Isetta four wheel chassis to three wheel

[AndyL]

It seems my Isetta chassis was originally a four wheeler and was adapted to three wheels. Here's a shot of the dirty undercarrige, where I've been scraping off decades old caked on muck and bullets. You can see where the original shock tower mounting has been flame cut.



I expect this was done that the factory (at least I hope so). I've read about this in the past, and it appears my car may possibly be one of a batch that was originally earmarked for Canada before the importer went bust, and the cars were recycled into three wheelers for the home market. Might also explain why the chassis plate number makes little sense!

[marcus]

I too had heard that some ex Canada ones were de-wheeled, perhaps in the Brooklands Gold Portfolio book.

[AndyL]

The brackets that reinforce the three wheel damper tube need a bit of TLC. You can see in the picture that the bottom edge were flame cut.

I expect these would have normally have been put on the cross-member before it was welded to the rest of the chassis, but as they were retrofitted they had to be split. However not a very tidy job, they not been welded fully around the tube and the brackets are twisted, so I will need to address that.

[Big Al]

I would be tempted to go four wheeled. Means finding a few bits though.

[AndyL]

Quite a bit of work, plus the mods to shorten the wheelbase to avoid the misaligned driveshaft problems inherent in teh foru wheeler.

If i want to go round bends fast, I'll break out the mini.

[plas man]

if your in doubt about the chassis No you could always take the cabin off . you cant miss it - even Bonds have one - and its not only the one on the bulkhead plate !

[AndyL]

The chassis number was also stamped on the front tube beneath the door hoop. Sadly the stamping was fairly faint, and as that bit of the chassis was more exposed to the elements, it got a bit more rusty and the numbers are largely illegible.

AFAIK they weren't  found anywhere else unless you know different?

[AndyL]

So I found another number on the front chassis tube. This one matches with the chassis plate, number 310558, which apparently is bobbins for a late 1959 car. 

[Bob Purton]

Yep, you will be in the MOT exempt club.

[wilksie]

Isetta UK chassis numbers? A tricky topic. The first recorded LHD 3-wheeler was manufactured in 1958 and bore the chassis number 312102. The 'Canadian Deal' was in 1958 (or perhaps 1957) and the chassis numbers were said to be 10194 to 11963. I think it was Mike Hurn who did much research into this.

I am at a loss as to where your chassis number 310558 fits in. Did Isetta UK allocate unused chassis numbers to those cars returned to the UK from Canada? Was yours originally a chassis number 10558, and then had a '3' stamped before it to make it look like an original UK 3-wheeler?

By the way, I haven't seen the 'forward slash 3' on a chassis plate before. Any ideas? Sorry, more questions than answers.

[AndyL]

I don't have any more information on the chassis plate number. One of life's little mysteries I guess.
I recall Lee Turnham from the IOCGB insisting my car would not have had 3" plastic rear lights. This was despite me assuring him my car was largely original, and no holes drilled for separate reflectors. Another little oddity.

[Big Al]

Returning serviceman, dodging the higher taxation? With Schmitts these sometimes gain odd lighting as the laws of the country where the car was sold were different to ours.