My Austin Seven Special

[Manalishi]

To cut a very long story very short:
My father bought an Austin Seven barn find back in 1973 so I grew up with it. In the 90s we started putting it together and I got my eyes opened about the fabulous 750specials that were around, so I decided o hunt one down. Not an easy task in Sweden. 2005 I found these piecesor parts in crates and chassis. No V5, nothing. So I decided to have a go. It's been 4 years and it's not yet completed, but the thrill is not to drive, it's the build. I would recommend any one to do it as it's that easy really. And the moments of joy are countless...

Rolling chassis. Bad shape. Rust and grit. You know the story...


There were crates of stuff with it. 100kg I think, mostly junk. This is the very (actually unusual) crankcase I used:


Clean up, paint.


Got this cowl from Austin Guru Barry Lovelock, a very good friend.


Front axle had to be refurbishes and bent to Sports pattren by Ian Dunford. (The only piece not done by myself)


Cleaned up and put together. Will it run?


Mating chassis with engine/box.


Did some errors I had to re-do later. The sides were too short - Re-do. The tail was too flat - Re-do...
My first true love, my grandfathers old Volvo Amazon looking gorgeous as ever there in the background.


In my garage constructing ali-body.


Hey presto!


Looks pretty good!


Painting being done in my parents garage. The "grumpy old man" My father the paint ace sitting in the corner giving advice. - More air. - More distance. -Closer etc.


Body back to chassis. My lovely Rover Coupe next to it.


Maiden voyage...

[CHR15E]

How do you go on with using it legally?

Has it been an expensive project?

[schuwolf]

What a great project. Well done. Must be very proud.

In the bottom corner of one of the pics is a muave wing and headlight. What is that on?

[Richard Moss]

Great piece of work

[Mike V]

Nice work Manalishi, what is the spec on the engine? size/hp?

[PhilC]

Thats fantastic...

[47p2]

Looks like it could be a lot of fun to drive. Well done

[Manalishi]

Thanks for your comments.

CHRI5E: Actually it's not easy to get it roadlegal, but there are a few ways of getting there. As the car is older than 1950 it is a lot easier as the rules here in Sweden are more generous.
It's not that much money into it. Maybe all in £3000 so far spread over 4 years. A few things are more costly, like tyres. The front axle had to be shipped to England to be restored and that's the most expensive piece so far. The body is constructed from 4 sheets 2X1m aluminium that cost only £100 in total. Paint is less than £100 aswell.

schuwolf, it's my fathers Austin Seven Ruby 1936 that is very near completed. I've attached a few pics here.

Mike. It's a blistering 747cc pushing 13bhp. Mine is bored to 790 (60 thou oversize) plus I've got bigger inlets plus "bunch of bananas" plus downdraft bigger carb. Mine is probably 25bhp and it weighs less than 300kg so 65-70mph is very possible.

Pics: My fathers Ruby, I've just dismantled and restored his engine as it had a bad knocking rear main bearing. We put it back into his car yesterday and hopefully she will run again before next weekend.

[schuwolf]

Sweet little Ruby! Complete with a duster wielding 'grumpy old man' Certainly a Rover and Austin family

[BRG]

Wow, Manalishi. Reading everyone else's comments, it seems I don't have a lot of superlatives left to pick from. ('great', 'fantastic' etc, all used!)

Bit juvenile, but I decided on "awesome, dude!!"

Only kiddin'. Seriously, you should be proud of yourself. Tremendous.

[RovJon]

This looks a grand project... I attempted something similar with the bits of a Bulldog kitcar once, and was really rubbish! I gave it to the scrappy. Ive got a book called " building and racing my 750" by P.J Stephens which is well worth sourcing for any car enthusiast, it will take you back to times when the roadside were littered with AVRO lancasters to strip aluminium from!
I understand you can use the Reliant Kitten engine aswell... 850cc can be made to have a bit of poke!

[scoobyh123]

Wow!! Not quite my bag but i can still appreciate the blood, sweat, tears etc that has gone into making that as beautiful as it is!! Well done is a bit of an understatement, but............................Well done!!
Out of interest, what happened to the Amazon? And am i right in thinking it was a B20B engine? Looks like the wing badges would be right for that engine? Years ago my brother had a 142S (ultra rare in the uk) and the muppet scrapped it cos it gradually lost it's performance (70mph max) and started drinking fuel (16mpg). Tried to tell him a service would do it the power of good but as always, he didn't listen!!
Cheers,
Dave

[Manalishi]

Thanks!
yes I believe there are those who use Reliant engines in them, but that is cheating. Mine has some larger inlets and bigger carb plus a bunch of bananas in combination with less than 300kg unloaded.

The Amazon. It is a 121 from -64 with B18A and BW35 autobox. Very sluggish and heavy on fuel. It was bought by my grandfather (fathers side) when it was new but it went out of the family in -79 when he died. I got it back in -89 and by then it was all rotten. So my father and I restored it during the first winter. I did the metal and he did the paintjob.

Unfortunately it was parked outside for too long and over the winter (too many cars...) so it deteriorated into a pretty sad state and I eventually sold her in 2007. Hopefully it will be restored again by the new owner as a 4 door auto is very unusual, only about 20 is still around.

[The Flying Dutchman]

Very, very nice. Reminds me of my RNLAF days when we had a Ruby as our mascotte at the airbase of Soesterberg and also of my second car a Volvo 123GT. Wish I never sold that.

[Manalishi]

I just have to update this as I'm uploading pics tp photobucket.
Enjoy!
I took it for a longer drive around the block and it is very pleasant to drive.