1958 Austin A35 - the family heirloom...
Discussion
and31 said:
I think 80 ish bhp is a sweet spot for a 1275 A series. I’ve only had experience of it fitted in mini’s, and had some road cars with serious power(1380 that was 127bhp!) but a right pain in the arse unless flat out!!
80bhp will make a very tractable engine and be lovey to drive.
Standard 1275 Cooper S was rated at 76 bhp 80bhp will make a very tractable engine and be lovey to drive.
bigothunter said:
and31 said:
I think 80 ish bhp is a sweet spot for a 1275 A series. I’ve only had experience of it fitted in mini’s, and had some road cars with serious power(1380 that was 127bhp!) but a right pain in the arse unless flat out!!
80bhp will make a very tractable engine and be lovey to drive.
Standard 1275 Cooper S was rated at 76 bhp 80bhp will make a very tractable engine and be lovey to drive.
and31 said:
I think 80 ish bhp is a sweet spot for a 1275 A series. I’ve only had experience of it fitted in mini’s, and had some road cars with serious power(1380 that was 127bhp!) but a right pain in the arse unless flat out!!
80bhp will make a very tractable engine and be lovey to drive.
Good to know that my intentions are about right from people who have experience of these engines. One of the guys I spoke to about the engine rebuild said that 75-80 was a nice place to be with a larger single SU. Said a lot of people go twin smaller SU but it doesn't actually give you anything other than balancing issues and slightly worse fuel consumption. (With that kind of power)80bhp will make a very tractable engine and be lovey to drive.
I might have a bit of a change of tack on a few items.
1- To keep the cost down a little (at least in the short term)
2- To try and keep more original items on the car
3- Done a bit more research.
First up the fuel tank. You can buy a new shiny alloy one off the shelf for about £450. Or I could try and repair this one. POR15 sell a tank revival kit which is a multi stage clean/etch/liner and essentially bags the tank internally, repairing pin holes and giving a fuel proof liner for years to come. I'll clean up the outside first and see if any chunks come off before committing!
Second is the rad. An alloy one is about £250, but by all accounts a re-cored original with a 3row core is more than capable of keeping up with the demands of the 1275 A+, even if driven hard. I work next door to a radiator specialist, so I can pop in one lunchtime next week and see what they say.
In theory that should save me about £500, which will surely be swallowed up with welding.
If possible I'd like to try and get the other wing off today so I can have a peek under the RHS too.
1- To keep the cost down a little (at least in the short term)
2- To try and keep more original items on the car
3- Done a bit more research.
First up the fuel tank. You can buy a new shiny alloy one off the shelf for about £450. Or I could try and repair this one. POR15 sell a tank revival kit which is a multi stage clean/etch/liner and essentially bags the tank internally, repairing pin holes and giving a fuel proof liner for years to come. I'll clean up the outside first and see if any chunks come off before committing!
Second is the rad. An alloy one is about £250, but by all accounts a re-cored original with a 3row core is more than capable of keeping up with the demands of the 1275 A+, even if driven hard. I work next door to a radiator specialist, so I can pop in one lunchtime next week and see what they say.
In theory that should save me about £500, which will surely be swallowed up with welding.
If possible I'd like to try and get the other wing off today so I can have a peek under the RHS too.
Edited by Ambleton on Sunday 20th August 09:27
Ambleton said:
Good to know that my intentions are about right from people who have experience of these engines. One of the guys I spoke to about the engine rebuild said that 75-80 was a nice place to be with a larger single SU. Said a lot of people go twin smaller SU but it doesn't actually give you anything other than balancing issues and slightly worse fuel consumption. (With that kind of power)
A single 1.75 inch SU HIF44 will work great with a 1275,twin carbs are great if running big power but they are expensive and not really necessary for the power you are looking forMy SiL came up for the weekend with the family. My nephew is looking to do an apprenticeship in engineering and design but I was quite surprised when he expressed an interest in helping me out in the garage today 
His help was really appreciated and we managed to get a few good hours cracked out and he was asking about all the parts and how they worked - he was really keen.
First off we pushed the little A to the other side of the garage and released the RHS outer wing. I did what I did on the other side and slotted in between the body and the wing with. 0.8mm cutting disc. Slicing through the rubber T section, cutting all the rusty bolts in half. Amazingly the impact driver made light work of fasteners behind the door and they all came out ok.
