Club Triumph

Robert Massey Ltd are the feature business in this post.  A company who were a Standard Triumph car dealers in several locations including York. 

The company Robert B Massey (York) Limited was incorporated 29 March 1965 and finally wound up 15 February 2000. 

From Unilever archive

Robert B Massey and Company Ltd was incorporated 17 December 1942. Acquired by the United Africa Company 1973. Operated as distributors of Rolls Royce, Bentley, Wolseley, MG and Triumph cars throughout East Yorkshire from its base at Market Weighton, with branches at Hull, York, Beverley and Driffield. 

The company also engaged in specialised body building, including refrigerated vans and trailers, and the manufacture of agricultural machinery. Subsequently acquired Gordon Armstrong (Hull) Ltd and Gordon Armstrong (North Bar) Ltd and operated as Armstrong Massey from 1978.

Triumphs for Terry's

Five Triumph 2000's were recently purchased from Robert B Massey (York) Ltd, by Joseph Terry and Sons Ltd, chocolate manufacturers of York. The cars are for some of the Terry directors and top executives, and Mr J. S. Marsh (Sales Manager, Massey's) is seen handing over the cars to Terry's Purchasing Director, Mr A. E. Spink (extreme right) and Mr J Shaw, Terry's Distribution Manager.

Market Deighton, Yorkshire England

Robert Massey Co Ltd the crossroads, Market Weighton

This images shows the Robert Massey Co Ltd garage building that stood at the crossroads, Market Weighton.  A larger clearer version of this photo can be optained from the Francis Frith collection.  I understand the garage has been knocked down and that a supermarket built in its place.

Plea for information

Further information and sources

Link to the other articles in this series.

Link to my post about Armstrong Massey of Beverley

Link to face book page: Triumph Car Dealers.

Link to my Triumph Car Dealers Flickr group which includes many photos of Standard Triumph garages etc from my collection and many other contributors .

I have a collection of Standard Triumph car dealer directories: http://vitessesteve.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/triumph-car-dealer-directories.html

Picture credits: Robert Massey Co Ltd the crossroads, Market Weighton image is from the Francis Frith Collection.

Today, on the first day of my (late) summer holiday, I received a long awaited parcel from Australia. Due to the current Covid-19 pandemic it took almost 7 weeks for it to arrive from Australia.

And I am glad to mention their quality is very nice indeed. Especially the black anodising on the brace bar looks very good. Only “downside” is that the mounting rings are coated grey as per the originals, which won’t do for my ’76 TR7.

So these will be coated black before fitting them to that car! At least the timing of their arrival was spot on! Due to my holiday I will be able to drop the mounting rings of for shot blasting and powder coating soon. Together with the by now ageing strut brace from ‘t Kreng which I already had removed from that car. 

These adverts are from 1930's.

 Chamberlin & Son, Aylesbury 21 October 1938 advert from Buckingham Herald

 

The business partnership known as Chamberlin & Son consisted of Annie Chemberlin and Frank Walter Chamberlin was dissolved 30 March 1933.  The business continued after that date with F W Chamerlin as the sole partner.  At that time the business was stated as being a coach carriage a motor body builder and repairers based at 15 Buckingham Street.

The garage was on Buckingham Street. 

 Chamberlin & Sons garage late 1960s  photo from Aylesbury Remembered

Beer mat

Dealer address stamp

 

Triumph dealers in Aylesbury

Plea for information

Further information and sources

On the 19^th of October 2013 I became the owner 03-NF-52, a fairly early Dutch TR7. The car was first registered on the 6^th of October 1976. At the time I didn’t really want to buy another TR7, but the car was fitted with my favourite alloy wheels for a TR7. And the price was right. So I bought a slightly over priced set of Wolfrace Turbo wheels with a car attached to them 😳. And as soon as the car was in the shed the wheels were removed, refurbished, and fitted to my DHC.

Initial plan was to get rid of the car and make a small profit! But my longing for an early car (with a few twists) was stronger. New plans were made, and on Wednesday the 15^th of January 2014 I started with the first stage of the restoration, dismantling the car. My initial time schedule was to have the car ready by the time it would be tax exempt in October 2016. But that schedule has since been abandoned!

And this weekend I reached the ninety-ninth blog post on the restoration of this TR7. Time to celebrate this fact with a jubilee post! So for the hundredth post I will bore you with a picture post. Looking back at the work done, using my favourite pictures and parts of the project so far.

2014-03-15: A photographic experiment with the bare seat frames.

