Day 4 – Engine Clean And Prep
March 30, 2021
Our 1960 MGA engine has been cleaned and ready to be rebuilt. The crankshaft, conrods and engine block has been sent off to Scholar who
engine works
Austin Nippy Regaining Its Spirit
February 3, 2021
Our Austin Seven Nippy engine has recently been sent off to Ian R Bancroft Restorations to make sure everything is moving, turning and working as
Nissan 300ZX update
December 3, 2020
The Nissan is on the home straight in its restoration journey. It should be done before Christmas all being well! It has just had its
The Not so Nippy, Nippy
December 3, 2020
We’ve just welcomed this beautiful 1934 Austin Seven Nippy into the workshop for some engine repairs. The current diagnosis is that it needs an engine
Day 4 – Engine Clean And Prep
March 30, 2021
Our 1960 MGA engine has been cleaned and ready to be rebuilt. The crankshaft, conrods and engine block has been sent off to Scholar who has told us that the crankshaft needs to be totally replaced. The photos below show the extent of the wear on the bearings. The conrods also need to be resized, the bearings need tuning into the conrods and the camshaft bearings need to be fitted by Scholar as well as being honed and cleaned.
Austin Nippy Regaining Its Spirit
February 3, 2021
Our Austin Seven Nippy engine has recently been sent off to Ian R Bancroft Restorations to make sure everything is moving, turning and working as it should be as we discovered a crack in the crankcase. Once this comes back, Ady, our knowledgable engine specialist can continue to rebuild the engine.
Nissan 300ZX update
December 3, 2020
The Nissan is on the home straight in its restoration journey. It should be done before Christmas all being well!
It has just had its wheels refurbished, new wing mirrors, a thorough clean by Viper Auto Valets, the exhaust manifolds replaced to solve the leak as well as new exhaust studs. The next step is to piece it all back together and get it checked over for a final service.
The Not so Nippy, Nippy
December 3, 2020
We’ve just welcomed this beautiful 1934 Austin Seven Nippy into the workshop for some engine repairs. The current diagnosis is that it needs an engine rebuild as there seem to be some oil issues. Our aim is to troubleshoot the engine, identify the exact faults and advise the customer on what to do next.
The Austin Seven Nippy was the brainchild of Herbert Austin and Stanley Edge than run from 1922 to 1937. Despite only 682 models being made, the Austin Seven Nippy was responsible for helping motorise Britain, with the car providing the same footprint as a motorcycle and sidecar whilst still offering all the advantages of an automobile.
The Nippy clever abut simple engineering is based around an ‘A-frame’ chassis which is equipped with an all-round leaf-sprung suspension. The earlier models were fitted with just a three-speed manual gearbox whereas the later models, including ours, has a four-speed gearbox. This small and brisk sports car benefits from a lowered centre of gravity making it an amusing and ‘nippy’ drive.
It’s fun to see a car with a cranking handle such as what this Austin Nippy has. Although it was commonplace for cars at the time, it’s always interesting when we get one in the workshop. The cranking handle manually turns over the engine acted as a backup. It functioned much in the same way as bump starting the car. Cranking handles slowly phased out of car designs, often with the levers ending up in the toolbox as a last resort.
