Saturday morning 4am and my bloody alarm goes off! What have I done to deserve this? Agreeing to co-pilot Darren Sharp on the Club Triumph Welsh rally that’s what. It seemed a good idea at the time!

I got my things together and headed down to Hornchurch to meet Darren. His alarm not going off was the reason for him greeting me at the front door in his underpants and t-shirt. Nice! (Not!)

After a quick cup of coffee we set off for the start location at Ross on Wye services to meet other Triumph peoples for the start of the event. Our chariot for this rally was Darren’s beautiful Mk2 saloon. As usual there were quite a number of different models taking part in this which added to the variety.

In no time at all the 10am start was on us and we were away. We started by travelling westwards towards Merthyr Tydfilbefore heading up to the Brecon Beacons. After that we took the B4520 up to Lower and Upper Chapel and then further north up to Garth. The next road was over a beautiful mountain pass that had some stunning scenery and views

Tregaron was the next main town we ventured through, but after this it was back across the mountains and over to Elan Valley. Again more breath taking views were taken in and this point both of us admitted that we never realised that Waleswas so beautiful.

The next part of the drive was taken by Darren and I have to confess to sleeping like the dead between Llangurig and Aberystwyth waking only briefly to the sound of the torrential hail stones that had the entire ‘soft top’ brigade stopping hurriedly to put their roofs up. (Except Martin Randle and Dina who just carried regardless!)

After a very good night in Aberystwyth we set out for the first stop of the day at the Devils Bridge waterfalls. We did the short tour to look around and very beautiful it was too.

It had started to rain now which was great pity as the previous day had been pretty good. After Devils bridge we took the mountain pass over Nant y Moch reservoir and out to Tal y Bont.

Machynileth was the next town and then the coast road to Twywn. After this we took the B4405 straight across the middle of Snowdonia national park before heading back down to Penegoes, over another mountain pass to Llanidloes and then our final destination at Newtownin Powys.

By now it was 2.15pm and we didn’t hang around too long at the finish as were driving home again that night and still had over 200 miles to do. We left around 2.45pm and got back to Darren’s at about 7pm. (Bloody Sunday night M1 traffic!)

It had been a great weekend and Darren’s car hadn’t missed a beat. We had decided to take his one and a bit of a shakedown before we do the ten countries run in it in September. If this run was anything to go by, we shouldn’t have too much to worry about.

Some pics from the weekend.

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 14th May 2013 11:02pm gmt

May 4th & 5th May. Differential issues x2

Saturday morning saw the continuation of getting the Red Shed running better. A new inlet manifold had arrived during the week so it was time to remove the carbs (yet again!) and get the gasket fitted. This all went swimmingly and by lunchtime the new inlet manifold gasket was on and the carbs were refitted.

While reading through the workshop manual again to see if I'd missed anything, (Something I should do more often!) I suddenly remembered when Gertie went sick just after I first got her. She wouldn't run properly no matter what I did and in the end I put her into Carlow Engineering for Gordon to have a look at. He did a good job of getting it running well and his diagnosis was that the jets needed centralising. I have mentioned this in conversation to various people since, but nobody seemed to know what he meant.

I realised that I now knew what he was saying. When refitting the jets into the Stromberg carburettors you have to drop the needles and pistons in place while slowly tightening the jets up. The needles keep the jets centralised while you are tightening them. You also have to ensure that the piston can still rise and fall while tightening the top of the dash pot cover as sometimes they can cause the piston to jam. (This is what mine did)

Anyway, with the carbs now set up I was over the moon to find that she started beautifully and ran well. (The best I've heard it run actually) The only problem was that the rear carb was leaking petrol yet again! This must have been about the fifth instance of either the front or rear carb leaking.

By now Davemate had arrived and he told me that a number of people on the forum had recently bought fuel pumps off of eBay and found that the pressure was too high, thus causing the carbs to leak. Seeing as my new fuel pump was a recent ebay purchase, we decided to remove it and fit a second hand spare. With this done we instantly cured the carburettor leak! I think I'll swap the pump for an electric pump at a later date.

Seeing as Dave had some more spare time, we then decided to remove the differential as this had been leaking too. I had a new seal in stock so we set about removing it. Sadly that was about as far as we got really as once it was out we discovered that the filler plug had gone in cross threaded and buggered the thread up. (I think I did that actually when I topped it up with oil)

So as it stands at present the car has no diff in while I'm waiting for a tap to arrive so I can re-tap the thread. I found that the breather at the top of the diff was totally blocked as well, so maybe that was the reason that the seal had blown.

(Davemate playing with my undercarriage!) :)

Sunday 5th May.

As if I hadn't had enough of lying on my back removing a diff on Saturday evening, I had to do it all again on Sunday when Gavin brought his MK2 saloon round to change the diff on that. There was nothing wrong with his diff other than it being the wrong ratio. Gavin's car is a 2.5 but had a 3.71 diff instead of the 3.45 that it should have. It wasn't too bad a job actually. I think we had it done in a couple of hours. Gavin took it for a test drive afterwards and was pleased with the result. it no longer screams at the legal speed limit and just seems a lot smoother and quieter to drive. Gavin has done a lot to this car since he's owned it and has improved it dramatically. It was a noisy, rattly, uncomfortable beast when he first bought it, but it's now become the smooth, silky cruiser that Triumph intended.

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 09th May 2013 9:15pm gmt

Sunday April 28th- The Red Shed tests my patience!

The weekend started with a Chelmsford Motor Club 12 car rally on the Friday night. Setting out from Epping golf club Dave Saunders and I were doing quite well and by the time we reached time control six we had zero fails and were only a couple of minutes down. However, being thrown around in the car in the dark while trying to read a map and navigate for the past forty minutes had taken its toll on Dave who was by now being violently travel sick. The signs were there from TC2; the long puffs of air, the long windy burps. (It was like having Davemate in the car!)

We tried to continue but were losing too much time every time we had to stop for a vomit break. With regret we rang the clerk of the course and announced our retirement. We took a slow drive up to the finish point anyway and waited for the other entrants to arrive. We stayed long enough to hear the results fully expecting to finish last as we had missed the last three time controls, but to our surprise we finished second from last. Another crew had got more fails than us even though they completed the course. We didn’t feel so bad now.

Saturday morning I made the trip up to a village near Harwich named Ramsey where I collected a nice set of wheels and tyres for the Red Shed. (Although the way she’s been behaving lately, I don’t see why I should treat her to anything!) I then continued up to Lowestoft to go and see my Dad as it was his birthday and fitted the wheels later that night when I returned home. I think they suit the car better than the TR4 wheels and set it off quite nicely.

