Austin A70 Hampshire

[angrydicky]

Amazing dicky. The seats look to be quite different shades, is it just a trick of the light?

No, the passenger seat has been cleaned, the drivers seat still needs doing. The whole interior was stained with nicotine from 1950s Dutch fags!

Here’s a picture showing part of a doorcard I cleaned. Still plenty of cleaning to do here.

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[SiC]

Looking good!

I personally think it deserves to be painted. I get the Patina/rat/original look but there are so few of these around I feel it deserves it. That look is good when there are still quite a few around and most are shiny. But this is not just a survivor but a piece of something that simply isn't around now and part of the duty to show others what was mainstream automotive transport (for the lucky ones) back then. Flying the flag for 40s/50s Austin family cars.

[angrydicky]

I do like patinated cars but this has so much surface rust it’s got to be done. If it all looked like the O/S does I’d be happy to try to preserve it but the N/S, roof and back end are all very poor with loads of surface rust breaking out.
Once the ACCC show is out of the way I’ll see about booking it in for its bare metal respray next year.
Been recommended a chrome plater too.
The interior is ok but unfortunately the mice have got to the headlining and the carpets are exceptionally threadbare. It’ll do for now but I will have to get those sorted at some point.

[DodgeRover]

Are you registered for film/ TV work, as it is that would fit into virtually any set

[Hooli]

It is looking damned good

[slowanimals]

That's going to have a crowd round it all day when you make it to Crich, especially with it looking like it does. As you'll know from your Somerset,very often it's the scruffy original looking examples which get the attention. It's lovely to see it coming together so quickly.

[angrydicky]

That's going to have a crowd round it all day when you make it to Crich, especially with it looking like it does. As you'll know from your Somerset,very often it's the scruffy original looking examples which get the attention. It's lovely to see it coming together so quickly.

Thanks, it's useful having a deadline to work to. Just under three months until Crich, it should be doable.

This is the only fly in the ointment about painting it. As you say it's a great talking point, versus when it's shiny it's just "Oh an Austin Devon" which will largely get ignored at shows, or out and about because it's "boring".

[christine]

No doubt you already know of this website A.D?

http://www.austinmemories.com/styled-33 ... index.html

[angrydicky]

The next job was to weld up the rear inner wings and fit the new outer wings, and the bumper.
The passenger side wasn’t too bad, just needing repairs at the front and back and in the middle where the scaffold pole which supported the body while it wasn’t on the chassis crushed it.
I had to replace two of the captive nuts, at the lower front and lower rear, where the old ones came off with the old wings, as well as sections of rusty mounting flange.
Fortunately, I managed to find someone selling 1/4” BSF captive nuts on eBay for reasonable money, so I bought a pack of ten.
Having repaired the metalwork, I bolted the wing up, marked through the holes in the wing flange then removed and drilled holes in my new metal. Then welded the captive nuts in place.
I then painted it with a coat of rust converter, then primer then brushed it with cellulose top coat. That’s the original colour, believe it or not. The sample I used to get the paint mixed up was from the underside of the heater box lid where the paint hadn’t faded at all.

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I tried painting the new valance and it came out ok, but I ended up putting the old one back on for the time being as the new paint looked so weird next to the old faded stuff!
I painted inside the new wing, and bolted it up with new wing piping.
Another thing that was keeping this heap from hitting the road was the tyres. On arrival, two of the tyres wouldn’t hold air at all, having completely collapsed. I put it on a selection of tyres to get it rolling. One of the ones that was on the car, that held air was from a Hereford. They take a larger diameter hubcap. I put two Somerset ones on it, a good 5:25x16 crossply and the radial spare from my Somerset. The car came with three originals and the aforementioned Hereford one. All were badly kerbed, the previous owner must have done a lot of parallel parking.
I managed to buy a fourth Hampshire wheel from Graham Potts which was even in the correct colour, and was in much better condition than the other three. Anyway, I sanded them down and brush painted them with the Antrim Blue celly. I think you can get away with a different shade on wheels. The finish is terrible, as the surface was a flaky mess of surface rust and black hammerite, but it looks ok from a few feet away. Eventually I’ll have them shotblasted, but they’ll do for now.
I bought a set of new inner tubes then took the four wheels and the new 5:50x16 Avon Tourist tyres which came with the car to the local tyre place and had them fitted.
I’ve had a good look through the spares and I only have two of the correct dome-headed BSF nuts which hold the wheel spats on. The previous owner had obviously also had this dilemma as he’d collected a few modern domed nuts but they’re all way too small, the idea with these is that the wheelbrace fits them as there’s no chance of changing a wheel by the side of the road without removing the spat first.
I also bought and fitted a nice new pair of Tex wing mirrors, as it only had one (on the wrong side) it was in poor condition and with the prices asked for shitty old mirrors on eBay the new ones didn’t seem that expensive. Went for the curved stem type which suit the car very well. Now they’re adjusted, the rear visibility is pretty good. Still got to replace the rear view mirror glass which has delaminated, I bought a new one about two years ago but it’s proving elusive so far.
Swapped the period Bluemels reflectors over from the old shell. They weren’t in bad condition and anyway I wanted to hide the holes left when I removed the ancient Dutch reversing light. I won’t be removing anything else from in for the foreseeable future, as a bird is nesting in one of the gloveboxes.
Anyway- it’s starting to look like a Hampshire again.

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[xtriple]

Wheels and windows. When I was first starting out flogging old motors (popular modern motor vehicles for the discerning chap...) I was told that clean wheels and windows sell cars. Yours looks a thousand times better for the above efforts