Joined: Mar 2019 Posts: 39 Threads: 9
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Location: QLD Australia
Car type: Austin 7 1936 tourer
The memsahib won't go for a drive in the tourer until I have a roof on it. In the wet season here it's very hot and humid and the sun can make it unbearable in both the wet and the dry seasons. I am working with a very skilled upholsterer towards putting a hood on it but we are having trouble working out the bows. All the images we have seen have the bows mounted externally on the bodywork but my tourer has the threaded (3/8" W) fixing plates mounted on the inside of the bodywork. There are two plates on each side, one 13" in from the rear of the body shell and the other a further 14" towards the front. Any assistance with sketches, drawings or information as to where I can locate such would be very much appreciated. Our thoughts are that we will bend the bows from circular, oval or rectangular material in SS, aluminium or mild steel. I would have liked to have inserted a photo but haven't worked out how to do that yet. The car originally had a hood but was wiped out many years ago when the cane cutters at Mizzi's farm discovered a deep ditch on the way home from the Halifax Commercial hotel one night. Sadly the hood irons and frames were not salvaged.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 926 Threads: 74
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Location: Essex
18-03-2021, 10:10 AM
(This post was last modified: 18-03-2021, 10:13 AM by Nick Lettington.
Edit Reason: Proof reader is on strike ... as is the memory!
)
Hi Peter
I suspect from the cane cutter story that you don't have a standard UK car? With 2 plates 14" apart I'm guessing it has 4 seats? There's a thread on how to post photos, but if you want to email a picture or two to me at cyt660@hotmail.co.uk I will post them on here...
I used D section mild steel tube bent in an adapted plumbers pipe bender as that is what the last remaining part of my old roof was. It may be different on a locally bodied car... The tricky bit was the flat bar sections that link the hoops.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 17 Threads: 1
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Australian Body cars are very different to English Body Cars.
Queensland body builders used different hoods to South Australian Body builders which my car is.
Even Chummies were different.
I would be quite happy to send you some measurements but I think you would be better off talking to some one in the Queensland Register.
If you like send me a PM with a photo.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 620 Threads: 7
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Location: queensland
The 2 inside plates MAY be attachment points for the sidecurtains and the external hood bow mounting may be covered up during accident repairs.
Are the front doors a newer recover than the rears, any sign of holes in the door cards?
I had a Ruby tourer in Qld, the frame was flat bar about 25 x 5 mm and the bows a 25mm x 9mm solid D shape, probably spring steel, riveted to the flat sections.
I also look forward to the pictures.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 781 Threads: 26
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Location: On a hill in Wiltshire
I would use something easy to play with to model it first - say 25 x 3 mm ali strip.
Maybe tapered off and pushed into 20 or 25 mm round tubes for the cross members.
That way you can get the geometry right by way of easy bending and inexpensive errors.
Once you know it is going to do what you want as a frame you can make a proper one, without expensive errors.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 108 Threads: 5
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If you're thinking about how a potential frame may fold may I recommend making a model possibly using Meccano, that way you can scale it up to end up with something that folds as you want. That is unless you find something to copy or a design that works for your car.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 1,745 Threads: 42
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Location: Malvern, Victoria, Australia
I will hazard a guess- the front hole is for the hood frame pivot, the rear is for the hood rest when folded.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 926 Threads: 74
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Location: Essex
I think as Squeak already suggested, the holes in the inside face are likely to have held stubby machine screws that tighten onto the pins of the side screens that push in from the top. The hoop mounting points screw into the top of the timber on a UK 4 seat Touer and hang over the edge, but I have held off posting photos of mine in the certain knowledge that there will be someone posting photos of the antipodean equivalent shortly...
