1960 Austin Seven Minivan

lovely

Stunning - my dear beloved Grandmother ran these in the 60s and 70s and we had heaps of fun in them - don't remember hers being used as handy storage for adult entertainment mags tho!

where did she store them then? 

Oil & filter change underway - long overdue too - loads of sludge in the bottom of the filter bowl - The van has only done circa 2,000 miles since restoration but that was back in 2004 - From the condition of the oil its not been changed since 



Loads of sludge in the oil too 



But at least the sump plug magnetic pick up has been doing its job 




A section of the swage flange on the front panel had been folded up - probably from a towing strop - I straightened this up - chased the surface rust out of it - then applied primer & paint to it  



I had to remove the drain tap from the radiator in order to unseize it - refitted then refilled the cooling system with anti freeze  



Replaced the perished breather hose 



The workshop stank of fuel vapour - eventually traced to a very loose hose on the float chamber - its an electric fuel pump so it just kept leaking fuel down the back of the bulkhead - the hose was tided up and new clips fitted 



Polished the boot floor which removed most of the black marks 



Just some minor areas that I then touched in with paint - a handful of other things were sorted, spare wheel now looks ok and is holding air, battery bracket was fitted properly, minor areas of touching in with the paint, front number plate was fairly loose so new fastenings were used to ensure its future security, The fuel tank was all but empty so I have added a gallon of E5 to ensure it doesn't run out when loading / unloading to the trailer, finally I went round the grease points and the handbrake linkage and ensured that they were lubricated. It had turned dark by the time I had the van on the trailer so I'll take some daylight pics tomorrow once its delivered to the client   

Absolutely loving everything, apart from the neglect on basic maintenance.

So another long haul to deliver the van yesterday to its new home 



Managed to take a few shots at the top of the North Yorkshire moors when I stopped to forward a ETA text to the new owner 



Now in its new home surrounded by lots of new friends 

Series 2 Land Rover Diesel - But it would have to be straight & original - none of this mucked about with rubbish 

That's blummin lovely.

Alex - Its a magnetic tip that is fixed to the sump plug that is there to extract any loose swarf within the oil / sump - bear in mind that this is a transverse engined car and the oil sump is in the gearbox so it also picks up any metal debris from the gearbox too - sump plugs of this type were quite commonly fitted to vehicles of this era