2014-03-15: Rear suspension parts ready,

2014-03-30: 14” Moto Lita Mark Four steering wheel with a custom design billet centre cap, using an original late TR7 steering wheel’s centre badge

2014-06-25: Creating access for various relative small repair sections

2014-07-10: Welding completed and waiting for final shot blasting,

2015-09-07: Painted in its chosen colour at last, and waiting for the satin black paint to be applied to the sills and the rear light panel.

In my previous post I selected a few parts for future blasting and painting. As a result of which I booked some time at a friend’s workshop and his blasting cabinet this Saturday. But I had a bit of a false start here, caused by moisture absorbing pellets that had found their way in the blasting media (glass beads). And they were too large to pass through the nozzle, causing frequent blockages. But after cleaning the blasting nozzle and sifting the blasting beads, the cabinet was back in full working order. And half an hour later the parts (engine mounts and front suspension top mounts) were cleaned of any rust.

This was followed by a few layers of satin black top coat after the base coat had dried enough. A few hours well spent!

So, following a few trips out, I’ve noticed a bit more play in the steering – not a lot, but certainly a bit more than there was.

With the Mrs moving the wheel left and right, it proved to be in the lower column UJ where one joint seems to be more worn than the rest.

Removal of the lower column proved to be interesting – in the end, I removed the rack securing clamps and moved it away forwards then use a bit of rebar and a hammer to separate the splined joint at the top of the column and lifted the offending piece up and out of the top, easier said than done on a LHD car…

After stripping it all down, I put everything in the ultrasonic bath to clean things up, using a mix of engine cleaner, Teepol and water. And heat of course…

It seems there are two worn nylon bushes and a broken spring washer. Next job, find spares or, have a new set of bushes made up locally from Delron or similar at our local workshop.

The rubber joint at the top of the column seems to be fine – no cracking or deterioration of the bonding. I’ll strip this and replace the bolts and seizing wire before it all goes back together.

More to come when I have news…

A video I have made from a Standard Triumph training film strip. Thanks to Adrian Hebron for scanning the original film strip.

These film strip were made by the technical department at Standard Triumph.  I have uploaded several to YouTube which you can see here. Film strip play list

I have made PDF copies of the booklets handed after the film strips which you can see on my website. Service Training Notes. 

A few weeks ago I took delivery of a pretty solid FHC front bumper bar. The idea was to have that shot blasted and coated as soon as possible. That is when I found and ordered another TR7 front strut brace in Australia. As these come with silver mounting rings and a black alloy tube, I thought it a good idea to have the steel parts coated (black of course) too. And the steel mounting rings of ‘t Kreng’s strut brace could do with some new coating. Almost 15 years of action on the car have taken their toll on the original silver coating.

So while still waiting for the strut brace to arrive (at the time of writing it’s still waiting for a plane in Sydney), I decided to have another go at searching for missing parts that need coating. First part I went in search of was a left hand boot lid hinge. I had the original ones from the car coated and refurbished them with new pivot points. But while looking at some of the car’s electrics I found that the LH hinge I have fitted to the car doesn’t have a bracket to switch the boot light. So I went in search of a LH hinge that can be used. I found two pairs that could be used.

I wanted to use an early one. The yellow set in the picture above. But as can be seen the actuation bracket for the switch is badly deformed. But I did find the loose later bracket. And better still it had slipped into the box with parts that were galvanised a few years ago! So I decided to use the later hinge. But only the part that bolts to the boot lid. And I managed to repair the exhaust to gearbox bracket. Only need to make a thick load spreading plate to prevent future cracking of the bracket.

Next parts were the front suspension’s top mounts. Found this pretty good set with what looks like the manufacturing identification or control marks (?) still in place. They only have some very light surface corrosion.

I will take them to a friend’s workshop (and blasting cabinet) in the near future, to get rid of the surface rust. After which the steel parts will be coated using some rattle cans. The same treatment is planned for the engine mounts. Found two almost new mounts in my spares collection, though the remaining 7 in the picture below are also fit for future use.

And while rummaging through the boxes with parts I thought it a good idea to sort out all the rubber parts and put them together. This also gave me the opportunity to get rid of some parts that were too far gone to be used in future! A selection of parts that will be re-used on this car.

Most of them only need a good clean before they can be fitted to the car. And I made a start on that already.

But the main reason I started sorting the rubber parts was to find my remaining stock of new wiring grommets. I bought these while restoring the DHC. And I wanted to know how many new ones I’d need approximately. Well I did find them in the end. Together with a few bags of various used blanking plugs. Clear though that I will have to order some extra ones, as the stock has dwindled a bit. And as soon as they arrive I can switch my attention back to the wiring harnesses!

And a plan is slowly unfolding how to sort and store all my spare parts for future use. Should make life a bit easier!