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"Radders"
posts: 1637
Essex group
joined on Mon 17th Nov 2008

A decent drive at last! October 3rd & 4th.
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 With the Postponement of the 2020 Round Britain Reliability Rally and the fact that we were unable to cancel the hotel bookings we had already made, a few of us decided to plan our own weekend away and end up at the Novotel, Knebworth on the Sunday night anyway.
So, after a few weeks looking at routes and times etc. we decided on a trip out to the most Easterly point in Kent (Joss Bay) then all the way along the South Coast to Lands End. 
Fellow drivers Richard Warr and David Harvey arrived at my place on Friday (Needless to say Beer and Curry was on the agenda Friday night) and Dave Maton arrived on Saturday afternoon. A good dinner was had at a Toby Carvery in Wickford and after filling up with fuel at Basildon, the two Mk1 Triumph saloons set off  at 4.30pm for the first check point in Kent
The weather forecast that we had looked at with growing horror on the Saturday morning was turning out to be fairly accurate and not long after starting the journey the rain started. It had stopped by the time we reached Joss Bay in Broadstairs and we were lucky enough to get a few minutes out of the car and take  a few photos before the dark closed in. 
Our next stop was the Old Lighthouse at Dungeness and by the time we arrived here it was totally dark and the wind was getting up as well. We managed a quick coffee out of a flask before moving on and within the next twenty minutes the rain had joined the wind to keep it company. 
From Dungeness we travelled through Camber, Rye, Hastings and Newhaven and on towards our next planned stop at Brighton Marina. The rain was now Hammering down and the wind was battering the cars as we travelled along the coastal roads. The plan was to stop at Brighton for 30 minutes and have a cup of coffee somewhere, but to be honest, the weather was so awful we just quickly exited the cars, took a few photos, jumped back in and carried on! 
With the gale force winds now coming off the sea, we moved inland slightly and took the A27 through Worthing, Arundel and Littlehampton. We took on more fuel at Chichester and managed to have a quick chat and a laugh under the canopy of the petrol station away from the continual wet stuff falling from the sky.
Our route took us along the A27 to the M27 past Portsmouth and Southampton then onto A31 past Ringwood and into Dorset. We stopped again for a coffee and biscuits at Dorchester while the rain left us alone for a short while, but quickly hit the road when it returned with a vengeance. Honiton and Exeter were passed through and our next stop was for fuel in Whitehouse Services in Oakhampton, Devon. It was now around 4am in the morning and coffee and energy drinks were the order of the day as we were all now feeling a tad jaded. 
According to the satnav it was now 98 miles to our next intended stop at Lands End and we were running approximately two hours ahead of schedule. We had planned to have more coffee and break stops, but the appalling weather had kept us confined to the cars. We decided to just punch on and get there early and use the time to have a bit of a sleep when we got there. 
The rain continued until we were around half hour away from Lands End where it was replaced by a freezing cold wind. It was still dark on arrival so we parked in the car park and grabbed some shut eye. Daylight arrived and we moved the cars into position for a photo shoot and then headed for Bude Castle.
Within thirty minutes of leaving Lands End the rain had returned and with the wind as well it was like monsoon season. Bude Castle was only a quick visit because of the weather and we then found a Morrisons Supermarket with a cafe so we could get some breakfast. Very nice it was too, and cheap!
We had planned to visit Badgers Holt on Dartmoor and The Haynes Motor Museum on our route back to Knebworth, but we deemed Dartmoor to be too Dangerous with its narrow roads and slippery surfaces and the Haynes Museum was closed. The constant rain lashing down was starting to take its toll on us as well and we all decided to just head back to Knebworth. Our route back took us along the A30, M5, then A303 past Stonehenge, Andover, and onto the M3. Visibility on the Motorways was very poor due to the spray, but we made good time on the M25 which was lighter than normal. 

We arrived at Knebworth at around 4.45pm and after a quick shower and change of clothes we headed into Old Knebworth. We managed to find an Indian Restaurant and celebrated our trip with a good meal and a couple of drinks. We had had a good trip and driven some great roads, but the constant rain did reduce the enjoyment a tad.
Richard and I were both pleased with our cars as Richards was doing its first trip since the 2000 engine had been replaced with a 2.5 and my car was on its maiden long voyage with its newly rebuilt cylinder head and camshaft. Both cars never had a single issue (Thank God!) and the only time Richard opened the bonnet was to check the oil. Even then the wind nearly took it off and the oil he tried to pour in the engine got blown all over it by the wind anyway! 
A brilliant weekend away with some great company and hopefully, things will get back to normal soon so we can look forward to some other driving events. 
 posted Mon 5th Oct 2020
"Beans"
posts: 5728
Netherlands
joined on Sun 5th Mar 2006

