The Car
I travelled to London to meet up with John Sutton (he of the Maclachlan Special) at his ‘works’; Camco Solutions in Greenwich during August of 2009. John’s original notes are in italic.
Acknowledging that John Coleman’s 1925 Chummy had broken its chassis during his epic adventure in 1959/60 the obvious choice was to either use a modified (strengthened) early chassis or a shortened later chassis.
Having received John’s document by email within a few days I sent it to a number of my Austin 7 Friends for their thoughts and comments. Within a few weeks all had replied with their interpretation of the ideal specification. Vince Leek went further and suggested he’d found a very suitable car. Following negotiations VJ 9212 arrived in the workshop during October, so the story begins.
Chassis:-
A short chassis will be modified by boxing in the front forging, adding a plate at the rear of the chassis to tie in the rear spring mountings and an additional flange on the fore and aft chassis member. It will also be modified to take a Ruby brake cross shaft.
VJ 9212 arrived as a 1936 ‘short chassis’; (6’9” modified in the 1980’s to 6’3”); probably following a very serious accident. (See below). The chassis member supporting the brake cross shaft has a fabricated additional fixing at the front to minimise distortion during braking.
The stub axles, steering arms and the drop arm of the steering box were crack tested and the steering arms were shot peened.
Instruments:-
Switch panel for coil engine (ammeter not connected)
A speedometer calibrated to suit the axle and tyre configuration.
An oil pressure gauge.
A water temperature gauge
A voltmeter.
An additional switch panel was fitted to the steering column.
The wiring used ‘switched earth’ to reduce the load on the switches. This included direction indicators/hazard warning lights, magneto on/off, fuel pump, alternator on/off, spare, electric fan, high intensity rear lamps.
Fuel tank pressure gauge/air pump and taps for front/rear distribution.
Taps for front/rear tank selection.
Wheels and tyres:
The wheels will be 17 inch Austin 7 rebuilt and not powder coated and the tyres will be 400 x 17 Armstrong.
A set of 17” wheels were rebuilt and (?) powder coated 4.00/4.25 17” Excelsior tyres were used. (11 covers used over 20,000 miles).
After fitting the new tyres in Tulare; the ride was very lumpy and on the advice of Nate Jones (Long Beach, CA) he removed all the covers, balanced the wheels which made a vast difference to the amount of ‘faceting’. He also advised using talcum powder as a lubricant between the tube and cover.
(The two front tyres were too worn to pass an MOT on our return).
Radiator:-
An early Chummy type steel cowl painted black. The radiator to be re-cored.
A four bladed fan (mag type) for cooling.
The radiator core was replaced during the rebuild. During the testing of the spare top fan pulley, before departure, it collapsed and the four bladed fan damaged the core, destroying itself. This required another replacement core. I decided to use a thermostatically controlled electric fan with a switched override. Using this was found to be necessary only when climbing long hills and when moving slowly in traffic. VJ 9212 had an overflow tank (?from Morris 1100) this was refitted during the rebuild.
The Build
Rebuilding and modifying a car for any long distance trip is challenging,
especially if you choose to travel without support or back-up. Undertaking
a 25,000-mile trip through the Americas would stretch the ability of any
car, especially one that was built nearly a century ago.
1936/28 Austin 7 Car Draw
We raffled our 1936/28 Austin 7 for Dame Hannah Rogers Trust on 14th December 2022 having raised more than £26k.
The lucky winner is: Matt Fowles of Dursley, Gloucestershire.
Whilst you can no longer win the car you can continue to contribute
to our fundraising efforts on the Just Giving page
(click the Just Giving Logo to the right or Here).
You can Gift Aid as you are solely making a donation.
