Project “will it go again..?” 1961 Austin Seven Deluxe Restoration

[AndyPen]

Enjoyed revisiting some of this thread - hope you get it done in your timescale

[gs.davies]

Loads done since the last update on here; will get some pictures up when I find a way of hosting pictures or a really quick way of size reducing for hosting here;

Rear subframe built up
- reconditioned rear backplates
- new rear cylinders to support a 998 brake set up
- new limit valve
- reconditioned original radius arms
- brake hydraulics added
- Brackets for fuel pump and exhaust fitted
- minifin rear drums with all new shoes, handbrake levers and springs

Front subframe
- hydraulics built up
- hubs sorted and one disc machined to clear a modern hub nose
- engine and box attached to subframe, head bolted down, cooling system plumbed in

Minilites acquired and they look great with drum offset; tyres to be fitted (145 Yoko GT Classics)

Bodyshell

- various parts fitted or dry fitted including new master cylinders, repaired and refurbished wiper rack and wheel boxes, bonnet catch, bonnet, boot lid, bumpers

To do

- fit pistons and seals to 7” calipers and paint (tartan red..)
- fit up hubs with new ball joints and bearings
- get car off it’s pallet and fit up front to rear brake line and fuel line
- fit steering rack
- fit hubs, flanges, driveshafts, discs and calipers and drop it onto its subframes front and rear

Pics to follow but tips of getting a car off a pallet and onto stands for a subframe rear and front refit (including engine in frame) are very welcome. Scratching my head on how to achieve this at the moment. Front first? Rear first? Can I even get it off the pallet??

[woodypup59]

To make jpg's smaller, open in Microsoft picture editor.

Use the COMPRESS function and save a document size.

That usually cuts the pixel count to about 10%, without losing too much quality.

[rolesyboy]

Gary, I don't mind popping over at some point to help you lift the car off the pallet. Message me if you do
Cheers. Mark

[gs.davies]

Gary, I don't mind popping over at some point to help you lift the car off the pallet. Message me if you do
Cheers. Mark

Thanks mate, might well take you up on that. I’ll get the fridge stocked with Stella for afterwards..

[gs.davies]

Been a while since I updated this.

Wiring loom has now been fitted up - it did come with the parcel shelf grommet, despite Autosparks saying it didn’t…

Rear subframe has been fitted today, fully built up, just a couple of final screws to get in once I get the rear trunnions aligned and then the rear of the car can sit on its wheels on the floor.

Front subframe will go in this week once I’ve decoupled the engine, decided on the more traditional method. Engine will follow.

Had a setback with the rack, it’s the only thing I hadn’t looked at, just painted it and hoped it was still ok. Of course, it turned out to be knackered so in the interests of time, a new Mk2 rack is going in and the arms getting changed over. Once that’s done, front subframe can go back in and we’ll see the car on all four wheels again

Wiper rack is in, motor rebuilt and given a lick of paint. It’s not the tidiest motor in the world but there’s a deadline to meet - the car needs to get to Blyton this year as a pricing run before we attempt to get it to IMM.

LOTS to do!

Pics to follow when I can remember how to resize them.

[gs.davies]

Right, lets get some pics on here now I've sussed out resizing..

I had a spare rocker cover lying around and my cousin got the helpful chaps at his work (Aviation engineers) to blast the old cover and crackle black it. It's got a strange yellowy sort of inside treatment, not sure what it's called, but it's great nonetheless. New Weslake and Austin badges fitted. Weslake badge should have the blind hammered rivets but I didn't have them, or a rivet setter and so I pop riveted them on.

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I finally got round to assembling the remainder of the front suspension and discovered that the original lower arm pin had a damaged thread at the end, so a new one was sourced.

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Cooper 7" disc assembled with driveshaft onto the hub..

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Fuel tank drain arrangement - I've found the remains of the original plug for this - it was the one with the tube attached but that's long gone now. I did try a calliper bleed nipple but it was too short to make a seal against the internal taper. I'll try one of the old calliper plugs before refitting the tank. Somerford's also are now stocking the correct rubber bung that seals the boot floor.