FHC resto nr. 111; Striping
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With my holidays almost over I returned to the shed for a job that has been postponed several times in the past year. Fitting the striping to be precise. Early in the year I decided to remove the striping from the bonnet and change the pieces for the wings. Sadly though a friend who has the gear to cut the new items had run out of black self-adhesive foil. As it is easier to apply all parts in one go, I decided to wait with applying the remaining striping parts and decals till everything was ready. Fast forward 7 months and the new stock of black foil still hasn’t arrived! So I reversed the decision, and went to the shed armed with kettle, washing liquid and other household stuff. And the various parts for the striping of course.


I decided to start with the striping for the right hand rear wing. After washing off any dirt or dust, de-greasing and applying some soapy water the striping was put in place. Aligning went pretty smoothly. When I “designed” the striping, I used the door handles and the top of the door running parallel with the door handles as datum lines. With the stripe running in a straight line, parallel to these lines, from the rear wing to the front of the door.


With the stripe correctly positioned it was time to get an old ID card and the hairdryer out. And with most off the water rubbed from underneath the foil, it was time to gently pull off the backing foil. And that’s where it went wrong! I wanted to work from back to front, so the bottom of the downward part would remain in place and any stretch could be dealt with at the door gap. But whatever I tried the backing foil in that area refused to come of the striping. And working from the other side immediately stretched the two thin outer stripes. A long story short: Waste bin 1 – Car 0!
Normally at this point you walk away from the job for a while. Sadly that doesn’t work when you’re working in a shed, away from home. So the only option left was to carry on with the remaining pieces. Just to be sure it wouldn’t happen again, I cut the backing foil right back to the striping. And hoped for the best. Though slightly nerve racking, this time the initial plan worked. Hooray!




Only three items left. Next in line was the striping for the bonnet. I fitted that already a few years ago. But then I noticed that one of the two stripes wasn’t fitted perfectly. So that needed rectifying! And as these pieces were much smaller they were far easier to handle and apply. (sorry, I should have taken a picture with the bonnet up 😜)


That left me with one final piece, and also the smallest. A small “SPRINT” decal. This is actually a left over from one of the door stripes. But I thought it would look good on the boot lid. For its position I followed the dimensions for the “TRIUMPH” boot lid decal of the later Canley and Solihull cars. And of course the early “TRIUMPH TR7” decal (with a twist) already in place. So now you don’t have to overtake me to know what’s under the bonnet 😁.



That leaves me with the job of producing the stripes for the front wings and the right hand rear wing of course. With some spare decals thrown in. And a different font for the TR7 on the rear wing. See how that looks in real life. Hopefully to be continued very soon!


Back to my regular work tomorrow. It was a productive month! 

 posted Wed 30th Sep 2020
"Beans"
posts: 5728
Netherlands
joined on Sun 5th Mar 2006

FHC resto nr. 110; More small jobs
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Or should I say that I entered the end-of-my-holidays-frenzy! At least I managed to complete a few more small jobs on the car.


To start with the interior light armature. I sourced that from the shed over 4 years ago, with the idea to clean it and fit it to the car in the then near future. Sadly life intervened in a negative way. Fast forward and last Sunday I was going through the small parts littering my study. As the F1 Grand Prix of Russia had finished, and the weather was rather wet, I thought it a good idea to clean the armature. As I had found a few extra spares in the past years, I decided on a little cleaning experiment.


To get rid of the oxidation I dropped the armature for 15 minutes in a lukewarm solution of cleaning vinegar, rock salt and water. Turned out to work quite well as the picture below illustrates


Another job that had been haunting me was the boot light switch. The very early original item (606239) got lost during the move of all my parts from René’s place to the shed. At first I didn’t think much about it as I had enough of the later switches. And that is when I found out that the later switches wouldn’t fit. Also the early left hand boot hinge I had prepared turned out to be missing its welded on tab to activate the switch. Time for a rethink!
So one of the items that were picked up after powder coating was the part of the boot lid hinge from a later car that bolts to the bottled. And I found out that I had a freshly galvanised tab between the coated parts! So these were fitted together.


After which it was time to remove the left hand hinge from the boot lid and replace it without damaging the paint work. It took me almost an hour but I succeeded. Also managed to fit a later type switch. Although it works I am not very impressed with the fit. Luckily it is mostly hidden from view! Though I will probably have a go at adapting it to get a slightly better fit …


And the final job for a day well spent in the shed was fitting the door strikers. The driver’s side went rather smoothly.


