Haha evenin' officer. I've left the papers indoors, but she's legal, honest.[/quote]

"I think you will be coming along with me to Dock Green Station, Sir! "

At least in the good old days all you would get would be a polite dressing down and a cup of tea!

Location: Derby

The way I see it with the engine issue.Its nice to have the power of a modern unit,and the cheapness compared to building a good reliable and in Austin terms powerful unit,but do you want an Austin 7 or some kind of kit car?

Cheers Reckless! (Or do I call you Monsieur Rat?!)

I'll pour a large coffee later and wade through the pages! Appreciate it.

Location: London

Hi Austin,

That's a good question. My preferred option really would be an Austin 7 Special, i.e. everything beneath the skin is Austin 7, the chassis, running gear, engine, gearbox, petrol tank, steering column, wheels etc, with a 'special' body on it.

That way I could have a car that would be fun etc, but which would also have some degree of desirability should I wish or need to ever sell it on.

That said, I'm extremely new to this whole scene (so please forgive any stupid questions!) and therefore still very much piecing together the 'rules' in terms of which route I should take.

That said, it's a nice problem to have - I've never had a pre-war car, and have lusted after this 20s/30s racing car style since I was a wee lad, (I remember taking family holidays in France in the '80s and slipping away from the pool and ball games to explore the local woods in the hope of unearthing an abandoned Bugatti!) so it's actually a lovely thing to look out the window and see this car parked in the garden!

Location: London

Location: London

Location: London

Location: London

Location: London

Location: London

Location: London

Some pics of the little beast, showing what I think are the decent and not-so-decent aspects of it.

I must admit, even sat there like a rescue mongrel out front, she is growing on me. A lot.

However there's much to do if it's to be a proper car at any point, regardless of the V5 situation. Whoever built the aluminium body certainly had a degree of skill - it's not super expertly built but it's a very decent amateur job, however the front nose cowling is too far back - not only does it give the car a 'stubby' look at the front, but the engine fan snags the inner bodywork! So I'll need to extend that by 6-9 inches to balance everything out.

Plus so much of it is crap - the wood is softwood straight from B&Q; the 'leather' seats are from a cheap sofa, the wooden boards are cheap chipboard which hasn't even been sealed against moisture, etc etc.

Despite all that though, I think I'm falling for it though! It feels like a rescue dog that's just looking for a bit of love and proper care, and I'm a sucker for an underdog haha

Location: London

Hi Martin,

Again, very helpful, thanks!

Quite the quandary though eh? My options then are: do nothing, restore the car and risk it being torpedoed by the DVLA, or contact the DVLA now and risk them torpedoing the car before I can do anything.

Bloody bureaucrats lol

Food for thought indeed...

Location: London

I wish you luck and await with breath baited for the finished product.
Right telly time...

Location: Gard, France 30960

Thanks Rat. Enjoy French TV, and don't hold back if you feel like offering advice or insight in the future!

Cheers

Location: London

Hi Martin,

I'm curious how you were able to identify the exact month / year from my chassis number. Is there a resource online that can help with this? I'm keen to track down any info I can about my chassis.

Cheers!

Location: London

Hi Jonny.

Unfortunately most of the original factory production records for the Seven were destroyed years ago and there's no source of comprehensive and accurate information available.

The most useful quick reference is the Austin Seven Clubs' Association Register of Surviving Chassis - www.a7ca.org/chassisregister.php

This has details of around 11,000 known survivors (and there are loads more out there). Because it's compiled almost entirely from information submitted by owners it's full of errors and anomalies, so beware! When checking your chassis number (which isn't listed), I looked at perhaps ten close numbers and found that the large majority claimed a first registration date in March 1936. On that basis, it seems a safe bet that yours dates from then.

I don't think that anyone's asked you if you're a member of an A7 club. If you're not, I'd strongly advise looking at the A7CA site to find one in your area. Lots of help, advice and useful contacts will be available.

I genuinely wish you the best of luck with your car, but I think that you're a brave man!

Location: Herefordshire, with an "E", not a "T".

Hi Martin,

That's super helpful - many thanks. I'll check out the Register. To be honest, the day I had the car delivered I was searching online for the nearest Seven club to me - it's only half an hour away, they've been in touch and I'm popping along to their first 2016 meeting tomorrow evening!

Thanks for the luck - maybe I'm brave and maybe I'm stupid, but we'll see what happens. If it weren't for the DVLA nonsense it'd be a no-brainer. Shame.

Location: London

Be aware that at least one participant in this discussion is probably polishing his truncheon at this very moment!!!!!![/quote]

Haha it's cool - I did say I wouldn't be availing of the local police-free roads haha. Anyway, I have a lot of time for the boys in blue, just spent a lovely weekend with my cousin who's an inspector in the Met actually. They do a tricky job etc. Anyway, I'm a long way off even having a Special that could take to the road even if I wanted it too!

Location: London

Location: London

I see that the same seller has yet another of these things on sale on ebay, this time "On behalf of a friend". It isn't Jonny's car, or any of the others of this mysterious batch mentioned on this thread, but I think that I remember this one originally being sold in the autumn( EPH 672, an Austin Saloon on mycarcheck http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272169876995?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT ).

How many of these has this guy built?

Location: Herefordshire, with an "E", not a "T".

I just tried to bid on this but for some reason EBay wouldn't accept "two bob and a blackie's egg" as a proper bid.

Location: Gard, France 30960

I sold a 1/4 scale model of an Austin 7 chassis to this chap once on eBay. I built it to help me design bodywork for a 33 chassis I was going to build into a special. He complained about it when it arrived (late) and claimed it was broken, despite a very clear listing regarding the risk of posting it. We had a long and protracted discussion about the supposed issues and he threatened legal action when I asked for more information...




Jonny - I also liked the look of your special. I hope you are able to make it into something that works for you

Location: Essex