I call my Gipsy a "Special" as the body has been thoroughly changed by previous owners. I'm still thinking about changing it back, but as the current body is in pretty good condidition I'm not in a hurry. I bought my Gipsy a few years ago from a gentleman who had kept it in his garage for a while for a friend. As I already had a few old Austins I thought it would be the ultimate 4x4 to use offroading. I used a Jeep for playing in the dirt and the Gipsy with it's independent suspension seemed interesting enough. The seller told me the Gipsy was in good condition and wouldn't take much work to get back to roadworthy condition. There was just this small thing with the steering. So I went to see the car.
There was one picture in the ad so I knew I could expect a yellow contraption that wouldn't look much like a Gipsy, but I thought it would be basically sound. So when we arrived and the garage door opened, this is what we saw: Yes it was yellow, but it had red flames, the underside of the car was still covered in dried mud and the wheels were too wide, so the car sported Jeep wheelarches. The car wouldn't start and pushing it back into the garage one of the wheels wouldn't steer in the right direction. Yes there was something with the steering. Looking the car over I decided it was a project. An interesting project for the price of a good running Jeep. So I decided I wouldn't buy it and continue running the Jeep. I don't know what made me decide to buy it later, but I did. Probably it was that Austin-thing most people don't understand...
So one fine day we trailered the Gipsy to it's new home and the adventure started. I will not go into too much detail, but I decided the first thing to do was to get the car running again. As there was only an LPG-tank and no petrol tank I had to hope there was still some lpg in the tank. And yes. After changing all the usual electrics it did run, but it would cut out intermittently. More fiddling got the car running well and I could start on getting the wheels to steer straight.But there was indeed some play there and most of the twelve uj's were not well either.
It turned out the steering arm had broken off one of the studs. Luckily one of the members of the great Austin Gipsy newsgroup told me(from Canada) there was a parts car for sale closeby.
So that car was carted home and I had quite a pile of spare parts.
It turned out that my car ended up with most of the suspension an steering parts from that car. New brakes were purchased all round and most of the Uj's were changed too. The bearings proved to be interesting too as I found they were set up without spacers or shims on three of the four wheels. Miraculously the bearings were well on inspection even though I've had trouble keeping the wheels on ever since. Yes that's something to be solved on the long run.
Meanwhile the flames and yellow paintjob put me off, so I decided to change that to "Cumulus grey", threw out the wheels and plastic fender flares. That made things much better and I decided to continue. Getting the car tested for use on the road didn't present so many problems, but running the car afterwards showed interesting enough. there are not many Gipsies here, so we decided to exhibit the car at one of the classic car shows. This was in the winter so the trip ton the exhibition was the first time I really took the car on the motorway in cold weather. The cold weather does something tonthe LPG, so below 10c it will not run over 70kmph for longer stretches. I know it has something to do with water in the evaporator, so that will be another long term issue.
The first offroad-test run showed the engine is very strong and the gearbox has all the right ratios, though articulation and turning radius are not the best for offroading in tight places.
Not having a roof was another problem, but in the magazine of the Gipsy-register I found another Gipsy in Belgium. The persistent problems with the wheels almost made me switch to the chassis of the Belgian Gipsy as that was a leaf-sprung version, but I'm happy to say the Belgian Gipsy went to another enthousiast who welded the holes and registered the car!
I have the roof on my Gipsy, so it looks even more as a Gipsy should. It's a pity that doors do not fit the modified apertures....
Last year we had both Gipsies together again at a car club event. I was really happy to see both Gipsies on the road and running stong. I must say that despite the trouble my Gipsy gives me, I really enjoy driving it. The strong engine and "truck" feel of the controls really make you feel you're in control of an old machine thundering down the road.I realise this was not a restoration as quite a few members of the register do, but it certailny was an interesting experience. If you like to read more of my old-car adventures, you are welcome to check my old car weblog and I hope you'll add your own Gipsy-adventures soon!
