1958 Austin A35 - the family heirloom...
Discussion
Wish said:
Someone has some serious skill there.
You’re lucky to have found such skill. Such neat work.
Yes, he really is very good indeed. This is probably the cheapest car he's ever worked on but his ethos is unchanged regardless of the car which is nice. You’re lucky to have found such skill. Such neat work.
His day job is race car and high end engineering fabrication but has previously been involved in classic Aston and Porsche race car restoration/shell prep too, from bespoke sub frame and suspension fabrication, to cage installs, major shell mods and crash repairs and everything in between.
If anyone here does have a project they're thinking about then let me know and I can put you on touch with him. For the service he provides he is not expensive, but he will do stuff properly. He's not in the game of patching stuff up and kicking it out the door, as I'm sure you've gathered from the thread so far.
Ambleton said:
Wish said:
Someone has some serious skill there.
You’re lucky to have found such skill. Such neat work.
Yes, he really is very good indeed. This is probably the cheapest car he's ever worked on but his ethos is unchanged regardless of the car which is nice. You’re lucky to have found such skill. Such neat work.
His day job is race car and high end engineering fabrication but has previously been involved in classic Aston and Porsche race car restoration/shell prep too, from bespoke sub frame and suspension fabrication, to cage installs, major shell mods and crash repairs and everything in between.
If anyone here does have a project they're thinking about then let me know and I can put you on touch with him. For the service he provides he is not expensive, but he will do stuff properly. He's not in the game of patching stuff up and kicking it out the door, as I'm sure you've gathered from the thread so far.
The quality of work really looks great, and as you say it's not really his 'day job' the rate of progress has been impressive. Good to know it's being done right, and that the bodywork is being matched by the level of electrical/mechanical prep you're putting in to it! Can't wait to see more progress
Sooooo I know you guys still following along with the thread love some photos of swarf, grinding dust and hot metal glue gun action....
The A35 has some rather interesting panel overlaps/stack at the rear from factory. Here's a photo of a "never welded" car that's going through a refresh, that's been in a dry warm garage since the mid 60s
The wheelarch tub pressing comes down and just sort of lies over the top of the spring hanger mount. There's a hole that sort of floats in no mans land and doesn't actually seem to do anything other than gather water and crap.
Soooo, although it's not factory, we've decided to go a slightly different route to avoid the water trap and flappy edges and instead go for capping it off horizontally.
Obviously it all needs welding properly and tidying up, but you get the gist
Some attention has now been directed to the rear bodywork/arch repairs...
Only the slightest skim of filler will be required...
Supplies for my loom turned up too!
28 colours in total.
White = earth (all sizes)
Then I have:
16A (1mm):
Black
Black with orange stripe
Black with red stripe
Black with white stripe
Blue
Blue with red stripe
Blue with yellow stripe
Brown
Green dark
Green light
Grey
Orange
Pink
Purple
Purple with white stripe
Red
Red with yellow stripe
White with blue stripe
White with green stripe
White with pink stripe
White with yellow stripe
Yellow
Yellow with grey stripe
25A (2mm):
Green with red stripe
Orange with green stripe
White with red stripe
33A (3mm)
Brown with green stripe
The A35 has some rather interesting panel overlaps/stack at the rear from factory. Here's a photo of a "never welded" car that's going through a refresh, that's been in a dry warm garage since the mid 60s
The wheelarch tub pressing comes down and just sort of lies over the top of the spring hanger mount. There's a hole that sort of floats in no mans land and doesn't actually seem to do anything other than gather water and crap.
Soooo, although it's not factory, we've decided to go a slightly different route to avoid the water trap and flappy edges and instead go for capping it off horizontally.
Obviously it all needs welding properly and tidying up, but you get the gist
Some attention has now been directed to the rear bodywork/arch repairs...
Only the slightest skim of filler will be required...
Supplies for my loom turned up too!
28 colours in total.
White = earth (all sizes)
Then I have:
16A (1mm):
Black
Black with orange stripe
Black with red stripe
Black with white stripe
Blue
Blue with red stripe
Blue with yellow stripe
Brown
Green dark
Green light
Grey
Orange
Pink
Purple
Purple with white stripe
Red
Red with yellow stripe
White with blue stripe
White with green stripe
White with pink stripe
White with yellow stripe
Yellow
Yellow with grey stripe
25A (2mm):
Green with red stripe
Orange with green stripe
White with red stripe
33A (3mm)
Brown with green stripe
And we wonder why old British cars rusted for fun?
I'm a fan of anything BMC / BL but Minis would be my first love. Why did the designers not look at the cars and think "Wait, that's no good, wet mud will gather in there"?
That is going to be fantastic when finished, in fact it's a shame all that craftsmanship is going to be covered upby primer and paint. Maybe you should just clear coat it?
I'm a fan of anything BMC / BL but Minis would be my first love. Why did the designers not look at the cars and think "Wait, that's no good, wet mud will gather in there"?
That is going to be fantastic when finished, in fact it's a shame all that craftsmanship is going to be covered upby primer and paint. Maybe you should just clear coat it?
Bobupndown said:
And we wonder why old British cars rusted for fun?
I'm a fan of anything BMC / BL but Minis would be my first love. Why did the designers not look at the cars and think "Wait, that's no good, wet mud will gather in there"?
That is going to be fantastic when finished, in fact it's a shame all that craftsmanship is going to be covered up by primer and paint. Maybe you should just clear coat it?
Ha, yeah, it will be hidden but at least I know it's all done properly and is solid. Once it's been dipped/E-coat it'll then be fully seam sealed and have some proper heavy duty underbody protection applied and all cavities filled with protective creeping wax. Bilt hamber do a 2 part self healing epoxy mastic designed for heavy industrial and marine I'm a fan of anything BMC / BL but Minis would be my first love. Why did the designers not look at the cars and think "Wait, that's no good, wet mud will gather in there"?
