Home
Page
welcome to our website
About Us
information about our Club
Contacts/Contacts.html
our Officers and Committee
Events Diary
our events for the
months ahead
Event Reports
from the last four months
Member's Cars
a selection of
our active "Sevens"
Joys of being a 7'er
and a few stories
Do you fancy an Austin Seven?
advice on buying a "Seven"
Photo Gallery
of our past activities and
"Sevens" in close up
From the Past
Items from 1920/30s
magazines
Registration Marks
in the UK from 1903
Help at the roadside
fuel and electrical problems
Austin Seven Journal
advice for Austin Agents
& Service Depots
Austin Seven
Handbooks
information for the
new owner
Technical Articles
our Members help you
with various tasks
Austin Big Seven
Sixlite & Forlite
Magazine Articles
relevant to Sevens
Road Tests
for the most popular "Sevens"
Parts and Services
sources of spares etc
Quick Tips
a few handy ideas
Other Articles
of interest, not technical
Austin Seven Books
some of the books available
A7CA and FBHVC
CA7C is an active supporter
Links to other Austin
Seven Sites
Website Policy
on advertisements and links
It was in early 2002 when I noticed an Austin Seven on the E-bay
auction site, it was a 1929 aluminium body saloon, and I fell for it
immediately. It had an auction starting price and a 'Buy Now' price and,
according to the page counter, I appeared to be the first 'punter' to
view the auction entry. With very little hesitation, I would
square it with my better half later, I selected the 'Buy Now' option and
bought the car. If I had left it any later and someone had put a bid in
for the car then the 'Buy Now' option would have disappeared and I would
have had to take my chances with all the other bidders.
I was in the middle of rebuilding an RP saloon which fellow club member had dragged out of a wooden garage,
in a very sorry state; indeed the debate was on whether it was
restorable or whether it was for spares, but that is another story!
My better half laid down the stipulation that the RP should be
finished before anything was done on the RK saloon. This agreed, what
else could I do, I arranged for a friend with a trailer to help me
collect the car from the Leicester area and bring it back to Cornwall.
On the 14th April 2002 my friend and I arrived in a village
in the Midlands. Following the excellent directions, we found a field
with a shed some 50 or so yards from the road. The seller of the
car appeared and took us to see the RK which was looking very fragile
indeed. At least my heart did not sink when I saw it although the
same could not be said for my friend who, although he has been involved with
cars throughout the years, had yet to tackled an Austin Seven.
From a quick glance, all the car appeared to be there, although most of
the engine was in a box inside the car where the back seat should have
been and one of the doors was resting against the car in an 'unattached'
way. The only down side of the purchase as far as I could see was there
was absolutely no paperwork with the car and the number plates were so
rusty that little was discernible. The die was cast, I paid my money and
we set about putting the car on his trailer.
The wheels looked as if they were about to collapse, many of the spokes
having rusted through, and the brakes and or hubs had seized up, and so
it was a matter of dragging and lifting to get it on board. After
surprising little I time the car was on the trailer, maybe I should have
realised then just how light an RK saloon is compared with an RP saloon
or even a Ruby. I was a bit concerned when my friend lashed down the
car by simply putting a ratchet strap around the circumference of each
wheel and down to the trailer. Surely the suspension would not be
able to take the journey home, after all the car looked as if it had
been off of the road for 40 or 50 years. The loose door was pushed into
the opening and held on with string, as was the bonnet, the difficult
part being to find something strong enough on the rest of the car to
keep the bonnet in place.
We set off on the long journey home,
my friend concentrated on the driving
whilst I looked in the passenger mirror or through the rear window to
make sure nothing fell off. Most of the journey was uneventful
thanks to his steady driving and each time we stopped the car was
still solidly on the trailer. However, whilst heading down the M5
motorway I became concerned that the roof, or what was left of it, was
lifting at the front and I had visions of it peeling back, not only
providing a hazard on the motorway but also losing valuable information
as to its structure. We slowed appreciably but still the problem
existed so off we went at the next services where we checked the roof.
It was as solid as a rock, but I was sure I saw it lifting! After
a rest and refreshment, somewhat puzzled by the roof, we returned to the
car and it was while waiting to get mobile again I realised that the
bevel edge of the car's rear view mirror was giving the effect of the
roof lifting as I moved my head up and down. Panic over we set off
confidently once again for Cornwall!
The car arrived home and was dutifully put under covers, once the photos
had been taken, until the red letter day came when I could start work.
