Weird Car’s weird cars! ‘Work on the Tragic Triumph and a new Baby Austin joins the Fleet’

[somewhatfoolish]

Lovely BMC porridge. 

[bezzabsa]

MOAR PIKCHEWERS

[inconsistant]

The poos and spews were worth it!

[Weird Car]

And back home 138 miles of pleasure! Sat happily at (insert national speed limit here) and definitely not 10mph over no sir 

 

also found this useful manual in the boot! 

so far I’m happy with Audrey The Austin!  Old school Simple transportation for £1950. 

[stuboy]

i was expecting some different... well played

[dozeydustman]

On 13/07/2023 at 06:09, Weird Car said:

Obligatory Coffee stop

If that’s Chichester I saw a red mini in there yesterday morning while I got coffees for the office on way to work. Had I know it was a shiter I’d have said hi.

Austin looks a lovely old thing. Well played!

[Stinkwheel]

What flavour engine is in the new purchase?

[Rocket88]

Would suspect 1500 B series

[Weird Car]

Pictures of the old girl, i noticed the remains of few old stickers too, any ideas what for?  I can only assume the blank brown one was an old tax disc maybe 

[Weird Car]

1 hour ago, Stinkwheel said:

What flavour engine is in the new purchase?

 

22 minutes ago, Rocket88 said:

Would suspect 1500 B series

Correct, 1.5 B series, the first B series I’ve driven. A surprisingly pleasant and revy engine

[Angrydicky]

Wow, that’s lovely. I’ve got two of these. A black 1958 with column change that I’ve been on-off restoring for over 10 years and a Tweed Grey with  floor change 1959 that I acquired recently. It was a lot cheaper than yours but it’s pretty rotten in the usual places so not a weekends recommissioning. Unfortunately. They are lovely, lovely cars and it’s a shame they’re so rot prone. Yours looks amazingly solid. Good luck with it!

[Weird Car]

4 minutes ago, Angrydicky said:

Wow, that’s lovely. I’ve got two of these. A black 1958 with column change that I’ve been on-off restoring for over 10 years and a Tweed Grey with  floor change 1959 that I acquired recently. It was a lot cheaper than yours but it’s pretty rotten in the usual places so not a weekends recommissioning. Unfortunately. They are lovely, lovely cars and it’s a shame they’re so rot prone. Yours looks amazingly solid. Good luck with it!

She’s very solid thankfully, all I’m going to do is get her waxed underneath and have the body lacquered to hopefully protect it.

[Angrydicky]

Front inner wings are the no.1 rotspot on these, if you look up under the wheelarch you will see two ventilation holes which allow mud and salt to get thrown up and lie in the box section there. Virtually every one is rotten or has been patched up here. If yours is ok then get the dirt out and block the holes asap!

[Mr Pastry]

Nice old car - will be following this with interest, as my first car was the slightly later Farina version.

The IBTE sticker - Institution of British Telecommunication Engineers?

[tooSavvy]

All this......

AND 😮

Getz summ in!

Tread that has evrytink 🥳 👍

🚙💨

[64A60]

I haven't posted on this site for quite some time now but have logged in to say all the best with this car and glad that it's been saved. The seller you bought it from has owned many pre Farina Austin Cambridges but usually ends up breaking them for spares due to their low values. He painted the lower half of this car dark grey. Good that he threw in the rare period metal sun visor too.

Great it still has its original plates and the LF Dove of Croydon dealer plaque.

I owned KSJ 128, a 1958 column change example which was also Tweed grey but with a red interior. Very nice car to drive. Would like another pre Farina Cambridge at some point. 

 

 

[somewhatfoolish]

3 hours ago, Mr Pastry said:

Nice old car - will be following this with interest, as my first car was the slightly later Farina version.

The IBTE sticker - Institution of British Telecommunication Engineers?

Interesting*; the IBTE only existed as the IBTE for 20 years(1982-2002), before that they were the institution of post office electrical engineers, and now they're the Institute of Telecommunications Professionals.

[High Jetter]

4 minutes ago, 64A60 said:

I haven't posted on this site for quite some time now but have logged in to say all the best with this car and glad that it has been saved. The seller you bought it from has owned many pre Farina Austin Cambridges but usually ends up breaking them for spares due to their low values. He painted the lower half of this car dark grey. Good that he threw in the rare period metal sun visor too.

