Guppy

Really cool work bro! looking forward to seeing this working.

I have the same old sony system in my garage, hmmmmm?

 

 

Thanks! Yeah it's not a bad stereo actually, I was sort of in two minds about chopping it up, but it's not going to go to waste, and it was free! If it ends up not working out, I think I'll got for one of those el cheapo ipod docks from kmart or somewhere....my flatmate wired one to the other speaker, and it actually sounds really good, much better than i thought it would.

This is my second radio - in my opinion it looks cooler, and is a bigger part of the reason I bought both of them.

 

The plan is to transplant the internals from a more modern stereo into it, so I have something to play my iPod through. Not too fussed about the tape player/CD player or radio, as I don't use them that much anyway. As previously stated I don't know much about electronics so I'll try and keep it as simple as possible.

 

This radio was in worse condition, and it didn't seem to work, so I didn't really have any problems with chopping it up a bit. When I pulled the electronics out, the base of the radio was in terrible condition - the metal tray was corroding away and the ply base had the strength of cardboard, and turned to dust when moved. The plan is to pull it apart, restore the box, transplant the electronic stuff, and make it all look pretty. Unfortunately it has been hit pretty hard by borer as you'll see, meaning I won't  just be able to sand it down and oil it like the last one, so i'm going to attempt to apply some veneer to the sides and top, and sand down & oil the rest. Fortunately the front face isn't TOO bad.

 

Photos!

 

 

Project #2 as it was when I got it:

 

 

 

In the beginning:

 

 

 

 

Frequency dial:

 

 

 

Sides with lots of scratches:

 

 

 

 

Other side, with varnish coming off and dings/scratches etc:

 

 

 

 

Back side at the start:

 

 

 

 

Electrodynamic speaker...no magnets here

 

 

 

 

Metal base corroding away:

 

 

 

 

 

dodgy plug:

 

 

 

 

Rotten base:

 

 

 

 

 

Metal tray rusting away:

 

 

 

 

Plywood sides of the radio delaminating:

 

 

 

 

This is the chrome surround of the frequency dial - I have used a metal brush fitting in my rotary tool thing (like a dremel tool) on the top part so you can see a before/after of what that looked like:

 

 

 

 

Making a new base:

 

 

 

 

New base in:

 

 

 

Donor stereo with the sides/top taken off. I got this for free by a piece of awesome timing - the neighbours were going to throw it in a skip, so it quickly became mine! Along with some decent speakers too. Yusssss!

 

 

 

 

After opening the donor stereo up a bit more:

 

 

 

 

These are all of the photos I have at this stage, but a bit more progress has been made so I'll try and put some more photos up on the weekend.

I think that's for the DRS? They have that in DTM, with similar style wings.

I've just sort of got into this stuff (not massively, and I have no idea what happens with electronics - according to me what happens is electricity goes in, magic happens, and sound comes out). I bought 2 old valve radios off of trademe for $20. The intention was to rip the insides out and replace them with the guts of a stereo so that I can play my iPod through it, and it would just look a bit more interesting than a standard iPod dock.

 

One was in too good shape to rip apart, so that one got restored as is (I should put some photos up later), and the other one is full of borer and in pretty bad shape, but a cooler old style of box, so I'm going to try and restore the box as best as I can and transplant a freebie stereo into it.

 

Anyway long story short, I've got a few (6-7ish?) old valves etc that you can have if you want.

No worries, always happy to help out a fellow traveller/car enthusiast!

 

One more thing, if you go with Rent4Ring, they'll show you a video - watch out for 'Canadian Corner', and don't do what that guy did!

 

I have also heard some not so good things about RSR, which is a similar company, but I haven't dealt with them myself so can't really comment aside from second hand info I've heard. As always, do a bit of a google search and see what you can find.

 

Yeah if you can get to Stuttgart while you are there, that is incredibly worth the effort too. In fact if you are that close, it's almost criminal not to go!

If you can make it, go to the following:

 

-the Mercedes Museum (best museum I've ever been to, really well set out and just amazing.

 

-the Porsche Museum - also stupidly awesome, completely worth going there.

 

and my secret tip: (shhh don't tell anyone....) is to go to the Porsche Museum factory tour. It's not well advertised, but it goes through the Stuttgart Zuffenhausen factory, and you get to see the production lines, engine assembly lines, upholstery section etc etc. Goes for about 2 hours, and it's FREE! Super super worth it.....even if just to see the machine that places the windscreens If you want to go, send an email with your details and number of people to: werksfuehrungen@porsche.de .

 

If you go to Frankfurt, don't expect too much, I've been to a few cities in Germany and I thought that was the most dull and least interesting of them all if I'm honest.

 

Getting between cities around there is pretty easy, stress free and relatively cheap by train, check out bahn.de for prices etc.

 

That's all I can think of for now....let me know if you have any other questions!