Sunday morning I resumed my efforts to get the Red Shed running properly. The previous week it had decided to refuse to even start at all. I had suspected the solenoid and so managed to blag a spare one to try.

However, even with the new solenoid fitted the bloody thing still refused to start and the starter motor just made loud clicking noises instead. I decided to show it that I could better its clicking noises in volume and velocity by taking my large ‘Universal adjuster’ (pictured below) to it to persuade it to return to work.

In danger of being beaten to death, the starter motor then surrendered its protestations and took to spinning the engine over as intended. For some reason, the engine which had been running well(ish) was now putting up a fight with regard to firing. Various plug leads were changed; ignition timing was set and reset again. Spark plugs and gaps were also checked but all no avail. I then decided to pull the garage door down and turn the lights out so I could see how good the spark at the points were. The answer was not very good at all. The brand new points that were fitted a few weeks back were removed and the old ones fitted. Much better! Now we were getting somewhere. The car was now starting better and running better but still not 100%. I changed the condenser as well, (this was new too) and also changed a couple of spark plugs which didn’t seem too efficient. Whatever the fault is, it’s very intermittent as the car runs quite well, but then either starts chuffing and missing for no reason or increases its idle by a thousand revs. Very strange!

It also seems to miss on low revs, but revs fine on high throttle, so a possible inlet manifold gasket fault? Who knows? Time was getting on now so it was time to call it a day. Guess what I’ll be doing next Bank Holiday weekend? L

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 28th April 2013 9:10pm gmt

Saturday April 13th- Club Triumph Historic Counties Rally.

Instead of doing what I should have been doing this particular morning, which was checking Gertie over before the HCR, I was playing with the Red Shed in an attempt to get her running better. A ‘Eureka’ moment on Friday night made me realise that the wrong rotor arm was fitted. I know I fitted the last one, but I'd replaced it ‘like for like’ with one that was already on there! I should have realised at the time. The wrong rotor arm was longer than the one that should have been on there and was therefore cutting into the contacts on the distributor cap. With new parts fitted, the Red Shed was fired up and the running was much improved.

Right! Time to concentrate on Gertie now before I run out of time. Oils, waters and fluids were checked, a few tools and spares were loaded and she was ready for the off. Time to head indoors for an afternoon siesta before the long night. Co-driver Darren Sharp arrived at 3pm and we were soon on our way to the start at Soham in Cambridgeshire. Our third crew member Ashley Mills was already there and pretty soon the three of us were buried in maps and note books.

The historic counties rally is similar to a scatter rally where you have to collect points for counties and points of interest visited. It’s not possible to collect everything on the lists given, but a lot of crews try their best to!

After food, we headed down to the auto test site where we took park in three tests. I won’t say competed, because we were crap awful and made a pig’s ear of all of them! We did provide a bit of entertainment on the third test though by spending more time going backwards and sideways than forwards!

With this done we set out on our planned route which took us from Cambridgeshire over to Suffolk, Grimes Grave in Norfolk before dropping down in to Essex to grab points at Castle Hedingham, Finchingfield and Newport. This part of the run took place in torrential rain and with the darkness closing in the pitch black country lanes were quite challenging. After Essex we then headed west over towards Cottered to Hertfordshire before jumping on the A1 and heading north again to grab the counties of Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire and finally to the halfway point at Ferrybridge services in West Yorkshire.

While Ash and Darren were handing our time card in, I was having a play with Gertie and adjusting the tick over. For some reason the idle had turned itself down and needed a boost.

With our mandatory break taken we were given the clues for the second half. With some mad plotting to be done again we set off for the North East. Our first stop was the city of York and then up to somewhere called Sutton Bank. This was a hairpin bend on a 25% gradient that apparently causes major headaches for caravans and blockages for HGV’s! After leaving the very foggy hilltop we then travelled through Thirsk, Teesside, Darlington, County Durham, and then ventured up to Northumberland.

It was while we were going across the A69 near Hexham that we thought our rally was over when a massive vibration started coming through the rear of the car. Ash had said that he’d felt a vibration earlier, but Gertie does have a small vibration at a certain speed so I’d just dismissed it. A quick check of the wheel nuts showed that they were all tight, but the ‘wobble’ was still there. We then found a safer place to stop and had a proper check round. Darren managed to find a lump in the tread on the tyre on the nearside rear. So, the boot was emptied of tools, spares, fruit and energy drinks (More about the energy drinks later!) and a wheel change was made.

(Team Gertie pit crew) :)

This must have cost us about half hour all told so we decided to skip a couple of places we had plotted and head north for Hadrian’s Wall.

This was a fantastic driving road and made even more beautiful by it just beginning to get light. Two more points of interest were collected here and we then headed across to Carlisle (Cumbria) and north again to Gretna Green in Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)

We opted not to go for The Scottish borders county as we were keeping an eye on the time, although it turns out we would have had plenty of time in the end. Never mind. A run south down the M6 was next on the agenda before turning off at junction 39 to run down the A6 through Kendal. This road was so impressive that I’m going to come back up this way when I do the International Auto Ecosse in June. Another two points were gained and then we made tracks for Barnoldswick in Lancashire for the finish. Not far from the finish the energy drinks got the better of Darren who by now was quoting all the dialogues from the Monty Python films and singing the theme to Coronation Streetin a Kenneth Williams style voice! Very Bizarre! (We’ve told him he’s not allowed any Red Bull for the next run)

A well deserved hearty breakfast at The Old Stone Trough was demolished while the results were calculated and we finally learned that we had come in seventh. A good result, but we know that we could done better if not the wheel issue and by calculating the time we had left a bit better.

By now we were all pretty knackered and we still had a 250 mile drive home to contend with. All in all I reckon we must have covered close on, if not over a 1000 miles this weekend. There can’t be many other club events where you can start in Cambridge, finish in Lancashire, and visit

Scotland

in between! All inside 14 hours too!

We'd had a fantastic time and all of us really enjoyed ourselves. We worked well as a crew and once again Gertie was ultra reliable. (You can’t really blame here for a tyre going square shaped) She’s got a couple of weeks rest before the next Friday night rally on the 26^th April. Time to get another tyre sorted out then. J

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 18th April 2013 9:28pm gmt

Easter Weekend 29th March- 1st April

Good Friday 29th March: The day started well enough as I began refitting the trim and front bumper to the Red Shed. Once this had been done I started to look at the exhaust system again. I had noticed when driving it home from the paint shop that the slight blow from the exhaust had turned into quite a major one.

A quick look underneath showed that the extra length of pipe I’d had added on (I’d asked for it to be welded, but the bloke who did it brazed it!) had snapped nearly all the way round!

