1927 Austin Chummy

 

Information from the custodian of the car, David Walters.

“My Austin Seven is the 1927 Austin scuttle headlamp Chummy. I imported it from New Zealand in 2012. It had been there since 1928 when it arrived as a new car, spending the next 84 years there.

A scan of the Austin 1926 brochure referring to the Austin Seven.

A history of the car's owners. I am the 15th owner, if you count the three garages who kept it for 5 days, 4 months and 8 months respectively. I am also the first owner to reside in England as opposed to New Zealand. It is interesting to see how long the various owners kept the car. It lived all its time in New Zealand in South Island.

It was sent off by Austin when new in one of their famous wooden boxes in December 1927 arriving in Christchurch, New Zealand in April 1928 after a 4 month sea passage.

Austin transport boxes were of high quality. Many were bought by members of the public and utilised in the building of new homes, still with their Austin logo imprinted on the sides. I am told that one can find houses, particularly in and around Christchurch, New Zealand where it is possible to see all or part of the Austin logo on internal panelling of the house where these boxes have been used.

It's first owner was Ernest Rudkin of Christchurch, who kept it for just under 3 years until April 1931. It was then sold to Grace Hursthouse of Blenheim 5 miles from the coast and 193 miles from Christchurch. She kept it for over 5 years until 1936 by which time it was an 8 year old car. The next owner, John Carrick of Picton, 18 miles north of Blenheim, kept it for 1year 5 months until 1937 and sold it to John Lowden of Picton who had it for 2 years 6 months until 1939. Being then an 11 year old car and considered old fashioned, it started changing hands rapidly. It went back to Blenheim and appears to have been traded by three different garages until it ended up, in 1940, with Frederick Hawtin of Blenheim who kept it for 13 years until 1953. He was a boatbuilder and created a wooden framed hardtop for the car. He modernised it by moving its original scuttle mounted headlamps to the front wings. A picture of it in this form is shown below. I still have the hardtop.

After passing to David Clifford of Blenheim, who kept it for just under two years it found more stability with Reginald Purches who owned it for nearly 6 years. It remained in Blenheim with 2 more short term owners before moving to Nelson, on the coast 70 miles North West of Blenheim in 1964. It was bought by Keith Roper, a garage owner who wanted it as a display car, it then being a 36 year old car of vintage character. It was not used during his time but just sat in his showroom. A local vintage car enthusiast, Denis Le Cren persuaded Mr Roper to sell it and it then began a most fruitful period in its life. Denis kept the car for over 46 years, during which he carried out a meticulous and expert rebuild. The car emerged from his workshop in wonderful condition. The original scuttle headlamps and brackets came with the car so it was not difficult to put them back in their correct position. The hardtop was removed and although I still have it I do not plan to put it back on the car, as it is so enjoyable driving it as an open car.

I brought it from Denis Le Cren and brought it back from New Zealand in a container ship in 2012. I had bought the car without ever having seen it in the flesh, just photos of its re-build and its shiny paint. It was a nervous and seemingly endless 12 weeks when it made its way back to the land of its birth. The day came to go and meet the container and collect the car. It was a huge container. I wondered why such a little Chummy needed such a large container. I found out when the container doors were open. There was my Chummy, New Zealand registration number DY 300, which was to be the first out. However suspended above it with insubstantial ropes was another Austin 7.

This was the extraordinary sight which greeted me ;

In fact the container housed 6 cars, three of them suspended above another three located on the floor. When the car was out I heaved a sigh of relief when it appeared to be undamaged, despite the effect of 11,800 miles of sea travel with another car swinging above it. 

It was in better condition than I could ever have hoped, being wonderfully original with its original body, lights, fittings, engine, gearbox and back axle. I have had to do some work on it, in my experience this always being the case with a car 90 odd years old. In New Zealand the fashion is that hoods should be completely removable, so a row of studs had been installed at the back of the body. They all had to be removed and my expert painter blended in new paintwork to match the original auto-brown of the car. One cannot see the join, nor any of the holes where the studs had been. A new hood had to be made to the correct original Austin pattern and the side screens re-glazed. 

