Thread: 1968 Austin America Restoration

Well, we're finally far enough along that I can post up a thread about it

We purchased this from the old man across the street. He had bought it for his wife back in the 70's I believe, and she just didn't want it. So, it sat in his garage, on top of a sand pit, ever since. He swears he started it up and drove it over the years, but I kind of doubt it.

Anyway, it has 22,000 original miles, and was in great shape for a car of it's age. The body was very straight, with a few minor dings and bumps here and there, but the paint was ATROCIOUS. It was this creamy yellowish color... bleh.

The day we bought it.



Started stripping it down, removed all of the glass and molding/trim pieces, etc.



brought it down to bare metal



one of the stickers... definitely not built to haul... erm... larger people....



Engine pulled out, 1300cc engine

Completely stripped down, and primed









[img]http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/296053_10150488877829148_691634147_11140509_358107 145_n.jpg/img]




Even the trunk



Underbody

nice find, looking forward to seeing it complete!

Sealer






We should start painting it in the final stages hopefully today, if our body guy comes in. We're painting it a glacier pearl white, and will be doing a "ghost" british flag on the roof, with blue and red pearl.... it should look pretty cool once it's done

We ordered up some rebuild kits from England for the engine and transmission, we're waiting for those to come in so we can dive into the mechanics of it, and get her back up and running, not really sure how long those will take to come it. It still has the original hydraulic suspension, and we're hoping it's still in good shape... We'll see I guess It should be a fun little car once it's done.

OMG SECOND PIC..... thats the worst way ive seen to "jack stand" a car......F ME!!! HAHAHAH is the one on the right an empty tire, with a floor mat over it ....??

im glad you'll dont do this for a living or anything hahahahahaha

That's actually a picture of it from when we had threatened flooding. We ran out of floor jacks, the lifts were full... so.... emergency situation calls for emergency measures... spare wheels/tires You can lift the car up with 2 people... it weights hardly anything. and it's a wheel on top of a wheel/tire... we're not that freakin' ghetto.

And yes... we do, do this for a living...

Nice find and restoration..Love it when people restore classics...Subscribed...!!!!

Love these threads, I wish nothing more than to be able to do something like this someday. Will be checking on this thread on regular bases.

Great build!

Nick

wow, a lot of work to do, huh?