, north of Birmingham, in the car in several " takes " in the morning - around an hour and a half.
5. Afternoon, F & T in town work, Rugeley - around an hour.
6. Finally, me driving with cameras attached to doors and front wing.

It was Tim's first drive in a Seven and he was impressed. Fuzz remarked it was the best sorted Seven he'd driven - he can't have driven that many!!

Arrived on site at 9.00 am, left at 3.30 pm. Lots of hanging about as usual when filming. The crew, two camera men, one sound, a producer and a director. They probably used just 2% of their total filming in the programme.