Found some floor pans too!

I located a pair of front floor pans for "Austin" but the company does not ship anything out of the UK. So I went to our local club parts man who can order them in for me. If you are ever looking for Classic Mini, MG or new Mini parts contact Craig Hunter at http://www.hunterclassicsportscars.ca/ Tell him Dave sent you! You won't be disappointed as Craig has tons of knowledge and lots of parts in stock at great prices.

Found a replacement rear Light

Got lucky on this find. I found an original Lucas rear light for "Austin" on ebay and won the auction. Believe it or not it came all the way from Greece and looks beautiful! Here is a quick pic:

The Austins spare sub frames

Here are some pics of the sub-frames. There are four hydrolastic bags in there and should come in handy for either the Austin or the Cooper S. If the frames themselves are not that good there are lots of parts there that will be nice to have.

The front:

Left side rear:

Right side rear:

They are real dirty and will need a close inspection.

Commission Number

Here is the commision number for the Austin. This may help to ID the last number in the Vin #.

Vin Number

I am trying to sort out the Vin # on this 1968 Austin. The number is A-ASA L-412662 A as you can see in the picture.

Thanks to the "ado16.info" website page, dedicated to the BMC 1100/1300, I was able to crack the mystery of the serial numbers.

A  -  Is the make "Austin"
A     A Series Engine
S     4 Door Sedan
A     Automatic
L     Left Hand Drive for the Canadian Market
412662 is the production number of the car
A    Manufacturing Plant "Longbridge"


Thanks

Austin 1100 Camera Issues

OK camera issue solved and I have loaded up the pics. If any one does know the coding I would appreciate an email explaining all the letters and numbers. If it is like the Mini coding I can figure most of it but if someone can put me onto the Austin 1100 codes I would appreciate it.

Austin 1100 picked up the sub-frames!

We picked up the rear sub-frame today. It was raining cats and dogs and we had to move it from a shed in his back yard to the street. What a struggle! Of course it was oily which was a good thing. All the running gear was there so we pushed , rolled and dragged it to the street. I think we have everything now unless Ray finds anything else tucked away in his house. I am having some difficulty loading my pictures as my cable from the camera to the computer has disappeared. Bear with me and hopefully, I can load them up soon.

Austin 1100 pictures as it is today

I went outside to take some pictures of the Austin and found we had some heavy rain going on. I took lots of pictures to keep a record of what we have to work with. The rain has made the rather faded red (almost pink) colour look not too bad.

The engine bay is dirty with lots of dirt and leaves. No major oil leaks or obvious problems so far.

The trunk has some rust issues but no apparent holes any where. The previous owner (Ray) said he had left the trunk open and it had rained heavily one night and didn't realize he had a pond going on back there. Upon inspection it looks like a lot of surface rust but the metal seems sound. I may change my opinion when we take a closer look.

The Boot Lid overall looks good with a small dent and surface rust. The Plimley metal is from the original Plimley Motors dealership here in Victoria. They have long gone now but the name lives on!

Sill on right front passenger door has a bit of an issue!

Right front fender

Left front fender (the worst one)

.
The Bonnet has a small dent but is very sound.

There is some odd green growth growing around both lights

The Interior as i said before is Immaculate

The speedometer reading

The back seat floor-pans are great

The worse part is the driver and passenger floor pans.

The passenger side definitely has daylight coming through and the metal is very thin.

Here is the vehicle production plate. I know what some of the letters stand for but not all. If any one can fill in the coding for me I would appreciate it.

Ownership Transfer

Today we transfered the ownership and drove the Austin home. We had no issues and arrived safe and sound. Tomorrow we start to take a closer look to see what issues we may have to deal with. We will post pictures tomorrow so you can see what we have to restore.

1968 Austin 1100 our next project!

Austin the Six Million Dollar car!
19 September 2010

My son and I found a listing on our Victoria Minis Car Club for sale page advertising the sale of a 1968 Austin 1100. I called the number and made an appointment to drop by and see the car. We went the next day and the car was outside in the driveway looking tired and in need of some TLC.

It used to be an automatic but the motor was replaced with a 1300cc standard motor, left hand drive. The big sigh was discovering the floor pans had rusted through and you could see daylight showing through but not a lot.

The boot has some rust issues as well and will need to be fixed. The left front wing (fender) is toast but does have a replacement that comes with the car. It also came with a front and rear sub-frame complete with all running gear, tools, manuals, replacement lights. steering rack, bumpers and riders as well as a hydrolastic pump.

We took him for a little spin around the block. Started right away without any balking and no smoke out the tailpipe. The brakes seemed good and the steering was great. He seemed a bit sluggish at first but got better as the motor warmed up. The only negative thing found was the shift lever had a lot of play in it.

So we made the deal and will bring him home this weekend. Then we can access how much will need to be done and how to go about doing it. Obvious starting point is the major body issues like the two front floor pans and then the trunk. The damaged fender and then the rest of the little nicks, dents and scratches that are on the body. The colour is a very faded Tartan Red according to the plate in the boot, quite common for the 1968 model year. Did I mention the interior is immaculate. The seats and head liner are top shelf. So I won't have to worry about those.

21 September 2010

We closed the deal tonight and will complete the transfer of ownership for the Austin tomorrow. While we were there, we started to load up all the smaller parts and took them home to begin sorting out, what was there. The problem with restoring a car, is you need more room to dismantle the car than the original car itself takes up. Hopefully we won't need some of these parts but it is better to have them on hand than having to  find them later. Tomorrow we drive him home. Can't wait to get started!