13-10-2021, 07:40 PM
(This post was last modified: 13-10-2021, 07:44 PM by Colin Morgan.)
Looking for a vintage Seven a few years back, I bought the yellow Chummy in the picture that had been in Oregon since 1969 and just re-imported by a dealer. It needed a lot of work to get it back on the road - not least the rear axle rebuilding because of missing crown-wheel teeth, repairs to the seats, replacement carburettor - it had a downdraught Tillotson fitted that would not take sufficient fuel by gravity from the tank, a magneto was needed to replace the 1970s coil-conversion that did not work, a horn, a means of measuring the engine oil pressure, an oil pump fix involving turning the two vanes the right way up to establish sufficient oil pressure, a new exhaust to replace the larger diameter one that was unbearably noisy, new brake and suspension parts, a repair to the fuel tank, new rear lights, number plates painting, new (sensible) tyres and one new wheel. It already had a new battery, but I never got the dynamo to charge reliably.
It was fun tracing the history. It had had two owners in its 40+ years in the States - the first a lady doctor, and the second a farmer who had many old cars in his collection and was the one who painted it yellow - it had been maroon. It turned out that the DMV in Oregon had all the records for the car from the time it was imported - including a copy of the original buff logbook. This gave the original number for the car, and it was then possible to recover this from the DVLA using an Oregon librarian verified copy of the documents held by the DMV. Copies of the documents provided had the private owners' names and addresses blanked out for privacy reasons. It was therefore not possible to trace any of the owners in this country directly prior to 1969, but it did show how many owners there had been and their locations and periods of ownership.
Overall, it was an interesting project, but in retrospect it might have been easier to start with a UK car.
Yellow Chummy.jpg (Size: 185.24 KB / Downloads: 304)
It was fun tracing the history. It had had two owners in its 40+ years in the States - the first a lady doctor, and the second a farmer who had many old cars in his collection and was the one who painted it yellow - it had been maroon. It turned out that the DMV in Oregon had all the records for the car from the time it was imported - including a copy of the original buff logbook. This gave the original number for the car, and it was then possible to recover this from the DVLA using an Oregon librarian verified copy of the documents held by the DMV. Copies of the documents provided had the private owners' names and addresses blanked out for privacy reasons. It was therefore not possible to trace any of the owners in this country directly prior to 1969, but it did show how many owners there had been and their locations and periods of ownership.
Overall, it was an interesting project, but in retrospect it might have been easier to start with a UK car.
Yellow Chummy.jpg (Size: 185.24 KB / Downloads: 304)