Austin A30 Seven

[arceye]

Right, I'm persuaded, here it will stay Don't know when I shall get to it but it wont take any more harm in the meantime. I do like the idea of a spannering job as opposed to these welding marathons I seem to get myself into

Charlie Sutherland at Reay that'll be John for the MOT, now theres a charachter, not a bad tester mind.

Orange is deffo the way to go, and I like the idea of the confederate flag

Will be a bit of fun if nowt else.

On an Austin related note, I started to make up some steel for it tonight then 10 minutes later someone called round which resulted in idle blethering while leaning on the car for the rest of the evening, Ah well, I'll try again tomorrow night.

[JPB]

Orange with a confederate flag can look good on a small, three wheeled conveyance but it's been done many times, almost as many times as yellow! Starsky's Gran Torino's colour scheme is also well represented on Tamworth's finest, as are the Gulf colours, the matt black look and the chrome wrap.
Orange would be better yet if it were Rentokil's fluorescent variety but for something that hasn't been done before, how about scumble? I reckon the well known woodgrain finish, so loved by pub landlords, would be unique and the car would then have the additional bonus of being well camouflaged in a room full of furniture.

[arceye]

Scrub the flag then, though I still fancy Orange

[JPB]

Nowt wrong with fancying orange. Unless of course Dale Winton is somehow involved..

Are you planning to stick with the Reliant engine? I ask because bike engines tend to go well in these.
Sorry to deviate from the A30, but you have that covered and it'll be just fine.

[arceye]

I'm hoping to stick with the original John providing it proves ok, if not then anythings possible.
Main thing will be budget, i.e I need to do it as cheap as realistically possible to justify doing it all, should be quite a fun little project though.

[SirTainleyBarking]

Orange with a confederate flag can look good on a small, three wheeled conveyance but it's been done many times, almost as many times as yellow! Starsky's Gran Torino's colour scheme is also well represented on Tamworth's finest, as are the Gulf colours, the matt black look and the chrome wrap.
Orange would be better yet if it were Rentokil's fluorescent variety but for something that hasn't been done before, how about scumble? I reckon the well known woodgrain finish, so loved by pub landlords, would be unique and the car would then have the additional bonus of being well camouflaged in a room full of furniture.

Not seen any of these before, but if I see another T.I.T. Regal van in baby poo yellow I shall be tempted to commit homicide

[vulgalour]

Excellent progress on the little Austin with some tricky repairs dealt with seemingly minimal fuss and hair pulling. The damage on that rear arch is strange, I've never seen one of these rot like that.

For the Rialto, with the price you paid (hah) I think it deserves more than just a novelty paint job. They hold their value quite well and have quite a strong following for both standard and modified examples. By all means paint it orange, it's a good colour on them, but please don't make it into another novelty three wheeler, it'll be all the more distinctive for a freshen up than it would for being yet another comedy vehicle. Black and Orange is a great combo and you could really go to town on the interior if there's not much in there. Best of all, you only need to buy two alloys for it so wheel upgrades are half price!

[arceye]

Cheers chaps, started making bits to build back up the Austins rear spring hanger etc so hopefully some progress soon.

Not planning to go daft on the Rialto, when I get to it it will be nice if I can just save it at reasonable cost

[arceye]

Excellent progress on the little Austin with some tricky repairs dealt with seemingly minimal fuss and hair pulling. The damage on that rear arch is strange, I've never seen one of these rot like that.

Cheers, she's been a Far North car all her life, so rot absolutely anywhere is to be expected, one of the disadvantages of living in what may well be the rust capital of the UK.

Anyway, a bit of progress made around all the other stuff that always seems to get in the way, I made up a rear quarter and quadrant piece that ties the boot floor / spring hanger / arch and rear quarter panel together and fitted that, forgot to take pictures but this is the old part to give you an idea



I did remember to take pics of the new spring hanger / chassis leg along with rear bumper mount that I made.







Spring hanger is now in place and I have started putting the rest of the metal in, pictures of the completed job soon I hope.

The new upper shackle bushes and spring shackle came today so I can refit the spring to the new hanger. New upper bushes look to be made of nylon or similar where the originals look to be bronze, I don't suppose the new ones will last 60 years ....

[arceye]

About time for an update,

New chassis leg / spring hanger went in along with associated metal & wheel arch repairs









Then I could get on with the rotten rear quarter which was a fiddle but eventually came together and tied in to the other repairs.



So, that done there were a couple of repairs to the rear door required





And so structurally at least this half of the car is done, the next step is to shift it over in the garage so I can work on the structural repairs required on the near side. before this happens though I wanted to start attending to the cosmetics down this side so that everything is protected.

I got busy but didn't bother with photos I'm afraid, but basically sanded off the last couple of paint jobs down this side of the car and skimmed the repairs with filler, windscreen has come out now also.

This is where it stands today







That is the first coat on and drying, I'll flat it back a little in a day or so then give it another good coat before going to work on the other side.

I decided to go with synthetic enamel paint this time as I need to do every bit of the car inside and out eventually and don't want to bare metal every last nook and cranny, so given the various paint jobs over the years I thought this would be the safest option to avoid paint reactions.

I will point out this time it isn't a cheap option either, the paint is "proper" coach enamel mixed to order to the original Court Grey colour, which isn't a grey at all really but a very soft cream. Its from Craftmaster paints and at £27 a litre there are cheaper options but it is actually very nice to use compared to the industrial / tractor type enamels i've flirted with in the past.