The downpipe was removed and one I already had in stock was tried but found to be pointing at the wrong angle. No matter which way I tried it, it was always hitting the propshaft. So, back to the drawing board on that one! Finally got round to washing the Mk2 estate too as it was still minging from the journey home from the CT dinner at Milton Keynes the Saturday previous!

Saturday 30th March. A nice drive out to the other side of Great Dunmow was the order of the day as Gavin (Iggy on the CT forum) was leaving his Mk2 over there to have the differential sorted out. The guy we visited had a vast amount of spares lying around and luckily, he even had a Mk1 saloon downpipe! Result!
The snow started coming down on the drive home but fortunately, it wasn’t settling. Once back at mine, the new downpipe was fitted and this time we had no problems with alignment and it fitted really well.

Another mate (Steve) called round that had problems with his Mk2 brake master cylinder. After pulling his one to bits and a spare that I had in stock, we were able to compare the two and see what the problem was. Once this was done he helped me refit the rear bumper on the red shed as this would have been a bit awkward doing it on my own and would have led to huge scratches no doubt! The only problem was that the original overriders were completely knackered with dents and rust holes in them, so I left them off until I can find some good ones.

Easter Sunday. March 31st:Couldn’t get going today and too much good stuff on TV (Touring car racing) so it was a late start. Didn’t do much, just removed the carbs and cleaned them up a tad and refitted them. I had to fit a new O ring on the mixture jet in the rear carb as the old one had disintegrated. I also added a stick on front number plate as well to try and get the look of the original 60’s Triumph 2000 rally cars. (See Peter Colliers book-Triumphant rallying) It’s probably not to everyone’s taste, but I like it so that’s all that matters. J

Easter Monday. 1^st April.Dave (Davemate on the CT forum) came up for the day and fitted the Alfa seats while I refitted the carburettors. The seats looked quite good once fitted although I could do with finding a beige coloured rear seat now to match up a bit better with the beige leather fronts.

On starting the car up I found that the needle valve in the front carburettor had stuck again and she was only running on three cylinders. I’m just going to have to order a new needle valve I think because no end of cleaning it and adjusting it is keeping it operating as it should.

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 03rd April 2013 11:52pm gmt

March 14th. Going Dutch!

Friday morning 7am saw Dave Maton and I trying to find an alternative route past the A2 in Kent which had just been pronounced closed by Radio2. We opted for the longer and more boring route of the M20. Luckily, the huge queue of trucks waiting to cross the channel that had been parked on it for a few days while the snow cleared in France had gone. We stopped at Tesco's in Cheriton so fill up with fuel and while there Dave bought some spicy chicken pieces to go with his Curry Pot Noodles and curried mackerel! (I'm sure glad we had seperate rooms!)

We arrived in Dover with some trepidation as the last two times I had made a ferry crossing with DFDS both boats had been cancelled which resulted in long delays. However, our fears were unfounded this time as all sailings were present and on schedule. As an added bonus, there were also some other classic cars on our ferry that were attending the Poppy Rally at Ypres. There was even another Mk1 to keep Gertie company.

After an uneventful crossing we reached Dunkerque and set out for the long haul over to Beekbergen in North Holland. Just before the Antwerp ring road what looked like a long strip of toilet roll came floating across the motorway and disappeared under the car. I looked in the rear view mirror and waited for it to exit the rear of the car, but it was no good. We'd snagged it. A little while later while in stationary traffic we heard a 'shh, shh, shh' noise and then all of a sudden lots of little streamers of this 'toilet paper' came out through the bonnet louvres like paper through a shredding machine! This was followed by a burning smell which forced us onto the hard shoulder to investigate. The 'toilet paper' turned out to be a sheet of thin polystyrene which had been destroyed by the fan and melted on the manifold. With all this removed, we carried on and reached our hotel at 6pm CET.

After a quick wash and brush up we investigated the local town to get some dinner. We did find a shop called 'The Slageri' but it wasn't selling what we thought it might! We then found a restaurant which had 'Ghoulash Croquettes' listed. I asked what they were and the gentleman behind the counter pointed one out in a display case and said 'It's one of those but I don't know what's in it'. I decided not to risk it and settled for Bratwurst and Frites while Dave settled for a good old fashioned Horse Burger.

Saturday morning we discovered the the fluffy white stuff that had been terrorising England all week had followed us and taken up residence where we were. However, it wasn't too bad and by lunch time it had all disappeared.

Walking around the town again we bumped into fellow CT Essex members Mike and Gillian Helm who had caught the night boat over from Harwich and arrived that morning. All too quickly, the afternoon flew by and it was time to head to the start location at the Wok Chinese Restaurant. As usual, there was a varied range of cars taking part and a good turn out too.

With the lovely Chinese food consumed and the drivers briefing complete we headed of into the dusk following the tulip diagrams. I have to say it was a lot easier with the brantz trip meter now fitted and it's going to be one of those things that makes me wonder how I ever got by without one before!

We made the half way stage with no problems and enjoyed the Coffee and cake that was on offer and then just took a leisurely drive round the pitch black lanes and eventually back to the Wok Restaurant for the finish. We enjoyed a few beers and a laugh and a chat with some of the 'locals' before returning to our hotel around midnight.

Sunday morning, we awoke to snow again, although it wasn't settling this time. After another leisurely drive to the ferry we found ourselves arriving at Dunkerque three hours before our booking. We attempted to board the 2pm crossing but DFDS wanted to charge us and extra £45 for the privilage. (Funny that, because they never offered me any compensation when they cancelled both of the boats I was booked on!)

Anyway, we refused to be ripped off, but the nice young lady told us to come back after 2pm and she would book us on the 4pm boat free of charge. (Our booked crossing was 6pm)

We finally embarked from Dover at 5.20pm local time and encountered some torrential rain while hacking up the M2. (Never mind, Gertie needed a good wash.)

We'd had a great time and hopefully, we can get to go out again for the next one in November. (I'll need to how the funds are after the 10CR)

Gertie performed faultlessly and needs no repairs, which is a bit of a relief as she's lined up for another night rally this Friday night with Chelmsford Motor Club. After that, she can rest up for a while before the CT Historic Counties Rally on April 13th.

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 20th March 2013 8:21pm gmt

Tuesday 12th March. A moment of concern.

The Red Shed has now been collected and is residing back in my garage waiting to be refitted with her trim. But more of that another time.

The focus at the moment is Gertie's trip to Holland this weekend. After discovering that the heater wasn't particularly good on the trip to Stoneleigh, I had decided to try a few experiments. First of all the heater matrix was disconnected at the hoses and blasted out both ways with a hose pipe. Quite a bit of brown murky water came out before turning clean, so there was obviously some crap in there. Then I poured some caustic soda in there and left it for 30 minutes. While waiting for that to do its stuff I fitted a hotter thermostat. Hopefully the car should get a bit of heat in it now. Hopefully!

