1968 Austin 1100 Mk1 (Take 2)

[Nibblet]

I almost certainly have a couple of sets of those points- you're welcome to em. Mr Stag is right, don't go changing to a spin on filter...that and I would stick with the points, it really is easy to set them up.

[Nibblet]

I don't think that's Tahiti blue- if anything your parts washer is more like Tahiti blue, like Stags and I remember Marinas being.

[Nibblet]

A question- is that a brake and clutch master cylinder side by side looking virtually identical?

[Nibblet]

Another thing I see is the advance/retard screw on the distributor, I've never owned a car that had the fine tune like that although I fooled about with that fixture on the Alpine my Uncle owned.

[SiC]

Another thing I see is the advance/retard screw on the distributor, I've never owned a car that had the fine tune like that although I fooled about with that fixture on the Alpine my Uncle owned.

Standard fitment to the Lucas 25D as richardthestag said, used on pretty much everything British in this era. My MGB has one too.

[SiC]

Speaking of which, let's have a quick partial fleet shot.

IMG_20200521_203957.jpg (897.38 KiB) Viewed 3919 times

IMG_20200521_204011.jpg (770.32 KiB) Viewed 3919 times

[Guest]

Can I just say, what a bloody strange place to have that bit of wall

[SiC]

So this car is bit of a paradox. I bought it as a "restoration project". Basically the trader guy selling it part-ex a XJ8 and got this. Being COVID, he didn't see the car in person and took the last sellers word for it. That seller turned out to have sent the trader 7 year old pictures when it was last restored.

C&C advert is still up:
https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1204953

I personally don't care what went on there or the ethics of whatever happened. This is the eBay advert I bought it from:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/293575624794

Rubbish pictures and a description that would put people off. This was up for £3500 to begin with and I've been privately BeEP messaging about ADO16 recently. Anyway we were commenting about how it must have been a turd that he bought without realising and disappointed.

It then went down to £2500 and then £1800. Finished on Sunday night and by lunchtime it had no bids. So I decided to message him to find out what the crac was.

Also made a cheeky offer of £1200 given I couldn't see it and the description. That was rejected.

Got sent some more pictures. Not great and many were blurry. However apart from what looked like poor paint prep, I couldn't see much wrong with it. Saying that, most of the pictures weren't of use - despite me asking for under seat pictures.

Anyway I sent another offer of £1500 and about 20 minutes before the auction ended, there was no bids so he accepted.

Crikey bugger I've just won a car.

So I really didn't know what to expect. But generally on these it is the body that is the problem and the mechanicals that are fine. As said plenty of times on here they love to rot.

Since it's arrived here and all this evening I've been hunting for nasty stuff needing welding. Fully expecting to do welding and actually wanting to do it.

Admittedly I haven't gone under it yet but I'm struggling to find anything wrong!

Under the seats



Pulling the tape off and looking at the backside of the rear subframe mounts, there is nothing of alarm. Some surface rust but there is wax down here - I did scrape a few bits off with my screwdriver. I've been poking hard with that screwdriver and it's all solid.







You can see bits of MIG wire, so it's definitely been welded previously. The welds on the car all look pretty decent work too.

The sills are all solid.




Footwells have been replaced at some point. These aren't my pictures, they're the sellers but yeah it's what they look like.




I need to take the front wheels off for a proper look but feeling the trumpets, they seem smooth, hard and metallic.

Under the dash I can't get a good picture but again it's all solid. Looks to have had the heater box area welded when looking inside the bonnet. You can see a line of welds behind this float bowl picture. Possibly why it's got that metallic lining in the engine bay.


Essentially I think the trader just has higher expectations on what this was. If you look at his other stock, they're all Mintola Concourse stuff.

So what needs doing?

Engine needs tuning, carb, etc. Gear change is a bit crap - looking at the clutch fluid I suspect the slave might be knackered.

Sat in the seats with the door open I can smell petrol. So I need to get underneath and check the pipes for corrosion.

Brake fluid reservoir is low, so I need to check pipes and flexis.

Suspension needs pumping up. Not sure why it's low. It's not on the bump stops, so it is holding pressure. The eBay picture showed the suspension a fair bit higher than it is now. I wonder if someone went poking recently on the valves and then realised what they were!



Hence the paradox is, I bought this expecting the mechanicals to be fine and needing bodywork - typical ADO16. However I've received something the complete opposite! Some bodywork but mostly touch ups and adjusting bonnet + door shuts as they scrape the paint.

I still need to go underneath and have a good look. But so far there is no structural areas that have me alarmed and wanting to get the MIG torch out.

This is not a bad thing as I have plenty of bits to weld on the Dolomite Sprint still!

I've got tomorrow and next week off. Maybe I'll be able to get it fully sorted and back on the road by then? All on the speed of how quickly parts come of course.

[SiC]

Can I just say, what a bloody strange place to have that bit of wall

That pillar? Fucking hate it and will reverse into it at some point. Sledge hammer will be going to it at some point in the near future. If I take it out, I'll be able to easily fit four cars on the drive.

[SiC]

This is nice to have. First ever classic car that I've bought with the first owner information with it.




Quite amazing that it's survived considering it came from Scotland!

Also a question for the ADO16 experts on here, am I supposed to have a bit of trim here?