What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Ruairidh Dunford]

The cockpit is very similar to the red supercharged car (made from doped canvas?), that you brought to Doune many years ago Malcolm.

Is this a Mk2?

[Steve kay]

Somebody has to ask, so I will volunteer. What is in progress in the picture of annealing? The ali looking strip seems to be clamped to a length of timber, perhaps hardwood. On the workshop floor, or is it the floor pan, seems to be a strip of J section. I have probably got this completely wrong, but might we be told?

[Tony Griffiths]

Somebody has to ask, so I will volunteer. What is in progress in the picture of annealing? The ali looking strip seems to be clamped to a length of timber, perhaps hardwood. On the workshop floor, or is it the floor pan, seems to be a strip of J section. I have probably got this completely wrong, but might we be told?

Correct. The aluminium strip is the door-top trim for a chummy. The candles are to give a coating of 'soot' that, when burnt off, indicates (approximately) that the right annealing temperature has been reached - and any more will probably cause it to melt. The wooden former is a copy of the line of door top-edge with the aluminium section bent into place using multiple small clamps. Worked almost perfectly the first time, with just a small correction needed at one end.

[Malcolm Parker]

    The red supercharged car I took to Doune all those years ago was the Mk 1 which was loosely based on Mrs Jo-Jo in her late 1920's form.  That car had an ash and plywood body clad with aluminium.  The tail section was a plywood rib-cage covered in paper mache.   I sold the body to a pal who built it up on a redundant chassis and it has been in Germany for several years now, basically the same but with added leather saddle bags.
I rebodied the chassis with an Ulsteroid body and that car is now in the hands of a good freind who trials it.   The supercharged engine was retained and rebuilt as a normally aspirated unit and my intention was to use it in the Mk 2 sprint car but the plan now is to build up a new engine.
The new car is all aluminium save for the plywood bulkheads.  It has been built so everything is readily accessible and removal of the main body is a simple matter.  The photo below was taken two days ago.
The intention is to have it driveable by the end of the year and hopefully ready for a track testing day by the Spring.  In true Yorkshire fashion it has been a low-cost build using up whatever post-vintage parts I had in stock.

[Duncan Grimmond]

Great stuff Malcolm! The kettle still works...;-)

[Steve kay]

The photo of annealing the ali strip, temperature guided by the soot, is interesting as I will be putting ali J  strip along Chummy bodywork to secure the top of the liners and door cards in the next day or so. Does the tecnique have a name, does anyone other than Tony use it? The forum can reveal how we can use former skills on our Sevens. Reading people's thoughts on what to do with the steering wheel reminded me that last time I put cord on a wheel, I just did as I would have done whipping the end of a big splice in rigging. There is no evidence of the use of any aluminium in Chatham Dockyard in 1797.

[stuartu]

I rub soap on the aluminium rather than using soot. When the soap goes black the aluminium has reached annealing temperature. It might work with a heat gun though I haven't tried that, I usually make a few passes with a blow torch on the side away from the soap.

Regards,

Stuart

["Slack Alice" Simon]

Having got it up to temperature, do you then cool the ali quickly or slowly?

[stuartu]

Just in air, Simon.

All the best,

Stuart

[Tony Griffiths]

The photo of annealing the ali strip, temperature guided by the soot, is interesting as I will be putting ali J  strip along Chummy bodywork to secure the top of the liners and door cards in the next day or so. Does the tecnique have a name, does anyone other than Tony use it? The forum can reveal how we can use former skills on our Sevens. Reading people's thoughts on what to do with the steering wheel reminded me that last time I put cord on a wheel, I just did as I would have done whipping the end of a big splice in rigging. There is no evidence of the use of any aluminium in Chatham Dockyard in 1797.

There are a few things to get right: the J-section aluminium strip from Woollies is slightly domed across the top surface - but should, as Mike Hobday pointed to me out, be flat. So, lots of work with a file and sanding paper. Next, mark out the door profile (or use the original strip if you have one) against a piece of suitable wood. Bandsaw or otherwise cut it out, checking that correct against the door edge. Anneal the aluminium, using the preferred soap/candle system; let it cool and, using multiple small clamps, bend it against the wooden former. I've no idea if it can spring back slightly if the clamps are released straight away, but I left mine overnight just in case.  I reckon it's possible to mark out and drill the side-screen socket holes against the ones in the door, but I'd leave drilling and countersinking the screw holes until you have a trial fit against the finished door cards. You probably know that the U-shaped, steel side-screen sockets (that fit over the door wood and under the top face of the door skin) sit proud of the surface a little. The strip, of course, has to butt up against the outer face of these, this leaving enough room for the door panel to fit under the turned-over edge. To get a neat fit, I bevelled the top edge of the door cards a little. I'm sure that a forum member must have done this job in a different and perhaps better way - or can pass on some useful tips?