Having rebuilt a Ruby and an RP saloon I was looking forward to tackling
the aluminium and wood construction, there is nothing like a challenge
to get my interest!
Whilst I was not allowed to work on the car, quite right too, I took a
look at the what registration number information was still showing on
the rusty remains on the number plates. Clearly the last two numbers on
the back plate were '44' with possibly an '8' or a '0' in front of them
but little was showing on the front plate until I gave it a spray of
WD40. Looking at it when it was wet with oil I finally made out
something like ?J 8044. Still not much further on but a start.
Whilst having a quick look around the car I had found a garage plate
possibly indicating that the RK had been originally sold by a garage in
Ledbury, Herefordshire. A fellow club member, who works in the
motor trade, was able to look up in documentation and found that
Hereford had two sets of registration letters, 'CJ' and 'VJ' and that in
1929 the numbering would have been in the 2000's.
I was getting closer
and the final piece of the jig-saw was provided by Herefordshire County
Council Records Office. I managed to speak to them by telephone and
having given them the information that I had, possible registration
number 'VJ 2?44' or 'CJ 2?44' and the chassis number from the plate on
the car it turned out that I was in luck and after sending them a
search fee I was provided with a photocopy of the original registration
card, made out on the 1st July 1929 which showed that an Austin with my
chassis number was registered as VJ 2044. Success. Not only was I
successful here but The Motor Heritage Museum at Gaydon was able to tell
me the engine number; that the car left the production line on the 21st
June 1929 and left the factory on the 24th June 1929 and that the colour
was recorded as dual grey. My car appeared in one of the two surviving
factory ledgers; how lucky can a chap be?
As a result of this research and the copy records from Hereford County
Council Records office I was able to retain the original registration
number which had been applied to the car on the 1st July 1929.
June 2003 had now arrived and I had finished my wife's RP, I had done
all the restoration myself except for the upholstery which was done in
leather by another member. My wife drove her car to the National
rally at Beaulieu in the beginning of July and was runner up in her
class; obviously points were lost on the length of ownership, a matter
of months!, and previous use, less than 300 miles, but never mind we
were both delighted!
I set about the RK saloon with some trepidation. In my mind I had
decided that I would most likely have to detach the aluminium bit by bit
only where it was attached to wood frame which I was replacing at that
time. By replacing them one at a time I would be able to keep the
overall structure as one piece. Little did I know then that life
was far simpler.
For those who don't know much about RK saloons perhaps a quick
description would help. The car is effectively a late 'Chummy' with a
fixed roof. The floor pan is made from steel sections riveted together,
it is virtually, if not, identical to the Chummy's. To this is attached
a series of wooden frameworks to which the outer aluminium skin is
attached. The bottom edge of the skin is also attached to the steel
floor pan, mainly through the use of wood joiners but across the rear of
the car it is an aluminium to steel join, this is where most of the
problems were found. The roof is made from a series of wooden
slats attached to wooden cross members. For the carpenters amongst the
Austin Sevens restorers this is the car for you!
Before I started with any restoration I took numerous photographs, what
a blessing digital cameras are, and even took extensive video footage as
I had found on previous restorations that the information you are
looking for is just off of the edge of a photo. With video you
just keep panning the camera around slowly so that you cover as much of
the detail as you can. I then lifted the body from the chassis,
very little was holding the two together. I had also removed every
scrap of interior trim and labelled it and bagged it and put it into
store. The time to throw anything away is at least 12 months after
the restoration is complete, never sooner.
My first attempts at restoration were a struggle as I tried to effect
repairs to the floor pan with a minimal disturbance of the aluminium but
it didn't take long for me to realise this was not the way. I had tried
the method of only removing the skin at the site of the repair but found
that far more had to be detached to enable the skin to be lifted out of
the way without putting a crease in the aluminium sheet. Looking
at the construction details I found that the aluminium skin was pinned
onto the wooden framework with the exception of the window openings.
These were attached by means of a strip of aluminium, screwed to the
inside surface of the wood frame, and lipped over a turned up lip on the
body shell. Once these were removed the body shell was unclipped from
the wood frame and was removable in two pieces, the first being the rear
bodywork from the doors back and the other being the scuttle and door
thresholds.
Interestingly enough, call me a cynic if you like, but each piece could
be cut from an 4 foot by 8 foot sheet of aluminium. In my view the wide
door had nothing to do with the ease of entry into the back seats but
down to the fact that two sheets, 4 foot by 8 foot, covered the body and
another sheet would have covered the two doors. This kept any joins down
to one each side less than 2 inches long. It would appear that 4
foot by 8 foot sheets were the order of the day.
