1975 Austin 1100

[Grogster]

Hello forum. 

I picked up this sad girl for $600 in reasonable condition.  I am working on doing a basic restore on her, to get here back to street-legal state again.
This one appears to be a 1975-ish model.  It has the fake wood dash with round guages, and inner CV's and rod-change box.

This vehicle was trucked to me, and when offloaded, quite a sad state - something of a Christine, really, with totally flat left-side hydrolastic, and engine running on three and missing - not very happy....












First attempt at pumping 'er back up again:



...sound like a balloon going 'Pop!', and then she pee'd all over the garage floor: 



That original hydrolastic fluid had a VERY distinctive smell to it - not sure why - does anyone know?

Stay tuned for the next batch of photos, which will have the leak fixed.

[niwid]

Pretty little motor. Can't offer any help on the hydro suspension, but I can offer the suggestion that once you've fixed it, you've got to get it sitting that low on both sides! It looks great haha!

Look forward to seeing the progress. What are your plans?

[Grogster]

Next batch of photos:

Oh dear, this isn't right...




...ouch!
A little sick in the displacer department...



Displacer has ruptured.  Weather this actually happened as a result of my trying to pump it back up, or if was already ruptured - who knows.
With the cup and rod completely out of place, trying to pressurise the system would probably have caused the rear displacer to rupture, but it may have already been broken, as the car was right the way down when I got it.


Another shot of the dead displacer, now removed:




And with a replacement rear-displacer fitted and now pumped back up to correct ride-height.  This image looks like it is too high, but the drivers side was also down a little from where the specs said the ride height was supposed to be, and this photo was taken before we pumped a few strokes into the drivers side aswell:




The orange one to the right is an Austin 1300 GT - I like 1100's. 

So, the two sisters sitting in the same Garage.  They are both Austin's.  If one was a Morris version, they would be cousins. 

Bodywork is next, and that could take some time, as the car is - unfortunately - covered in little rust spots.  Nothing major, but they all need attention to stop them chewing any more of the body away, so quite a few weekends ahead of gentle grinding and sanding and priming!  I will post update photos as I go.  I usually get time at the weekend to do a little bit more.

[vulgalour]

The fluid does have a really distinctive smell, even more so when it's misting out of a pipe under pressure into the air.

[markgenesis]

An ADO16, love these, never had one though, the MG and Riley variants are particularly nice.

They sometimes need a Damn good thrashing though

[igor]

Hi there Grogster. Welcome aboard. Good to see a fellow New Zealander sharing the love for the ADO16.

[Grogster]

@ vulgalour - Do you(or anyone else) know why the original fluid smells like it does? The replacement fluid does not have that smell. I don't care, I am just curious.

@ igor - I love these little cars. I wonder if it is a virginity related thing? My first car was one of these, and I have since always desired these cars. I have the same problem with honeyblondes for the same reasons! More photos coming soon.

[Morris63]

Oh wow, this brings back memories!

My first car was my Granddad's old Morris 1100 4 door in Snowberry white. Fond memories of learning to work on cars, being taught by my dad how to set tappet clearance, points, etc. Oh and how to deal with rust!

Mine had the bouncy strip speedo so you knew you were doing 60 when the strip bounced between 50 & 70! Mates accused me of driving it like a rally car - it did handle well (especially compared to one mate who spun his Beetle off the road in front of me on the way to the pub!)

Welcome and thanks for sharing.

[Morris63]

Oh, forgot to mention; mate of mine worked at the local Leyland dealer so if I was working on the suspension of the 1100 or one of the family Metros he'd drop the proper suspension pump round after hours.

One day he forgot to bring any fluid and said "just use 50/50 water and antifreeze - that's all it is". Still no idea if he was correct but it worked! Maybe the smell depends on which type of antifreeze you use, new stuff is probably a different mix from old 1970/80s ethylene glycol!

[westbay]

Take a look at this site ..... www.hydragas.co.uk/technical.html

I know it say's 'hydragas' in name but also covers 'hydrolastic'.

[baggabones]

I love these things...my late grandad had one one as his "town car/running to the shops" car and an old XJ6 (not so old back then) for bigger trips. Lovely little things

[ferrousbuler]

Aug 27, 2015 9:57:38 GMT Grogster said:

That original hydrolastic fluid had a VERY distinctive smell to it - not sure why - does anyone know?

the early hydro fluid had no real smell (as it was just water and alcohol/antifreeze), but it was soon discovered that enterprising workers at the plant in South Africa where stealing the fluid and distilling it in home made stills to get the alcohol from it.........

some chemical was added to fluid which made the alcohol undrinkable to stop them doing it - its this chemical that gives the fluid the rank smell (and taste)

I guess this is why modern stuff doesn't smell like this - people now can just go to a booze busters if they want to get hammered on cheap booze!

the distilling story is (I think) in the south African mini story book

[Grogster]

I had heard of that booze theory, but thought it must have been BS, but having read the link from westbay, and now your comment, makes it sound more believable!

Crikey - some people would drink anything!

[Grogster]

UPDATE:

Front-left fender with all rust spots gound out, and ready for primer:





While you can't actually see the rust spots on the other photos, rest-assured that they are all over the car.  These look to me like stone chips or otherwise, which have simply never, ever been dealt with, and so then the rust starts chewing on the steel, and you end up with lots of little rust-stain marks all over the body.  To prevent these little rotters from chewing any more out of the body, you really do have to sand or grind them right out back to bare metal - I guess many people are too scared to attack their car's bodywork like that! 

...and primed ready for top-coating at some stage:

[SmokeEm]

Had one of these in my teens. I decided to lower it somewhat by letting some fluid out and thought I'd start at the front. (I assumed the system was the same as a metro! I.e. Left right valve on front. Both rear sides on N/S/R)

I let the fluid out both sides at front and then stood back to admire and realised the back was now almost on the floor!!! I cut the exhaust off just below the bulkhead, fitted a straight bit of 2" pipe to it with no silencers. I then painted it satin black with lime green scallops & wheels. I was only 17 I think and I thought it was my own lead sled!! I got pulled almost every day because it was so low and loud!

I wish I had photos for you to laugh at... 

[Grogster]

A quick update for everyone:


















The weather is scheduled to be absolute rubbish this weekend, so I don't think I will make it out to the cold-hole(garage) this weekend - we'll see, but it is supposed to be hail and snow even, which for September, is quite odd.  Oh well.......

[andyf]

My first car was a dark British Racing Green (oh the irony) Austin 1100. It was written off within 6 months of me having it by a bloke running into the back of me at a junction. It might have been a good thing, it was rotten as a pear and I doubt it would have gone through the next MOT because most of the rear of the boot floor was missing.

[Grogster]

Hey!
I have one of those kinds of car too!!!!!! 














I think THIS one is beyond redemption.  

[baconlord]

All the bodywork removed for that V12 transplant.

[dikkehemaworst]

Never use newspaper to mask off a car. It's porous and lets paint through. I had to do it all again so be warned ! :-)