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One of our Japanese readers sent the following report about the ongoing restoration of an Austin Seven Nippy. Beside the fact we always love to hear from far away friends, it was also the young age of Atsunori Tsubota (22) that caught our attention.
"I loved vintage sports cars already at young age and wished to get an Austin Seven as my first car. But I believed it is nearly impossible for a student to own an A7. It was just then that my friend, Junichi Sugimoto, bought an Austin Nippy when he was only 17 years old. This fact helped me realise my dream.
I bought my Nippy at auction in October 2010 and the car came to Japan in March 2011. The car was kept in the same family over the last 50 years and retained many original details, but needed a total restoration. I first dismantled the engine. There was a little damage on the crank bigend and the piston clearance was too big. Overhauling the engine was finished in the summer 2012, this included setting a new crank, rods and pistons.
The next task was cleaning the chassis. I took the body off and sandblasted almost all parts of the chassis by myself. After this unhappy work, I painted the chassis in black enamel and changed many bush and bearing. I finally reassembled the chassis early 2013. At this moment I am rebuilding the body." We wish Atsunori lots of succes with the remaining jobs to get the Nippy back on the road. Maybe Atsunori and Junichi can start a japanese branch of the Austin Seven club?
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