While looking over the car I found something I didn't particularly want to find. A broken engine mount!

Luckily, I managed to find one in my spares box, (My last one!) so after jacking the sump up on a piece of wood I managed to squeeze the new one in place and get it fitted. Actually, it's a second hand one but it's probably better than the rubbish being produced by certain manufacturers at the moment.
The old one (six months old actually) was quite easy to get out as it had completely broken in two! Lucky I spotted it before the weekend.

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 12th March 2013 9:08pm gmt

Sun 10th March-A long, cold day.

Sunday morning saw me up at the ungodly hour of 5am and arriving at Colin's at 6.30. The reason for this madness? The Chelmsford Motor Club Targa rally. If you think of the Club Triumph auto solo but with each course four or five times longer and needing a navigator you are almost there!

When I started out from Wickford the snow was very light, but the time I was north of Colchester it had increased significantly.

By the time we got to the start location at Woodbridge, the snow was coming down again and an icy cold wind was battering us from the East coast. Four CT cars had entered with Colin Wake navigating for Mike Helm, but also Driving his own 2.5pi (In which I was navigating) and Mike Bishop and Darren Armitage in a Herald (Complete with Monte Carlo type roof rack and snow tyres!) and Clive and Lucy senior in a Toledo.

Mike and Colin were out first meaning I had a long wait in the cold while waiting for them to return. By the time we started the PI had decided that it was going to save a cylinder for later on and only run on five. As a result, we had a dismal first run and were well off the pace.

Colin then went out with Mike again only to return a short time later with a severe transmission problem on Mike's TR6. I haven't yet heard what the problem was, but the transmission had locked up and the car had to be winched up onto Mikes Trailer and transported home.

Colin's second run in the PI was completed on six cylinders this time, but time was lost due to spending most it going sideways, backwards, and trying to kill the photographer who thought he had found a safe place by standing on the grass!

We were also being watched by Mike and Darren who had managed to almost turn his rear wheel inside out by pushing the tyre off the rim while 'drifting'.

While at lunch further investigation of the Herald revealed that despite changing the wheel the whole hub and drum still looked decidedly wobbly! It turns out that Mike had bent a driveshaft during his attempt at knocking a drainage channel out of the way.

Two Triumphs down, two to go! After lunch we carried on with the tests and had a couple of good runs despite some navigational errors by me and more sideways driving from Colin. (I'm sure he's trying to blow that engine to bits on purpose!)

eventually, we had completed the seventeen tests and after hearing the results in which none of us featured (Front wheel drive hatchbacks seem to have the most success) it was time to go home.

Mikes broken Herald now occupied the trailer which meant that Darren had to follow us back to Colin's in the PI. (Mike had had to leave earlier)

After dropping Darren off at Witham to meet Mike at the Rivenhall hotel with Coffee and Scones supplied by Ivi (thanks, much appreciated) I eventually got home about 9pm. A very long, but brilliant day with the worst bit being the constant snow, bitter cold and icy wind! I hope the weather improves before we go to Holland this weekend. I dont fancy another frozen weekend!

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 11th March 2013 8:52pm gmt

Saturday 9th March-Time for Gertie.

With the Dutch rally coming up next weekend I felt it was time to sort out the exhaust damage that I did to Gertie on the Chelmsford Motor Club rally a few weeks back. I think we did it when we ventured up a 'road' that we shouldn't have done.

It turns out I brought a nice clump of Suffolk mud and grass home with me as well!

Initially I thought that the rattling noise I was hearing was coming from the front of the exhaust, but investigations revealed that the issue was actually where the exhaust goes through the rear cross member. The nearside cross member is supposed to have two 'forks' coming off of it so that a clamp can be attached to it which then holds the exhaust up so it can pass through the hole centrally. Well one of my 'forks' was missing when I bought the car, so I made up a temporary bracket instead. My temporary bracket had done well to last two and a half years, but it was now deceased!

The next best option was to make up a new bracket that was up to the job. By now Gavin had arrived and demonstrated some of his metal work skills by designing a new mount. I have to say, I was impressed and the new piece looks very good and seems to hold the exhaust in the correct place. Unfortunately, I didn't get time to take it for a test drive as my MK2 estate was due at the MOT station at 4pm. I'm pleased to say she passed as well.

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 09th March 2013 8:50pm gmt

Thursday 7th March-The Red Shed

What with having to hurriedly strip the Red Shed of trim last Saturday and going to Stoneleigh last Sunday, I've Not really had time to update the blog lately, so here's a quick preview of whats going on.
A mate of mine rang me last Friday to say that he suddenly had workshop space available to take the Red Shed in. So Friday night was spent in the garage removing the front and rear bumpers and tow bar. Saturday was then spent carefully removing other parts of the trim.
Today I took a drive over there to see how he was getting on with it. The nearside rear quarter was the worst part (which I knew) and needed some serious work. In fact he gave me a carrier bag with the remainder of my wheel arch and a huge piece of filler that was in it!

Overall, I was pleased with the work he's done. The dent in the nose cone has been pulled out and the lower front valance has had the filler removed and new metal welded in. Some of the paint on the wings was so bad that he has taken them down to bare metal to get a good finish.

While I was over there he opened the boot to show me something else that he had found stuffed inside the rear wing 'repair'. As you'll see below it was a Sunblest Bread bag! Now I can't even remember the last time I saw Sunblest bread on the shelves!

The other Bread bag in there made me do a bit of research too. It's marked up as Hillards. I've found some info online as to who Hillards were........

Hillards was founded by John Wesley Hillard in 1885 in the West Yorkshire town of Cleckheaton. The first shop was opened in Lion Chambers there and shortly after 1900 there were 20 shops operating as Lion Stores. By 1951 there were over 70 stores and by 1968 it had warehouse size stores in Wakefield, Lincoln and York In 1970 the trade name Lion Stores was dropped in favour of Hillards and in 1972 the Company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange Peter Hartley, a grandson of the founder, became Executive Chairman in 1983 and in May 1987, following a hostile bid, the business was acquired by Tesco for £220m.

I also managed to find a pic of one of their stores.

So, going by the information above, I'm guessing the car spent some part of it's life in the North of England. For some reason the truck in the above picture made me think of the old co-op advert punch line: It's all at the co-op........NOW! I really should get out more!

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 07th March 2013 9:18pm gmt

Tuesday 26th Feb- Fuel sender repair.

One of the things I had noticed on Saturday while taking the Red Shed for Mot was the low fuel warning light being on and the gauge reading nearly empty. I know we had drained all of the old fuel out of it, but had also added about three gallons since then, so the gauge should have been showing something at least.