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The rear subframe, built up and awaiting the on-paper very simple process of re-attachment.. I resisted the urge for Tartan Red Minifins, but the grease caps got a quick coat

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[gs.davies]

I decided to convert the driveshaft to pot joints some time ago when I made a decision on the 3.2:1 final drive ratio. Mark Roles sorted me out a set of driveshafts and these were stripped, sent off for cleaning (thanks again John and the lads at Kearsley's..) before coming back for assembly onto the shafts with new gaiters. A modest amount of wear existed in the joints but in the spirit of what this project has become, they'll go again until such time they start misbehaving.

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Also up for a refurb, were the 7" 998 Cooper callipers. These came all the way from Down Under thanks to Michael Griffin. Again, cleaned by John, new seals fitted, new pistons and reassembled. I further resisted the urge for Tartan Red here, initially going with what was billed on the can as 'silver/grey' before deciding on Black. I also forgot to mask off the surface where the copper sealing washer went so what little grey paint was on there was carefully removed.

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On advice from Rolesyboy and others, these need degreasing and a lick of paint on the horizontal faces to avoid a rusty looking mess behind the Minilites.

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[gs.davies]

When I last ran the car as a daily in the mid 90's I changed the oil and along with the sump plug came most of the threads. I'd almost forgotten this until I started thinking about filling the engine up with oil in preparation for spinning up to get pressure. At the time, I was able to limp the car into Regal Engines, Purfleet where they fitted a new sump plug. As you can see, it doesn't have a magnetic section on it and it's a tapered fit. I will replace this with a Goldplug with a neodymium magnet before filling up with oil to protect from the inevitable swarf that's likely to turn up after initial run in. Just got to work out what thread size this is..

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[gs.davies]

Wiring up..

Some time last year, or maybe the year before I forget which (!) I obtained a nice new rear loom from a member here and so I planned to have a custom made loom for the front. Under the 'Recommended Suppliers' section of this forum, I found a company, imaginatively called 'The Wiring Loom Company' who agreed to make me up a front loom with some additional circuits and relays for main/dip/fog/spot. I wasn't asked to make payment but the loom would be ready in a couple of weeks... every time I called, it was either on the board being done, or was 'nearly ready;.. Anyway, others here had problems with this company and eventually I stopped phoning.

Fast forward and with the madcap idea of driving this heap to Italy and back for IMM, I needed a loom, but only the front half. Autosparks had one and got it posted out. You may recall some debate about the grommet that goes through the parcel shelf. Apparently, it's not included on the Autosparks loom and so I managed to find one matching the part number at Moss (in fact, a lot of common part numbers are available at Moss where the parts are common to MGA/B, Minor/ TR's etc...). I needn't have bothered because the grommet was included.. What was not quite right was where the grommet was. A tip to anyone fitting a front loom - work out where the grommet goes FIRST and if you have to try getting it over the warning lamp bulb holders.. well, unthread it ALL the way and start again

Also missing from the loom for anyone else's future reference are the five way bullet connectors for the indicator stalk and the connection to the main loom, the lead for the dip switch (mine was serviceable) and the leads for the horn. I must admit, that did cause some confusion as I wasn't expecting to see such heavy cable for this circuit but apparently the horn draws quite a current. Which given the comical sound it makes is strange.. You'll also need various bullet connectors and sleeves to add these leads in. You'll also need to add bullets to the ends of the leads for the indicators.

On wiring up I found the rheostat was cracked at the back and so was replaced, thanks to a member here for the parts. I also obtained via the same member a replacement fusebox - my old one is pretty rough looking though I have to make a hole in the inner wing to fit it as it was missed from the M-Machine panel. As I progress, I do kick myself that a dry build wasn't carried out. Still, we live and learn.

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[gs.davies]

After wiring, and still putting off the heavy lifting to be done underneath the car, I dug up the speedo and binnacle.

The car is a November built 1961 Austin and so should have the cream faced Speedometer in a white binnacle. When I got the car in 1994, it was fitted with a Mk3 speedo and I knew then it was wrong. Between myself and John, there was a 1965 SDL knocking around and I'd robbed the centre clocks and fittings out of it - sadly the pressure gauge, temperature gauge, metal panel, binnacle and fascia were pinched out the back of an old van I'd been using to store stuff but I'd kept the speedo, so I fitted it.