That is going to be fantastic when finished, in fact it's a shame all that craftsmanship is going to be covered up by primer and paint. Maybe you should just clear coat it?
After all this trouble, cost and effort, the last thing I want is rust to start coming back in a few years.
A few more welding shots:
We discussed the historic rear arch repairs and came to the conclusion that whilst weren't tidy, were sound, the metal was good/solid, with a good shape too. With this decided, Chris has started to drill out along the spots, trim, re-align properly, weld back in and dress back.
The other side lower quarter panels have also been tacked into place now too...
Boot panel roughly thrown on (no hinges/latch/seals fitted so its all a bit wonky but starting to look like a car again.
We discussed the historic rear arch repairs and came to the conclusion that whilst weren't tidy, were sound, the metal was good/solid, with a good shape too. With this decided, Chris has started to drill out along the spots, trim, re-align properly, weld back in and dress back.
The other side lower quarter panels have also been tacked into place now too...
Boot panel roughly thrown on (no hinges/latch/seals fitted so its all a bit wonky but starting to look like a car again.
Not a great day today!
We were hoping not to have to do major surgery on the rear left wheel arch area and fwd leaf spring mount as it appeared to be on reasonable condition, the plan was to repair it in situ and not replace the entire spring mount, only the lower section and graft it in.
My fabby pal started poking around and removing parts that clearly needed remedial work.... Oh dear....
Well s
t....
Looks like we're doing the full shebang on this side too then! Sigh.
Rear seat pan back out and wheel tub removed.
In the meantime, I've been drilling out spot welds and picking apart the body cut I acquired in October.... It's a god awful job. Took me >4hrs to free the main arch pressings, damper mount and surrounding bits but it saves "my man" doing it. Allowing him to get on with more skilled stuff that I can't do.
It looks like I may be spending most of the weekend with him dressing welds, knocking the tops off plug/spot welds and being a general dogs body/assistant.
We were hoping not to have to do major surgery on the rear left wheel arch area and fwd leaf spring mount as it appeared to be on reasonable condition, the plan was to repair it in situ and not replace the entire spring mount, only the lower section and graft it in.
My fabby pal started poking around and removing parts that clearly needed remedial work.... Oh dear....
Well s
t....Looks like we're doing the full shebang on this side too then! Sigh.
Rear seat pan back out and wheel tub removed.
In the meantime, I've been drilling out spot welds and picking apart the body cut I acquired in October.... It's a god awful job. Took me >4hrs to free the main arch pressings, damper mount and surrounding bits but it saves "my man" doing it. Allowing him to get on with more skilled stuff that I can't do.
It looks like I may be spending most of the weekend with him dressing welds, knocking the tops off plug/spot welds and being a general dogs body/assistant.
Edited by Ambleton on Tuesday 6th February 22:20
Wish said:
Is there a budget ? Is it still within budget.
Are you just head down arse up any amount of money to get it done and the wife happy.
Are you just head down arse up any amount of money to get it done and the wife happy.
When we first got the car and I had a look over it I had a figure of 12-14k in my head.
When I started poking deeper and deeper that ballooned quite dramatically when we realised that it really needed dipping, which also means sending back for second dip and E-coat after welding to protect everything properly, so that adds £4k immediately.
Then there's the welding. I had £3-4k mentally set aside for welding, but that was before we had it dipped. I've spent £2k on repair panels and it's had 3 months (so far) of welding labour.
At this stage I'd be surprised if finished car comes in at much less than £25k if I paint it myself.
Once it's done it might be worth £12k
BUT, it's a bit like a house. They're worth nothing untill you sell them, and it's never going to be sold.
Edited by Ambleton on Thursday 8th February 06:39
Ambleton said:
BUT, it's a bit like a house. They're worth nothing untill you sell them, and it's never going to be sold.
That's the spirit op!Edited by Ambleton on Thursday 8th February 06:39
Il help you out further. If you spent your 25k on a modern car like 'everyone' does, it would quite quickly be worth way less than 12k.
Or its equivalent of not that many years of golf club membership.
As long as you kept it a good few number of years, it's not a huge amount of money.
covmutley said:
That's the spirit op!
Il help you out further. If you spent your 25k on a modern car like 'everyone' does, it would quite quickly be worth way less than 12k.
Or its equivalent of not that many years of golf club membership.
As long as you kept it a good few number of years, it's not a huge amount of money.
Oh yeah, I've worked out that if it costs £25k and it sees it through to it's 100th birthday (which I think is realistic), in 34yrs time, then it's cost £735/yr. Some people spend more than that EVERY MONTH on a brand new lease and they don't even get to keep it at the end, or get a hobby at the same time. Il help you out further. If you spent your 25k on a modern car like 'everyone' does, it would quite quickly be worth way less than 12k.
Or its equivalent of not that many years of golf club membership.
As long as you kept it a good few number of years, it's not a huge amount of money.
A quick perusal of Hippo Leasing shows that the cheapest (new) discovery lease it over £780/m + a hefty initial.
Who affords these things?!
for those who've just done the same as me, that's (48×£782.89)+£7046+(1.2×£294) = £44,977.52 over 4years!
Dropping £25k still stings a bit though!
Edited by Ambleton on Thursday 8th February 07:41
I never count the cost of my projects. When I restored my A35 van, I put all the invoices in a shoe box and never added them up. The shoe box is still sitting on the top shelf. It's sits next to the next shoe box which is my new project I'm restoring. A P6 Rover 3500s. That box won't be counted either.
Enjoy what you have. Life is about having fun with these cars. Not worrying about the cost.
Enjoy what you have. Life is about having fun with these cars. Not worrying about the cost.
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