Austin A70 Hampshire

[treehugger]

Is that hercs camper?

[angrydicky]

I finished off putting the interior back together and gave the back seat a bit of a scrub up. It’s very badly discoloured from the UV light but it’s much nicer now it’s clean. Also fitted the sound deadening and carpets. The carpets are really threadbare, but they’ll be ok for now. It’s not like you can go out and buy one off the shelf. Had to cut two new holes for the pedals.
Found a load of the tiny tacks used for fitting the rexine to the wooden arch trims embedded in the sound deadening below the carpet in the rear footwell. Someone in Longbridge must have dropped a load of them while trimming the interior in 1950, couldn’t be bothered to pick them up (or didn’t notice) and fitted the carpet straight over the top. Maybe they didn’t care because this one was destined for Johnny Foreigner. What is it they say about British workers?

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[Scruffy Bodger]

Next time it goes to something like that you need to find the shiniest, most exotic piece of machinery there that you can pull up alongside and watch from afar.
Great to see a work in progress being used!

[mercrocker]

That interior is terrific.

[angrydicky]

The shiniest cars there were actually the other two oldies, neither of which were particularly exotic.
There were a few 90s/00s cars there but I guess if the weather had been better a few more older cars would have turned up.
Look at this. I mean FFS.

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I got the Hampshire out the night before (after checking the Boston forecast, which was dry) and the poor thing got rained on for a couple of hours. Unsurprisingly, it leaks like a sieve so it was nice to have the windows open at the autojumble once the sun came out mid morning to let it dry out.

[mercrocker]

Proper car show weather, that. I've noticed a slight improvement in the targeted nature of downpours since I stopped bothering to do them....

[angrydicky]

The worst thing about car shows, and why I don’t tend to bother any more, is being stuck there all day, not allowed to leave due to OMG health and safety. Most shows I’m done in an hour and want to go home.
I didn’t buy much at the autojumble. A nice box of BA nuts and bolts, and a couple of books. I got a very nice instruction book for the Radiomobile radio as fitted as optional equipment on the A55 Mk1, which I put down on a table while I looked at some nice nos pre-focus headlight bulbs. A gust of wind took it clean off the table and it landed in a huge muddy puddle. Ffs!
Got approached by a fella trying to drum up some more support for a couple of evening meets. One of which is very local, no further than stickney and is this coming Thursday so I might pop down if the weather is good.

[mercrocker]

I'm sorry I did smile a bit about the instruction book because that is EXACTLY the sort of shit that happens to me within seconds of buying something worthwhile. Hope it dries out OK.....

[angrydicky]

I’ve barely used this car and already I’m reminded of how much of a magnet these ancient old crocks are for impatient muppets in modern cars.
The very first time I took it on the road, I got down the main road to my turning. I came to a stop, positioned correctly, with my indicator flashing away while I waited for a gap in the traffic so I could turn right.
I was just about to start turning when I checked my mirrors to see a silver Insignia bearing down on me at a rate of knots. Thinking “he’s not going to stop!” I held my foot on the brake and continued to observe the insignia indicator come on as he sailed around my outside at about 60mph.
Had I not checked my mirrors then, both myself and my dad would probably be dead and the T-boned Hampshire would have been wrecked.
Today, coming back from the autojumble, it’s a very straight but not especially wide country road, wide enough for two cars but not much more. The side of the road on this stretch is badly potholed so obviously I was taking a bit more of the road than usual to avoid wrecking my tyres/suspension in the potholes.
Twat #2 in a Focus came barrelling up behind me then forced his way past with seemingly inches to spare, forcing me into the potholes, cunt.
All because they can’t wait a few seconds, they see an old car and think “got to get past that!” And what little sense goes out of the window.
Twat #3 was driving a DHL branded van and came sailing past me and three other cars, with double solid white lines on a blind bend. Absolute moron, that would have been a good one for the dashcam (if I had one).
You’ve really got to have your wits about you with todays standard of driving, especially if you’re driving a classic car as they seem to be a red rag to a bull.

[angrydicky]

Fried Onions is very kindly converting one of my spare control boxes to electronic, as he has done with his Super Snipe.
Found this picture I took when it arrived in early April 2021.

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And now.

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I never bothered repainting the engine. Just degreased the years of caked on oil off it and replaced the gaskets.
It’s no minter but I think the engine bay looks quite respectable now.