Austin somerset car

This Austin was built on January 22, , and the seller has compiled information about previous owners on his website. He purchased the car out of a small machine shop in July , and had the car trailered to Michigan to begin the restoration process. Two photos of the car as it was purchased are shown in the gallery below. Once in Michigan, the car was disassembled and all sheet metal was baked, acid-dipped, phosphatized, and electro-coated. New pieces were fabricated and welded in the rusted rocker panels.

All components were then primed and painted utilizing modern primer, color, and clearcoat. The body now looks very nice in photos and presents well throughout, though the original front grille remains unrestored.

While the paintwork was being completed, the seller sandblasted the original frame and had all underbody components painted in the factory green using the same process as the body. The bumpers, door handles, and other exterior trim were re-plated and show well. The seller purchased two donor saloons and one coupe in order to obtain all the components for this car. A new folding top was fabricated using correct materials from England.

It is now functional and in nice condition, though the seller notes two small paint nicks that resulted from installation. The factory wheels were repainted and fitted with fresh bias-ply tires. Note the semaphore turn signals just behind the doors. Interior work included Hush Mat insulation on the floors and new carpeting from England.

The seats were reupholstered professionally using period-correct leather on the cushions and backs, while new vinyl was applied on the seat sides and door panels. The dashboard has been painted in a darker blue, and the factory banjo-style steering wheel is noted to have one small crack. The odometer shows 68, miles, though true mileage is unknown. The seller reports the car has only been driven around miles since the restoration was completed.

The rear seats were reupholstered to match the rest of the interior and remain in nice condition. The cc engine 1G and 4-speed column-shift transmission came out of the donor coupe. During the transplant, the engine was rebuilt with new bearings, pistons, and rings. The flywheel was resurfaced and a new ring gear was installed. The rocker shaft and bushings were professionally rebuilt along with the starter, generator, distributor, water pump, carburetor, and radiator.

I learned that the hard way when I bought a Valiant with 3 on the tree. All those rods and levers are so remote from what they control. Overly small, overly cute, and I have to keep reminding themselves that they were the local equivalent of a, say, Chevrolet Bel Air. When I was a kid an English lady across the street had a Somerset. It was grey…when all of the UK according to Jeremy Clarkson was black and white.

In my teenage years a friend bought a black Devon 4 door but it had the running gear of a Volvo so the car was a miniature muscle car! I can still remember the black leather and wood inside it. When I was a kid sixties there were plenty of Devons still running around, but these Somersets were rarely seen.

You could get more up to date styling in the UK from Ford Vauxhall and Hillman but a lot of people seemed happy with the humpty dumpty looks of the Austin. The sweep of the front fender reminds me of the Buick but thats as far as the similarity goes. These Devons and Somersets were common when I was small.

Funny that the Somerset went to hydraulic rear brakes — the Farina A40 reverted to mechanical rear brakes brake-by-wire…. Austins of this era were more old fashioned than almost all regular British cars Austin clung to prehistoric BOF construction long after Morris Ford Vauxhall Rootes and others had gone unitary it was only the merger with Morris to form BMC that their range was modernised ironically the Austin engine designs were used throughout the BMC range and the ancient Morris sidevalves, Wolseley OHC, and Riley twin cams were consigned to the scrapyard.

These A40s all suffered from lever shock absorbers which wore out early and seemingly were never replaced, Ive ridden in and driven several back in the 70s and all gave a very bouncy ride with awful roadholding at any speed and really they are only fast downhill, The chassis are all boxed and immensely strong one was fitted with L Velox running gear as a beach buggy huge fun and another A40 ute local to me was repowered with a XU1 spec Holden 6 and proved very fast it also had telescopic shox fitted to make it steerable at speed, There are some restored examples about locally but not many, most joined the stampede to the scrapyard with the advent of used Jappas and are long gone Devons are still common but not Sommersets.

The sole reason the Morris Marina was built was to provide a retrofit suspension upgrade for Minors, best engine conversion is actually cc or cc Datsun much better engines oil tight and very popular conversions in OZ and NZ many minors are still on the road thanx to Japanese machining technology.

The Marina had the same suspension as the Minor, with those useless lever arm dampers. The politics of the merger between Austin and the Morris group is a whole story in itself. The Morris designs including Riley Wolseley and MG had superior suspension and steering to the stodgy Austins but by Austin engineering ruled. Styling finally got brought up to an acceptable level with the Pininfarina contract but also for the first time under the skin the vague and soggy old Austin steering and suspension also featured on the Morris Oxford and its Riley MG and Wolseley clones and this was seen at the time as a retrograde step especially on the MG Magnette which went from being a much loved sporting saloon from with good handling and rack and pinion steering to a roll prone sloppy handling badge engineered Austin with an extra carburretor.

Saying that.. Ive owned the later farina cars and love them. Just wish they had made more effort to keep the up market sporty models like the Mg and the Riley competetive. In effect it was an Austin takeover. Leonard Lord held a long-seated grudge against William Morris, and seems to have sought to sweep away anything Morris — never mind the fact that much of the Morris gear was superior in engineering terms.

The C-series motor was designed by what would be traditional Morris folks so its design is quite different from the A and B-series. Disappointing, yes, but not irrational. The Riley engine was undoubtedly expensive to build with two cams in the block and went back to the mids, so while the tooling was probably paid for, it may well have been almost worn out by the mids. Those s were a crap engine backed by worse gearbox ratios. My aunt had an A She shifted into second at a walking pace, and top was just about right at town speeds.