When I first started this restoration, I did start going down the 'all NOS' as far as possible, concours car and during that phase I bought a speedometer which was apparently NOS. It's certainly nice and clean and the digits are all at zero. I'd also obtained another much tattier cream faced speedo which gave me the cream fuel gauge. I decided a while ago to test it and fitted a cable. On turning the cable the needle turned in direct drive from the cable, not good. I rechecked this last weekend and found that on removing the glass, the needle is loose in the housing, doesn't seem to be spring loaded and is in need of some help. I will have this rebuilt but for now and to keep the project moving, I've taken it 'off the critical path' as we say in the day job and I will refit the 1965 SDL item. The other cream one presumably has some broken teeth in the odometer and while it tells the speed has no idea how far it's travelled..

The binnacle - I've been on the look out for one of these for ages. Yet to find one even as tatty as mine (most are far worse) and folk seem to have cottoned on to the apparent value of them. At Bingley there was one for £35, slightly better than mine, and with a speedo in it. On asking how much WITHOUT the speedo, he said 'But I've been offered £50 for the binnacle..' I'm overrun with speedos so I left it. I'm going to refit this one as it is after a clean and next time I'm at a jumble if I see an intact black one, I'll have that and paint it. Then when I get the decent cream speedo fixed I'll treat it to one of Fred's repro items. In the absence of Dum Dum I'm using butyl sealant tape around the edge of the binnacle.

But for now, pragmatism; black speedometer, serviceable old cream binnacle..

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[gs.davies]

Been a while since I updated this.

Wiring loom has now been fitted up - it did come with the parcel shelf grommet, despite Autosparks saying it didn’t…

Rear subframe has been fitted today, fully built up, just a couple of final screws to get in once I get the rear trunnions aligned and then the rear of the car can sit on its wheels on the floor.

Front subframe will go in this week once I’ve decoupled the engine, decided on the more traditional method. Engine will follow.

Had a setback with the rack, it’s the only thing I hadn’t looked at, just painted it and hoped it was still ok. Of course, it turned out to be knackered so in the interests of time, a new Mk2 rack is going in and the arms getting changed over. Once that’s done, front subframe can go back in and we’ll see the car on all four wheels again

Wiper rack is in, motor rebuilt and given a lick of paint. It’s not the tidiest motor in the world but there’s a deadline to meet - the car needs to get to Blyton this year as a pricing run before we attempt to get it to IMM.

LOTS to do!

Pics to follow when I can remember how to resize them.

Oh my...I was one of a select few long term Mini owners who has never had to deal with a rear subframe. This car never needed one when it was my daily (or so the MOT tester decreed anyway..) and my SPi was too new and too slathered in some kind of sealant to have suffered. And whilst I thought I'd won the battle in two short hours last Saturday afternoon, I was soon to be corrected.

I went back into the garage on Sunday morning, full of cooked breakfast, coffee in hand, radio on, early spring sunshine shining and warming the driveway behind me. 'Lovely, I though to myself, just a handful of screws to get popped in now and I can fit up rear shocks, handbrake cables, connect the front to rear hydraulic, plonk the wheels on and think about some nice lightweight task. Or shall I walk the dog up the pub for a nice pint? Hmm, anyway, lets get to work'

MANY HOURS LATER....

Working alone on this armed with a jack that manages around 12" of lift, half a dozen axle stands and some chunks of 3x2 isn't probably the way to go. I could get some screws in. And not others. Or the others and not the first ones. Swearing. Cursing. It was all no use. I fitted a new rack for a bit of light relief. I dreamed of the pint waiting in the Sunny Sailor. I checked my social media (saw the pub was closed, run out of beer, nothing in the till for anymore..) I became depressed, dejected, cross. Really cross. This little sod was trolling me, laughing. It doesn't want to go to Italy. It doesn't even want to come out the ******* garage..

Radio Two was changed for Planet Rock. Volume was increased. Coffee was had. Stern words were had with oneself.. a little bit of paint work got scuffed. Radius arms were removed, undoing all that careful prep on the bench some months prior. Hydraulic pipes were removed. Trunnions were tightened up some more. A club hammer was brought into play in the boot. Motorhead, Saxon, Skynyrd, Thunder, Quo, and then heavier stuff. And perversely, ELO's Turn To Stone.. Finally, LFF835 gave in, the battle was mine, all screws were in, earlier gains made with radius arms were recaptured but finally, after all out war, victory was mine.

