1973 Austin 1300GT

Just been doing some sorting of parts, many thanks for the feedback mrX.. I do need a few parts as due to it being stripped for so long some have gone missing or ive not found them yet - but thats not surprising as this is what we had to collect




Luckily it all fitted in the van.
Genral condition is pretty good at the rear, subframe mount and rear arches are all good and original.







The initial plan is to go through the parts - so far what I can see missing is

two door stripes (think its the front ones but need to check length)
1x Wheel Trim.
Rev Counter glass is broken.

On the panels front - I really could do with a better front panel - expressed are saying an 8 month wait !! so I will call them tomorrow just to see if that is correct.
It had two brand new original wings, the n/s is luckily just pop riveted on and the o/s sadly has been badly welded. Im hoping its recoverable if not the club do new wings so all is not lost.
I think given how good the rear of the car is my plan is to start there and work forward. Ill take the rear subframe out to check the heal board and refurb it at the same time. My mate is popping down to look over the engine. Its not seized but does have some piston movement. (He helped with the rebuild and refresh of my other car an AMC Cub) so he is the best to sort this.
The idea is that ill start on the rear of the car, while thats going in ill try and source a front panel. Im going to order a new wiring loom up from autosparkes tomorrow. and then see what my mate says regards the engine and box. Get them done while im at it.

Interior wise I can see me having to retrim it all - its not survived the strip and store very well. but ill keep my eye out for a replacment. Colour wise its staying original with possible mild tweaks to engine only.

Think this is the fella? Chrome isnt great but the glass is intact.

If this is resurrected for this GT there's a company, (only a stone's throw from me), which specialises in restoring & recalibrating equipment like this;

speedycables.com/

Hi Striky - thanks for the offer with the speedo however the one with it is fine (from what I can tell!!)

Anyways bit of an update, had a crazy week. My son bought his first house so was helping with that, my day job has been crazy busy like nothing ive seen in a while. And I spent two late nights sorting the workshop out to fit a 1300GT..

So im sure you can appreciate the lack of an update..
This was always a risk buying this car unseen, however everytime one gets listed they are snapped up. Cars with MOTS are bought by traders and marked up and sold on. Complete projects are bidded up to silly money when in essence it would have been cheaper to have bought a nice one.. Or this one !!!a car thats been hanging around from what I can tell since 1992 ish. with the last owner from 2013 purchased from Dewsbury at that time and taken to the North East and then 8 years later with a few extra parts bought and some tinkering it moves back down to Wakefield less that 4 miles from where it sat in 1992.

As I say it was a risk, so has it paid off? I had my expert mate come down to view it on Thursday (hes into Minis but understands these) He says the engine is original (matches the recently arrived v5c) It has all the really rare parts included and on top of that he says the engine is in really good condition. Hes coming down again to strip the gearbox off and have a look at that. Hes agreed to sort the engine and carbs out for me.

I will be ordering a new wiring loom next week and ive tried to order a front panel from Expressed but they are not picking up the phone. I really cant bring myself to fit the one that came with it.. But im guessing expressed waiting times will be crazy :-(

Anyways let the pictures do the talking what is the assessment? Its had some really rough work done to the front end, so first job will be to strip the paint and start seeing if I can undo whats been done. There is signs of fibreglass and the o/s wing was badly welded on (it just fell off but the wing edge is goose) Im thinking about buying a new o/s wing just cause they are available. Anyways have some pics





I wonder what is hiding under here?



all front end parts stripped off



This will be cut out and ill start again



After a busy evening with my mates making room for my project to fit in, we celebrated with a curry at the end of the day. My wife was very understanding when I arrived home at 11 that evening.

In other news when I went through the parts, we found the original Lucas spotlights (that I believe were an extra - I have see a few fitted to GT's) are all present and in great condition. I have found all the door stips (phew!!) however one wheel trim was missing so I messaged the PO and he will check for me but did say he had all 4 so fingers crossed..

Yeah I did think that when I was viewing what was available. Ill have a chat with expressed and see what they say. And yes it is surprisngly solid. My original one was only 12 years old when I had it (and scrapped it) and that was just rotten everywhere.. I think this was a very well cared for car for a long time then was taken off the road in 92 for whatever reason..

Didnt really know best place to start with this. Given that the PO did most of the work in the O/S/F area I thought best to start there and get that tidied up. I want to get the doors on at some point and the subframe in to start checking alingment. Sadly the brand new O/S inner wing that was purchased and fitted as been done really poorly and frankly its just a mess. So I am going to have to unpick that best I can. I also need to get into the heater box area (just cause its a known trouble area) My thinking is to remove the scuttle panel but want to get the floors done first.

First job was to chop most of the previous work out.

Yep as suspected another piece underneath.. Turns out it wasnt one but 4 layers !!



turns out there was 5 layers in that bit



This bit was glued on



A post cleaned up



Inner sill part removed



The replacement floor panel removed





And then ran out of time - thats first draft of the panel - Will need playing with still further.
Floor pan to go back in/ weld that to the inner sill. Close that wheelhouse off. Then I am going to mess about lowering it down and setting doors on/fitting subframe etc and messing with alignment.

Some great progress there - going to be a stunner when done.

A few things to update on, So after welding the subframe, I sent that away for shot blasting, when it returned I coated in etch primer.



I also sent the engine away and that came back - bored out +20 -10 on the crank. Valve guide inserts and all recut. New cam bearings supplied also.





I will be placing an order with mini spares soon so that I can start to build the engine back up. Need to save a few pennies back up again though.

While that was going on a very kind gift arrived from a fellow forum member Strikey in the form of the rev counter and speedo.Though following will know that when I collected the car I picked up the dash and dropped the rev counter damaging it.



Other than that I didnt do much, I have had a holiday and have been busy with work. However I did make an effort on that inner wing area.

The first repair panel I made I was not happy with so I made another up. However before I did that I worked on the inner sill area and the floor pan. The original replacment floor pan was designed to sit over the original. I wanted to recreate as best I could the original. So after removing I adapted it a little.



Then onto the inner sill - used some welding wire to obtain the profile















Yeah happy with that - compared to what had been done previous, ill take that as a little improvment.
Then modified the floor to match the original profile.I used the N/S for referance.















And then it ground to a halt, However I have been told my expressed panels order is ready and will be delivered this Wednesday so progress again can proceed. I have no pictures but I also started to remove the scuttle panel.I am concerned what I can see through the scuttle grill and I know its a trouble spot on these.
Hopefully will make a start back on it again soon. Thanks for looking.