[Ratius Ratus]

Some pics of YAS build up to fire you up.........

Engine mounted 6" back from original postion. Wishbones split and reshaped, fitted with Transit rod ends.

Big 7 has track rod in front of axle and looks butt ugly. Steering arms reshaped to clear wheels.

Left - Ugly big 7 snout. Right - New dropped snout.

Chassis ready for body. Note brake and clutch master cylinders and original handbrake.

Box saloon body with new floor. Sweet tins under back seat are for tools and parts!

Almost there and cant wait to hit the streets.......

 

[Stroprock]

Some pics of YAS build up to fire you up.........

Engine mounted 6" back from original postion. Wishbones split and reshaped, fitted with Transit rod ends.

Big 7 has track rod in front of axle and looks butt ugly. Steering arms reshaped to clear wheels.

Left - Ugly big 7 snout. Right - New dropped snout.

Chassis ready for body. Note brake and clutch master cylinders and original handbrake.

Box saloon body with new floor. Sweet tins under back seat are for tools and parts!

Almost there and cant wait to hit the streets.......

Oh yes! Very nice.

 

[tug]

Parker, I used to own a A7 special powered by a ford 1172cc engine out of a e93a pop, was fitted with an aquaplane ali head and twin SUs looked great and fitted within the ruby chassis, was mated to an old MG box, went fast enough in a two seat sports body (much smaller than caterham type car) . Be different find 100e engine, aquaplane heads can still be found secondhand, I think new ones are being made but are expensive. also this set up may be accepted by the 750mc as there was a racing class in the 50s for ford1172 engined A7 specials. Good luck keep us all informed, I know a ruby that could do with a new owner mmm... finish the A, then could be another Rubellion or wild honey......don't tell Mrs Tug!

 

[stueeee]

Great build pictures Ratius, I had forgotten how much wider at the front the big 7 chassis was than the box or ruby chassis. Any pictures of how you located the rear axle; I can see you haven't used the original torque anchor setup.

 

[Parker]

Thing is you can`t get them big chassis there like rocking horse shit to get hold off


But i could just cut the members out of the 7 chassis and make them bigger at the front

 

[Ratius Ratus]

Cheers Stueeee,
I will try and find some pics of rear end for you! Its a very simple set up but works extremely well. I used an MG midget axle with later 3.9 diff, 5.90 x 14 cross plys on minor wheels. The mdget axle is same width as big 7 heavy axle so the original quarter elliptic springs are hooked up with simple lugs welded under the axle. The whole thing is located by a 1" tubular A-frame on poly bushes with a transit rod end on a turret on top of the diff. More luck than design but it is very hard to spin the skinny tyres because under hard acceleration the body tends to lift. This makes it fairly quick from the lights. But its a different story in the wet!
Gearing is 19mph/ 1000 so at 7000rpm in second im doing 70mph. Sweet!!! 7000rpm in top is 133mph! Thats mad, anyway the bonnet starts to lift at 80.
The best part ive fitted is a VW bus steering damper so i can now cruise at 70 in a fairly straight line.

 

[Parker]

Yeah i was going to use an MGB REAR AXLE

 

[stueeee]

Thing is you can`t get them big chassis there like rocking horse shit to get hold off

These are around, and they're not sought after by the Seven racers/special builders unlike the front axles; I think you're more likely to have trouble finding a Big seven front axle than the chassis. I know you said that you had got in touch with Austineers, Dave Williams (the bloke who runs Austineers) is a knowledgable bloke, but he's really much more into the earlier (and larger 12 HP, 20 HP) stuff than Big Sevens.

Yeah i was going to use an MGB REAR AXLE

Check the weight as well as the width before you decide to use an MGB axle, they're incredibly heavy for a sports car axle. A lot of the internals are shared with the Austin J4 etc. vans. An A35 or the (stronger Diff. & halfshafts) midget axle is a lot lighter and the right width as shown in Ratius' build.

 

[Hemi Bucket]

Gearing is 19mph/ 1000 so at 7000rpm in second im doing 70mph. Sweet!!! 7000rpm in top is 133mph! Thats mad, anyway the bonnet starts to lift at 80.....so i can now cruise at 70 in a fairly straight line.

With those two quotes you've just become my hero for the week, the "fairly straight line" bit actually made me laugh out loud!

 

[Ratius Ratus]

Cheers Hemi Bucket,
For me - if it doesnt scare the crap out of you when you floor it, its not a proper hotrod.
I agree with Stueeee - a midget rear axle is the better choice. They are pretty common on ebay and all the spares are available. Same 4" PCD as a Minor. MGB has bigger PCD
I think ive done everything possible to make the car steer and handle whilst keeping it "original" looking but it seems that no mater how well you rebuild these front axles, locate it in all the right direction and shim everything to the limit, they just werent ment to go round corners fast.
Theres a lot to be said for IFS with rack & peanut steering.

 

[streetwise]

For all you folks into building an Austin 7 hotrod I have available an Austin big 7 front axle and a pair of speedex wheel n tyres as shown on the front of the box saloon at the begining of this thread, thought I'd add them here to see if I can help anyone! pm me if its of interest

 

[Ratius Ratus]

Parker / Stueeee,
Found some more pics that maybe of interest.....

How it all began. Fresh out the barn my new project arrives. Awsome!

With the body stripped off this is what a Big 7 chassis looks like. Not much to it really.

Detail of A-frame to locate Midget axle. This was my third attempt but it does clear the floor this time and works really well.

View of axle where back seat fits.
I`ve also added some more pics to my album.
Happy New Year Bods with Rods, from Ratus!

 

[STOVEBOLTSLIM]

What about this one,

Reckon that's a pic of Alan Staniforth's circuit racing car. It's in his book "Race and Rally Car Source Book"

 

[OneBadDaddy]

bit late catchin this thread, but here's my mate Al's austin 7 mid-modding..now respectively called the 6 1/2 cuz its been chopped soo much.

built by chopper hobbs, heres a link to his site with the details http://backstreetrodz.blogspot.com

 

[Parker]

*UPDATE*
Trying to rent out an garage.

Thanks for the pic. keep them comeing if you can it helping me out to get some ideas

 

[OneBadDaddy]

since the above pics its been lowered 2" and subjected to another 3-4"channel..
luckily Al's only skinny lil sod so width aint too much of an issue,but there is bugger all headroom..

 

[Parker]

Whent to a local steam rally and saw an standerd Austin 7

Still trying to find an garage

 

[Acmerocket]

Heres mine

Scratch built chassis, rover v8 and auto box, truck front and rear axles. Pretty much all made up from parts we had lying around at the workshop. Got it up and running and drove it around at the hayride.

 

[Shedster]

Heres mine

Scratch built chassis, rover v8 and auto box, truck front and rear axles. Pretty much all made up from parts we had lying around at the workshop. Got it up and running and drove it around at the hayride.

Really liked this when i saw it, lots of character for not a huge amount of money, and a pleasant change from all the US-bodied stuff. Smart :tup:

 

[stueeee]

Heres mine

Scratch built chassis, rover v8 and auto box, truck front and rear axles. Pretty much all made up from parts we had lying around at the workshop. Got it up and running and drove it around at the hayride.

Liked this too. Saw it at the hayride and earlier at Wheelsday. What's the steering box off of? it looks like late Austin Seven but with a much longer Pitman arm than I remember.