Great it still has its original plates and the LF Dove of Croydon dealer plaque.

I owned a 1958 column change example which was also Tweed grey but with a red interior. Very nice car to drive. Would like another pre Farina Cambridge at some point. 

 

 

Doves of Croydon rings a bell. Wasn't there also a Dove Grey tho?

[Dj_efk]

Nice steed.

 

Any plans beyond rust proofing it to the nines? If it was to be my daily driver I’d be thinking birthday-service and upgraded ignition. 
 

If a Riley 1.5 Engine and back axle came up I’d be tempted to lob them in too.

[Weird Car]

Just now, Dj_efk said:

Nice steed.

 

Any plans beyond rust proofing it to the nines? If it was to be my daily driver I’d be thinking birthday-service and upgraded ignition. 
 

If a Riley 1.5 Engine and back axle came up I’d be tempted to lob them in too.

Not too much, if I can find an electronic ignition kit I’ll be all for it, she’s already been converted to Alternator by the looks, brighter indicators are a must as the originals are like fireflies in fogged up jam jars, a few other things like a modern radio hidden in the glove box and a new exhaust as the home made side exit is just obnoxious and ruins what would otherwise be a nice sounding car and I’ll probably have to get lap belts fitted as I wouldn’t want my family travelling in a car without them.

[Dj_efk]

Don’t know if he’s still going but Collectors car parts who used to be in Sipson next to heathrow airport was my go-to for exhausts for 50s and 60s stuff.

 

Might be worth a google.

[Mr Pastry]

29 minutes ago, Dj_efk said:

Don’t know if he’s still going but Collectors car parts who used to be in Sipson next to heathrow airport was my go-to for exhausts for 50s and 60s stuff.

 

Might be worth a google.

I used to deal with Collector's Car Parts in the olden days, Howard Robinson, who was quite a character but certainly had his head screwed on.  It was the complete Aladdin's Cave and you had to wipe your feet on the way out, but he was unfailingly polite and helpful and had an amazing range of stock.  I'd be surprised if he was still going.  It would be interesting to know.

[Dj_efk]

Yes Howard! Lovely bloke.

When I was in my teens a best friend of mine worked there for a time on Saturday mornings. There was a drunk, semi-homeless codger with questionable personal hygiene (mostly thankfully masked by his chain-smoking) called Merv  - last time I went in there just before he moved Howard mentioned he’d passed on not that long after my mate left, unsurprisingly.

Such a fascinating shop - it was basically a bonkers hoarders paradise for classic car parts where everything was for sale. My mate’s recollections of swimming in “the hose room” - an upstairs bedroom literally waist-deep in radiator hoses - was one of my favourite stories. There must be some pictures of the place on here somewhere.

 

Anyway, back to the Austin - in terms of electronic ignition, back in the day my standard A or B series upgrade was one of those Accu-Spark magnetic / Hall effect jobbies in the distributor, a Lucas gold (high output) coil, NGK spark plus with 0.8mm gaps and 8mm silicone HT leads. Fairly cheap, always reliable in my personal experience and usually bumped the car’s fuel efficiency up by a measurable amount - but for me removing the need to faff around with points and the timing gun every few thousand miles was the biggest draw on a daily. With good quality engine oils and if doing mostly longer journeys you can then do up to say 5000 miles without having to lift the bonnet apart from fluid level checks (hopefully).

In terms of exhaust, realistically getting a stainless one made up is probably the best long-term option - Again I’d be tempted to get a slightly fruitier manifold if you can find / afford one - then get whoever was making the exhaust to make it freer-flowing without being appreciably noisier - the original design would have been pretty awful from a flow point of view so some decent efficiency gains should be possible.

 

[Mr Pastry]

6 minutes ago, Dj_efk said:

Yes Howard! Lovely bloke.

When I was in my teens a best friend of mine worked there for a time on Saturday mornings. There was a drunk, semi-homeless codger with questionable personal hygiene (mostly thankfully masked by his chain-smoking) called Merv  - last time I went in there just before he moved Howard mentioned he’d passed on not that long after my mate left, unsurprisingly.