I'm not an expert on all things Nurburgring, but here are my thoughts:

 

I was there in November, and if you are in any sort of doubt as to whether or not you should go, you should definitely go!!! I went with a work mate, and we had an awesome time. We hired a car from Rent4Ring, and they were really good, a really friendly bunch and they seemed like quite a professional outfit. They give you a good briefing, point out a few of the rules and tricky parts of the track (make sure you pay attention, it could save you big money and a red face!) and then pretty much toss you the keys and you head off on your way.

 

I will point out that we were both coach drivers, so for us getting into even the shittiest car on the road suddenly seems really low, responsive and sporty. We hired one of their stage 2 suzuki swifts, and it was really good fun! We were some of the biggest novices ever to visit the nurburgring, but we had an absolute blast. It was a cold winters day that we went, and there was a bit of fog around (we initially went the previous day, and that track was closed due to fog) and the track was freezing......this combined with our slow driving meant the tyres were hardly even warm at the end! Managed to scare ourselves a couple of times, but it was all good and we were leaving a fairly decent safety margin really.

 

I would recommend Rent4Ring for sure. OK so it's not cheap, but I think it's worth it.

 

I would also advise:

 

-staying off the kerbs (they are more like cliffs in some places!)

 

-make sure you are familiar with the rules (overtake on the left only etc, there are plenty more)

 

-bear in mind that the track isn't open every day, so check in advance to make sure you aren't disappointed! (Sounds like you're after the touristenfahrten days, which is where you pay per lap etc)

 

-knowing your limits and keeping your ego in check! Much better to come away from there with a smile on your face and good memories to last a lifetime, than pranging someone else's car into the wall and being hit with a massive bill for it. I don't know how much truth there is in it, but I heard that if you bend the armco, it costs 1500 euros per metre to repair. If you have a but of a shunt, you're bound to damage say 3 metres, so there's 4500 euros before you've even thought about the car, recovery costs etc....

 

-while you are there, go and stand down at Adenau Bridge and one or two of the other viewing spots around the track. May as well make a day of it and get a good look at some of the awesome machinery that will no doubt be on display.

 

Where are you planning on staying? We stayed in Cologne and drove down for the day - I think it's about a 1 hour 45 min drive from memory....somewhere in that region. (Cologne is a nice city too....cross over the big rail bridge at night to see 50 trillion locks and a cool view of the cathedral). There's a few car hire places in the main train station, and google will help you out also. We then went from the Nurburgring straight to Frankfurt, only cost an extra 12 euros for the one way car hire, cheaper than a 40 euro each train ticket!!

Some photos I took at the Mercedes Benz Museum in Munich:

^First ever AMG

This thing is so damn cute! I just want to eat it up!

Do you know what the colour is called???

Thanks Not sure actually...it's not the original colour, but it may still be an Austin colour. A quick google search suggests it may be called 'Sandringham Fawn Green', but not sure. I've seen some toyota echos knocking about in a similar metallic colour, with a goldish pearl

I've been to exactly nothing awesome overseas i live vicariously through guppy.

We went to the DJR headquarters, that was pretty cool! And Bathurst too. Oh wait, that's next year

Oh yeah, how could I forget to mention that I went to the Isle of Mann TT!! Pretty sure that if you look up 'lunatic' in the dictionary, you'll hear all about the guys that race there. I met Aaron Slight there, and asked him if he'd ever considered doing it, and his answer was something like 'ahhhhh.....MAYBE when I was younger.....but there's no way I'd do it now, way too dangerous!' which is something coming from someone who raced superbikes

 

I also went to the final round of the BTCC at Brands Hatch in 2009. Was pretty cool to see, but I think I preferred it like it was around 1999 (ie Nissan vs Renault vs Ford vs Peugeot vs Honda vs Audi vs Volvo). Got the feeling it's not quite as big now as it used to be.

 

Went to BMW Welt while I was at Oktoberfest in 2011, but didn't get to do the factory tour as it was closed on the day I went (didn't have any choice though, it was my only day off in 2 weeks there). We did however get to see a classic car auction while we were there - all sorts of old BMWs getting auctioned off, ranging from some going for a couple of thousand euros, to at least one car not reaching reserve at 400,000! Some super cool old DTM cars on display there too.

 

Went to a big car museum in the centre of Brussels called Autoworld too. It was pretty cool, but probably not worth going all the way to Brussels for especially.

 

One totally random place I went to was in Namibia, where we stayed in a campsite called Canyon Roadhouse, near the Fish River Canyon (2nd largest canyon in the world). There are loads of cool old cars with trees growing through them etc, and probably the coolest bar I've ever seen. Do a google image search for 'canyon roadhouse namibia' and you'll get a bit of an idea

 

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask, as I might be able to give you some advice to help you enjoy your time a bit more

Just wondering what sort of interesting car related places or events people have been to around the world? Would be good to hear where others have been, and handy for anyone that happens to be travelling about to get an idea of what there is to do out there.

 

Not sure if this is the correct place for this thread, so mods feel free to move if you'd rather see it elsewhere.