Though I have some doubts about the right hand (passenger side) latch. With the latch fully engaged there is a fair amount of free movement. Which isn’t there on the driver’s side. Looks like I’ll have to fit some door seals first, to see if that changes the matter. I hope so! Otherwise I’ll have to prepare another latch.

 posted Mon 28th Sep 2020
"Beans"
posts: 5728
Netherlands
joined on Sun 5th Mar 2006

FHC resto nr. 109; Front bumper
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I picked up the freshly (powder) coated front bumper bar just before the weekend, together with some other parts for the ’76 car and my two other TR7’s. As ever the quality of the work done by Habraken in Best was spot on.



And today I spent a few hours in the shed. So after about 30 minutes of careful work (I didn't want to break another cover!), the covers were fitted to the bumper bar.




The anoraks already will have counted 6 cover retaining plates (ZKC2251) instead of the official number of 4, as stated in the parts manual. But as you can see, there are also no studs in the corner cover. And no sign there ever were! So I used an extra retainer plate to keep this cover in position.
I could have fitted the bumper to the car, as I did with the rear bumper. But that would probably restrict access while fitting the head lights and wiring. So that will be left for another time. 
 posted Mon 28th Sep 2020
"Beans"
posts: 5728
Netherlands
joined on Sun 5th Mar 2006

FHC resto nr. 108; Shot blasting
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Yesterday and today I spent some hours on cleaning and shot blasting the remaining alloy parts for the Sprint engine for the car. To start with a few before pictures.



And a few pictures after spending an afternoon at a friend’s workshop and his blasting cabinet. Which was loaded with glass beads. Ideal for alloy parts!





And after fitting some of the zinc plated and (black) passivated parts.



Though I found out a few of the threads in the manifold and timing cover need thread repairs, as the original threads have been stripped. To be continued … 
 posted Thu 24th Sep 2020
"Beans"
posts: 5728
Netherlands
joined on Sun 5th Mar 2006

FHC resto nr. 107; Britisch Elend
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This side of the pond, and within a stone’s throw from the German border, British Leyland was often referred to as Britisch Elend. Which loosely translates as British Misery. And today it was clearly illustrated (again I dare say 😳), to which they owe part of this bad reputation!
I was cleaning some alloy engine parts for the new Sprint engine, after which these will be bead blasted. And while washing away the accumulated dirt of some of the parts I found some signs of poor quality control.


The first was the thermostat housing, which looked fine from the outside for an approximately 40 year alloy part. But it didn’t need a closer inspection to see the machining of the sealing surface was rather poor. After taking circa 0,10 to 0,20 mm off, the bad areas are still clearly visible. No wonder thick carton / pressed paper gaskets work best here!


The other part that slipped through BL’s infamous quality control was this 12 vane water pump housing.


At least this one already looked sloppy from a distance! But while cleaning it and removing some casting burs from the outside, I noticed something completely wrong internally.


As can be clearly seen in the picture above almost the entire passage from the pump to the radiator is blocked. This looks like it is caused by a fault in the casting mould. I have seen some poor casting quality from BL over the years. But not as bad as this one! Luckily the divide was only one or two millimetres thick. Which meant I could hammer it out with a punch. Now I only have to find a tool with which I can reach and remove the burrs. But that is for another day!


Though this makes you think. How could this still be fitted to an engine, that came out of a running car. Probably overheating and blowing head gaskets all the time or …!?

 posted Wed 23rd Sep 2020
"Beans"
posts: 5728
Netherlands
joined on Sun 5th Mar 2006

FHC resto nr. 106; Boot trim
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I left you on this topic almost two weeks ago, hoping everything would be ready within a week or two. Well my local car interior trimmer again didn’t disappoint here! As one of the pictures in my previous post (and above) clearly shows! The picture below gives a good impression of the complete trim panel in situ.


As can be seen the dimensional drawing I produced was spot on. As was its transfer to the final product. The same applies for the floor matt that I got back. This was made using an original one as template:


And today I picked up the other boot trim panels and the B-post panels. For all these parts, original panels were used as template. Well pleased with the quality of the work (and that also includes the price I was charged!). To be continued!




 posted Tue 22nd Sep 2020
"Beans"
posts: 5728
Netherlands
joined on Sun 5th Mar 2006

FHC resto nr. 105; Rear bumper
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I left these parts well over a week ago, and still feel bad about it. But hey, life goes on! So while looking into options for a replacement centre front cover I started with ordering a new battery powered drill. Yes the old one didn’t survive 😈, but it wasn’t working anyway. Plus after well over 20 years of service it wasn’t viable to spent much money on it! And with that sorted I went in search of some motivation to get back to the bumpers. So I took the DHC for an almost 500 km long round trip to the German Eifel with a friend. Which was a lovely day out. But I forgot to take any photos. So you’ll have to do with this one taken in the shed the day before the trip.


