30-03-2019, 10:07 AM
(This post was last modified: 30-03-2019, 10:10 AM by Martin Prior.)
I strongly believe that wherever possible an original body should be preserved, but once it's gone, it's gone. I don't think that a replica of the lost body is any more legitimate than any other style.
We've been having great fun over the last few months building an AVK-style van body on what had once been a Mk1 Ruby saloon. There was, of course never a van version of this model, but we're basing the new body very closely on Austin practice of the later 'thirties, even down to the steel sub-frame arrangement. The only real concession that we're making is panelling it it aluminium-covered ply, rather than steel. This saves a lot of weight and is much easier to work.
If someone asked me to do a similar job on a complete saloon, I'd politely refuse, but in this case, the body had been chopped up many years ago. We have a similar project at an early stage using the remains of a roofless RP saloon, and a hard-top sports coupe body for what had once been an RM, but has no hope of restoration as such.
We've been having great fun over the last few months building an AVK-style van body on what had once been a Mk1 Ruby saloon. There was, of course never a van version of this model, but we're basing the new body very closely on Austin practice of the later 'thirties, even down to the steel sub-frame arrangement. The only real concession that we're making is panelling it it aluminium-covered ply, rather than steel. This saves a lot of weight and is much easier to work.
If someone asked me to do a similar job on a complete saloon, I'd politely refuse, but in this case, the body had been chopped up many years ago. We have a similar project at an early stage using the remains of a roofless RP saloon, and a hard-top sports coupe body for what had once been an RM, but has no hope of restoration as such.