Tinworm

There are two times in life when penetration is important. One of these is welding.

Awesome project in the making - good on ya!

I've always wondered about putting a few polarfleece blankets over the car and then the tarp over. They aren't moisture absorbent, and any moisture that gets under the tarp will then have a drainage plane to get out, and it still breathes and they'll probably polish the paint if anything... Thought about starting up an infomercial too for the 'Tarpfleece' with a layer of fleece both sides of the tarp - would stop that fucken scrunch,scrunch,flap,flap,flap noise that you wake up to at 2am in every campground at christmas or when you just have too many cars out back. Imagine the super quality graphic showing a 3d construction of the said Tarpfleece, and a dramatisation of the missus waking up looking all refreshed from not getting woken in the night by an inferior 'blue tarp'. 

The list goes on, insulated carport curtains for that mid-winter party, warm and waterproof blankets for hobos - million dollar idea right here..... 

Brakes definitely not round the wrong way, here's a diagram of his set up, his car is a '28, front of car to the left, cables go up either side of the gearbox.

We have pre-ruby coupled brake complete rolling chassis.

 

 

Sorry, yes I stand corrected... Must be real interesting in the wet?

I love hearing about / seeing other people's specials and their builds, the individuality and personal design of each one is pretty awesome in my eyes.

Thanks everyone, it's got a bit off topic, but it's interesting all the same.

I gather there is quite a bit of angst by some about 'the system'. I'm a Building Controls Officer of 10 years at the Council here (don't tell anyone - lol), so I do understand the others viewpoints regarding what they view as a wall of rules and overzealous enforcement. It's all part of any system where somebody gets the position of making an informed decision and where that decision is allowed to be 'hell no' in some cases. 

Reading between the lines, I gather that most (or at least some) certifiers are looking at the standards as being a very strong guideline rather than an absolute rule (as they are written) which is encouraging. I'm pretty familiar with this in my own line of work. I'll get a little more progressed yet (exhaust system, redo D/S and finish loop, and a few other small jobs) and then sound a few out about it and listen very carefully to what they have to say. Either way, favorable or not, I'll work through it.

Nah sorry, hasn't got off the ground but I did see your thread and forwarded it onto my pops.

I'll speak about it with him tomorrow, he's 60 this year so that retirement project is looming...

Get him to sit down with a nice hot cuppa and have a look through this album - G10a Suzuki with a Jimny gearbox in a pre-34 chassis with triple Amals. Looks to be a late Swift engine, so around 60hp stock... 

http://s118.photobucket.com/user/jpinhorn/library/Austin%20Swift%20Special?sort=2&page=1h

Thanks everybody for the feedback / input / views. I agree generally with what is being said re: brake performance but I'm also realistic about what I am working with and what is reasonable to expect. Whilst this is an engine swap, it is with a ~30 year old engine that made 43hp new, and realistically sub-40hp in its current condition. The Austin Seven engine is in itself capable of being tuned to 45hp without a supercharger, and substantially more with one. There are plenty of Austin Seven Specials in existence that have done so, and all are using iterations of the original brakes as road cars and racing, but admittedly they are lighter with the original body discarded which will help the brake situation.

There are a heap of reasons I didn't rebuild and tune the original engine, the real showstopper was that it is very specialist work to overcome some fundamental engineering shortcomings of the base engine design and none of it is cheap. $8k is not an unrealistic build cost for a performance unblown engine, and longevity and reliability is still a real grey area. The $200 I paid for the Suzuki motor and box that attains nearly this much power in factory form, plus good electrics, cooling, gear ratios and reliability seemed a no-brainer for me and is one-tenth of the cost of a new billet steel crank for the original engine.   I will perhaps talk to a couple of different certifiers and gauge their interest / concern / dismay in it and go from there. 

Is your top speed limited by the diff ratio in combination with the gearbox ratios?

My dad wanted me to ask as he has a friend who has done a suzuki upgrade also but that one does about 140km/h no trouble which sounds terrifying.

