1934 Sports

[Phillip]

@Arnhaug,

My pleasure to help! That's a really nice looking Nine Sports...'36/37 style...one of the nicest types to drive.

Please bear in mind that my photos and details are for the '33/34 style 'straight frame' cars. The '35 'longtail' with the 'double-drop' Le Mans chassis and the '36/37 cars with the underslung Bantam frames will be the same in principle, but vary in details due to the different body and chassis arrangements.

Hope that helps...

[DarcyG]

On the cars i haved looked at they all had the steel reinforcing. I always assumed it was to support the spare tyre hanging basically from this timber frame and to spread the load. It has not always been identical, creative license has entered once again, but the idea has been the same.

[Phillip]

Agreed Darcy,

Given the rather 'hand finished' nature of the cars and how Singer let nothing go to waste, I am sure there are variations on the theme.

The rear timber was not really up to supporting the spare wheel, especially as the frames got old. My '33 had cracked alloy and broken wood around the spare tyre mounting.

My '34 was worse, having been fitted with twin spare wheels like the trials boys used. The frame has been heavily reinforced with crude brackets and bolts right through the bodywork. Since there is no trace on the ledger of twin spares being fitted at the factory, I may well return to a single spare. There is evidence to believe that the twin spares were fitted, along with a Le Mans apron badge, at the dealer as it was promoted as a 'Le Mans 4 seater' in the written material.

[cdk84]

Hi Darcy, Hi Phillip and All,

Does anyone have photographs of the various braces used inside the rear vertical body sheetmetal?

I would be most interested to see several examples of the bracing discussed in this thread, specifically because CRL157, Charlotte, has the unusual adapter for double spares at the rear. I'm concerned that the added weight could and might well damage the rear body, and would like to see what kind of bracing other cars have.

Are there photos in specific of any four seater that has the same twin spares that are on my car? I would like to see any photos of bracing for the rear wood frame --even if they're not for twin spares.

Thanks everyone for sharing your experience and any images you can find or make of the rear wood and reinforcement structure of the bodywork. I think we can all learn from this.

Cheers,

David

[Phillip]

Hey David,

I posted this photo on another thread:

33_34_Sports Sidescreen Storage area.jpg (257.48 KiB) Viewed 3291 times

As you can see, the wood sections are not very substantial and the metal bracing is very basic, being held in place by wood screws except where two large bolts go through the transverse main timber to hold the spare wheel casting in place. If twin spare were requested, I doubt it did much for the durability of the rear bodywork, as you say! If I were fitting twin spares, I would beef up the size of the wood and add extra bracing!

Hope that helps!

[Phillip]

Here's a shot of the twin spare set-up on my 1934 Sports taken when I first got the car:

1934 Sports_Twin Spares.jpg (327.04 KiB) Viewed 3291 times

That's a lot of mass hanging 'way back there! Great for trials cars, but they weren't expected to last 80 + years..lol!

You can just see the row of bolts going through the body around the top edge. These hold a steel strip around the inside and the whole affair was crudely added later in the cars life to help hold the back end together as it struggled with the weight.

[telco.2]

I would agree with all the comments; but it so happened that on my car there was a centre strut and it had been jointed into a cross rail that was half lap jointed into the top side rails under the aluminium skin. There was no evidence of this having been lifted or removed at any time either...very odd. But as it happens to suit my purposes at this moment it's going to stay as it is! Did Singers ever build cars that were identical??

[mikeyr]

there are a lot of wood pictures in this gallery on the main website, http://gallery.singercars.com/index.php ... Wood-Frame unfortunately it looks like its mostly 2-seater.

And in the 1.5 Litre sports gallery are some wood pics, I would assume that the 9 and 1.5 sports shared the same basic design, just larger everything in the 1.5. http://gallery.singercars.com/index.php ... ter-Sports

http://gallery.singercars.com/index.php ... 1417039927

[Peter McKercher]

Did Singers ever build cars that were identical??

I think they were largely the same within the same model year, although Singer did seem to put on things that were nearest to them on the shelf. Case in point are the windshield stanchions. The experts tell me that for my '34 Le mans the stanchion with a 5" pivot point for the windshield is correct. However, I have seen cars which I know to be original that have a 3 1/4" pivot point. As far as wood work goes on all the '34 Sports I have seen and worked on, they all look like the photos below. This is my '34 Sports. The wood was original and intact, but badly degraded. Everything I saw was replicated exactly as per the original including plywood fillers and gussets. Note the plywood box/shelf which goes down to the lower edge of the body. This is where the side curtains fit in. It's actually quite spacious. Note that the brackets that reinforce the rear corners behind the rear wheels are not in place in this picture and the plywood fillers at each door opening were not installed at the time the photo was taken.

[Phillip]

Bill, that question is the eternal one...lol!

I guess the handcrafted nature of the cars of that era meant they could do whatever they needed to do to get them done. Ian Blackburn's story of an original LM with one steel door done at the factory was one such example. They often also created models that sold in penny numbers that were created simply to use up spare stock of parts; the Super Nine as well as the Bantam Coupe both spring to mind!

[telco.2]

Lovely woodwork on your car Peter...there was no evidence of any boxing for side screen storage on mine. As long as we all achieve a car back on the road and in the spirit of the original is surely the aim?

[Peter McKercher]

I agree completely.

[Phillip]

It's a cool project and another car saved. Can't wait to hear your first drive report when this 'Six Cylinder Sports' hits the road, Bill!

[DarcyG]

The first two are from a rebuild by a friend in Queensland, the third is a photo I took at a UK rally some years back from what I was told was an original unrestored car.

[telco.2]

Thanks for the encouragement everybody! The front seat backs are now installed and the bases are well on the way. We have discovered it will be drivable for both Liz & I ... . It will all slow down when I return to the wiring but at least there is progress and it all has to be done. I'm glad it isn't a saloon like Colin's - all that work - though I take my hat off to his progress with that rare car.