Hurrah! Despite the outer wing being worse, this side inner is in much better condition. The cowboy garage that did the inner sill on the other side haven't done the inner on the right, only the outer. There's a lot more original metal here and it's a lot less crusty.
You can see the RH wing has already been patched at least once in it's life.
Next up we moved to the engine bay. My tame welder has requested it to be stripped as much as possible, engine and box out etc. In order to make the engine a bit easier to pull out, we started stripping the ancillaries. According to my research the best way to remove the engine from an A35 is down, with the front of the car on ramps, so having the head off helps with this.
One of my favourite things so far is this old aftermarket Halfords wash bottle
Carb off, thermostat off. Inlet/exhaust manifold off, Rocker assembly, pushrods and head off.
The Zenith carb isn't much more than a toy. No wonder they're often the limiting factor
His help was really appreciated and we managed to get a few good hours cracked out and he was asking about all the parts and how they worked - he was really keen.
First off we pushed the little A to the other side of the garage and released the RHS outer wing. I did what I did on the other side and slotted in between the body and the wing with. 0.8mm cutting disc. Slicing through the rubber T section, cutting all the rusty bolts in half. Amazingly the impact driver made light work of fasteners behind the door and they all came out ok.
Hurrah! Despite the outer wing being worse, this side inner is in much better condition. The cowboy garage that did the inner sill on the other side haven't done the inner on the right, only the outer. There's a lot more original metal here and it's a lot less crusty.
You can see the RH wing has already been patched at least once in it's life.
Next up we moved to the engine bay. My tame welder has requested it to be stripped as much as possible, engine and box out etc. In order to make the engine a bit easier to pull out, we started stripping the ancillaries. According to my research the best way to remove the engine from an A35 is down, with the front of the car on ramps, so having the head off helps with this.
One of my favourite things so far is this old aftermarket Halfords wash bottle
Carb off, thermostat off. Inlet/exhaust manifold off, Rocker assembly, pushrods and head off.
The Zenith carb isn't much more than a toy. No wonder they're often the limiting factor
Before I go too far down the rabbit hole with the fuel tank, I thought I'd do a little Wire brushing of the fuel tank to see if it was worth considering a repair... A few tiny pinholes I might accept, this represents a collander....
Looks like it will be a new shiny alloy one after all!
Here's some more pictures of the rad too. The side plates have rotted through at the bottom. I'll take it to the rad specialist anyway and see what they say.
Looks like it will be a new shiny alloy one after all!
Here's some more pictures of the rad too. The side plates have rotted through at the bottom. I'll take it to the rad specialist anyway and see what they say.
Bobupndown said:
My minor had twin 1 1/4 SUs, in reality a single would have suited it better. It was always a bit 'lumpy'. For simplicity and fuel economy I'd definitely recommend a single 1 3/4. You're fairly cracking on with this, looking forward to updates.
More good feedback - thanksYes, my welder friend says he has availability coming up between two other projects he's working on for folk so I'm trying to get it stripped as quickly as possible, so he can quote to do the work and sort the corrosion. There's no point doing anything else to the little A until the rot is cut out and made good.
It would be akin to painting the walls of a house that's falling down!
The plan is he's going to come and assess it and give a rough labour quote - tell me what repair panels he wants me to source, take any patterns he needs and tell me what he wants me to strip back, so I can do that before it goes to him to cut and weld.
I'm hoping that if I do as much prep/dismantling work as possible, it will keep his labour down to a minimum and keep the "unexpected surprises" down to a minimum too.
As an aside, you'll see that the engine ID plate is missing, which means there's actually not much I can tell about the engine.... Other than it's a 950 (948), therefore any talk of matching numbers goes flying out the window!
Edited by Ambleton on Sunday 20th August 16:58
After my Minor I replaced it with a '63 Mk1 Mini in great restored condition. I replaced the gearbox as the original was very 'graunchy' but the original 850 engine is very tired. I'm torn between rebuilding it's original engine or finding another similar one and getting it built, maybe tuning it a little to make it more capable in modern traffic? The original engine isn't happy much over 55mph.
