1 minute read
December Car In The Room I
Bill and Adelai entertained us with the fascinating story of their 1929 Austin 7 Chummy, telling us how they bought it in 1986 in Not Very Good condition – for a start , the back end of the body was held in place by a piece of wood. But Bill got cracking on its restoration, removing the engine for reconditioning (the crankshaft was seen to by Nick Canham), panelbeating was done by a young friend and Bill did the painting. Reg Munro overhauled the electrical system and Malcolm Pearce, a Vintage Austin Club member from Auckland, made new side curtains.
The first club run for the car was in 1990, a night run to the Waikiti hot pools (no hood or side curtains at that point) but in 1992 it was taken to the Pan Pacific Rally based in Palmerston North. From 1996 travel became even more adventurous , with attendance at the VCC’s 50th anniversary rally in Christchurch. Driving via Blenheim, Molesworth Station, Lake Tennyson to Hanmer Springs, including 3 miles downhill in second gear, then the Otira Gorge (before the viaduct was built) and up to the Denniston plateau. In Westport they had their first experience of staying in a backpackers’ hostel.
In 2002 off again to the South Island and the Austin 7 80 year anniversary rally based in Blenheim, with another trip through the Molesworth Station and Maruia Saddle road with its fords – a brilliant road just made for Austin 7s.
On all of those trips the car’s engine never missed a beat but Bill told me that, during one of those South Island tours, the flywheel became loose on its mountings and he had to drive about a hundred miles with some pressure on the clutch pedal to hold it in place!
The Chummy continues to regularly appear on club runs and the Skelton’s name seems to almost always appear on the branch’s annual trophy for the most-rallied vintage car.