I was pretty sure the problem would be a stuck float in the sender unit in the tank, so with this in mind I set about removing it. (Best to do it while the fuel level is low too.)

With the sender unit and float removed it was discovered that sure enough, the float was stuck. A bit of spraying with some carb cleaner ( I couldn't find the WD40!) and some cleaning up and the float was working on its pivot freely again.

I refitted the sender unit and connected the wires back up. I then turned the ignition on to find that the low fuel warning light had gone out and the gauge slowly climbed up to a quarter of a tank. Perfect!

I love these easy jobs that take no more than an hour. Wish I had more of them!

I also had one of my van drivers at work today call in at the Chelmsford Vehicle Registration office so he could collect my free tax disc and change the classification on the V5 to 'Historic Vehicle'. It has been off of the road for so long that this had never been done.

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 26th February 2013 10:37pm gmt

Sat 23rd Feb. Another one on the road!

Waking up still knackered on a Saturday morning is never a good thing. Especially when you have to be at a work training course at 08.30.

The night before had been the Chelmsford Motor Club 12 car navigational rally. Darren Armitage kindly offered his services as navigator for the event and we did well enough to finish in fourth place. (Thank you Darren) :)

I eventually got home around half past midnight after taking two lads home who had had to abandon their MGB GT on the route with fuel pump problems. (Two MGB's broke down actually, both with the same problem.)

The work training course kept me away from the garage until 1pm when Gavin came round and then a quick inspection of the Red Shed revealed that one of the carbs was overflowing petrol! A quick removal of the carb and another clean up of a needle valve and all was well again. A test drive led us to believe that the timing was pretty much spot on and other than a slightly sticky throttle, the beast was performing well.

MOT time arrived and soon the car was up on the ramp and being thoroughly inspected. Despite the fact she has been parked up and not moved for 24 years (1989) she sailed through with no advisories.

Now I have the Mot I can send off all the necessary documents and have the taxation class changed to 'Historic Vehicle' so I can claim my free road tax. This car was heading to be scrapped before I bought it, so it's nice to be able to keep another one of these great cars on the road.

The Red Shed after being nicely washed before Mot.

(Although getting the green moss of the bootlid knackered my sponge!)

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 23rd February 2013 9:29pm gmt

Sunday Feb 17th. A better day-eventually!

A hard frost had set in overnight, so the first task of the day was to unfreeze the estate so I could run out and get some petrol for the Red Shed. I thought that the petrol was really low on the car because all throughout yesterday the fuel light stayed on. However, I now believe it to be a stuck sender unit as even after more petrol being added to it today, the gauge remains in the same place and the fuel light is still stuck on!

With the petrol added I started investigations as to why said beast wouldn't rev correctly. I also decided to set the valve clearances and set the timing. This obviously didn't go to plan as after messing about with the distributor the damn thing wouldn't run at all! A cup of tea and a warm up beckoned and a ponder on the non-starting dilemma.

Once suitably refreshed I turned to the distributor again and found that there was virtually nothing left of the points. I changed these and the condenser and then found that the car would now start. However, it still wasn't right and was pretty much the same as yesterday. i.e well down on power. After taking some advice from Colin Wake on the phone I started the car and pulled the plug leads off of cylinders 5 & 6 which made it run worse. I then pulled the leads off of cylinders 1 & 2 to find there was no difference at all. This was my problem. The front carburettor wasn't doing its job and the car was only running on three cylinders!

So I removed the front carburettor and cleaned it out thoroughly. I also found a stuck needle valve where the fuel should flow into the float chamber, so this was cleaned out and lubricated. As soon as the front carb was refitted I started the car to find that it had been transformed. As soon as it ran on tickover you could tell there was a world of difference. It responded sharply when revved and even sounded quieter and smoother.

I took it for another sneaky test drive and it was like driving a different car. It's still not 100%, but it's close. Certainly good enough for a run down to the Mot centre next Saturday.

it's quite smooth as well. It must as I'd left a washer I'd been using to do the mixture on the front wing and it was still there when I returned home!

I'm looking forward to getting this car on the road now and then the bodywork will be the next thing on the agenda. Who knows? I might even be able to be ready for a couple of HRCR events before the season's over. (But the spotlights will have to come off first!)

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 17th February 2013 8:15pm gmt

Saturday 16th Feb. The Red Shed finally turns a wheel!

With all the farting about I've been doing over the past few weeks trying to patch up odd bits of exhaust to fit the Red Shed, I finally lost patience and did what I should have done in the first place and ordered a new manual centre section from Chris Witor.

Luckily Gavin was around to help fit it and pretty soon I was in a familiar pose. (Flat on my back under the car!) After fitting a downpipe, removing a downpipe, cutting a downpipe and refitting a downpipe, the downpipe was fitted! Next was the centre section which after a bit of fettling with the universal adjuster (Hammer) was in its rightful place too. The pea shooter tail pipe was reasonably easy and for the first time in my ownership the car has a complete exhaust system.

The next job was to start it up and see how quiet it was (Not very!) and also put some water in it as I still hadn't refilled it since I did the core plugs. (Not a good idea with all the freezing weather recently.)

The exhaust still had a blowing coming from it, but further tightening of the downpipe bolts silenced this. We also discovered a water leak, but a change of jubilee clip soon had this resolved.

With the car now running I decided on a sneaky test run around the block. ( I needed to be sure it will make it to the Mot station at least!) She ran well but is down on power. There's no mis-firing or running sick, but just no 'get up and go either'. We quickly checked the diaphrams in the carburettor and also found that the carbs need some fine tuning as the front one seems to be running too rich.

By now time was getting on, so we decided to call it a day. I shall be having a better look at the tuning tomorrow when I have more time. Overall though i was pleased with how the test drive went. The gearbox is noisy, (I knew that anyway) but it handled well and felt good. No nasty knocking or clonking noises from the suspension and the engine never overheated or spat its contents of engine oil out anywhere. I did notice the diff leaking though.

Just a few small jobs to do this week then and I will be booking it in for Mot next Saturday. (Hopefully!)

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 16th February 2013 10:57pm gmt

Sat/Sun 2nd & 3rd Feb. One step forward.......

Saturday morning started off with a cold wind howling round the garage and making me wish I didn't have so much to do. However, I persuaded myself to go and get stuck in as the Red Shed isn't that far away from MOT now. (Or so I thought!)

Gavin came round to finish off the welding, so I carried on with the last few electrical jobs required. I managed to get the horn (Ooh her missus!) working and after swapping a washer motor and after unblocking the hoses and jets, I got the washers working too.