Although maybe that's for the best because it's still on its original single leading shoe drum brakes which are pretty pathetic!
Although maybe that's for the best because it's still on its original single leading shoe drum brakes which are pretty pathetic!
brownspeed said:
love it! my dad's 1st car was an A35- my arrival forced him to sell his francis barnett sidecar combo. his was british racing beige. were in UK are you. if local to me I can lend a hand if ever needed.
I'm in Northampton. It's amazing how many folk either had an A30/35 or have/had relatives/parents with one.
You don't really see them on the road all that much at all (unlike moggies) and yet there's usually a decent contingent at car shows.
My dad also had an A35 as the first car I can remember. And as a 44 year old, you can probably imagine that the car was old when I was old enough to remember it! “Suzy” as it was called was pretty much identical to yours. Black with a red interior.
Not that many years ago we were clearing out some tools and one of the things we sold was the king pin reamer that dad had. It was a stepped reamer that went for surprisingly good money to a guy in America if my memory serves me right! I doubt that tool would be available to buy new any more!
I still look at A35’s on eBay as they are surprisingly affordable. (But I cannot weld, and I think that is a skill that’s highly required if looking at one of these!!)
Not that many years ago we were clearing out some tools and one of the things we sold was the king pin reamer that dad had. It was a stepped reamer that went for surprisingly good money to a guy in America if my memory serves me right! I doubt that tool would be available to buy new any more!
I still look at A35’s on eBay as they are surprisingly affordable. (But I cannot weld, and I think that is a skill that’s highly required if looking at one of these!!)
Jackarmy100 said:
I still look at A35’s on eBay as they are surprisingly affordable. (But I cannot weld, and I think that is a skill that’s highly required if looking at one of these!!)
They're cute little cars! I can see why they're loved. They're really affordable. I'm not really sure why the prices haven't shot up like beetles or 2cvs to be honest, not that it really matters. The intention is that this is not going to be sold. If it just a bit of welding that needed doing then my intention was to do it myself but as soon as I started stripping it back I realised it's just too much for me to do.
It's totally beyond economic repair and I'll be honest and say it is a fair bit worse than I thought it was going to be, especially on the left side. I had a quick rummage underneath yesterday and the rear spring hangers will need attention too.
Jackarmy100 said:
“Suzy” as it was called was pretty much identical to yours. Black with a red interior.
Whilst we're on the subject of interior, this is one item that my In-laws did get done. Seats and door cards went off to a trim shop. The back seat was also redone, but as you can see, only placed in the back, not actually installed. These are lovely and really comfy. One thing I don't have to worry about!My FiL cut and slapped some domestic carpet down with contact adhesive. It'll all need to come out. I think there was some severe denial as to how bad the car had actually got. My MiL thinks I'm making a meal of it and that the body just needs rubbing down, a bit of filler and a blow over with a rattle can.
Ambleton said:
I'm in Northampton.
Ah Well, its no too local for me (north -west) unfortunately!!. I have seen a few of these entered in classic banger racing- it might be worth your while posting on "https://www.ovalbangerchat.co.uk" in case anyone has one with an interior they need disposing
Lovely A35! I keep looking at these for a fun project.
With regards to the fuel tank I'd recommend taping over the pin holes and block off the filler and outlet and impossible remove the sender unit. Before sealing the filler though put in a gallon of citric acid and a handful of pebbles. Give the tank a good shake in various angles, this will loosed anything else inside and help clean off the majority of the surface rust.
I had a few pinholes on the top of my fuel tank which I filled using solder (body lead type), I used solder as it's fuel resistant and you don't heat the tank to apply it I then used the POR15 kit for belts and braces. I did that 3 years ago and haven't had any tank issues since
With regards to the fuel tank I'd recommend taping over the pin holes and block off the filler and outlet and impossible remove the sender unit. Before sealing the filler though put in a gallon of citric acid and a handful of pebbles. Give the tank a good shake in various angles, this will loosed anything else inside and help clean off the majority of the surface rust.
I had a few pinholes on the top of my fuel tank which I filled using solder (body lead type), I used solder as it's fuel resistant and you don't heat the tank to apply it I then used the POR15 kit for belts and braces. I did that 3 years ago and haven't had any tank issues since
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