Austin A30 Seven

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arceye
Posts: 1904
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:56 pm
Location: Cleveleys, Lancashire

Re: Austin A30 Seven

#11 Post by arceye » Sun Aug 16, 2015 8:26 am

Cheers John, I shall have a go, I think that even if I only get an approximation of what was originally there it will be better than nothing at all :) As you say, I think this is a case of over engineering.

I think as it was the early days of monocoque construction there was possibly a bit of belts and braces engineering going on to err on the side of caution, never the less, it will be nice to make an effort to replicate the original structures performance to some degree.

Better order up some more steel :thumbs:

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arceye
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Location: Cleveleys, Lancashire

Re: Austin A30 Seven

#12 Post by arceye » Sun Aug 16, 2015 8:37 pm

Right, I may be about to be arrested for crimes against classic Austins, but i have taken Johns careful explanation and drawings and arrived at this bastardised version.

I first made the sill nose piece, then started adding steel to form a box along the sill attached to the top step, a bit more steel required on the box under the center door post and a little more welding to finish but I think you will get the idea.

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I'm sure it is a little rough compared to the slides John has seen, but I think it has added the requisite strength, well, I hope so.

At least the doors still fit, well they do now I have taken a hammer to the bottom hinge at the A post :oops:

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JPB
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Re: Austin A30 Seven

#13 Post by JPB » Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:24 pm

That looks absolutely spot on! ImageImageImage

Well done man, at this rate you'll be finished by next weekend.
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true.. :oops:

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arceye
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Re: Austin A30 Seven

#14 Post by arceye » Fri Sep 04, 2015 1:58 pm

Cheers John,

Anyway, I beggered off to the West Coast with the caravan for the best part of a fortnight, had a nice time visiting the Fairy Lochs crash site, Cove and stuff like that, but its time to get back on with Austin.

I finished the inner sill sections then got the outer sill on, it's a cheapo length of metal just cut straight through with no closers on the end that needed a lot of fettling to fit but at £44 + P&P a lot cheaper than the real thing. I shaped the rear into something like what should be there and a skim of filler should have it looking ok.

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I've also done a bit on the inner wing replacing rot in the door hinge brace, and cutting out the patch that formed the edge of the wheel arch so I could butt weld it rather than it be lapped over the rusty metal. I'll revisit these areas with a flappy disc to tidy things up before I stone chip the inner wing.

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There were patches at the front of the inner wing and on the front panel, these had been done quite well and I was tempted to leave them be but as they were again straight over the top of rusty metal my conscience wouldn't let me, so, more cutting out

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and the first bit of metal ready to go in and be butt welded

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Once I have that area built up I'll get it all tidied and stone chipped, then it will be time to bite the bullet and get to work on the drivers side rear floor and much patched spring hanger which I'm not looking forward to that much.

Oh, and I made a repair to the wheel arch in the rear door area, again filler work required but i can come back to that

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In this area I uncovered some of the original paint and am trying to decide what colour it was, I don't know if I'm going with celly or synthetic enamel paint yet but I'd like to get a shade somewhere near the original.

Patches has been many colours over the years, from her current Fergie Grey to light grey, white / cream, Blue, Red and Black. I had a fella shift her to our house on his trailer, and it turned out he owned her once, he sent round the original buff log book and an old MOT and photo the other day, the original log book has her colour down as cream, so I'm guessing at the moment the colour I have unearthed is either Coronet Cream or Court Grey.

I might stump up for a web research request with heritage yet to see if that gives the full original colour, when I first got her I used them to confirm the body number from the Chassis number just to make sure she's original and correct and that came back ok, which is nice to know. £6 a time is very reasonable, but I may even stump up for a full heritage certificate certificate if I can bear to put the pennies that way.

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JPB
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Re: Austin A30 Seven

#15 Post by JPB » Fri Sep 04, 2015 4:57 pm

Excellent work that man! :thumbs:
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true.. :oops:

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arceye
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Re: Austin A30 Seven

#16 Post by arceye » Tue Sep 22, 2015 7:13 pm

Ok, things have been a little slower than I would have liked, as always things get in the way but the big blow was the death of my old sip mig welder :cry: on the upside it was never that great though.

So, 50 quid brought home an untried old Sealey Supermig 160, though ancient, once I had put the torch and liner etc from my old welder across to the "new" one she has been buzzing away well since.

At last a little more progress,

I finished the repair to the front panel and inner wing then cleaned things up and stone chipped this area

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All good there it was time to get to the front rear spring hanger and associated areas. Horrors as expected awaited, silly little patches that were just hiding things and good metal took some finding.