Once the aluminium had been removed I discovered that although much of
the woodwork was there it was in a fairly advance state of decay and had
lost most of its structural strength. As it was joined by steel
screws I was able to open each joint by carefully prising the two parts
apart letting the rusty screw pull out of its hole. In this way I made
sure that I had a precise pattern for every wooden part in the car.
Where the wooden frames form a sectional structure these were left
intact until I was actually making the replacement parts. It didn’t take
long before I was down to the steel floor pan. Much of the floor pan was
kept and only those places with too much rusting were replaced, these
were mainly the area under the rear seat which I suppose is the furthest
point from the oil dripping engine and therefore have the least
‘natural’ protection. My guess is that 80% of the floor pan is original.
The most serious rust being the lower edge of the two thresholds, as
these give strength to the whole body they were subjected to careful
repair with a complete new bottom edge to both of them, including
matching up the lightening holes put there by Austin.
Whilst I was working on the mechanical side I took a little time to sort
out what was to be done with the trim and paint. When I bought the car
it had a grey layer of paint which had obviously been applied to it at
some stage as in places it went over the remains of the window rubbers,
it also had the ‘feel’ of emulsion paint of the type you would use
inside the house although I am sure it was not. Having already restored
a Ruby that was ‘Dove Grey’ in colour I was not sure that I was looking
forward to another grey car, the comments of “ why is it still in
primer” were far too often although I must say I do rather like the
‘Dove Grey’, it being a grey with a hint of fawn in it. I decided that,
knowing the car had been two tone I needed to see if I could trace the
join line as there was no raised waistline on RK saloons, the colour
join was purely done by paint. Gentle rubbing down in several places
soon revealed the join line and to my surprise, and I must say pure
pleasure, I found that the two original colours were in fact ‘chocolate’
over ‘cream’ which was an ‘extra’ colour scheme you could have if you
paid an extra £1 at the time the car was ordered from the factory. Why
it is recorded in the ledger in Gaydon as dual grey I expect I will
never know.
So now the car was going to be a ‘Chocolate and Cream’ car GWR colours,
my favourite railway and I must admit I also like the colour
combination. I decided to lighten the interior, the original had been a
very dark brown and as most of the interior, with the exception of the
headlining, was this colour I felt the car would look very dismal inside
so I decided on a lighter shade of brown, almost a fawn. It is a
decision I have not regretted.
After many weeks of steel work, followed by even more weeks of woodwork
it was time to start reassembling the body shell. The woodwork structure
is almost like a sectional building, the rear, and the two rear sides
are made from three separate structures; the two windscreen pillars are
individual lengths of timber attached to steel supports, under each
doorway are timber rails attached to the steel and finally the roof
structure is added on top. Once the timberwork is in place the three
rear sections are joined using metal brackets, these are not fastened
until the aluminium skin has been put into place. I lost count of the
number of times I checked the doors in their openings and put the skin
sections on and off to make sure all was going well. Minor adjustments
were needed but on the whole, by following the original patterns all
went well.
As previously mentioned, the only area of the aluminium that had
suffered to any great extent was where the body joined the floor pan,
metal to metal, across the back of the car; this had set up an
electrolytic reaction and with the damp over the years the aluminium had
disintegrated. I tried using ‘Lumiweld’ to attach new aluminium
but found this to be beyond my capabilities, using it on aluminium
castings is brilliant but on thin sheet it is a nightmare. In the
end I used a combination of ‘Lumiweld’, rivets and screws which were
suitably hidden by a thin layer of metal rich body filler. To be
successful at this you must use the best quality filler you can
and make sure the aluminium is abraded immediately before you apply the
filler as aluminium oxide is a slightly ‘oily’ substance and prevent
other materials from bonding fully. Another tip with aluminium is
never use a steel wire brush or wire wool as steel particles get
embedded in the surface. The best abrasive materials are either
stainless steel or brass wire brushes or , better still one of the
fibreglass brushes.
My only regret with the aluminium bodywork is not paying full more
attention to all the small dents; aluminium, being far softer than
steel, dents more easily and over the years there were several ‘battle
scars’, in the future I will see what I can do to remove some more of
them. I have to be careful if I am pushing the car about on the
drive as there are few places at the back, other than the spare wheel,
where you can apply pressure without denting the bodywork.