 

I'll start. I've been fortunate in the last few years to tick a few pretty awesome boxes;

 

• Goodwood Festival of Speed, near Chichester, UK - Went on all 3 days in 2009, and it was fricken awesome. Some of the machinery was jaw dropping, and the money that is on show is just nuts. Got autographs from Jackie Stewart, Eddie Irvine, and Lord March himself, saw Stirling Moss, Walter Rohrl, Lewis Hamilton etc. For anyone contemplating going, do it!

 

• Nurburgrin, Germany - Went to the Nurburgring in November last year - went with a colleague and we hired a Suzuki Swift for a few laps each, and it was so much fun! (that may not sound impressive, but we were both coach drivers, and after doing ~50,000km of driving a season, whenever you get into a car it instantly feels incredibly sporty....even the work Renault Kangoo felt really low and responsive!!) I'd also highly recommend this, but only if you can keep a fairly cool head and not go too nuts...apparently if you ding the armco it's ~1500 euros per metre to fix it....plus the cost of damaging your car etc!! We saw an Audi TT that had wiped out armco on both sides of the track and looked in pretty poor shape....that would have been an expensive day!

 

• Mercedes Benz Museum, Stuttgart - one of the best museums of any sort I've been to in my opinion. So many cool cars, old and new, and really well laid out. I'd hate to think how much it cost to build it!

 

• Porsche Factory, Stuttgart - If you ever go to Stuttgart, make sure you go to the factory and Museum. More 917s than you can shake a stick at, plus all sorts of historic, racing and new Porsches. Again, a really good museum. I also found a wee secret.....if you get in touch with the museum in advance, you can book a place on a tour of the factory, for free!! It's a fascinating place to go, and you get to see their engine and body production lines. Super cool thing to do.

 

• Went to see Prince Alberts car collection in Monaco, some pretty cool cars there

 

• Classic Remise, Berlin - this is really cool place in Berlin - it's an old tram depot, that now has secure storage for cars and a few workshops that build/restore classic cars. You can visit for free and just walk around, and some interesting cars there....saw a couple of Bugatti Veyrons & 2  EB110GTs, and all sorts of other exotic and desirable cars. See the website here: http://www.remise.de/Classic-Remise-Berlin-english-summary.php

 

 

There's probably a few more, but that's all that springs to mind at the moment. Let's hear about your car/automotive related travels.....Go!

 

Awesome, any parts you need?  Most of the excess stuff I had has been sold but have a few bits I am willing to part with....

Thanks for the offer but I think I'm fine for the time being. Engine is fine (as far as I'm aware - touch wood) and I don't think there's any other parts I need. Maybe one day when the situation suits and I'm able to work out it

 

needs more horsepower, you got any of them ?

Nah it's got heaps of those, 34 is more than enough for anybody

Awesome colour!!!! love it.

Thanks! Yeah I quite like the colour too, suits the car I think...which will make it hard to repaint, so that's a bit of a dilemma! I'd hate to repaint ita different colour, then realise I liked it more how it was....but then it hardly seems worth repainting it only to keep it the same colour...

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/38021-guppys-1959-austin-a35/

Enjoy!

Due to popular demand (from one member) here's the thread for my Austin A35, AKA tha Austang AKA Phyllis.

It's a 2 door 1959 model, the final year they were produced before being replaced by the mini (apart from the vans) and has a 948cc A series motor. I bought it when I was 18, had it for 10 years now, and I want it to be the car that I never sell. It has only done 50,000 miles/80,000 km, so not bad for a 54 year old car.

When I bought it, it wasn't in a warrantable condition, due to some small rust spots in the floor beneath the driver and by a bumper hanger, and it didn't have reflectors on the rear either, and one or two other minor things. The brakes also needed some work, but aside from that it was pretty tidy - certainly not conrcourse condition, but pretty much ideal for a first project.

So far I've mainly done maintenance stuff - had the rust fixed, overhauled the brakes (the drums were full of sandy rusty gunk), cleaned out the fuel tank and the carb (after the fuel bowl filled with rusty stuff), etc. I also got some minilite wheels for it (they cost $50 more than it cost to buy the car in the first place!) and adjusted the guards slightly to stop the new radial tyres rubbing. Made some new carpets too, and various other small bits and pieces.

It has been in storage for the last 4 years or so while I've been travelling the world, but it does get occasional use, and it was used as my friends wedding car too.

Plans for the future include a restoration and repaint at some stage, but my situation doesn't permit it at the moment. It has already had a respray - the original colour is a darker shade of green. I'm thinking a dark metallic green/blue would look good, but we'll see.

That's all I can think of at the moment.....enjoy!

Hi everyone,

I'm a long time lurker, first time poster.

Name: Guppy/Mark

Location: Somewhere in Europe

Cars you own: 1959 Austin A35

Mods to them: Minilites....and that's about it

Pic: https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hp ... 6381_n.jpg At beachhop 2011

How you found out about oldschool: Glen

Current job: Getting paid to drive a 400hp luxury vehicle with 22inch wheels and airbag suspension all around Europe