I'm yet to wind it up fully to see what happens top speed wise, no exhaust yet and I'm in the middle of town   I've had around 65-70 down the street and it's fine, but 140km/h doesn't seem feasible, to me or certainly not for this particular car. A SJ410 has a claimed top speed of 109km/h with slightly larger diameter tyres and a 4.11 ratio v.s the 5.25 in the Austin. I imagine whilst the Austin is a couple of hundy kilos lighter, it is not any more aero than the SJ410 so no real advantages there. Given the difference in diff ratios, it would do 85km/h at the same revs as the supposed 109km/h, but that's on the assumption of the same tyre size. Given the tyres are a bit smaller, maybe 80km/h at the same revs I guess. Is the car your'e speaking of a A7 Special that was for sale a few months back on TM with a 3-banger 800cc (F8A) Suzuki in it? There was a comment on the auction I remember seeing at the time from somebody that reckoned it did 140km/h/. It had a Suzuki diff transplanted in too which must have aided it, but 140 still seemed a stretch. These cars are very, very small inside, how you'd manage to use the pedals with balls big enough to do 140 in one of these is beyoned me!   I see an oldtopic about you and your old man wanting to build an Ulster replica - did you go ahead with it in the end? would love to see photos of any progress you made. 

My dad's seven is early with non coupled brakes. Handbrake operates front, pedal rear.

Frightening.

Early uncoupled brakes "should" be around the other way - foot to the front, handbrake rear, but probably easy to get cables around the wrong way and end up with what you speak of. Luckily, mine being a Ruby, the foot and handbrake operate all 4 wheels which is way more reassuring than the uncoupled setup. 

Did this project ever get off the ground? I have a Ruby I'm finishing off a repower of with a Suzuki F10A and 4 speed box out of a SJ410.... I'd love to see what you did if you started on it....

Thanks for your input guys. I haven't gotten hold of the local certifier (Shane Speight) yet, I've tried a couple of times by phone but to no avail. I gather talking to a couple of other people that car mods are not really his preferred line of work and can be a little disinterested, but then I hear from other accounts that he was very good to deal with, so whatever. I thought initially this would be pretty straightforward but want to be a bit more clued up on it before just rocking up and asking stupid questions and wasting his and my time. 

Mjrstar - yeah, I'm expecting the D/S loop, throttle setup and so on to be just fine. I gather from the LVVTA standard I need to ensure a braking force of 0.6 G's is attained which will necessitate rebuilding the brakes and relining shoes with the softest shoe material I can source and a lot of stuffing around to get them bang on for the day of the test which will not last much after that. May sound crazy to many, but is reality with this old girl. In normal driving conditions, engine braking is the primary method of slowing down, the brakes really only to bring it completely to rest from around 15-20km/h or so. 

The brakes are mechanical, cable-activated 7-inch drums and are considered to be the best of the evolution of Austin Seven brakes, being a better activation mechanism and larger than the 6-inch drums previous. Very solid footwork is required to haul it up, even at only 550kg or so. Some people convert A7's to hydraulic brakes, but of course it's a complete install from the pedal to the drum and when it's done most people report the hydro setup more temperamental than the mechanical brakes and braking is limited by the 4.5 inch wide tyres anyway. On top of that, the 1/2" kingpins have been known to snap from overloading through braking forces increased past those the original braking setup and a strong right foot can provide. It is typical to need to make adjustments to individual corners regularly to compensate for wear, cable stretch and so on. 

All this said, the brakes are adequate for the car IMHO and I am comfortable driving it in traffic. I realise how long it will take to haul up if need be so leaving a suitable following distance and keeping calm but super-attentive of what is happening around you. Add this to the wooden frame in the body and lack of seatbelts and it scares the crap out of some people, but then it is a 80 year old refinement of a 94 year old design.

Thanks Igor, the car is probably best described as 'oily rag' - it was put back on the road in 1980 and been through a few owners since then and is looking well used now which is how I like it. It means I can use it anytime without needing to worry about getting dirty, scratched or whatever. The car has history far back beyond 1980 - it's a survivor when many did not. Even if I don't know the stories, I can appreciate the visual signs of it.  I wanted to do a swap but for it to not be flashy in any way and look like it could have been in there ages and have a sound, but still home-mechanic type feel about it as it is more in keeping than the super tidy, professional installs I drool over on Oldschool. The removable floor panels and the section of the firewall that has been altered are basic and held in with used gutterbolts and are purposely a little scruffy looking. Just can't wait to finally sort it and drive it.