The great day came when the skins were added to the woodwork and the
joining lips were applied all around the window openings. Followed
by pins joining the shell around the door openings and a whole series of
roundhead brass bolts, rather than the original rivets, around the
bulkhead. At last the car was taking shape again. I decide
that I would only use normal slot headed screws rather than the
‘Phillips’ or ‘Pozidrive’ types that are so readily available today,
this caused me a problem until I found suppliers on the internet who
could provide me with the quantity I needed, there were several gross of
screws to be put in. It would seem that slot head screws are
becoming a thing of the past and it won’t be long before they are only
available from specialist suppliers. If you are doing a wooden frame
restoration now is the time to buy your screws.
Following some good advice I had done the bodywork first as this takes
the longest, the chassis and engine should only take a relatively short
time and then the car would be alive again.
The chassis was a disaster! It would appear that in the dim
distant past, maybe 30 or 40 years ago, a ‘restoration’ had been
started, this would have accounted for the engine being totally in bits
and the bottom edges of the body bent and worn where the body shell had
been dragged about. Unfortunately the chassis had been cleaned of
all the oil and grease and then left exposed for years, some of which
were uncovered as there was moss growing where moss should not have
been. There was already one visible hole in the chassis but on
drifting out springs and other reluctant parts I realised that the
chassis was past its useful life by the vast quantity of rust shale that
was dropping from the inside top of the chassis rails. I needed a
replacement chassis.
Originally the car had uncoupled brakes, that is the handbrake lever
operated on the front wheel only and the foot brake operated on the rear
wheel only. I realise that many Austin Sevens are driven this way
today but I wanted coupled brakes so I decided to find a slightly later
chassis with coupled brakes and modify the body mounting points to match
the earlier chassis. Also I made sure that the chassis was
renumbered to the original car numbering, just as well considering the
new MOT requirements. Now it was a matter of doing all the mechanics.
From the start it was obvious that the car had either done very little
mileage or was very carefully driven and serviced. Most of the
mechanical parts were in excellent condition needing little more than a
clean and lubrication, all bearing were replaced but with hindsight I
wonder whether this was such a good idea as many bearings supplied today
are now made ‘overseas’ and are nowhere near the same quality as the
originals. To my delight I found that the engine, although in bits
in a box, was substantially the original engine in the car when it
left the factory, the crankcase, crank, block and con-rods all had the
matching engine number to the engine recorded in the factory ledger.
Having rebuilt it and dropped into the chassis it ran like a Swiss
watch. I just could not wait to get the body on.
The body, being lighter than most saloons, was easily manoeuvred into
place, I did, however, put the steering column in from underneath
after the body had been dropped onto the chassis as it is almost
impossible to feed the body down the column without scraping paint.
Once the body was on the chassis it was time to think about the wings
and running boards. The front wings are attached to the body, to
the flitch plates and to the ‘cow horns’ on the chassis so none of the
fitting could be done until body was accurately mated to the chassis.
The front and rear wings are the original wings from the car, heavily
patched and repaired. When I thought about the cost of replacement
wings, whether I could actually get the correct pattern of front wings
and the fact that I like a challenge I decided I would first try a
repair. After a little experimentation and watching an MGB, of all
cars, being repaired on TV, I repaired the wings by adding new metal
using butt joins Mig welded. This worked very satisfactorily and
is a method I would use again. The reason for butt joins is they
are less obvious than lapped joins as the underside of the wings are
fairly visible.
Having gone so far with the car, and having done all the work, so far,
myself I set myself two challenges; for me to do 100% of the restoration
and to get the car on the road for its 75th birthday on 1st July 2004
and it was now September 2003, I reckoned I had plenty of time but my
wife always told me that I underestimate how long a job will take!
We were blessed with a very warm and settled September so I was able to
start painting the car and to set about the interior. I used an
etch primer on all the aluminium surfaces and wished I had used it on
all the other surfaces as well, there is nothing like it to make sure
the first lays of paint stick. It is brilliant! This was followed
by a traditional cellulose primer and then the top coats. I do all
my own spraying using a low pressure, high volume, spray gun.
These do not kick up so much dust as the volume of air used is far less
and under less pressure. This means that there is minimal
‘overspray’ which not only saves paint, approximately 30%, but also
means that your workshop does not take on a hue the same colour as the
car. As I have very limited space, a small garage and my drive, I
have to work when the weather permits. To paint I choose a warm
day with little or no wind. I then push the car into the garage, spray
the back and one side and then push the car out into the open air to dry
off, I then push the car into the garage again so that I can spray the
other side and the front before pushing it back out to dry off.
Unfortunately my garage is not wide enough to do both sides together.