Such a fascinating shop - it was basically a bonkers hoarders paradise for classic car parts where everything was for sale. My mate’s recollections of swimming in “the hose room” - an upstairs bedroom literally waist-deep in radiator hoses - was one of my favourite stories. There must be some pictures of the place on here somewhere.

I well remember Merv, gruesome, but again, polite and helpful.  And I remember the hose room, and rummaging in the massive pile of rad hoses.  Just had a  look on Google Earth and the place seems to have become a foodstore, so I hope they swept it out well.   Howard had been a chauffeur in a former life, and had many stories when you got to know him.  I think he liked a drop or two himself....

I went to his house once to look at one of his project cars.  It was a shonky 1930's bungalow, only slightly less disgraceful than the shop and the front garden was occupied by a derelict Austin 1800 from his chauffeur days.  I think he had left it there mainly to annoy the neighbours.  There were always plans to move out, expand, and start a classic car garage, that sort of thing.  One of his ideas was to start an MOT station specifically for classics.  I don't know whether any of this ever happened, but he must be retired by now if still around.  

[Weird Car]

Let the tinkering begin!

 

When I bought Audrey on Thursday one of the first things I noticed was how old the plugs were, ancient champions that must have been from the early 80s if not older

but I didn’t have time or tools to replace them on the day so today saw me heading to Halfords unfortunately when I went to start her up this morning she wouldn’t even crank, so she’s either not charging, or this old crappy battery has had it, either way I’ve whacked it on the trusty ole battery charger “the only remaining asset of my dads old garage before he retired” as an experiment to see how long it holds a charge, I did think she was cranking a bit slow yesterday.

though as a nod to the fact she might not be charging I noticed this wire loose coming from the Alternator, it looks like a ground, any ideas?? Electricity isn’t my strong point lol

 

Anyway Getz to the rescue and new plugs purchased

they’re one heat level too high but it’s all they had and I reckon should be okay!

I thought whist I was in town I’d get a spare key cut too as I hate just having the one key, when did they get so expensive? 15 bloody pounds for essentially a pad lock key!

 

so key and plugs got i set about removing the old ones, unfortunately my t handled plug tool wouldn’t fit and I couldn’t find a ratchet handle that would fit the plug socket so if anyone is ever in the same situation note a 7/16th whitworth spanner will work lol

 

New plugs fitted and old plugs binned, I did notice the original plugs had a very small gap, practically touching, weirdly it looks bigger on camera.

 

[Weird Car]

17 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

Front inner wings are the no.1 rotspot on these, if you look up under the wheelarch you will see two ventilation holes which allow mud and salt to get thrown up and lie in the box section there.

I checked this today, thankfully all is solid but I did notice it was chocker full of dirt so I removed as much as I could by hand and I’m going to attempt to pressure wash the rest out if possible, I’m also going to make sure it’s properly waxed with the rest of the underside too

[Mr Pastry]

28 minutes ago, Weird Car said:

I noticed this wire loose coming from the Alternator, it looks like a ground, any ideas?

Brown/yellow in Lucas code is very much not a ground!  Photo of all wires connected to alternator would help, and to control box if still fitted.  Does the ignition light stay on while running?

[Weird Car]

4 minutes ago, Mr Pastry said:

Brown/yellow in Lucas code is very much not a ground!  Photo of all wires connected to alternator would help, and to control box if still fitted.  Does the ignition light stay on while running?

Here’s all the wires coming out, a brown one that goes to the positive terminal 

the brown and yellow that is loose 

and a black one that goes to a cylinder thing.

ignition light stays on when running, which I thought was a common thing on alternator conversions, shows how much I know lol 

[High Jetter]

Key prices have gone up, but that's pricy! Maybe a rare blank now? If it's an FS or FT series era I have a collection of old keys, happy to have a look for you if you want to PM me the number from the original (providing that's not a cut, obs)

[Weird Car]

4 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Key prices have gone up, but that's pricy! Maybe a rare blank now? If it's an FS or FT series era I have a collection of old keys, happy to have a look for you if you want to PM me the number from the original (providing that's not a cut, obs)

Unfortunately the “original” was a re cut too, thanks anyway.