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My new Austin Champ

Article about: Hi Simon, good to hear you are back on track with your project. Looking good. Cheers, Ade.

  1. #11

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    Hi Simon, good to hear you are back on track with your project.

    Looking good.

    Cheers, Ade.
    Had good advice? Saved money? Why not become a Gold Club Member, just hit the green "Join WRF Club" tab at the top of the page and help support the forum!

  2. #12

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    Thanks Adrian.
    The Champ looks like a Meccano explosion, and about 8 months ago, I started stripping it

    My new Austin Champ

    I then removed the body, and hung it up, away from the other chaos in the shed

    As always, there was extensive rust around the sills, and on the chassis near the battery boxes
    My new Austin Champ

    Then the axles were removed. They were actually in very good condition, except of course for the rubber boots, which luckily I have managed to source and I now have 8 new ones
    The axles were relatively easy to remove, and all nuts and bolts were bagged, labelled and photographed.

    My new Austin Champ
    My new Austin Champ
    My new Austin Champ

    While all that was happening, I was removing parts from the body, soda blasting them and then priming them with grey etch primer
    My new Austin Champ

    I am taking heaps of photos as I know that by the time I come to re-assembling the vehicle, I will have forgotten quite a number of important things I need to do. I am also using a lot of zip lock bags in which I put nuts, bolts and various other parts and label them according to the Champ parts list.

    I then turned my attention to removing the engine.
    My new Austin Champ
    Again, fairly straightforward, and I was lucky I had the foresight to have sprayed all bolts with CRC66 Marine about a week before, so it had time to soak into the bolts and make it easier to remove them.
    My new Austin Champ

    And....while my son was being kept busy with the engine, over a period of about 2 weeks, I decided to tackle the electricals...bad move!
    My new Austin Champ
    My new Austin Champ

    I then removed the ignition panel and the instrument panel, dismantled them and removed all the wiring, as it was a dog's breakfast of different coloured wires, some burnt. I decided it was best to remove them all and I ended up finding out that the original cabling used on the Champ was called Unipren. I made enquiries and found out (as with most other Champ related items) it was no longer made. I then contacted K C Lacey in the UK and they told me their equivalent was called TC12 in the 1mm size. So I bought 100 metres of the stuff. It is waterproof, fireproof and radio suppressed.
    My new Austin Champ
    My new Austin Champ

    I then moved along and started cleaning up other parts, such as generator panels and distributor
    My new Austin Champ
    My new Austin Champ

    Enough of my ramblings. Will continue tomorrow
    Merry Christmas to all
    Click to enlarge the picture Click to enlarge the picture My new Austin Champ   My new Austin Champ  


  3. #13

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    Nice work!
    Had good advice? Saved money? Why not become a Gold Club Member, just hit the green "Join WRF Club" tab at the top of the page and help support the forum!

  4. #14

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    Simon: That is a great project and you are doing terrific job of restoration. I especially like your meticulous approach to cataloging and photographing everything before to take it apart. With your attention to detail that will be an absolutely gorgeous Champ when it's back on the road. I look forward to seeing the end result posted here. Do you have an estimate as to when the job will be completed? Dwight

  5. #15

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    Hey Dwight, thanks for that.
    More parts have been stripped and painted, and I have now started on the front diff. I have removed most of the parts which will now be blasted and primed.
    The chassis has been blasted, primed and the bottom of it has been painted with the Sika black bitumen. I will then start on the body.
    Photos will follow.

    Simon

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