Some time ago there was a discussion on this forum about the metal strip which runs over the front edge of the scuttle on very early Chummys.

There was, at the time, some doubt cast as to whether cars actually had this strip or not...

Looking at this picture. on Austin's site today tends to suggest that they did in fact have these strips.



Cheers

R

Location: deleted

As far as I can tell, all scoop scuttle cars had plated brass rims around the body with fabric cord, and bonnet rubber around the radiator. There are other interesting little details in that photo, such as the 'solid' brass clips around the radiator hose, the short top part of the windscreen, the interior door handles and the ribbed steering wheel. Notice how he appears to have taken the filter out of the top of the petrol tank to allow all the dirt in the can to get into the tank! I can't tell what the T-shaped thing on the scuttle is - any ideas?

David

Hi David, I would suggest that the T bar thing is the handle for the jack, although why they need it to top up the petrol I don't know, unless there is also a problem with, say, the wheels? Could it be used on a socket or such like to change plugs?

Big version!. You may have to click on it again to make it even bigger.

Improvised dipstick? Any port in a storm.

Before I could type out suggestion that it was used as a dipstick (thus the removal of the filter), Ian beat me to it! Also, I believe a day is wasted if you don't learn something new - the strip arrangement is something I've never heard of as definite, so Thank you. Re door handles, these are correct as originally installed, but as they tended to fly out and hit the outside of the body when closing door, many people reversed them. Something that I espoused some time ago was that perhaps not all scoop-scuttled Sevens had the bell-shaped CAV FWP lamps, but were fitted in 1924 with the acorn-shaped CAV AP versions. See photo, also another car in Wyatt pictorial. Interesting the fashionable headgear all round. In your Country I believe you call them cheese-cutters, but Down Under they're known as Pommy Stetsons. As an aside, I'm now home and not hogging the hospital's Internet for logging onto Friends - will get around asap to replying to the A7 ones out of the 210 emails awaiting here. Cheers, Bill in Oz

A nice touch that the chap timing the petrol filing is also smoking a cigarette!

No H&S.....

Peter

We'll never know - but I wonder if maybe the thinner bar of T bar was used to remove the cap of the petrol can, which sits by it on the scuttle? Was the can carried in the car? If so they would do it up mighty tight and we know from experience that the brass cap can be tough to unscrew - unless you put a bar across the lugs on the cap. It certainly wasn't for the tank cap as that is a plain one sitting on top of the head by the looks of it. I spy three smokers and the chap on the right looks as if he may be about to flick it...

...and the driver (Gunnar Poppe) is pretty confident pouring the petrol. I suppose they did it all the time in those days.

I'm surprised that before now Robin or someone hasn't asserted that to smoke a cigarette near the petrol the fellow would have to be a bit of a Pratt? Cheers, Bill in Oz