Panic Refurbishment of an Austin New Ascot - Pt 1

By Anthony Osborne.

In December 2017, just before Christmas, my daughter, Sarah, rang me up to tell me that she and her long term boyfriend were going to get married on 16th June 2018. I was delighted that they had, at last, set a date as they had been engaged for a quite a few years, been a couple for almost ten years and known each other for much longer. The arrangements were almost cast in stone and the wedding would be in Stratford-Upon-Avon Town Hall with the celebrations centred on Talton House, a mansion at Newbold-on-Stour some ten miles south, owned by Christabel Carlisle who successfully raced (real) Minis in the early 1960s. I obviously approved!
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Having given me all the good news she then dropped the bombshell. Herbert, my 1938 Austin Lt12/4 New Ascot was to be the wedding car. However, Sarah was concerned that I might not let anyone else drive him. On the contrary, I advised that her Godfather, Andrew, could drive it. Andrew and I were Apprentices together at ‘The Austin’ at Longbridge and Andrew has had several pre-war cars over the years, Austins and a Rolls Royce, and was well experienced at handling such vehicles.

So, there we were no problems at all, except that the tin worm had been feeding well on the car’s bodywork and the 80 year old cow hide on the seats was falling off. The carpets were well past their best and the headlining, which had probably been fitted in the 1980s, was in a reasonably poor condition. As Sat Nag Pat had fitted a new section round the rear windows we knew that we had plenty of material in stock having purchased enough to complete the car. The sunroof was knackered (that is an engineering term incidentally) but there was a replacement in stock that needed a little work and some paint. There was a NOS near side front wing in the lockup but Sod’s Law dictated the off side front wing was in need of replacement or major welding.

Herbert didn’t look too bad until you got close to him!

In just under six months we had to do something dramatic to the car to make him presentable for the occasion!
Negotiations started with our body shop and a price was agreed with Andrew and I taking the car apart to minimise the expense. We started the dismantling in February and the neighbours were yet again fascinated by the goings on in my garage. They still have not got used to engines hanging from the garage roof or cars on axle stands without any wheels on after 30 years here.
A dismantled Herbert went to the body shop on 27th February and its panels would follow a few weeks later in a Transit van.

Herbert off to the body shop

Over the following months it became apparent that things were not going as quickly as they could. Eventually, we were relieved to see the body of the car in the body shop in primer and a little later it was painted in its lovely new gloss green. Whilst the body of the car was away being worked on other aspects of the refurbishment were on-going in the garage at home and elsewhere. Parts were sourced to replace defective and decomposing components at the Restoration Show at the NEC with further trips as far afield as Peterborough to obtain specialist trim parts. A broken internal door handle could not be replaced with an identical one and the only available replacement looked the same but it sat at 45 degrees to the originals, so two were obtained, one for each back door, and arrived through the post in time to be fitted.

Various rubber components had perished beyond reuse with replacements as common as rocking horse manure. Rubber blocks to keep the closed doors off the bodywork and stopping them rattling were cut from a block of neoprene but half way to through the production process a stock of 8 were found with an Austin spares supplier. Their whole stock of 8 was purchased as they had to be better than my carving them with a Stanley knife! At weekends, when Andrew and I were not at work, the car would be brought back to us on a recovery truck so that we could get on with some of the jobs, returning to the body shop after the weekend.

There was much hard labour making and painting new window channels, the old 80 year old ones being mostly rotted through towards the bottom but fitting would have to wait until the car returned with the doors fitted. Another item that needed refurbishment was one of the near side ‘front Step Support’ (that is the parts list description – I would describe it as a running board support bracket). These are prone to dissolving, the off side one had been repaired previously. Fortunately, I had lent one of them to a fellow New Ascot owner who had a pair made. He had two extra tops cut out and one of these was used to replace the missing metal that had been dissolved along the top of the bracket.

Andrew and I debated who should do the welding as it is not a strong point for either of us. I was told it was my car so I should weld! Andrew would do the grinding as my welding looks rather like it has been done by a pigeon from 50 yards. It did not disappoint either. After a couple of grinding discs and several coats of paint it looked good enough to hide out if sight under the running board.

The corroded running board support and refurbished/refitted

The running boards themselves had been replaced a long time ago and were planks of substantial timber, now rotting, finished with a fibreglass cover. Andrew took the old boards home and made some new ones, the fibreglass covers were fine and were given a coat of non-slip paint. The end results were great.

The 80 year old leather was a little past its best!

The 80 year old cow hide was past its best on the seats, so bad that when helping out at friends weddings we had to cover the back seat with a white blanket because there was a danger that the cracks in the surface would damage an expensive white dress. All the seats were taken to our local trimmer who did an excellent job recovering them with new green leather.

New Cow Hide on one of the front seats

The carpets were also taken there to be copied. We did not have time to take the car there so that they could be made to fit, but they came out quite well. The photograph of Herbert being collected from home was taken on 16th May, with just a month to go. Stress levels started to go up, very high, but my blood pressure tablets kept that under control. We didn’t have any of the missing panels like, boot lid, doors, sunroof, bonnet or the front cowl!

Herbert being collected from home after a weekend exeat from the body shop on 16th May

As appears normal with body shops working on classic cars, there is little urgency, even though a drop dead date was given and they were advised that 15th June was too late because of all the other works we had to do! In order to speed things up a little Andrew and I booked time off work to assemble some of the panels onto the car at the body shop, on 6th June. Whilst we were doing that some of the doors were still being welded up and work was going on with other panels in the spray booth, applying primer and paint, with just 10 days to go!

In the body shop on 6th June!

There were doubts that spending all the time and money on the refurbishment would result in completion in time for the wedding. There was no Plan B. Panic was setting in, a lot!

8 Days to go!

After several weekends at home the car was beginning to take shape. On its last trip home before the wedding, Herbert was paneled up including his doors but less his wings, which needed fitting. With 8 days to go it was decided not to risk sending it back to the body shop for a few outstanding works. Whilst it looked nice and shiny you will notice that the wheels are a slightly different green to the body as well as the grille being green instead of silver, issues we decided would be resolved after the wedding.

​To be continued!