When Gavin had finished the welding, I stopped what I was doing so we could have another go at fitting the exhaust. After much faffing about underneath, and then looking at pictures for reference, we then realised that we had a manual downpipe and and an auto centre section! So the two were never going to fit anyway! Bloody Balls! So I now have to find either an auto down pipe or a manual centre section. very annoying as this is now the only thing holding up the Mot now.

Gavin made tracks after the exhaust fail, but I braved the cold a bit more and fitted another pair of rear shocks and put the centre console back in.

Sunday morning I carried on with some more small jobs and wired up the overdrive as well. This seems to be working, (I.e. the solenoid clicks in when it should) but a test drive will tell if it does or not.

Whilst finishing this off Dave Maton arrived with his long ladders as the plan for the day was to clean out my blocked gutters on my house. This only took a couple of hours, so once this was done we were able to start on the outstanding task of fitting a Brantz International pro2 trip meter in Gertie. With the amount of rallies that I now do this is an essential bit of kit. Plus, it will come in very handy on the Dutch night rallies too. Seeing as we have one of these coming up in 5 weeks, it made sense to get it fitted.

The first thing to do was to find somewhere to mount it. Seeing as the dashboard clock has never worked we made the decision to remove the clock and mount it there. This will also allow us to still use the ash tray, (For fuel receipts and small euro coinage) and the glove box. (For all kinds of other crap!)

The speedo cable was next as it has to be partly removed to fit the sensor. The appropriate wiring was then connected and powering up commenced to reveal all was working as it should.

A test drive then took place for calibration purposes and we are close to being spot on. A few more tests when I have more time at the weekend should finalise it.

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 04th February 2013 9:38pm gmt

Tuesday 29th Jan. Lighting issues.

The weather must be warming up as I found myself out in the garage on a school night! Most unusual lately! The side lights on the Red Shed had been bugging me for a little while. A quick check a few weeks back revealed most things working except the side lights, windscreen wipers and dashboard lights.

The wipers had already been cured by changing the switch, now it was the turn of the sidelights. I had spare switch in stock, but while this operated the side lights, it wouldn't work the headlights. The switch in the car would operate the headlights, but not the side lights!

So, with trepidation, I removed the switch and started carefully stripping it down. Trying to carefully detach all of the small parts so I could see how it all pieced together again was challenging to say the least.

Inside the switch is a small rocker assembly. Both of these were full of a gooey green paste which I think used to be grease. All of the small copper pieces were a nice shade of light blue where they had corroded over the years as well. Careful cleaning of these pieces followed and then the arduous task of fitting them all back together began. Once I was satisfied that all were back together properly, I stripped the spare switch down and cleaned that up too.

Well, the evening hadn't been wasted in the garage as refitting the switch showed the side lights as now working perfectly. The headlights worked as well, so that's another small job crossed off the MOT list.

While in a positive frame of mind I turned my attention to the dimmer switch which I suspected was the reason the dashboard lights weren't working. I did think about stripping this down too, but to be honest I never use the one on Gertie, so I couldn't see the point. The dashboard lights are not exactly blinding on Triumphs, so I decided to just bypass the switch altogether. This was also a success and the car now has dashboard lights too. :)

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 29th January 2013 10:21pm gmt

26th & 27th Jan. New core plugs and washy time!

The new core plugs I'd ordered arrived during the week along with a new throttle arm bush which meant I could resume work on the Red Shed. Luckily, the weather had turned warmer too so it was all systems go. (I was helping Darren Sharpe refit his diff in a freezing cold lock up the night before with Dave Maton and Nick Peskett-it was so cold I couldn't even feel my feet when I left there!)
While the inlet & exhaust manifold were off I took the opportunity of fitting the new superflex throttle arm bush. The old one was absolutely knackered which was making the arm float around and affecting the throttle response.
With this done then I then cleaned the block out and fitted the new core plugs.

With this done I then refitted the inlet and exhaust manifold and carburettors. I then also decided to refit all of the heater hoses that were missing or knackered when I bought the car. This was going well until the heater hot & cold valve promptly fell apart while I was tightening up the jubilee clip! These are getting to be quite rare, so it could take a while to find one of these. For the mean time I have taken the remainder of the valve off and fitted the heater hoses straight onto the matrix. So the heater (If it works!) will be on hot all the time. I need to find another valve before the summer then!

Sunday I managed to get into the garage a bit earlier and the first task was to have a good tidy up. This took some time but I did manage to find a good many tools that I had 'lost' in recent weeks.

With this done it was time (and well overdue) to pull Gertie out for a damn good wash. The Essex rally a few weeks back had left her minging, plus she still had the dirt and mud from the Dutch rally under that as well! Two buckets of soapy water were required to get her back she's supposed to look. I don't think I've ever seen her as dirty as she was.) And how on earth did I get mud on the rear windscreen???

While I was in the washing mood, (It doesn't happen often!) I pulled the estate into the garden and did her as well. I've been using her as my everyday transport in all this snow and crap so she was minging a bit too. (I've taken a deposit on the Beemer so I can't really use it)

With all of this done time was getting on. There's not much else I can do with the Red Shed until some more exhaust parts arrive so I got her up on axle stands for when they do. Due to HRCR noise restrictions I'm going to run a standard exhaust system for the time being. I think I have all the pipes I need, but I'm short on some of the mounting brackets. More ordering to do and more money to spend then!

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 27th January 2013 6:00pm gmt

Saturday 19th Jan. The Red Shed gets more attention.

The light snow fall that we received Saturday morning meant for a cold day in the garage, so for the first time since I bought it last February, the log burner was fired up.

I had (what I thought anyway) was plenty of fuel in the form of broken pallets that I had brought home from work. However, these burn pretty quick so I will have to source another load when I return on Monday. (Luckily health and Safety is none of our warehouse guys religion at work, so broken pallets and crates will always be in good supply!)

As you can see from the pic below, the log burner also served to dry out spark plugs which had flooded when the Red Shed mysteriously refused to start.

All we had done was remove the rear carburettor to fix the broken float chamber and change the water pump to cure the leak, so why wouldn't the sodding thing start? Further inspections began and removal of the rotor arm revealed that the plastic lug that stops it from spinning round was no longer present.

So another item was procured from the spares bin and fitted and then the Red Shed once again burst into life. Further inspections with the engine running highlighted a badly leaking core plug and a noisy gearbox. Not sure what to do about the gearbox. I have a spare but this isn't brilliant either. I think I'll just run it this season and suffer the noise. (It'll be just like driving my old white one!) :)

The leaking core plug was one of the four that hide behind the inlet and exhaust and the water pipe that runs off of the water pump. So removal of all of this lot was required before I could get to it.

