1950 AUSTIN,
DS1, A125 SHEERLINE SALOON
I purchased this
car on 29 August 1988.� My aim at the
time was to have a large �limousine� type vehicle and to restore it in fairly
quick time.� In hindsight how misguided
was this aim ?
In the
intervening years a number of�
�other� things got in the way, mainly career, building a house,
retirement, restoring another car, travelling and so on and on it went.�
This car is a
fully imported� Right
Hand Drive �Export Market' standard sedan of British origin. According to the
records at the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust the car was built at the
Austin Factory, Longbridge, Birmingham,
UK on 11th December 1950 and still has the correct original motor,
body and chassis numbers as when it was despatched from the factory. The same
record shows that it was despatched direct to Australia, but the name of the
consignee is not recorded.� However a
plate attached to this car shows that Larke Hoskins, of� 56 Palmer Street,
East Sydney was the Australian Distributor, so it is fairly reasonable to
assume that they were the consignee�s.
These types
of cars (together with the A135 Princess) were the top of the Austin line, both
in size and quality of finish.� They were
developed and produced in the post World War 2 period� to compete directly with cars like
Rolls Royce, Bentley, Daimler and similar.�
The only problem competing with cars of that nature was they had the
name and reputations, Austin was entering the �race�
at a very late stage, and suffered accordingly.�
During the course of their production run from 1947 to 1951 these cars
became known as �a poor mans Rolls Royce�.�� The more opulent A135
�Princess� range, which had the same mechanicals, but was fitted with a Vanden Plas body, had a much
longer production �life� and greater success competing with the better known
limousines.�
When I
acquired the car it was a complete car, partially dismantled, showing its age
and previous usage.� The person I
purchased it from,� a
dealer type person from Blackheath, NSW had commenced a "restoration"
by stripping the most easily removed panels, ie
mudguards and front panels and the interior.�
He had hand painted the panels with some sort of� �brown� primer and that�s where the
job had finished.� End of� "restoration",� interest, money or whatever, so he sold it !
�
Basically the car was a sound car, very well worn with
no accident damage evident, but with some minor rust showing.� Sometime during its life it had been roughly
repainted in a light sky blue colour.� It
was mechanically very well worn with extensive country usage evident on under
body parts, ie stone damage, road metal
"peppering", accumulated mud and dust.� There was some minor panel damage, mainly to
the mudguards, the left hand front door and the rear �beaver� panel.� The interior of the car was a shambles, through
age and wear and tear.� The upholstery
and timber facings had suffered very badly with water damage from a leaking
sunroof, and the whole of the interior was full of dust, caked mud, rats nests/droppings and snails.
Because a number of panels and most of the interior had
been removed from the car and stacked �in� it, I was concerned whether all the
relevant parts were with it.� However
when it was subsequently �sorted� out all was well, as all the necessary parts
appeared to be there.
My subsequent work on the car showed that my original
assessment had been fairly accurate. �Over the years from �88 to early 2001 I did
some restoration work on the car, mainly to the doors, and I made some �rust � panels to replace the rusted parts of the car.�
During this period the motor was dismantled and over the
years was reconditioned, bit by bit, with the end result that the motor is now
totally reconditioned and rebuilt.
In early 2001 after my commitments to AOA had finished,
I really got serious about restoring the car.�
The previously dismantled panels were all refitted and aligned, and
repaired where necessary. When this work was completed it was totally stripped
and the body removed from the chassis.�
The whole chassis and running gear was totally dismantled, restored and
rebuilt, to original �new� condition.�
The whole car, chassis and body� was then sand blasted and painted in
its present� colours.
During the stripping and repairing of the body some good
samples of the original colour scheme� were located on some of the inner
panels.� This colour was reproduced and
the car has been finally painted in a light green metallic colour, as close as
possible to the original colour.
Probably the biggest �headache� in the whole restoration
was the restoration of the doors.� These
doors have a timber inner frame, which rots quite readily, particularly the
lower portion, with a steel outer frame and steel skin.� The problem being that when the doors were
originally made they were constructed from the inside out, with the steel skin
being the last thing put onto the door.�
All the fasteners and screws in the timber frame were put in place, from
the outside towards the inside, before the skin was fitted.� Consequently when it came to taking the
timber frames apart, none of the fasteners or screws could be accessed from the
�inside� of the door, so it was necessary to break the frames to get them
out.� This had to be done carefully to
retain as much as possible of the rotted frames, for patterns.
The end result is that all the doors have been totally
rebuilt, but now they can be rebuilt from the inside of the door, with all
fasteners and screws easily accessible from the inside of the door.
In November 2002 the restoration of the car was semi
finished, but sufficient and good enough for it to be registered.� At this stage, even though it was registered
some of the upholstery and all of the interior wooden facings still required
total restoration.
After its registration and upon being used, particularly
in the hot weather, it became evident that it had a problem with overheating,
despite the fact that I had made some modifications during restoration, in an
effort to prevent the overheating..� These cars have a reputation, even in the UK for
overheating.� Subsequently a fair bit of
further experimentation and modification was carried out in an effort to reduce
the overheating.� I�m pleased to say that
the modifications were successful and the motor now operates within a
temperature range of 165 deg F to 185 deg F.
Since its registration the upholstery has been completed
by Dave Kracht of DNA Upholstery, Katoomba, NSW and I
renewed all the veneer facings.� My mate
Warren Hopgood, who is a French Polisher by trade,
completed the finish of the wooden trim, but with modern 2 pack materials, not french polish.
The history of the car is fairly well known. There have
been 4 genuine previous owners, and 1 "restoring", before the car
came into my possession.� The name of the
original owner, who lived in Orange, NSW is not known so little is known of its
initial history. The subsequent four owners were an �SP� bookie in Orange, 2
farmers at Parkes, NSW and then the �restoring� owner at Blackheath. With the
exception of my ownership and that of the �restorer� at Blackheath the car has
spent all of its life in the Orange and Parkes areas of Central Western N.S.W.
Despite the fact that these are fairly large cars, at
best they are really only a very comfortable 4 seater, and at worst a very �squeezy� 6 seater.�
They have a separate �box� section chassis with independent suspension
on the front, typical of Austin/BMC vehicles of the era, the upper control arms
being the shock absorber arms, with a lower �wish bone� control arm and coil
spring, all mounted on a massive cross member of the chassis.� The rear suspension is semi elliptical
springs, with a solid rear axle. Braking is by large hydraulic drum brakes (12�
x 2 ��) front and rear, and steering by �cam gear� steering box.� Power is from an o.h.v.
6 cylinder petrol motor of 4 litre capacity, driving to the rear wheels through
a four speed manual gearbox and rear differential.� When full of oil, water and fuel these cars
weigh 2 imperial tons.
In short they are a very standard type of car for the
era and with the exception of an in built jacking system had no outstanding
innovative mechanical or other feature.�
They are quite luxuriously finished, with Walnut timber facings for dash
and door trims, with very comfortable leather seats, fitted with central and
side arm rests, front and rear, and plenty of leg room, for all seating
positions.� They had as standard
equipment a good quality �Ekco� brand medium and
short wave radio, and a built in heater demister.� They have quite good road holding ability and
the ride experienced is very smooth and comfortable.� Despite their size and weight they are
reasonably �nimble� cars on the road, being able to easily accelerate, keep up
with, and stop with modern traffic.
I am looking forward to many miles of pleasant motoring
in this car.
Ken Gardiner.