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Austin A40 Devon pickup
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Miken



Joined: 24 Dec 2012
Posts: 544

PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2020 7:37 pm    Post subject: Austin A40 Devon pickup Reply with quote

Here is my A40 pickup. I acquired it back in February this year but my son has only just (re)shown me how to post images.
Hope it works:













Last edited by Miken on Mon Sep 21, 2020 8:37 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Miken



Joined: 24 Dec 2012
Posts: 544

PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2020 7:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK, well that didnt go very well.
Can someone tell me how to make my pictures not quite so enormous?
Thanks
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Miken



Joined: 24 Dec 2012
Posts: 544

PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2020 8:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Anyway, this is my Austin. I purchased it in February, a few weeks before the lock down.
It was just about a runner, it had a leaky water pump. I replaced that and drove about 400 mile before the cylinder head gasket failed, so during lockdown I took the head off to investigate. I found that the top sealing face of the block was distorted hollow and the water gallery was hopelessly choked with hard brown deposits that almost completely surrounded the rear 2 cylinders. So hardly any coolant was circulating.
I decided to pull the engine out and embark on a rebuild.
The engine internals weren't to badly worn. The cylinder bores had barely any wear and a new set of rings sufficed here. The crank was ok on -.050" but no new big end shells were available. I was able to buy a set of part machined shells from ebay and had these bored to suit.
The rear oil retaing scroll of the crank had been rubbing on the block so I had the main bearing housings line honed to rectify this. A common fault on these and A-series engines apparently.
The head was not distorted but the valve seats were badly pocketed , so new hardened seats were fitted with phosphor bronze guides. at the same time I thught it might be worthwhile fitting proper stem seals to the valve guides. So I turned the ends of the guides to accept seals from a mini A-series engine.
While the engine was out I also took out the gearbox for a look as there seemed to be excessive movement from the column change lever.
Looking inside the box I found the bronze selecter forks were rather worn where the selector lever engages them. I was able to build this area up with silver solder and machine them back to shape. A reconditioned distributor,new radiator , recon carb and its all going quite well now.
Back on the road now for about 6 weeks. Ive covered a further 1000 miles so tomorrow morning Im going to tighten down the head again. I did this at 100 and 500 miles.
I was able to obtain a couple of original old stock copper/asbestos head.
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Miken



Joined: 24 Dec 2012
Posts: 544

PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2020 8:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The thing with these Austin commercials is that they have a very low ration differential. Presumably to give them a bit of grunt to haul heavy loads.
This means that at 50mph its revving its head off.
As old cars these days live pampered lives the obvious solution is to fit a higher ratio diff from a Somerset saloon. Again, I found a complete Somerset
back axle on ebay and fitted the diff unit to my car.
The next problem is that The commercials also had 17" wheels instead of the Saloons 16". My truck has particularly enormous outside diameter Avon tyres. The result of this is, a) the tyres rub on tight corners and bumps. b) the speedo is now miles out. pun intended.
The temporary solution to the latter is that I use my sat nav which has a sort of dash board function for my speed and miles driven.
I plan to fit Somerset wheels and some sensible tyres. The Devon Speedo will still be wrong to the Somerset drive train so I will have to re calibrate that somehow.
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Miken



Joined: 24 Dec 2012
Posts: 544

PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2020 8:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I first started driving this little truck it was quite loud inside the cab because apart from the seat and the rather horrible home made door cards it was empty. No carpet, head lining or paneling. It was like sitting in a biscuit tin. Over the summer I have fitted sound deadening pads, underlay and a carpet. made a headlining and various interior panels.
The exhaust silencer was also located under the the cab floor instead of under the rear cargo deck. I don think this helped so I bought some pipe and cut and shut it and re located it to its correct location.
Also, the original air filter was a cylinder with a wire mesh sort of thing that looked like a pot scourer that you dip in oil. The mesh part was missing from mine and you cant replace it anyway. I have now fitted a proper air filter assembly from a Ford Anglia (I think). This made a huge difference in noise levels. What I thought was outside wind noise turned out to be induction noise.
Unfortunately this modification looks all wrong but I dont care because its so much nicer to drive now.
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Penman



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 4750
Location: Swindon, Wilts.

PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2020 9:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi
You need to re-size them, probably be able to do it on your hosting site.
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Miken



Joined: 24 Dec 2012
Posts: 544

PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2020 9:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This vehicle used to belong to a garden centre. Its got a not very brilliant amateur cellulose pant job and had decals on the tailgate advertising the business. Removing these stickers also pulled off the paint so I had to respray the tailgate. A local automotive paint supplier knocked me up 5 litres of cellulose and got quite a good colour match. So I probably have enough if I ever want to do a full respray.
I need to be able to tow a small trailer so while the car was off the road during the summer I welded a small extension to the quite substantial rear bumper and fitted a tow ball. I had the rear bumper/towbar, bumper irons and various other bracketry that was easily removable, shot blasted and epoxy powder coated while i was working on the engine/gearbox.
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Miken



Joined: 24 Dec 2012
Posts: 544

PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2020 9:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I thought this was funny.
To fit the carpet I removed the bench seat.
My car has what might be the most useless accessory ever fitted to a vehicle.
I discovered It has an ash tray in the back of the back rest!
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Miken



Joined: 24 Dec 2012
Posts: 544

PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2020 9:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, as mentioned Ive done about 1000 miles over the last few weeks, Ive been running it in and now find im trundling along on the open roads happily at 45-50mph. I use my sat nav for speed and distance covered and assume its accurate.
The car should be good for 70 but I dont feel happy going over 60.
Ive done several 60-80 mile errands (in fact, any excuse to go for a run) and a bit of town work and I appear to be averaging around 32.5mpg which i dont think is too bad.
I would think that any 60 plus year old car that can manage north of 30mpg is doing OK.
It struggles a bit going up big hills because with the oversize wheels its rather over geared.
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Miken



Joined: 24 Dec 2012
Posts: 544

PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2020 9:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This looks a better size picture
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Rick
Site Admin


Joined: 27 Apr 2005
Posts: 22429
Location: UK

PostPosted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 7:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Isn't that a beaut, thanks for posting the photos and info, I had one the exact same colour as that a while back.

RJ

(Yes there might be an option on the photo hosting site to either re-size the photos, or they may give you links to alternative-sized versions of the photos)
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Miken



Joined: 24 Dec 2012
Posts: 544

PostPosted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 7:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Last weekend I had a project on and had to go to the builders suppliers for this wood.
This did nothing to improve the handling.
Later I had to go back and collect 6 more 6x2" x 4,2mtr long.
with that lot on board It was ab bit like driving the Cutty Sark. It heeled over in bends a bit
when loaded up It reminded me of a mini Katusha!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyusha_rocket_launcher#/media/File:BM-13-Katjuscha_Berlin.JPG



Last edited by Miken on Mon Sep 21, 2020 8:34 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Miken



Joined: 24 Dec 2012
Posts: 544

PostPosted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 8:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The rear deck of the truck was rather tired tongue and groove boards.
I have replaced it with phenolic plywood.
A previous owner bashed out the inner rear wheell arches and spot welded them together. they looked a bit rough so I decide to box them over using plywood and moulded rubber matting and alloy edging strips left over from when i made new running boards for my Morris Cowley.
Fitted a stainless steel rubbing strip along the floor at the opening

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Miken



Joined: 24 Dec 2012
Posts: 544

PostPosted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 8:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I made and fitted these wooden lift out slats (from a neighbour who was dumping an old double bed) to make a small carrying area in the back.
It stops smaller items rattling around.
Its useful when we go to Tesco for our weekly "click and collect" groceries. We get a few surprised looks when we are in the queue.



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Miken



Joined: 24 Dec 2012
Posts: 544

PostPosted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 8:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I found this old 1955 dated wooden .303 ammo box and have screwed it down in the back to store and carry a few useful spares. Distributor cap, plugs points, coil etc.



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