Persuading the core plug to leave the engine block was erm....interesting and after much levering, hammering and cussing it did eventually decide to vacate its home that it's been residing in for the past 45 years. There was that much silt and krud behind it that I decided to remove the other three along that side of the block too.

The man in the local car spares shop only had three core plugs, so we just flushed the block out with a hosepipe (Once I had unfrozen it!) and have left it for another day.

While I was faffing about doing all of this Gavin kindly offered to use my gas welding kit to weld up the hole in the floor. Well, it would have been rude to refuse him, so I let him carry on. Welding the one hole opened up another area that needed attention, (Doesn't it always?) so this will be finished another day. (When it's not so cold and I've nicked some more broken pallets!)

I did want to wash Gertie today as well as she still carries her North Essex dirt from last Sunday. But as you can see, due to the fact it was just too damn cold it never happened. I'll try and get it done before next Friday nights Chelmsford Motor Club Rally. If it isn't cancelled that is.

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 20th January 2013 5:40pm gmt

January 13th- Essex Winter Rally.

Another early start today and despite the weather warnings the snow hadn't yet made an appearance. A leisurely drive up the A12 saw us arrive in plenty of time for the start. Pretty soon all the other crews and Marshall's had arrived and the pub had opened as well so it was coffee and bacon sandwiches all round.

With the map plotted it was time to make tracks. Section one and two wasn't too bad and we felt that we'd done quite well. Section three was a bit trickier and some of the roads were quite good while others were more suited to a Russian tractor!

We struggled with the clues on section four and spent far too much time plotting the route. Because of this we decided to miss off the last loop of the route so that we could get to the finish by the cut off time of 13.45. We figured that there would probably only be one code board on the last loop anyway, but we could pick up more fails than that by arriving late at the last control. This turned out to be a good move. (Especially as I was getting very low on petrol as well!)

We waited nervously as Mike Banks totalled up the results and then read them out. He does this in reverse order and just recently we haven't had to wait that long to hear our names called out because we've been that crap! However, this time was different. In fact by the time he was up to fourth place and we still hadn't heard our names called I said to Dave "Have you even handed our papers in?"

It turned out we had done better than we thought and came second overall and won our class. A very good result and a great day out then! :)

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 13th January 2013 10:21pm gmt

January 12th. HRCR Open Day. Gaydon

Bit of an early start today. A few friends and I had decided to visit the Historic Rally Car Register open day st Gaydon in Warwickshire. I've been looking at getting into the HRCR scene for a while now, so it made sense to go.
I love the Club Triumph events, but I'm also looking to do something a bit different and experience some different rallies and tours. (Hence the reason buying the 'Red Shed'!)
We found out quite a bit while we were there about different events all over the country and were impressed by the friendliness of organisers and competitors alike.
It was a worthwhile trip and I now have renewed enthusiasm in getting the Red Shed on the road and hopefully booking some of these events in the future. :)

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 12th January 2013 7:07pm gmt

January 5th- The Red Shed comes to life!

The plan for today was the mighty task of awaking 'Red Shed' from her 23 year slumber. This car has been dry stored all that time so no doubt we would find a few surprises along the way. The first job was to knock up a temporary exhaust system so that should she start, she wouldn't turn everyone deaf in the process.

My friend Gavin (Iggy on the forum) had nothing to do and so was my willing volunteer for the day. With the temporary downpipe and two centre boxes in place, the net investigation point was the petrol. The fuel line was inspected and found to be blocked solid in the short outlet pipe that exits the bottom of the tank. A piece or welding wire and high pressure air line resolved this and the pipe was refitted. (after replacing the short rubber link pipe which had perished as well)

Even with this done we still weren't getting any fuel up to the pump so we blasted the airline down the main fuel line only to find that this was blocked solid too. The welding wire performed its task again and once more a blast for the airline cleaned that out as well.

We were now getting fuel (Fresh fuel as well) up to the pump but no further. The spare fuel pump robbed from the 10CR/RBRR spares box was fitted, but this was causing us problems too. After rebuilding one good pump out of two we were now getting fuel up to the carburettors.

Next on the agenda was to fit a battery and see if we had a spark. Excellent! We did! A very good one at the points, but very hit and miss at number one spark plug. The spark plugs were removed and found that the gap was massive on all of them (I reckon about 60-70 thou!) and the electrodes had all but disappeared!

I fitted the old iridium sparks plugs that were in Gertie until recently and then we were sparking when and where we should have been. The big moment came, the choke was opened, the key was turned and after a few turns of the engine, she burst into life! A bit too much in fact as she immediately went into full throttle. I quickly cut the engine and then found that the throttle return spring was missing. A temporary one was found and fitted and she was started up again.

The engine sounded really sweet. No nasty knocking or banging noises so that was good result. A sticking clutch quickly freed itself and I even managed to move it forward backwards a little bit.

We didn't run it for too long as we discovered that the rear carburettor was leaking petrol and the water pump was leaking too. (fully expected)

removal of the carbs on Sunday showed that the metal clip holding the twin floats had broken off of the carburettor body and the floats were just resting in the bottom of the chamber and therefore not cutting the fuel off when needing to.

So a spare carb needs to be sourced along with a better exhaust system and a water pump as well. A quick check of the electrics showed that everything was working with the exception of the windscreen wipers and this only turned out to be the switch which has now been replaced.

A very successful day then! It feels quite good when you awaken a car that was last run in 1989 and we retired for the day with a real sense of achievement. :)

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 09th January 2013 7:58pm gmt

January 1st 2013. Brooklands New Year Meet

Rather than sitting around on New Years Day watching crap TV and getting bored senseless, Dave Maton and I decided to take a trip to the Classic car meet at Brooklands in Surrey. The only downside to this was that the New Years evening drinking was somewhat restricted!

Leaving my house at an offensive 7am saw me collecting Dave forty minutes later and we made our way round a very empty M25. The only highlight of the journey being a Vauxhall Vectra who's offside front wheel had decided to turn off onto the M40 while the rest of the car continued along the M25!

We arrived at Brooklands for when the gates opened at 9am and took our place in the parking for pre 1973 cars.

A little while later we were glad of our early arrival when we heard that the queue to get in was three lanes wide and it was taking around twenty minutes to get through the gates.

There were a number of triumphs there amongst all the other classics and we bumped into Dave Lucas and Rob from the Triumph 2000 register and Tim Bancroft and Dave Picton from CT.

I was surprised at the number of cars there and apparently this was the biggest turn out the show has had of years.

Despite this Dave and I are not really 'show and shine' type car people and by about 1pm we had seen enough and were ready to head home. A busier, but still trouble free drive home saw us back at Dave's in no time and ready for a lovely New Years Day roast dinner.

It had been a good day out and I might even go again next year. It made a nice change waking up on January 1st without a massive hangover. :)

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 09th January 2013 7:49pm gmt

December 23rd. A few jobs completed.

