Tommy's A-series Misery - The Austin Seven lives!

[horriblemercedes]

13 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

Basically the wiring loom. I think you used to get that in low end German stuff so that they looked slightly less overpriced, thanks to unhelpful £ vs Deutschmark exchange rate in the eighties. 

Yep. Pretty normal well into the 1990s that you didn't get the loom for the radio unless you specified it on a Mercedes and probably BMW too.

 

It wasn't uncommon that people would buy a Mercedes with the pre-radio option and then take it to a car audio shop for speakers and a head unit. I remember a friend of my father getting a new E-Class (would've been a W124) without the pre-radio kit and it having to be wired and have a hole drilled for the aerial. Worked out more expensive than the optional kit iirc

[horriblemercedes]

1 hour ago, HillmanImp said:

Normally you'd say that someone driving an AX all that way was an absolute hero but doing it alongside that Montego makes them look like a fucking casual.

I told my uncle about it and showed him the picture of the two at Land's End. He instantly said that the AX driver has it easy!

[Sir Chocolate Teapot]

Simply marvellous.

Just watch the price of montego (s) rise now as people realise how wrong they were about suvs

[Tommyboy12]

Day 3 is the ultimate test. We are doing 10 hours driving today from just south of Chester to Plockton. Nearly500 miles. My patch repair on the exhaust required further fettling last night and hopefully will hold. I'll report in as we go!

[Tommyboy12]

And we have crossed into the Dales! Just stopped at the services for fuel and a late breakfast. 994 miles into the trip!

[sharley17194]

I'm not support car in fact Tom will conform top gear rules apply . 

 

14 hours ago, Talbot said:

The fact that a '96 AX is being used as a support car speaks volumes about the state of the vehicle needing to be supported.

A superb venture!  I hope there will be an in-depth write-up.

 

[tooSavvy]

17 hours ago, Talbot said:

A superb venture!  I hope there will be an in-depth write-up.

An 'in death' write-up on the Exhaust, more likely.....

Epic, truly EPIC 👍

[big_al_granvia]

the lads should be in scotland by now

[Dick Cheeseburger]

5 hours ago, Tommyboy12 said:

And we have crossed into the Dales! Just stopped at the services for fuel and a late breakfast. 994 miles into the trip!

 

I thought the background noise was some serious sounding mechanical clanking at first. Further listening confirms it's likely hardcore beatz to keep @Tommyboy12 awake through the haze of 1.3 flavoured monoxide. What a relief!

[Tommyboy12]

2 hours ago, big_al_granvia said:

the lads should be in scotland by now

We are indeed! Hit Scotland quite a few hours ago. Just stopping for some road side sustenance at Fort William

[big_al_granvia]

well in lads, you have done the miles today

[rob88h]

5 hours ago, Tommyboy12 said:

And we have crossed into the Dales!

So much vibration that the camera can’t stabilise, or is your camera tripping on the fumes too? 🤣
This Montego is the essence of AutoShit in so many aspects. It’s absolutely glorious. 

[Pieman]

The three cars on this forum I want to own:

1. This Montego.
2. The ZAZ Tavria.
3. @Zelandeth's beige BX.

[BorniteIdentity]

Christ. The noise of it. At Guantanamo they used the “Barney the Dinosaur” music, on loop, as a form of torture. Stick them in that for an hour and they’d all be talking. 

Looking forward to seeing you on your return - I’ll shuffle up with that workshop bible. 

[Cord Fourteener]

2 hours ago, Tommyboy12 said:

We are indeed! Hit Scotland quite a few hours ago. Just stopping for some road side sustenance at Fort William

Just truly epic.

And that's just the paint job. 

Chodspeed, what an adventure. Maybe we should be sponsoring you a penny a mile!

[Tommyboy12]

We made it to our overnight stop at about 7pm. It's basically a wooden hut in a field but it's dry and will hopefully warm up. The water coming out the tap is yellow. Apparently that's normal.

We very nearly hit 1300 miles and I'm about to clock over to 283k.

[Tommyboy12]

Signal here is shocking. We arrived about an hour later than planned. Set off at 8am. Went via Manchester to pick up a fibreglass bonnet for @sharley17194 which is currently living in the back of the montego.

We stopped twice for fuel. Once for food. And twice because my windscreen wipers decided to stop working/wiper blade discintegrated in the middle of a downpour. There's nothing quite like pulling apart the wiper stalk on an Austin Montego in a downpour and hoping that cleaning the contacts will mean they work again. Luckily it did work! Which is nice because I spent most of the day trying not to die every time it rained because they didn't work.

[sharley17194]

You missed the stop for more oil. Its a 2,stroke montego. 

3 minutes ago, Tommyboy12 said:

Signal here is shocking. We arrived about an hour later than planned. Set off at 8am. Went via Manchester to pick up a fibreglass bonnet for @sharley17194 which is currently living in the back of the montego.

We stopped twice for fuel. Once for food. And twice because my windscreen wipers decided to stop working/wiper blade discintegrated in the middle of a downpour. There's nothing quite like pulling apart the wiper stalk on an Austin Montego in a downpour and hoping that cleaning the contacts will mean they work again. Luckily it did work! Which is nice because I spent most of the day trying not to die every time it rained because they didn't work.

 

[N19]

2 hours ago, Tommyboy12 said:

We made it to our overnight stop at about 7pm. It's basically a wooden hut in a field but it's dry and will hopefully warm up. The water coming out the tap is yellow. Apparently that's normal.

We very nearly hit 1300 miles and I'm about to clock over to 283k.

Calendar shot? 

[Tommyboy12]

Guess who cooked their engine going up Scotland's Stelvio?

[Sir Chocolate Teapot]

That is a beautiful picture.

[big_al_granvia]

oops

[AxWomble]

Ooh heck. Hope a quick stop will cure it! What variety of cooking was achieved, steamy, smoky or bangy?

[Tommyboy12]

Luckily it was just steam variety and after 15 minutes it seems fine. I got a bit hot but my toggle operated rad fan kept me cool

[Dick Cheeseburger]

1 hour ago, Tommyboy12 said:

Guess who cooked their engine going up Scotland's Stelvio?

Grate Britain is Gr8 again : 1

France: 0

Has the Montego become endearing after so many miles of faithful service? Or are you imagining the moment you can finally extract yourself from that executive interior? 

[Tommyboy12]

32 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Grate Britain is Gr8 again : 1

France: 0

Has the Montego become endearing after so many miles of faithful service? Or are you imagining the moment you can finally extract yourself from that executive interior? 

I am amazed it's continuing to give service! The seats are very luxurious but I am quite done with the ticking Speedo 😂

[Tommyboy12]

The money shots

[sharley17194]

You missed the stop for more oil. Its a 2,stroke montego. 

17 hours ago, Tommyboy12 said:

Signal here is shocking. We arrived about an hour later than planned. Set off at 8am. Went via Manchester to pick up a fibreglass bonnet for @sharley17194 which is currently living in the back of the montego.

We stopped twice for fuel. Once for food. And twice because my windscreen wipers decided to stop working/wiper blade discintegrated in the middle of a downpour. There's nothing quite like pulling apart the wiper stalk on an Austin Montego in a downpour and hoping that cleaning the contacts will mean they work again. Luckily it did work! Which is nice because I spent most of the day trying not to die every time it rained because they didn't work.

 

[timolloyd]

2 hours ago, Tommyboy12 said:

The money shots

You could almost recreate that shot of Sean Connery and the DB5!

Though your car is more legendary of course.

[Pieman]

Fixed the above image for you.