Gary 6-5 Subframe (Rear)

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Postscript, I came back to the garage in the depths of the cold and dark on Monday to begin reattaching the radius arms. My inspection light was broken. My Mini Maglite batteries were low. Eventually, and after a heart stopping moment where I thought I'd incorrectly assembled the handbrake paraphernalia, the offside arm was back in place, a shock absorber stopping it from bottoming out and the car proudly (or knowing it's contrary nature, begrudgingly) wearing a Minilite.

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I jest, but this has been a LONG and protracted process. I've had three jobs, been out of work for six months thanks to Brexit, lived apart from my family for a while, fell out with the original restorer, but to see a wheel on this car was a genuine boost. And it's the first positive though I've had that this car will be driven, soon, and preferably to Italy in May.

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[gs.davies]

I work from home most of the time and instead of sitting about eating lunch today, I put the nearside radius arm back on and attached the damper. Looks good with a pair of wheels at the back - almost time for it to come off the four wheeled pallet.

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Thoughts then turned to the fuel tank. There's a couple of problems..

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The hole for the drain is in the wrong place and there's no captive nut for the tank strap, fortunately it doesn't open into the now incorrectly closed section. As discussed on the 'fuel tank thingy' thread, I'll now seal this hole up and stick a grommet in the hole, seal that up with Tiger Seal.

As for the tank strap, hopefully that IS in the right place - I think I'll use a big serrated washer underneath the strap and attach the wiring to the lower part of the first strap.

Still, the body coloured fuel cap looks good though when I dry fitted it all together.

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Finally, a little bit grommeting - number plate lead threaded through the bootlid - bullet connectors have arrived so I can wire the numberplate lamp up before fitting the number plate and give it an identity again after all these years.

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[gs.davies]

Still suffering with a gammy shoulder so light duties only until I can get some help round to get front subframe and engine in. I've just restored the fug-stirrer, sorted the problem with the motor, checked the matrix for leaks, resealed it all and got it ready to fit. I can't do that until I've fitted a replacement rheostat kindly sent by 'olddave' and fitted a suitable choke cable.

The choke cable on LFF is the original 850 one, short cable with a single 'C' on the knob and it won't reach the linkages for the twin 998 Cooper carbs that the car's going to use. I looked at repro ones, found them to look a bit too shiny and new, and obviously incorrect legend on the end. Apparently an MGA one can be employed as it has plenty of length and the correct legend but again, look a bit shiny and new and repro. And forty quid.

So, I decided to modify the existing cable to retain the correct in dash look.

I bought a metre of push-pull Bowden cable from Car builder solutions, six quid for a metre, and set about replacing the cable. It was much easier than I thought.

First, pull the knob all the way out of the sleeve until it's free and you'll see a hole where the existing cable is soldered/crimped. I drilled it through to release it. Then, I pulled the old bowden outer from the tube before running a drill through to just knock off the inside of the crimps that secured the old outer. The cable I bought is covered, so I stripped it back about an inch before inserting it to the end of the tube and securing it with new crimps made with a couple of dabs of an auto punch. It doesn't need to be particularly tight here. I made sure there was still room inside the tube to take the knob fully inserted.

Next, secure the bowden inner to the old knob inner. Insert as far as it'll go, secure again with several taps from an auto punch. I'll probably also run some solder into the hole too.

Voila, a long (very long at the moment) choke cable that looks like an old early 850 control inside the car.

I'll probably need to strip the rest of the outer off to match the appearance of the original and to get to to pass through the bulkhead and grommet. At the moment, the grommet is a bit too small to allow it to pass. Once the engine is in, I'll trim it to fit.

Next up, fit the rheostat, double check the wiring and then hang the freshly restored fug-stirrer under the dash.

A small victory and a pleasant step forward.

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[AndyPen]

Nice job

[gs.davies]

Not a huge amount of progress since the last update, but a few bits have been done.

Further to enquiries about the odd sump plug, I visited Brown and Geeson who are in Wickford, Essex and not very far from me. I took the old plug over and they compared with a 3/8 BSP Gold Plug; perfect match and it has a magnet on the end for catching all the swarf so that got fitted.

I've also had a nagging doubt about getting oil pressure up - I finished the engine build in the summer of 2021 and the engine and box have sat with a dry sump (albeit with plenty of assembly lube and oil on the internals) and of course, it's always possible to wonder if you put the engine to gearbox O-ring in. So, before attempting to fit the engine this weekend, I though it was worth trying to get oil pressure.

