What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Duncan Grimmond]

I made a new petrol tank/battery box, an oil tank and a bizarre water-cooler for a 1903 Excelsior Forecar  a couple of years ago, a very interesting project. I have a pic of the finished item but it's too big to upload and I'm too dim to be able to make it smaller...

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An unpainted pic

[Austin in the Shed]

Very nice,I particularly like the cup holders in the top of the water cooler.1903,really!

[David Stepney]

Having had quite a bit of snow up here, Leon and I took the Seven up to the top of Bwlch y Eire and played in the forest up there. Unfortunately, my desktop computer has decided that it no longer wants to connect to the web, and I can’t post any of the pictures we took as my camera won’t talk to the tablet. Will post some anon ,once  the big computers running again.

At long last, and with the help of a friend who installs and maintains high end computers for a living, my desktop is now back on the net, so, as promised, I attach the photos that I would have attached on the 18th December had I been able to:-

   
   
   
   
   
   
 

By the way, regarding insuring  the Seven and the Landrover for young Leon to drive has not been as straightforward as I had been led to believe. Marmalade, shortly after agreeing to insure both vehicles for him, suddenly decided that they couldn't insure vehicles more than 20 years old! They did return my premium however.

Eventually I contacted Adrian Flux, who insured both vehicles for him but only during his tenure as a provisional licence holder and at a cost of £330.00 premium for each vehicle. If he passes his test, I shall have to reinsure him.

I hope this helps those of you who are looking to get the youngsters involved in vintage motoring.

In the meantime, the Seven has been out a couple of times over the Christmas period, mostly just down into the town to do shopping and to make sure it is running. Given the awful weather, it quickly looked as if it had been trialling, so on Monday, I gave it a thorough bath. I shall wax polish it today all being well.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Good to see Leon enjoying the car. Thank you for the insurance information too.

[Duncan Grimmond]

The "cup holders" are actually intakes for and air-flown tube running through the tank which carries the coolant. I was completely foxed by the design if the "radiator" but a pal who called in immediately identified the system as being the same as dairy shed milk coolers. The tubes run through the water to an outlet and in a milk cooler are vertical so that cool air is drawn in by the column of warm air rising. I imagine that there was a firm of dairy equipment manufacturers on the same street in Coventry where the Excelsior works was...
On the Forecar I suppose the faster you go the cooler it gets while the passenger panics!

[andrew34ruby]

Duncan, if you want to reduce the file size of of a photo the easy way is to use Facebook. Copy and paste the large file onto your facebook page, then copy and paste it back off your facebook page.

Nice work by the way, though I wouldn't expect anything less.

[Peter Sweeney]

Serpollete Steamer, all 4 round the steering wheel. Driver at the right on the back seat sitting over the flash boiler.    

[Duncan Grimmond]

I like that steamer but I think I'd prefer to face forwards.
Andrew, I don't do Facebook I know that it's possible to reduce pics but the ap I used to use has vanished...

[Chris Garner]

I've used this:  Img2Go.com - Online photo editor and image converter

[David Cochrane]

Many years ago I heard a good story about 4 blokes going for a drive in one of these 'vis-à-vis' cars, with all 4 of them sitting cosily around the steering wheel, and resting a hand on the wheel just to steady themselves. After a while it was realised that the car was proceeding on a rather more erratic course than was normal even for this type of car. Enquiry revealed that everybody thought that another chap was driving, and so nobody was...
A sort of automotive ouija board perhaps!