"Hi,

My name is Steve Slivinski. I live in Neenah, Wisconsin (about 40 miles south of Green Bay) with my wife and three children. I bought my 1969 Austin America (automatic) about 1-1/2 years ago. My love for British cars and motorcycles dates back to about 1973 and my first car a 1966 Austin Healey Sprite. I have had a few other MG's, Triumphs, and Austin Healeys since my first Sprite. Many were short-term projects which resulted in college tuition money. Since graduating and getting married 17 years ago, I have only had one other British car, a '64 Bugeye Sprite which I never found the time to work on and sold while in the process of buying/selling a home.

I was an Industrial Education major in college, taught for three years and then transferred into industry for purely financial reasons. (My wife is a teacher, too.) I have recently returned to teaching Tech Ed and feel that I am back to my roots. I had to tell you that because I am one of those guys who almost never takes his own car in to be worked on. I try to do it all myself, including body work. Before I go too far, I have to mention that I have been out to California recently and I am quite envious of your West Coast cars! Here in the Midwest, it is considered a great find if you acquire a 60's vintage car that hasn't been completely eaten away from snow and salt.

I discovered my Austin about 8 years ago. I remember finding the classified ad in the local paper. I called the owner and found out that his widow was selling it and that it needed some work to make it roadworthy. I didn't bother to look at the car because after some careful thought I honestly couldn't fit another project in the garage I was working on restoring a '73 Norton Commando at the time.

Three years ago my wife and I were enjoying the Bill Murray movie, "The Man Who Knew Too Little." The scenes of him racing around London in his Mini were great. For some reason I remembered that I had never thrown away the ad for the Austin and easily found it. Since my wife liked the Mini, I thought that it would be a fun family project and I would be able to carry more than one passenger-even during the winter months. I called the widow with the Austin and was amazed that she still had it. This was during January, so when I went to see the car I had to trudge through about a foot of snow to find it buried behind her son's garage. It looked like fun. I asked if the $800 price was still good and she said "No, the price is $500." I paid for it but could not pick it up until the snow had melted and the ground had dried so it must have been April or May that I picked it up.

It was an interesting tow home- I had to jack up the passenger side and install wood shims to prevent the tires from bottoming out. The suspension was down a bit. I thought that I would have to replace hoses, etc. but after making my own pump, I found no leaks to this day.

I would get it running one day, drive it to school and find out what I had to fix next. You all know how that goes.

The brakes needed much work and the starter drive was not engaging most of the time. Upon careful inspection, it turned out that the ring gear was in bad shape. (A good winter project.) Once I dug into it I found that the starter was fairly new and the ring gear was not original-it had been tack welded onto the torque converter. I bought a new ring gear and could not find any good documentation pertaining to the correct placement of it. So I got out my caliper, etc, installed the starter and determined the placement of it. (There seemed to be about plus/minus 1/8" in either direction for error. The previous one was not installed correctly and the starter was only engaging about half way.

I worked on the usual things-rebuilding the carb, installing new ignition components, fixing the leaking manifold/exhaust pipe, installing a new floor. I rebuilt the master cylinder before winter and the following spring discovered that the master was not holding pressure again. So, I decided to get another rebuild kit, a used master (mine had some pits down deep), install new rear cylinders and switch over to silicone fluid. No regrets. While waiting for a back-ordered rebuild kit, I took the time to blow out the system and inspect and clean things. I was really impressed with the front tapered pads. I had to bring them into the school to show off British engineering to the Auto Mech teacher!

I've switched the electrics over to negative ground and have been driving it this fall whenever I can. My ten year old son loves it and is certain that it will be his first car. His thirteen year old sister has a different opinion of it. To her it is embarrassing and old! She'll come around, I'm sure of it.

I haven't even had the chance to buff out the body and begin body repair. I have an almost two year old, so my project time is short right now. When she's a bit older it will be time to pull the engine and tranny to replace everything that leaks and to do the body work. I have not discovered any body filler on the car-I am amazed. Remember, this is Wisconsin! Even though I have the old temptation to install fender flares, dual carbs, headers, wide tires and rims, etc, I just can't. The car is in such good overall shape that I want to keep it more original.

I recently found another interesting leftover from the previous owner. When I took it out after rebuilding the brakes, I broke down and smelled a lot of gas. I found that my plastic bodied in-line fuel filter was cracked. Good thing for extra long hoses and the dime screwdriver in my pocket. I thought that I had probably whacked the filter with a wrench some time over its lay up. I installed a metal bodied filter and things seemed OK. Last week I discovered that it was leaking at its seam. When I looked at the fuel pump, it turned out to be an AC/Delco of who-knows how many psi rating. I am now going to install a fuel pressure regulator to get me by. I'm interested to see how the performance increases.

Well, we had a good amount of frost on the car windows this morning. Time to make room in the garage by pushing the Austin over to one side. Most of the winter will be spent paging through parts catalogs and visiting this fine internet site often. Winter projects will consist of replacing the dash vinyl and starting my spring list which already has rear brake shoes and a new battery on it. I might pull the manifold and convert it over to a better joint setup, too. It all depends if I can still move after putting on my snow bibs and parka to venture out into the garage!"

Steve Slivinski

sslivinski@neenah.k12.wi.us

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