Valve clearances were set as best I could without being able to turn the engine by hand, rocker cover fitted and I filled it with oil. Garage temperature is about 6 degrees and so it took quite a while for the oil to drain to the bottom of the sump. I rigged up a multimeter across the oil pressure switch and the battery negative which was connected to the engine earth strap. Reading was showing a circuit existed and therefore a light, if fitted, would be illuminated. Using an old battery cable connected to the positive I gave the engine a few spins by touching the positive cable to the starter terminal. The starter which last ran in 1999 groaned and wheezed and proceeded to spin the engine over with what could be described as somewhat indifferent enthusiasm.. I think it needs an overhaul! Anyway, after a couple of goes at this, and probably ten seconds in all, the oil pressure switch went open circuit, indicating that oil pressure is now achieved. I also took the rocker cover back off and spun it some more and there was evidence of oil being pumped up to the valve gear so I am now confident that oil is getting where it should and once the engine is in situ with the rest of the ignition system and fuel system hooked up, it'll fire and run.

Hopefully, my next visit to the garage will find the floor clear of oil...

I also got round to the overhauling the fuel pump with an SU overhaul kit. New ethanol tolerant diaphragm, gasket and points were fitted. I also painted the coil body and the bracket that mounts the coil body to the subframe. Just got to dig up some electrical tape to tape up the cover for the points and that's ready to fit.

Finally, I managed to find a grommet that should protect the fuel pipe as it goes through the boot floor. My boot floor panel is a heritage M-Machine modified one but it doesn't have the downward swage for the fuel pipe. I will be using a rubber grommet to protect it as it passes through the floor, the fuel pipe itself is stainless steel braided so I think this should be OK.

Next up, complete the back end of the car;

To do next, refit the hydraulics on the nearside, swap the shock top nuts for Nylocs, fit handbrake cables and grease up, fit fuel pump, find the tank straps and fit the tank once I've chopped off the end of the bleed nipple.. finish the fit of the steering rack and replacement of the column bushes, fit the column and wheel (again), set the TRE's to 106cm between centres.

And then at the weekend, with a fair wind, fit front subframe and engine and start thinking about firing the thing up.

Progress

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[gs.davies]

Well, a milestone was reached today. Unfortunately my cousin who has been helping me with the project was unable to help this weekend and so I set out into the garage this morning planning on tinkering with a few more bits and pieces. And then I had a change of heart and decided to see just how horrific a job getting the engine into the car from underneath is. Solo.

Beginning to end, this took me about forty-five minutes, and cost a little chip on the paint work on the leading edge of the inner wing, and I'd have probably done that mounting the subframe without the engine in it. Engine was sat on a low pallet and it was pretty easy to move back and forth. I have yet to put the screws in to locate the subframe ( ) but I can see the toe board ones line up, the centre hole where the cone compressor would fit lines up, so I don't think it'll cause me too much aggro.

I got the rear of the car down on the floor first and got some big tall axle stands under the front slinging shoe. Chocked the back wheels up and went in with a big jack, a plank of wood between the two underfloor channels, roughly in line with the starter switch. Slowly jacked it up, raising the axle stands as necessary until the front valence was high enough to let the engine and subframe assembly roll underneath it. Then, carefully, I lowered the body back down a couple of inches at a time, always adjusting the axle stands. Eventually I ended up on small stands, and then just the jack alone and it was quite straightforward to get the body down over the subframe.

Here's some pictures of the process.

Offering up, wondering if it was possible..

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Yes, it was indeed possible..

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Lowering the body down..

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And a bit more..

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And finally, an engine bay that contains an engine..

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[gs.davies]

Engine bay looking like that of a car again, plenty of good bits to be added here

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As a tribute to my sorely missed old SPi J242 HMF, I'm adding a Maniflow to this car. Just roughly hung it in place to see what it looked like. LFF used to have the single box peashooter..

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All four wheels on the ground, something it's not had since the halcyon days of 2014 Lots of things have got in the way, several jobs thanks to the turbulence of Brexit (and quite likely, another one shortly..) Comical ride height, but I quite like them like that. These are MS Evo cones.

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Ready to receive the Magic Wand change once again

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Nicely reconditioned Mk2 arms, big thanks to John for digging these out, cleaning and painting them.

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[Peter Laidler]

Great story....... Just read it from start to end again

[timmy201]

The engine looks fantastic installed in the shell! The green engine with black rocker cover is a great look