Dear All

More sad news.  Harry Hales died this morning.  

He was a through and through Sevener, involved in racing, club activity, VSCC and South Wales A7 Club.  Some may know him from his booklet on Dynamos. 

I’ll post details of funeral arrangements etc when I know them.

Howard

Does anyone have a spare bowl like this that I could buy? Ruairidh, whose hand and bowl are featured in the photo , advises that the one I have is wrong and should be replaced with the type shown. 
Many condolenses to Andrew whilst I’m on the Forum. That’s tough.

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I am very sorry to have to report that Norman Purves died last night. He had been in a hospice and this was expected, but it's very sad news. Many people will have met him at the Centenary rally at Moreton-in-Marsh, and seen 3 of his cars which were on display there together with David Mawby's collection. He specialised in very early cars and owned the earliest known production car, Chassis No. 71 (the green car), and was still enthusiastically building other early cars almost to the end.

A book on the history of Wolseley cars by St John Nixon details the early design work on cars by Herbert Austin - for example, the building of his first car in 1895, and what influenced the design.  He was aware that its design infringed certain patents, and therefore the whole exercise was kept very quiet at the time. 
 
Later, when the second experimental Wolseley car was built, it was of a very different design.  Many of the changes were aimed at getting around patent infringements so that the design might be taken forward commercially.  This shows that patents were important in the car industry as early as the 1890s, and that Herbert Austin needed to have them at the forefront of his mind when designing.
 
Therefore, when it came to the design of the Seven - with its many new features - it makes sense that Herbert Austin was thorough in using patents to protect his design?
 
I have not looked in detail at the wording of the patents themselves, but anyone in the 1920s wishing to ‘copy’ a Seven would have had to take them into account - and areas listed include frame, suspension, engine lubrication, steering gear, front axle and brakes, torque tube, gear box, radiator and body - so most of the major components. 
 
Perhaps this helps explain why we have that long list of patents on the dashboard of our Sevens?


  patent plate.jpg (Size: 97.28 KB / Downloads: 164)

Curborough A7 Day - a few snaps.

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Finally bought a dynamator after looking for a while for my build
Any advice on how I can make it better/ more reliable apart from bin it

Oh flip. Crashed Ruby today.

A driver of a modern car had not realised he was in a one way street. Nothing coming towartds him so he turned right. In fact it is a busy two-lane one-way street. I was in the right lane preparing to turn right a bit further on. He pulled across the front of me, my left front wheel going into the front offside wheel of his Skoda.

What to do? Axle is very badly bent. Front spring is broken. Other bits bent too. One wheel badly bent and spokes ripped out of the wheel centre. Nearside front wing very badly bent, headlight destroyed. Bonnet bent. Probably both hubs bent. Both wheels are at funny angles.

Can I really be bothered to strip all that lot apart again, just three years after completing a full dismantle and rebuild?

   

This is an 'out of interest' question. What method would you use to secure the rivets that hold the wheel studs to the inner hub?

I am amazed to have been able to acquire some trim material that is identical to the original in my car that is beyond use. This trim goes round the bottom edge of the headlining above the doors right round the car. It is a hard cotton material and possibly something like the uncut moquette that seat covering is made from. The problem I have is that what I have managed to find is not the right colour. I would like to get it to the brown of the original, though perhaps blue so as to match the upholstery might not look out of place. DOes anyone have any ideas as to how best to achieve that? 

   

Hi All,

Well I have the first of my new rear leaf springs fitted - the subject of an earlier post.

A problem of side float has occurred around the spring pin bushes. I have seen articles talking about producing a spacing washer to reduce or eliminate this. Has anyone experience of this and an opinion on whether it is worth it? - the resulting gap is more than 1/16".

The other problem (?) I have also seen alluded to elsewhere - that is the spring pin being forced back outwards when the cotter is fully pressed home. This forces the spring pin back about 3/32" so the large stop on the pin is not against the hub fitting. Should this be corrected or do I live with it?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Do the cognoscenti use proper bearings OR sealed ones?