Metal and rust dissapeared over a largish area, full removal of existing spring hanger

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including the inner arch and shock damper mount

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More metal disappeared though I didn't photograph that, but basically a chunk of floor and the front section of the inner arch next to the damper mout area shown.

Spring hangers work out about £60 each with vat and postage, so I figured I'd save some money and make one. Its actually quite a clever design as it puts the forces of the spring into the floor / kickboard / seat bottom and inner arch so spreading the load.

Anyway, one home made spring hanger

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Which meant I could start trying to build up something similar to the original structure so a new bit of inner arch / damper mount etc went in, it needs grinding back to tidy but I've protected it for the time being and will come back to it

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Spring hanger, some floor and more metal from the inner arch to tie things together, forgive those scruffy welds please as I couldn't get the torch in where I wanted it but everything is glued nicely

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Then the rear kick plate from floor to seat base, seat base repairs etc and everything plug welded multiple times to the spring hanger sees this area complete. Not by any means the neatest job ever but considering what I had to work with and the fact it wont be seen I'm happy with it

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So, I actually tidied the floor tonight ready for the rearmost spring hanger area, things are bad around there as well with more dodgy patches to the hanger, inner arch and boot floor along with some fibreglass in the quarter panel itself so I think it will turn into a big repair. My optimism isn't helped by the fact when I jacked the car up and placed an axle stand under the rear spring hanger it looked to deflect up into the car by around an eighth of an inch when I let the jack down.

I think this next area will be one of the most challenging, so fingers crossed, if I get that done ok that is about the halfway point for the structural repairs so if I don't make a dogs dinner of it the car shouldn't be able to throw up anything that I have not tackled already.

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JPB
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Re: Austin A30 Seven

#17 Post by JPB » Tue Sep 22, 2015 7:57 pm

The forum has no "like" button but if it had such a thing, I'd be clicking on that at the sight of the spring platform that you made. That looks excellent.

:thumbs:
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true.. :oops:

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SirTainleyBarking
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Location: Solihull, where Landrovers come from

Re: Austin A30 Seven

#18 Post by SirTainleyBarking » Tue Sep 22, 2015 11:01 pm

JPB wrote:The forum has no "like" button but if it had such a thing, I'd be clicking on that at the sight of the spring platform that you made. That looks excellent.

:thumbs:
I saw that and thought.. I'd have paid the £60, as that's beyond my skill level
Landrovers and Welding go together like Bread and Butter. And in the wet they are about as structurally sound

Biting. It's like kissing except there's a winner

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arceye
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Location: Cleveleys, Lancashire

Re: Austin A30 Seven

#19 Post by arceye » Wed Sep 23, 2015 5:33 pm

Cheers Chaps :D Spring hanger wasn't bad to make once I managed to figure the dimensions using the passenger side and the lacy remains of the drivers side one. What was really scary was the fact the part with the large hole that accepts the head of the retaining pin / bolt on the original was gone completely and someone had patched it by popping a plate over the head of the bolt that goes through the bush in the spring :shock: effectively it wasn't doing anything

I'd hoped to get some serious progress going this week as i put the missus on a train to visit relatives (hmm £60 on a spring hanger or on a train ticket for the wife, which would you choose ? ;) ) Unfortunately all progress is stopped due to waking up with a sore eye this morning, thought i'd given myself a flash with the welder but got it checked to find a tiny bit of something embedded in front of the pupil.

It hurts like buggery now they have removed it and I cant see anything but a blur out of that eye :( , heres hoping it has improved by morning and I can make use of the couple of days freedom.

tractorman
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Location: Wigton, Cumbria

Re: Austin A30 Seven

#20 Post by tractorman » Wed Sep 23, 2015 7:27 pm

The eye problem takes me back to 1991, when I was welding up a Passat estate for a bloke I worked for twenty years earlier. I had the tailgate half open (so the work area was nearer chest level) and had ground out the rust (and lots of filler) and gas welding a patch in (pre-MIG days!). The welding was going well until more filler came out and exposed more rust. So I grabbed the grinder, lifted the goggles and cleaned the rust off. I got a bit of flack in my eye but the car was on our drive and wouldn't start (flat battery). So I battled on to get the job finished and my eye improved a bit. Six months later, I had to go to the GP to get the flack removed - he refused to believe it had been in so long, but (apparently) the eye can quickly form a skin over such things to protect itself and the flack had eventually worked itself forwards! I hate to say it, but my left eye hasn't focussed properly since!

I have to agree with the others - the welding is superb and makes me somewhat depressed when I look at the Landy's lower dash!

I have fond memories of my uncle's A35 that he had when I was a young child. He swapped it for a nice new Cowley by the time my milk teeth were coming out and, after the Cowley, went to Rootes for various Minxes and Vogues. And we were stuck with Moggys!!

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