I thought I should get a thread up here about my Austin 7 Chummy, I've had a thread on here about it before but that was a while back and when the project was going in a different direction.
I'll start with a brief recap of the history of the project, it might take a couple of instalments to get the thread totally up to date though!
It all started about eight or so years ago with a bare chassis. This is the earliest picture of it by which time I'd got hold of a front axle and steering column for it:
And a bit later on when I'd found an engine and rear axle as well as got it some new tyres:
Soon after that it was drivable as a bare chassis:
At this time it was going to become a 'Brooklands' racing replica and it got as far as having the start of body frame made. I don't have any pictures to hand with the frame on, but it looked like this without it:
Meanwhile I wanted something a bit more up together and usable and brought this saloon:
I got it back on the road quite quickly but in the meantime no progress was being made on this project
And then this turned up:
All of the 'racing' bits from the Brooklands replica went on it so I was left with a basically standard chassis and engine which had no real purpose and was left doing nothing.
A few years later I was working out in New Zealand and searching through a scrapyard when I noticed a slightly sorry looking Chummy body in the corner of a barn
The steel floor pan was rusty, the aluminium had some massive chunks cut out of it, and the scuttle was crushed from where it had presumably had another car sitting on top of it. Some restoration had clearly being started, but they had made a terrible job of what they had done before clearly deciding it was too much work. I knew shipping it back to the UK wouldn't be cheap, but compared to the massive cost of a new body and the bonus of having an original one I thought it would be just about worth it, so I brought it from the scrapyard for a modest sum and set about getting it back home.
That's enough for now, I'll try to update the thread shortly!
I'll start with a brief recap of the history of the project, it might take a couple of instalments to get the thread totally up to date though!
It all started about eight or so years ago with a bare chassis. This is the earliest picture of it by which time I'd got hold of a front axle and steering column for it:
And a bit later on when I'd found an engine and rear axle as well as got it some new tyres:
Soon after that it was drivable as a bare chassis:
At this time it was going to become a 'Brooklands' racing replica and it got as far as having the start of body frame made. I don't have any pictures to hand with the frame on, but it looked like this without it:
Meanwhile I wanted something a bit more up together and usable and brought this saloon:
I got it back on the road quite quickly but in the meantime no progress was being made on this project
And then this turned up:
All of the 'racing' bits from the Brooklands replica went on it so I was left with a basically standard chassis and engine which had no real purpose and was left doing nothing.
A few years later I was working out in New Zealand and searching through a scrapyard when I noticed a slightly sorry looking Chummy body in the corner of a barn
The steel floor pan was rusty, the aluminium had some massive chunks cut out of it, and the scuttle was crushed from where it had presumably had another car sitting on top of it. Some restoration had clearly being started, but they had made a terrible job of what they had done before clearly deciding it was too much work. I knew shipping it back to the UK wouldn't be cheap, but compared to the massive cost of a new body and the bonus of having an original one I thought it would be just about worth it, so I brought it from the scrapyard for a modest sum and set about getting it back home.
That's enough for now, I'll try to update the thread shortly!
or is it bakelite 
