Building my first Austin Seven car

[Daisy Dunford]

Hi!

My name is Daisy Dunford and I am 11 years old.  My mum and dad and my gran and gramfer have got lots of Austin Sevens and I want to build my own, with my sisters.  This is me at the Centenary picnic!

   

My dad's friend Sandy has given me loads and loads of tools which I keep in my shed in the garden.  He made a tool box with my name on it and he also makes lots of tools for my dad.  Today is the fist day we started working on it, we did the rods that my dad got me.

First of all we saw in there were any cracks in them by painting white paint on them, then metal paint and magnet.  Two had tiny cracks so we drilled a teeny hole in them to stop it getting any bigger.

   

We wanted to check they were straight next.

   

   

We had to bend some of them to make them really straight.  Next we put them in the blue lathe and made sure they were in the centre.

   

Then we put a cutting bar in and made sure all the nuts were tight and moved the saddle up, turned it on and put the red lever down.  there was a blade thet cut tiny bits of metal out to make it bigger.

   

we used this cylinder to check it was big enough.

   

Then we cut the radius and checked it with blue.


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[ppearson]

Hi Daisy,

You are making a great pupil with a great teacher well done and good luck with your first project.

All the best

Peter Pearson

[andrew34ruby]

Hello daisy (my mother's name was daisy) great to see you getting stuck in. I was always taught that when using a lathe it's best to wear something with short sleeves, or roll your sleeves up. Apparently the fabric can grab onto any of the bits spinning round and wrap you around the lathe. And as a lad of 19 I was made to wear a hairnet so hair was not grabbed by the spinning bits. But my hair was a bit longer than yours.

[Daisy Dunford]

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it took ages but eventually we got all four done, when they all moved smoothly. some were stiff still so we gave them a tap to settle them. they were really smooth after.



https://youtube.com/shorts/Y2oFQNFJGpc?feature=share

Finally we had to weight and make sure they were all the same at each end.  We had to add washers on some and take away some of the metal on some.

   

We are going to have a bath now.  Hope you enjoyed my first post.

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Thank you for the advice Andrew I will make sure to do that next time

[Rogerfrench]

Daisy, I will be sure to follow your progress with great interest. You have made an excellent start!

[Peter Naulls]

This is a very exciting project Daisy. I'm going to learn a lot from watching you at work.

Peter.

[Anne Griffiths]

Oh BRAVO Daisy! I am extremely impressed. I think you're doing a brilliant job. That's going to be one splendid Austin 7 and I look forward to seeing its progress.

[Howard Wright]

Hi Daisy

Fantastic!

I wish I’d had the encouragement and desire to build a car when I was eleven. Do keep posting and keeping everyone informed. Like Peter I’m going to learn a lot from the postings….

Cheers

Howard

PS I’ve forwarded your thread to my grandson, Dylan, also aged eleven. I hope he takes some inspiration from you.

[Alan]

Well done Daisy!!!

[Ian Williams]

Good for you Daisy, and well done Dad for giving this wonderful opportunity to the girls.