Panic Refurbishment of an Austin New Ascot - Pt 2

by Anthony Osborne.

In Part 1 I told of the refurbishment of Herbert, our 1938 Austin Lt12/4 New Ascot for my daughter’s wedding. We were running out of time to get the car finished and there was no ‘Plan B’! I continue…

​We were rather close to the day of the wedding and still did not have the car completed, in fact we had less than a week to get the job done.

​The headlining, which was the worse for wear, needed replacement as by now it was covered in green paint. Back in 2005 it had been necessary to strip out the rear of the car, including the head lining round the rear windows, whilst we exterminated some woodworm (well it is a little different to tin worm!) and we had bought enough material to do the whole car.

​When we got that out to start that phase of the car we found that it had been attacked by moths. Could we get more in time? We were lucky that it arrived the day after it was ordered. It had gone up rather dramatically in price between 2005 and 2018, from about £12 to £40 per meter! Sat Nag Pat got stuck into her sewing machine and a new headlining emerged from the dining room.
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It was decided to take several days off work in an endeavour to achieve the objective. Andrew assembled the door mechanisms, including the new window guides, windows and regulators, whilst I set about the interior trim and provided assistance to Pat who was fighting the head lining into place. We also had to trim and refit the sunroof.

​Some of the electrics that were disconnected to the lights and trafficators had to be reinstated, although the car really needed a complete rewire. The 80 year old rubber insulation was failing, in some places the conductor could be seen through cracks in the rubber and cloth covering. This was temporarily repaired locally as there was no time to do a proper job. The car has since been rewired during the first lockdown of 2020 when all the 80 year old wiring was replaced, but that is another story.
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However, during the week we just about managed to get all the jobs done, working a few late nights. The head lining was the big fight and it took three days to get it in from 13th to 15th June, at 4:00pm.

The headlining goes in

This was the Friday before the wedding on the Saturday. The plan was to drive to Chipping Norton to collect my mother and then on to Newbold on Stour for a barbecue the night before the big day.

The finished interior

Fortunately, our bags were packed and it just required a clean-up before setting off. We were late getting away and Chipping Norton is about an hour away with Newbold being about a further 40 minutes further on. We got less than a quarter of a mile before Herbert refused to go. A bit of fiddling at the side of the road got him running again for a couple of minutes and with two or three fiddles under the bonnet I managed to limp home.

​Pat took the Jag and went to collect Mum whilst I fought under Herbert’s bonnet, unsure of the actual issue, other than it was fuel related. There were no blockages in filters etc. and the fuel pumped up by hand. I set off for Talton House, a 35 minute drive away that took well over an hour with Herbert struggling up hills with me pumping up petrol by hand.
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With dirty hands I eventually made it to my destination with Pat and Mum coincidentally following me down the drive to the house, in the dark. Not knowing where to park I ended up round the back of the building to be welcomed by cries of ‘They are here’. We had warned that we would be late! The Groom’s mother and two aunts were in the hot tub in their underwear and trying to entice me into the tub with them (I didn’t want to leave an oil slick in the tub – that was my excuse and I stuck to it). They had saved some barbecued nosh for us and a jug of ale was thrust into my hand. Things were getting better.

Herbert outside Talton House (phew!)

After a good night’s kip in the mansion (which was a bit like staying in a National Trust property) and a hearty breakfast I disappeared outside to go through Herbert’s fuel system in an endeavour to resolve the problem. After much playing around and dropping a screw from the carburettor into the gravel below then spending much time to find it, I had the car together and running, but would it last?

Stratford-upon-Avon Town Hall was ten miles to the north and Shipston on Stour five miles to the south. If I could get to Shipston and back without a failure we should be good to go. Herbert behaved well and didn’t fail at all.

Andrew and me with Herbert at Talton House

When Andrew arrived I explained that there had been a problem but I did get ten miles of trouble-free motoring out of Herbert. Andrew was happy with that and when the time was appropriate Sarah and I jumped in the back and we set off for the ceremony. We pulled up outside the Town Hall and Andrew turned the engine off. We made it!

Father of the Bride with the Bride and Herbert after completion of his duties

It was then that a little man came out from the Town Hall entrance and said ‘You are five minutes early, please would you go round the block and you should arrive back in time. So off we set.

​On the trip of less than a mile Herbert failed four times, and each time Andrew or I, or both, of us jumped out and pumped petrol up by hand and we were away again. In the middle of Stratford-upon-Avon Herbert failed at traffic lights, we went through the routine and in no time he was up and running again.

I asked Sarah if she was all right and she was apparently loving it. She had seen so many wedding cars with people pointing cameras at them and now she was in one. Not many people will have a photograph of the car with the bride in the back and the bonnet up, though! Andrew worked out that if he could keep the revs up the problem seemed to hold off. With a bit of interesting driving we were back at the Town Hall for the ceremony on time, and all went well. I successfully saw responsibility for Sarah transferred from me to Adam, now her husband.

Safely outside the wedding venue

The Bride and Groom enjoying the new leather on the seats under Pat’s new headlining

Afterwards we had to get back to Talton House and of course, the Bride and Groom went in Herbert with Andrew. I was in the minibus. I had said to Andrew that if the car was not there when I arrived I would come out in the Jag and collect them. What a relief to see the car outside the front of the house. On asking how the return journey went Andrew advised that Herbert had only failed once! What a relief.

The following day the journey back home was interesting, but we made it with the Jag parked behind Herbert with its hazard light on when there was a problem. On the Monday I took the fuel pump off and installed a spare that had apparently been overhauled before I bought it.

​We took a run back to Stratford-upon-Avon and blow me, if it didn’t fail at the same traffic lights that it had failed at two days earlier! We ended up limping back to within three miles of home but Herbert was failing every 50 yards, just using the fuel in the float chamber. I was not prepared to go on like that in the rush hour and a very nice man from the AA towed us back home. An examination of the two fuel pumps showed that the top joint on the original pump had dried out through lack of use over the best part of five months and that has been successfully overhauled, whereas the other pump I fitted was absolutely knackered (that engineering term again) and fit only for the scrap bin.

The little fuel pump that caused the problems and extensive stress!

The car went back to the body shop and the outstanding jobs were finished. All is well now and I as write Sarah has just given birth to their first child, Joshua.

​A happy ending all round and a big thanks to Andrew, and of course Sat Nag Pat, for their help.