Six months ago, PN 6583 was a well-used, and rather tired trials car, with no creature comforts. When we spent a weekend doing a test drive in Wales the seats, floors and internal bodywork were bare metal, there was no weather protection, cracks in the bodywork and only a very small competition fuel tank – we ran out of petrol before we’d covered 100 miles!
Since then the car has been transformed. It now has a hood and sidescreens, a smart new tonneau cover, comfortable reupholstered front seats and capacity for over ten gallons of petrol, spread around three tanks, with lockable filler caps on the outside of the car. We also have rubber floor mats and lots of places to stow gear within the cockpit – a glovebox, map box, door pockets and neat little compartments for tools and documents.
Following advice from epic Austin 7 adventurer Graham Rankin, we also now have a lid to cover the back seats – a large sheet of metal, hinged at the back, which we will padlock at the front. This should give us a bit of protection for our kit when we have to leave the car.
The car has been completely rewired, and now boasts indicators and brake lights, as well as the ability to run plug-in lighting and to charge our phones, batteries and various gadgets via cigarette lighter sockets, a DIN plug, and an inverter.
The wheels have been completely rebuilt, with the generous help of Specialised Automotive Services. We’re only taking one spare wheel and tyre (which has been spaced back from the body to give extra luggage space), but are carrying spare spokes and tubes, which are much more space efficient.
Other work includes: a new radiator core; a complete engine rebuild, checking that our spares are all correct, and fitting a lower compression head; gearbox rebuild and rear axle rebuild.
It was all hands to the pump to get the car ready for delivery to DHL on April 4th, but we managed it – including a late night back axle rebuild by Sebastian to replace an oil seal, just hours before we handed the cars over. There are still one or two details to attend to in Beijing e.g. fitting a speedo cable, which hadn’t arrived in time, but I think we’re ready and that the car is as good as it can be.