In this way I build up various layers of paint, I painted the lighter
top coat first then applied the darker brown over the top. Not
only will the darker paint cover the lighter paint more easily but it is
better to paint down to a masked off line than up to it. However,
where the colour join is only a paint line not a physical shape like a
raised waistline you need to make sure that there is not too thick a
build up of paint so that the line can be subsequently polished fairly
smooth without losing the edge.
Where ever possible I tried to reproduce the original finishes so the
dash was sprayed with a
crackle finish paint, there was evidence of this under the patent
plate and rather than being a ‘wrinkled’ type of finish it was more like
a random ‘crocodile skin’ effect. I managed to find a paint made
by Plastikote which produced the desired effect but it took several
attempts, the heavier the spray the bigger the effect therefore I needed
a very light spray, however, you need a light spray which uniformly
covers all the panel, If you overlap the sprays you get bands of
differing sized effects. I eventually got it as best as I reckoned
I could but it does take some practice.
In line with my desire to do 100% of the restoration I purchased a large
DIY nickel plating kit; all the bright work was nickel plated on my
version of the RK saloon, it was not until September 1929 that chrome
was used. I started off plating the smaller components such as
window catches and stays and then moved onto the windscreen surround.
I had to make up my plating tank with a wooden box which I lined with
polythene so I could get the front window frame in. Having
succeeded at this I then made up a larger tank in which I plated my
radiator surround. Unfortunately I could not do this in one go and
when the radiator surround needs a polish you can see where the surface
of the solution sat, If I was doing it again I would mask off the
metalwork where it broke the surface of the solution so that the marks
would not form. You live and learn!
My final task was the upholstery, having re-upholstered a Ruby several
years earlier I did not panic about this task but set about it
methodically. I used the existing upholstery as a pattern and made
sure that every stage was checked and double checked. On this
occasion I bought a second-hand heavy duty sewing machine, I had
previously ruined my wife’s dressmaking sewing machine. This made
the task a lot easier as it tackled multiple layers of the vinyl
material with ease. I realise that the upholstery would not pass
muster with the professional upholsterers but at least I can say I did
it! And after many thousands of miles use it is still looking
good.
The car was on the road a month before it’s 75th birthday and I was
amazed at its performance considering it only had a 11/8″crankshaft and
a low compression head. It was the first Austin Seven that I had
driven that accelerated up the hill from my house. The reason it
is called ‘Ali’ is very simple, it is made of aluminium; it’s full name
should really be ‘Ali Baba’ or to put it another way ‘Aluminium Baby’.
I realise that everyone loves their own car but I must just say that the
RK saloons are amongst the prettiest of the Austin Sevens and I think
the colour scheme on ‘Ali’ adds to its attraction.
I took the car to the 750 Motor Club rally at Beaulieu in 2004 and to my
great pride won the ‘Restoration of the Year’ award, maybe no other cars
had been restored that year! But at the time I was over the moon!
The car has done several long trips including Beaulieu for a second time
and then onto Longbridge via Slimbridge when we made a holiday of the
two events. I also took ‘Ali’ to France on a Club holiday. I
took my 93 year old mother shopping every week, she preferred the Seven
rather than taking the trip in a modern, I am not sure whether it is the
car or the attention that we got.
Is it finished? Those who know me only too well know that I am a
terror for not finishing a task, yes there are still things to be done,
and there are still things that I want to improve. I have made
some changes to it, not only to make it more suitable for modern traffic
but also to make it easier for my wife to drive, she feels it is too
late for her to learn how to double declutch and use a 3-speed gearbox.
I must say that now I have put a 4-speed synchromesh gearbox and a high
compression engine it performs very well.
The brakes are the next thing due for further modification. I don’t
believe in over-doing the brakes, in my opinion hydraulic brakes put too
much strain on the king-pins, I realise that theory says otherwise but I
think that the rear brakes, as the link between axle and rear spring is
much stronger, are the ones to ‘beef’ up. I can just hear the purists
telling me that it is wrong but any improvement is better than none as
long as it doesn’t strain something else.
What of the future, I can see ‘Ali’ being with me for many years to
come. Once I had started in Austin Sevens in 1997 I realise now
that I was searching for ‘my type’ of Austin Seven. I restored a
Ruby, then an RP saloon, then took on the RK saloon. Many club
members reckon I will soon find another ‘project’, and maybe some day I
will, but at the moment I have found ‘my Austin Seven’.
This article, written by Malcolm Watts,
originally appeared in Seven Focus May 2007 pp18-21; June 2007 pp18-21
and July 2007 pp18-20.