But take it out of town and at even 40mph the engine sounded quite unhappy, even to a car-mad little kid in the back seat. This convertible was for sale here a few months back. Usual non-runner with solid body but poor interior.

Fascinating little cars—so cute in some regards and so frumpy in others. One of those cars that seems to make me smile, though, regardless…. I suppose the American fondness for the Somerset is a case of the other mans grass is alays greener as Petula Clark sang. Growing up in the uk in the 60s I was obssesed by the huge and beautiful cars I saw in American films and tv shows and it was a major thing to see the occasional American car on the roads-usually a Valiant Rambler Mustang or huge Ford station wagon.

Also I believe what is outdated and old fashioned could be a determent in a new car but years later could be viewed as charming in a classic car. The other relatives of this car that bear mentioning are the Nash Metropolitan, which used the 1. Nissan built the A40 and later the A50, which was replaced by the first Cedric shortly after the license agreement ended. The sedan I had,had one, cc and a whopping 3 main bearings. Yet somehow, I bet the Datsun version of this engine was more reliable…oh wait, anything is more reliable than a british machine….

What a delightful car! My ancestors were from the Somerset area, and in fact, Stembridge Tower Mill is less than 20 kilometers from Somerset. Perhaps this would be the perfect classic car for me presuming someone 1. Looks like Austin and BMW styling drank from the same cool-aid. Seriously, I love the Rubenesque looks. Go to The West Indies and most folks over 50 years old will tell you they miss British cars , the new Japanese ones are efficient but have no soul. Agreed it looks cute today and evokes comforting memories of a bygone era but I still maintain Austin styling was non existent in the early 50s-the slab sided Hillman Minx had debuted in yet still looked more modern than the Somerset in Shortly after came the Farina contract… not sure how true it is but sounds about right for HRH Prince Philip who has never been one to keep his opinions to himself thankfully.

I personally quite like the A It was rather panned when new. A lot of the mechanical bits made their way into the Austin Healey. Just needs the rear end lowered so the lower body side chrome is level instead of slanting uphill. Definitely cute — or maybe more like cutesy — but no three-on-tree for me, SVP. Could well be, David. Not common in Australia. And two-door models were very rare here. I remember a lot of these suffering terminal body rust.

I checked it out, but it was indeed too far gone. Saw this yesterday after this post went up all original and off the road since 78 going by the rego expiry its a floor shift early Devon with the smaller diameter headlights pre but in excellent condition despite being stored outside unused for several decades. Has anybody ever driven a LHD A? I did, some 60 years ago, and it was rather weird. The shift pattern was reversed, meaning 1st down and under while 4th would go up and above.

You had to be very careful about what you did, because the whole thing was not reliable and you could end up with a broken gearbox. Anyway, these cars were imported in sizeable numbers to Brazil, until They were seen as a cheaper alternative to real automobiles, that is the American kind. And then, the Beetle just overran the market.

Column shift linkage on these, other British, hilarious. Remembering some Austin linkage have chains. In those days we were tested by the police. My policeman said the car went like a hairy goat but he passed me first go.

First gear made a grinding noise. Interesting article, thanks for posting it. I know very little about card but I saw one of these today at a local show and shine! That one that hopped around Lethbridge then disappeared is mine. Quite surprising to find it in the google images then on here. Ha ha ha! I have a Austin A40 Somerset and a parts car for sale. It has been in storage for 14 years. I also have a parts car. We are downsizing so I am selling off my Austin. I love this car.

I do not have any recent photos. If there is anyone interested I will send some off to you. The A40 model that took my fancy was I think the last one — was it a Pininfarina design?

Square and boxy, but quite attractive, and had a back door instead of a lidded boot. It also did very well in sedan — oops, I should say saloon racing, and the vintage classes still bring them out. I would love to have one …. The oil had been cooked to Vaseline, but when Larry took it apart the cylinders needed only a bit of honing, and the pistons and rings and bearings were okay. My one hop-up mod was an MG head someone gave me, which gave me enough extra torque so I could stay in fourth on the long gentle inclines, such as one just south of San Jose.

I have a Austin A40 Somerset Coupe convertible that needs a new steering mechanism. Does anyone know if someone has ever installed a rack and pinion set-up in one. New steering boxes are unavailable and mine is completely worn out. It may be an adjustment, bad transmission mount, who knows???? The car is a 4 speed, and column shift. The shift pattern is quite odd as it is backwards from what American column shifts are. That is the way it is supposed to be.

Takes a little getting used to. I have gone through the brakes, installing a new master cylinder and put rebuild kits in all of the wheel cylinders. The wheel cylinders were sleeved in brass by a previous owner. I changed all brake hoses and remade some of the pipes out of British made cunifer tubing. The new pipes were made with new fittings and everything was filled with silicone fluid. All of the electrical components work except for the horns.

I guess they may work if the car had horns. The horn push is there as is the wiring, but for some reason the horns are missing. They were not there when I got the car. The trafficators turn signals work. The signals are on small arms that come out of the side of the car when signaling. I was tempted to hook these to a hazard flasher just to see these arms flapping as I went down the street.

Of course I never did that. The inside of the car presents very well as there are no rips or tears in the upholstery. The carpet that is in the car is a bit faded from age, but the car comes with a brand new carpet kit. The new carpet kit is still in the box. The headliner is in good shape with no rips or tears. The chrome on the car presents ok, I guess. Some spots on the bumpers the chrome is flaking off.