austin van

[POMMReg]

Nice colour What colour was the engine in the van black or green ?

I think the MMOC are sticking to black engines for Austin LCVs - an idiot like me will never convince them otherwise!

Of course there would be a completely separate batch of black engines for all Austin badged LCVs. Makes perfect sense on a production line system.... Hah.
Surely its just a date thing, that the engines were black after a certain date regardless of the Minor they went into? As for that date, I'd be asking you...

There WAS a set engine number when everything went black - LCVs/PO known - but not
100% on the Traveller, need more details FROM AddPk Traveller's!

Not sure about the facia trim change - blanking plug to NO ign hole - narrowed it down
to 700...pretty vague!

[diggerjones]

Its got a black engine. Its done about 40000 miles and not been messed about with. Still got the
rubber carpet in it.

[POMMReg]

Think we should tell GBond his Austin pick-up should have a
BLACK engine!!

[GBond]

The guys at Longbridge must've made a mistake, since it was definitely green before the restoration.

Only part I'm really not sure about would be the dynamo; it had the remains of both black paint and green, so I think it was probably supplied by Lucas in black and then painted over in green with the rest of the engine.

Then again the car is export spec so there could have been more subtle changes, the engine is the "high" compression type; I'm not sure if the LCVs in europe at the time came with them in "high" or "low" compression guise.


Now that we're talking about vans and engines, I finally found out the whereabouts of probably the last remaining van in Guatemala. A friend of the owner sent me some pictures of the van in its current state as well as a video of it the last time it ran, which was a couple of years ago.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

http://youtu.be/JAfeVVQhNNg

Engine and back axle are japanese (so no way to tell if black or green) and he says he'll probably have it running again this year. Definitely faster than the A-series; my father of course wants to buy it and restore it back to factory specification but with the amount of pending projects we have I don't think that's going to happen.

To get roughly back on topic, I'll try and go look at the van in person as it's not far from where I live and note down all the numbers I can. I'll note the colour of the original engine if the owner still has it.

[MarkyB]

Those racing mirrors seem to work very well!

[trunion]

This Austin badged 8 cwt pick-up on a "G" plate still retains it's original green engine with a red chassis plate on the door panel marked British Motor Corporation Ltd together with Arizona Beige door panels and seats.

[les]

I don't think they came with lifting brackets!

[trunion]

Nor carpet.

I do wonder if they were a bit sloppy on the assembly line sometimes and left the odd set of lifting eyes on at the factory, I've had pick ups and vans in the past that had them fitted.

Some things we will never know for sure

[diggerjones]

Sure mine has lifting eyes on it

[IaininTenbury]

Looks very nice and original. As for lifting eyes, who knows, some may have crept through with them on...

[smithskids]

I had an Austin Healy Sprite in 1960 and it had lifting brackets on the rocker cover!