I worked on getting the car back to as original condition as possible. I set about trying to sort out some incorrect details. I wanted to replace the 1950s type windscreen wiper arm and so sought after a 1920s wiper arm which I eventually found.

I had a replica Boyce Moto Meter but again wanted an original 1920s one, which I managed to buy off a friend who has a lots of vintage Austin Seven parts.

Filling the car with oil is difficult with the original Austin set-up so I have managed to find an Eversure Accessories Ltd. of Birmingham oil filler bath, which makes life a lot easier. This did not involve any modifications and can be simply removed by loosening the location band so that the original filler cap can be put back.

I found a contemporary oil can which was sold in 1927 with a purpose designed holder. The holders are pretty impossible to find so Ian Moorcraft kindly made a perfect cardboard pattern for this bracket. I then had a bracket made, indistinguishable from an original. I decided not to repaint the highly original oil can as it had real patina. A previous owner has scratched "Poison" on the side - you can just see the beginning of the word in the photo. A bit of black humour !

I thought that a period AA badge would be suitable for the car. I decided that a full sized car badge was too big for an Austin Seven. In the 1920s advertising Austin targeted, among others, motorcyclists who had a motorcycle combination for transporting his family. My theory is that by 1927 our motorcyclist felt that he could afford a car for his family so that they would be more comfortable and out of the wet. He had joined the AA in 1915 and was issued with a motorcyle AA badge, smaller than a normal car badge. At this time the AA issued badges to motorcyclists that had a red enamelled heart dated up to 1st May 1916. Then in May 1916 they issued another badge with a light blue enamel heart dated to May 1917. After that they never again incorporated the enamelled hearts. The result is that not many were made and so they are extremely hard to find. I spotted this 1915-16 example in an auction and bought it. It is now fitted to the car, a memory of those early motorcycle combinations replaced by a proper family car, the Austin Seven, so the family were out of the wet and into the dry. 

 

David Williams stripped the engine down to source a strange noise which turned out, as expected, to be an incorrectly installed oil pump. It would not have failed as it was but I need to know that the engine was in proper condition, which it now it is - it would have been a tragedy to loose that original engine. We established that the car had its original crankshaft and its original conrods, all numbered. With the engine out we could check the engine number against the engine number stamped on the chassis - they matched.

The brakes and clutch have been relined but apart from that it has not needed any additional mechanical work.

The car now has the correct and original rear lighting arrangement. In 1927 Austin Sevens were only fitted with one rear light, as this car has. If I am driving it after lighting up time I attach two powerful rear bicycles lights to the number plate bracket. The AA badge is a period badge required for our trip to Normandy recently. I will be going again, so I have retained it.

There was no handbook or tools with the car but I now have a correct 1927 handbook and a full set of tools. Indeed I became so involved with sourcing correct Austin 7 tools that I doubled up and created a display set as well as a set to use in the car. Here is a photo of the display set.

I have been on a number of guided visits to the First World War battlefileds.

I admired a charming picnic set in the Hooge museum on a trip to the the Passchendaele battlefield. It had been used by a British Army officer in the trenches during the battle. The friend who was with me, who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the battlefields and who was our guide, told me that he had one exactly the same and would I like it for my old cars. Of course I was delighted. It is a 1911 G.W.Scott & Sons picnic set with a spirit stove to heat the water - they were quite expensive at the time so only the well off tended to own them. He bought it from its original owner who was an officer in the British Army stationed in France in WW1. He used it in his dugout to bring a little comfort in those terrible surroundings. He died in 1962 which is when my friend bought it at the auction of his house contents. He kept it until he gave it to me in 2015, so I am only the third owner in its 109 year history. When I got it the original wickerwork basket was riddled with woodworm. I had a perfect replica made and put back all the original contents, retaining frames, leather faced backing panels, handles and strap. It is the perfect size for an Austin Chummy so it often accompanies us on our travels in the Chummy.

 

The car runs beautifully as one would expect and demonstrates how true the saying is that ;

'One can have more fun in an Austin Seven than any other kind of car !'

Here is some proof of the saying !

 

Out and about and enjoying the Chummy !"