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Austin A40 Pickup on a frosty January morning in 2006

Morning after collecting the A40 pickup (Jan 2006), and everything is still frosty as we unload it from the trailer & persuade it into life...all 1200cc of Austin power comes to life with some almighty bangs from the exhaust..

1953 Austin A40 Devon Pickup

Twas a chilly, freezing, morning in January, when dad and I set off northwards to Scotland, where the Devon pickup had spent the last few years, hiding in a garage, part restored.

Having already got an A40 Devon saloon tucked away, the idea of buying a matching pickup had appealed for some time. Sadly it meant selling one of my other cars, but I think its worth it.

The A40 Devon pickup shared the chassis of the saloon, although this pickup being a 1953 model, has the slightly revised chassis fitted to saloons later than my '49 example. Earlier Devon pickups have the full (mazak) chrome grille, as on the early cars, whereas later pickups and vans have the chunkier painted grille like this one. In a way I prefer the chrome grille of the earlier vehicles, but this one is still very nice.

We set off at 6am, still pitch black, and a nice blanket of fog just to make things more interesting. I'd borrowed a 16' car trailer, and with it tackled to the back of my trusty Merc, off we went. The run up to misty Scotland went without a hitch, the weather remaining misty and gloomy for most of the journey north.

Austin A40 Pickup - rear view on trailer

Austin Devon Pickup - drivers side, on the trailer

We arrived at the Devon's home, not far from Edinburgh, at around 11.30am, and met up with the pickup's owner, who showed us around the truck, and explained the work he'd done on it over the previous 10 years or so. The body had been lifted from the chassis, enabling the latter to be stripped and sandblasted, before receiving a fresh coat of BMC green paint. From what I can tell, the mechanical oily bits were checked and refurbished as required, before being bolted back to the chassis.

The bodywork has also been stripped, and repaired as necessary, before being resprayed in 2 pack paint. This was back in 1996/97. Since then the truck had been in the garage, and had picked up a few knocks and scuffs during storage. These will need to be rectified, as will a few bubbles of corrosion here and there - fortunately nothing major, but they'll need rectifying if the A40 is to be maintained in good order.

Our return trip, taken at a steady 50-60mph, also went smoothly, and the quiet roads meant we were back at base for 18.30hrs. We decided to unload the pickup the following morning, and retired to the house to quaff a beer and put our feet up.

Next day we were greeting by a freezing cold frosty morning, which we'd not been expecting. Fortunately the 1200cc engine had anti-freeze in it, so there were no nasty surprises under the bonnet. First trick was to get the thing unloaded from the trailer, a nifty Brian James trailer with hydraulic tilt - no messing with ramps here. The rear brake on the A40 had stuck on, and the thing refused to roll off the trailer, even when given a hefty shove. We tried to start the engine to drive it off, but with the angle, the fuel pump would not pull up any of the little fuel still in the tank. In the end we dragged it off using a rope hooked to the back of dad's BMW, the locked rear wheel of the Devon nicely digging up the gravel driveway (see the pic above of the Devon, still with frost on the roof).

With the old Austin now on level ground, it was a simple matter to manually pump up the fuel from tank to carburettor, and try again to get it running. There must have been some really old fuel lurking in the carb, because when we persuaded it into life, the soot and backfiring emmanating from the exhaust were substantial. After a while the backfiring cleared, and the engine settled into a reasonable idle, although clearly it'll all need tuning and setting up properly. The carb is new, so a few adjustments should help a lot.

Another curiosity was the distinct lack of reverse gear when using the column gearlever. There had to be a gear in there somewhere, but no amount of grunting and jiggling with the lever would allow reverse to be selected. Assuming there was a problem in the linkage, it seemed easiest to drive it into the garage nose in and fix the problem there.

Next day I had a good poke around with the gearchange linkage and lever, and noticed a problem at the far end of the lever. On the Austin Devon (and later Somerset), reverse gear is found by pulling out (ie extending slightly) the lever, and selecting down, as if going for 2nd gear but nearer to the dash. No matter how hard I tried, there was no pulling out of the lever. At some point in the past, a household doorknob had been forced onto the end of the lever, as presumably the original Austin item had disappeared. This had had the effect of crushing the outer gear lever housing onto the inner, pull-out, rod, on which the knob is fitted. This, and a few years of gently rusting, had all but fused the two together. The only solution was to unbolt the lever assembly, and let WD40 and some delicate blowlamp heating free off the offending parts. Finally they came free, and the inner rod pulled out as designed, in theory meaning that reverse could now be found. The lever was swiftly re-fitted and the engine fired up. Reverse could now be selected, woohoo!!

As it was still plastered in salty grime from the long trip back from Scotland, it seemed like a good idea to give the A40 Devon a quick wash down, and remove the corrosive crud so willingly spread on the roads by the local authorities. A quick leather down, and the pickup was put back in the garage, with the '49 saloon for company.

The 'to do' list at first glance looked like this:

Tune up engine and controls (inc gearbox, brakes etc)
Finish and test out all the wiring
Find a replacement front bumper
Source a set of 17" tyres (anyone got any good usable ones out there?)
Tidy the interior
Tidy the underbonnet area
Treat the few rust bubbles and dings
Re-paint these repaired areas (may be better to re-paint the whole vehicle). I'll have a word with a paint & panelbeating expert locally, and see if its viable to farm out this part of the refurb plan.

Update 2007. Towards the end of the year, with the restoration of the Dodge in full swing, I decided to rationalise the contents of the garage, and this pickup was sold on. Shame to see it go, but I managed to find a 2nd example earlier in the year, so perhaps I'll get that one on the road instead .. more here.

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