Austin A90 Atlantic Convertible restoration progresses, in Invercargill, NZ

Lew has been busy over the last while, with the Atlantic now starting to look more like the car it will finally become now, with the fitment of doors, boot lid, dashboard, front apron and nose piece having been done.

The fitting up of the car's 'workings' is also taking place, with the attachment of restored ancillaries to the firewall and engine bay. Wiring harnesses and cables are also being pulled through again. The dashboard now has its dials, switches and cable pulls back in place for connecting up.

The finished colour of the Atlantic is now showing, with the boot lid and dashboard having been sprayed, as an indicator of the livery for the completed car.

Still a way to go, but the 'basket-case' it once was, has now long gone.

The engine block is in for reconditioning and a complete, brand new after-market alloy head will be sent from Australia, to negate the 'crack prone' original cast iron heads these units carried. A spare

block will be temporarily put into the car and hooked up to the gearbox to help set-up the gear linkages.

We had a bit of good luck when the spare engine block was stripped down. This block contained a factory performance 100M camshaft, which was put out mainly as a kit, to enhance performance in the Healey 100/4 sports cars. I knew it could be something special when I noticed letters and numbers stamped into the shaft that weren't stamped into the original Atlantic cam. I checked the 'lift' by running a steel rule cross two journals with the peak of a lobe in between, which showed it had quite a bit more lift than the standard Atlantic cam. So, it was back to the Net with the numbers stamped on the shaft, and it didn't take too long to identify what it was.

Unbelievably, this cam is still in excellent, usable condition and will go straight into the 'new' Atlantic block with a brand new set of lifters, and of course, new timing gears and chain. The timing set-up specs for this performance cam were also quite easily found on the Net. These 100M (Modified) cams are still available out of the UK, but at a price of around NZ$900. Hopefully this cam will give the 'old girl' a bit more torque when she finally hits the road again.

As Lew and I both said: "You gotta have a bit of luck somewhere during a major restoration such as this!"