Page 11 - Microsoft Word - WCCC Newsletter 2020 test B.docx

A Miniature A60 - Fred Smith
In the early 1980’s the owner of an Austin A40
(the early model,) would show at rallies with a
child’s pedal car of the same shape. These pedal
cars were made by disabled drivers in South
Wales. This particular Austin owner would
travel with the model car attached to the roof of
the A40. This gave me the idea of making a
scale model of my own Austin Cambridge A60,
but what scale should I choose to make it
possible for me to construct?
I decided 1/8 scale would allow me scope to
reproduce all the car’s details. The next step was to produce working drawings of the car as I wanted the
model to be as accurate as possible. I started by measuring all the underneath, chassis, axle, prop shaft etc.
When it came to drawing the body work I had to create datums by placing wooden straight edges at various
points in order to record shape and curves.
For material brass right angle section was used for the main chassis and aluminium for the body shape, with
balsa wood for the final profile. The door hinges gave some problems as they are designed to ‘throw off’ the
door to clear the body. I had some red hide leather off cuts, so this was used for the seating.
When the body was ready for painting, I used aerosol paint of the right colour. This paint does not take
kindly to wood even though sealing and undercoat were applied. The paint had dried leaving a pattern rather
like crazy paving, lots of rubbing fortunately got rid of these marks. For chrome items i.e. bumpers etc
aluminium was used and with a final polish with Autosol metal polish the effect of chrome was achieved.
One of the difficulties I encountered was locating wheels of the correct size, these were eventually obtained
from Shrewsbury model shop- just what I needed- rubber tyres in
packs of two for £7.50. £15 for the 4 tyres! They are the only
items I had to buy for the model. I managed to make everything
else myself from offcuts.
Now that the body was complete it needed an engine. I made
drawings of each item under the bonnet and again, aluminium
was used. I found that the thread size 11BA gave me nuts the
correct size across flats for the cylinder head nuts. I realized at
this stage that once the ‘engine’ was put in position it was not
going to be easy to see some items such as the oil filter bowl,
distributor etc. Therefore, before final installation I took
photographs of the finished work. The length of the model’s
engine was 2 ins from front to rear.
Having got so far in reproducing CHF 936D in miniature it had to have its own set of tools of course. These
include pliers, hammer, adjustable spinner, tyre lever and screwdriver, not forgetting a wheel jack and
starting handle.
One thing was still missing after all these were made and that was the workshop manual. This was achieved
by taking photos of each page of the manual to give a contact print 1” x 1.5”. This enabled me to put
together a miniature manual which now makes the car complete.
I enjoyed making the model over a period of approximately two years and now to see the smiles on people’s
faces when they view it makes it well worth the hours of effort.
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