With some motivation regained, I returned to work on the ’76 car. And it is rather obvious that I started with the rear bumper. Earlier in my holidays I already cleaned the covers thoroughly, which meant the next task would be fitting the covers to the bumper bar. This bumper bar was e-coated a few years ago, having the added bonus that it is coated not only on the outside but also on the inside. And the e-coating layer is relatively thin. So the covers went on pretty smoothly.



Only problem was the centre section which bulging upwards in the middle. To get this inline I used some binder clips (with the handles removed after fitting of course). And it looks like they are doing a pretty good job so far.


And with the covers fitted the only remaining task was fitting the rear bumper to the car. Though I took some precautions to protect the paint work just in case. For this I used packing foam sheets held in place by strategically placed clothespins.


For the rest this job went rather well, with most time (less than 10 minutes) being spent on getting the bumper properly centred and aligned. Much easier as well over 10 years ago while restoring my DHC! And with the bumper bar correctly aligned I could torque down the mounting nuts.


After which it was time to admire the work done. It is starting to look like a car again from the back.



Currently waiting for the front bumper bar to return from powder coating. And I even found a fairly good centre cover section (see the picture at the top of this post). Which after a good clean looks fairly presentable! Though there might still be a plan B here. Probably more on that later.


 posted Mon 21st Sep 2020
"Beans"
posts: 5728
Netherlands
joined on Sun 5th Mar 2006

FHC resto nr. 104; Suppressor and door strikers
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The title of this post says it all. I spent a few hours on two of the many small jobs that are part of a restoration. Call it stop gap work 😁To start with the suppression capacitor (UKC2211), which is or should be fitted between the coil and the cars body (or earth point) to reduce the signal distortion caused by radio interference. This was pretty straightforward. It only needed a good clean and a new spade connector before it could be fitted to the car.


But probably most of the time was lost searching for the correct connection terminal on the coil (6V Bosch high performance ignition coil #0221124001). When you ignore the labels it even looks a bit like the original Lucas coils!


Next job was reassembling the two door strikers (YKC2031).


These were disassembled, cleaned, shot blasted and gloss galvanised well over 2½ years ago. But I never got round (or forgot) to look into the two rubber damping gaskets that go between the three parts of the striker assembly. As can be seen in the picture above the lower gaskets were in good condition. The upper ones were not. But that was easily solved with a pair of striker seals (ZKC369) from my spare parts stock.


The eagle eyed viewer will have noticed that the striker ring in the picture above has a slightly different colour. Well that is caused by the fact that one of the two parts I sent off for galvanising came back heavily bent. So that one had to be replaced. And that also meant a different coating, because galvanising is a batch process. So not very cost effective for one single small part! And with all parts ready, assembling the strikers was very straightforward indeed.


I would have preferred to fit the strikers to the car immediately, but it turned out I had no more striker seals left. At least I couldn't find any quickly. So that is for another day. 

 posted Sat 19th Sep 2020
"Beans"
posts: 5728
Netherlands
joined on Sun 5th Mar 2006

FHC resto nr. 103; Gutted
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The plan was to busy myself with the bumper covers today. With the aim being to get the rear bumper ready to fit to the car and the covers for the front bumper ready for when the front bumper bar returns from coating. But I started with the rear. I have a few second hand spares in the shed so that was my first port of call.


That was the best set I could find. But after cleaning the covers it turned out that they had a fair amount of light surface scratches. Time for plan B! As ‘t Kreng will get a makeover after the ’76 car is ready, I removed the rear bumper from that car.


And after cleaning them they came up quite nicely. Fit for a freshly restored car. And after a good clean the covers from the shed don’t look out of place on ‘t Kreng! On to the next stage, the front covers.


Here again I used some parts from ‘t Kreng. The corner sections to be precise. The centre section from the shed turned out to be in very good condition indeed. So after cleaning them, the final task was fitting the covers to the rear bumper bar. But not before fitting the license plate to the centre section. And that is where it went horribly wrong. I thought it a good idea to use the battery drill. But despite the fact that the battery was freshly charged, it didn’t function. And while investigating what was wrong (battery not fitted correctly maybe?), it slipped from my hand. And it had the wretched courage to drop right on the most vulnerable point of the cover. So now I am looking for a decent replacement centre section!
And yes; that tiny scratch on the right of the picture was the only damage this cover had. Gutted really!



 posted Thu 10th Sep 2020
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