Welcome to the Austin Seven Friends web site and forum

As announced earlier, this forum with it's respective web address will go offline within the next days!
Please follow the link to our new forum

http://www.austinsevenfriends.co.uk/forum

and make sure, you readjust your link button to the new address!

Welcome Austin seven Friends
This Forum is Locked
Author
Comment
View Entire Thread
Re: Making a body.

I have from experience to agree with the comments over clearance needs. For instance you have not yet added the fuel tank contents 5 1/2 galls + tank say 70 Lbs, spare wheel say 50 Lbs, a few tools, jack, spare water and oil, two bodies, hood perhaps, tonneau cover, both seats, luggage space lining, lights, etc etc.

There is also a significant sideways component to the axle and tyre/wheel. Hard cornering will move the tyre possibly a couple of inches sideways if you take into account body lean.

I hate to be a doom-monger but the rear body looks a bit tight in all dimensions to me. I built a Cambridge bodied special and started with 120mm clearance blocks above the tyres when I set up the cycle type Cambridge wings. On big spring deflections even with one up the tyres now graze the wing supports. The springs settled and the poor road surfaces encountered these days make the springs work hard. I have had to move the wing stays once already and a second move is on the cards

Re: Making a body.


I also had to move my wing supports up.

On yours is there scope to raise the whole body?

David

Re: Making a body.

Ooooooh...now they tell me!

I can pack the springs up with angled wedges (I think that will work, won't it?) and maybe a Panhard rod will locate it sideways. I had assumed that the flat springs would have keep sideways movement right down.
What about "Nobby" type spring assistance between axle and chassis extensions/Bumpstops?

Location: Cardiff

Re: Making a body.

I suspect there is very little true sideways movement of the axle because it's constrained by the pin joint with the springs. However as the car rolls there is a considerable angle between the wheel and the body so the top of the wheel rubs on the inside of the wing.
My car, a 1929 saloon, is at the other end of the spectrum and the wheels rub, but of course it rolls a lot more than a special would.
Occasionally the wheels occasionally hit the top of the wings in the bottom of deep dips, not bumps though. That's about 6" of spring travel
However RK saloons have no bump stops. I don't think the body would be strong enough to withstand the shocks!

Location: Melrose, Roxburghshire

Re: Making a body.

It may be easier to have the rear springs reset to provide more camber. I think if you fit rubber bump stops they will be acting as your suspension and the ride will not be pleasant!
With more camber on the rear springs the rear end may look a little high, I would give the front spring more camber to level things up. Altering the front spring is a doddle!
My experience is that with our roads Austin 7's that sit a bit higher are much nicer to drive and ironically, on a cross country journey on back roads, the car with the better ride height will be quicker than the low 'sports' model.
It is also embarrassing if you take a lady for a ride and the wheels scrape on the wheel arches!

Re: Making a body.

Quote..."it is also embarrassing if you take a lady for a ride and the wheels scrape on the wheel arches!"

I like it!


Progress today. I measured another flat spring and there is 3x as much spring outside the cahssis rail as there is inside (53cm Vs 18cm) so I carved 2 oak wedges to be 18cm long and 2cm tapering to zero to try and give an extra 2 inches at the wheel. It seems to have worked although the hardest parts were to firstly drill a hole to get at the top of the big spring bolt and then to align the hole after the work was done (Simon. I wish I had found your photo website sooner!).
Mk2 will have a slot cut down the wedge so it can slip in without having to fully withdraw the big bolt. One side done and it sits about 1 3/4 inches higher.

One more question, if I may. What is the 'packing' mentioned in the various books? I never found any in the boxes of bits that this car was assembled from. Is it a flat piece between the spring and the flat plate at the bottom of the chassis rail?

Location: Cardiff