After a few weeks of collecting the missing bits for the new car and with no more other commitments for a while, I had half a day today to get a few jobs done.

The first job was to fit the manual pedal box. While doing this I also fitted the brake servo, brake master cylinder and the clutch master cylinder. I also fitted the column overdrive switch and gearstick.

I now need to make up some new pipes for the brake and clutch systems and then need to finish the brakes on the offside rear. (And fit another shock absorber)

This car will need a fair bit of recommissioning after its 23 year hibernation, but I'm hoping to get most of it done over the Christmas break.

That's if the other cars don't keep interfering of course. The daily driver BMW decided it wanted Christmas off and refused to start and run yesterday morning, so I was forced to use the Mk2 estate instead. This car has been fine since I changed the petrol pump earlier this year, so I thought its 'air lock' issue was a dim and distant memory. However, it proved that this wasn't the case by breaking down in the pouring rain! Typically, because the car had been so reliable I had taken the tools out of it a few weeks before.

After trawling a nearby market and buying a screw driver I managed to clear the air lock and get it running again. Once back home I needed to get ready to attend a party in North London and decided not take any more chances with the estate and take Gertie instead. Only to find that her battery was absolutely stone dead! Marvellous! Luckily I had a spare battery and after a quick charge Gertie burst into life and I was able to complete my journey. Bloody cars!

Hopefully, they'll be no more trouble from the other two (I'm not even going to bother looking at the beemer just yet!) and I'll be able to focus on the red car. I'm looking forward to hearing it run for the first time since 1989.

(Temporary work bench!)

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 23rd December 2012 7:10pm gmt

December 8th. Work begins!

With nothing else planned this weekend I decided to make a start on the new project. The first job was to drag it out of the garage, sweep all of the leaves and dirt out of all the crevices and find out which brake was sticking and making it difficult to move.

The front wheels were removed first and after evicting a horrendous sized spider and demolishing his home the brakes proved to be free. It could do with new pads but I'll wait until the rest of the braking system is complete and fitted before I do this. (The previous owner had removed the pedal box, servo and clutch and brake master cylinder for his other car.)

The tyres on were of vintage age and all the side walls were cracked, so I've put my TR4 wheels with good Michelin tyres on for now.

The nearside real wheel was inspected next and while it was off I decided to grease the driveshafts and fit my spare lowered fast road springs while it was all apart. This brake was also free so it was looking like the off side rear that was going to be the sticky one.

Sure enough the offside had a seized wheel cylinder and adjuster. I also managed to shear the bottom of the shock absorber while undoing it, so I now need another shock. Further inspection revealed a smallish hole under the nearside front wheel arch, half the exhaust missing and the paint code under the bonnet showed the car to be Cherry Red! I thought it was a badly faded Damson!

The worst part of the car is the nearside wheel arch. It will need some work to look presentable, but considering this car was last on the road 23 years ago. It hasn't faired too badly. It must have been dry stored all that time to be as solid as it is. It's a cross over between the pre facelift and the facelift as it has the upright spare wheel well, but the later type gauges and heater system.

In the glove box were other interesting items which have revealed a bit of the cars history. I bought it from Hertfordshire, before that it was puchased from Surrey, before that the car was in Derby, the previous owner before that was in Lancashire and I found a parking permit for Yorkshire! The log book also says one previous owner since 1977.

I also found a completed 'Customer Preperation Service' document with a bullet check list ticked, an operation guide for the Laycocke overdrive unit and a brochure for 'Operation and Installation instructions for Antiference Car Radio 1303. I also found a 'Tyres and your safety' brochure.

There is also a sealed envelope addressed 'Fleet users and Owners who move residence'. I have no idea what this is but the fact that it's been sealed for so many years makes me very reluctant to open it. Any ideas anyone?

Also on the windscreen is a 'Kennings' sticker. Kennings were a car and van hire company and had dealerships. They are now known as the GK group (Initials of George Kenning) and found this link quite interesting:

http://www.gkgroup.co.uk/content/10/the-history-of-gk-group

Brochures and documents found below.

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 09th December 2012 10:06am gmt

December 2nd. At last I've done something. (But not much!)

Since the ill fated trip to Holland at the start of November I've done very little on the cars. A combination of a sickness bug and lack of motivation ensured that my 'get up and go' got up and went!

The windscreen wiper issue that developed just outside Dover in the torrential rain turned out to be a knackered wiper motor. Luckily I had a spare, so this was fitted and the wiring was replaced as that had melted too. I now have wipers that self park whereas they never did before, so that's an improvement.

During one of my bored spells I've had a go at making a Mk2 2.5pi rev counter that will look at home in a Mk1. I will have to fit the Mk2 pi speedo as well and relocate the temperature, fuel and voltage gauges, but I wanted to see how it would look first before I go the whole hog. I wanted to keep the chrome bezels that the Mk1 has while using the Mk2 rev counter, so the end result is......

I'm quite happy with it, so the next task will be to do the same to the speedo. I had this in mind for Gertie, but there is a new project on the horizon. I quite fancy getting into the Historic Rallying scene. Not in a big way, just doing the odd events here and there, but Gertie isn't eligible for the class I want to enter. Being 1968 she is too young and also too modified.

The class I want to enter is Category 1 and the car needs to be registered before 1.1.68. It also has to be pretty much to manufacturers specification (mild mods are allowed) and the car has to be standard in appearance too. Bumpers have to remain in place, and cars can only be one colour unless they left the factory in more than one. (there goes the cream roof and cream wheels trade mark!) You can't display any advertising and can only have certain sized wheels and tyres. You can also only have four forward facing lights, so spotlights are out too. (Unless you fit a big set of spotlights and tape over the standard full beam units like Charles Harrison has!) :)

Luckily, I got to hear of a 1967 Mk1 saloon and so made arrangements to view it. It needs work, but the price was right and it was ideal for what I was looking for. I don't want a mint condition one when there's a mild chance of disappearing through a hedge backwards at high speed at some point!

So hopefully, said car will be delivered one night this week and I'll have something to play with over Christmas. Apart from being robbed of a few parts it's fairly original and according to the dvla website was last on the road in 1989! So it needs a bit of recommissioning then!

Unfortunately, the purchase of the Mk1 will force the Mk2 estate out of the garage once again and I will probably have to put it up for sale. It's too good a car to be sitting outside in all weathers. You could well be seeing it on the dreaded fleabay very soon! :(

posted by King Rat Racinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07514766105168278272noreply@blogger.com 02nd December 2012 8:23pm gmt

Views expressed here are personal are not necessarily endorsed by Club Triumph

viewed 14919 times