Keep going

Keep going - that's the motto all rally drivers need. So do those preparing rally cars!

Another 4 hours slog and the heater is back in, the dashboard is in and the roll cage is at last finished.

Here's Bryce painting the front nearside bracket for the roll cage.







Pciture of the dashboard going back in - the heater is all back in place and bolted up.















The rear hoop now fully installed - everything welded up, painted and bolted in.

No fannying about!

Another 4 hours on this - will it never end?

I am really getting excited now though as this rallying lark is getting to feel very real - first event should be in April so that means I have to crack on and get the car log booked etc with the MSA. This is no time for fannying about!

This is where Bryce and I started today - the roll cage pretty much in and tack welded.

Here you can see the door bar in place and I wanted to check how "easy" it was to get in and out with this in place. So, we lifted in one of the seats and I gave it a go - all OK so if I can do it then Sarah, being a slip of a thing will have no problems. (Flattery always helps I find!). Actually. to get the door to shut I had to remove the arm rest/door pull! A bit more weight saved then.

Here's a picture of the front leg mounting. TR7 competiton drivers will know about the dreaded "head banging" syndrome which is usually not helped by the fitting of other makes of cages. In those the front legs "kink in" to mount on the floor whereas ours is on top of the sill.

There should be two benefits to this - with the other makes the leg intrudes into the floor pan right in front of the accelerator pedal and so the driver has to hook their foot around it - this won't happen here.

The other effect is that the top of the bar as it goes along the roof line drops - I may not be explaining it very well but it means that it intrudes into the door opening at the top and comes close to the occupant's head.

This arrangement has helped us get the bar as high as possible - it shouldn't be an issue for Sarah as we have mounted her seat lower than mine anyway and she's about 4" shorter. It's still not great for me but anyone over my height of 5'8" would have more of an issue needing more radical work on the floor and seat mountings.

Next, here's the cross tube which links the front legs above the windscreen.Still tack welded in place in this shot.


We still had to get the offside door bar in place too which took some doing - it just didn't want to know.


Once we had done that tho, like all the other sections the brackets also needed to be tack welded in place so that we are sure (ahemm!) that it all lines up when it goes back in.


Following that it all had to come out again so that all the tubes and brackets could be fully wekded up.


Here's the cross tube, both door bars and one of the front leags all on the floor of the workshop ready for welding.


In addition all the mounting plates on the floor of the car and the sills needed welding fully up.

While Bryce was welding I was removing yet more sound deadening material.

Towards the end of the day all the pipework was primed and painted again.

Next week it's refitting the dashboard and getting the roll cage in.

I'll also be looking at fitting the main extinguisher in a suitable place - on the transmission tunnel between the seats wherre the armrest was comes to mind.

Weight watchers

Back to rally prep on BRP.

Here's all the dashboard stripped out so that the heater can be removed.

This needs repairs to the pipework and we are going to deploy a Bryce rally mod - making it only able to have screen demist. The idea is to simplify things and we don't need the crew heating - the car and seeing through the screen comes first!

Meanwhile I have been removing sound deadening applied by good old BL. Actually they were really trying back then in a good way, there's lots of good design ideas and clearly they were aiming in this area to produce something more refined than had been the case before.

They were targeting drivers of Porsche 924s no less!

For my purposes though this is unnecessary weight - again the performance of the car comes before the comfort of the crew.

Pics show it being removed with a wood chisel and mallet - there's a huge bit chiselled off the transmission tunnnel here and fallen onto the floor.

It must be 5mm thick!

Without this and the carpets we'll certainly here that LT77 working.

Then there's the foam backed insulation on the front bulkhead - it's not pictured here but it is perfect for trapping moisture against the bulkhead!

That's come off too.

About halfway there now and here it's all collected in a bag - having weighed it there's 8kgs here!

Another 8 kg to go I reckon plus I gained 10 kgs by cutting out the centre sections of the front and rear bumpers plus another 10kgs or so from getting rid of the radio cassette, door speakers and CDs etc.

That's a good 40kgs which using http://www.mintylamb.co.uk/powerweight and based on 140BHP in an 1100 kg car is worth an extra 5BHP.

Toledo sold

A very nice man has just left a deposit on the Toledo and will be collecting it on Friday.

It was very pleasing the level of interest in the car and I am happy it's going to a true enthusiast and a new member of Club Triumph no less.

Toledo for sale

Yes, I am selling my Toledo.

I could go into all sorts of detail but I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

It's a lovely car though, very quiet, easy to drive and very reliable (it went all round Europe last year and was brilliant).

It's MOT'd until April 30th and will have tax for the same time.

Whilst I have had it I have had the radiator rebuilt (it's a larger 1500 one) and it's had stainless steel centre and rear box from a Dolomite 1300 exhaust fitted.

The interior is like new with no marks on the dashboard or headlining and 1500 seats are fitted (one tear in the rear of the driver seat). the original Toledo steering wheel will be refitted.

The bodywork is sound whilst having a fair few bumps and scrapes which have been painted over with a number of different shades of white over the years! There is a very small amount of welding needed (non structural) in the boot and the bottom of the offside rear door could do with a proper repair sometime in the next 12 months or so.

Don't get me wrong tho - this is an honest car! I doubt the engine (70,000 miles) has ever been apart, in fact I have a mountain of bills and MOTs for it all the way back to it's original owner and there's no mention of the engine ever giving any trouble or the gearbox for that matter.

I want £400 for the car but only from someone who is going to look after it - if it doesn't sell then I may be able to store it away under a dust sheet in a friend's premises. I need the space for a TR7 convertable you see

I don't want to put it on e-bay (goodness knows who might get it ) and being a sentimental type, as I said, if it doesn't sell I'll no doubt store it away - there can't be many left!

Oh - I said I wouldn't say much didn't I!

Marshalling on the RBRR

Just got in from Lancaster services where I was a marshal on the RBRR.

A pleasant evening from my point of view - great to meet up with all my mates old and new but also having the luxury of going home again to a warm bed!

Everyone seemed in fine form and I was able to have a good natter with lots of people.

Sorry Andy and Sarah - I forgot the spare hacksaw handle!

Sorry Paul D - I had brought some sustenance for Pendle and Pennine crews but somehow missed offering any to you!

Good to see Caroline and Mik in fine form.

Dave Pearson and Jason Chinn were a bit late with the Atlas as it had lost a core plug, they had replaced this and were topping up with water again at Lancaster. I bunged them some of the P&P sweeties and then they were on their way again.

Nice to meet Goody - fine hat sir.

Good to see Ruth Nobbs and co - I haven't seen them since Belgium on the 2005 10CR!

Unfortunately Chris Shaw didn't make it this far - a problem with hydraulics I beleive at Stirling.

Doug and Katie had gone to collect John and Clive who had had an accident - thankfully they were OK but the car is a different matter I believe. In true CT spirit tho they are now all 4 up in a Herald and heading for Lands End.

Having seen everyone away I set off home only to find Dave Picton And Fred Slezak stopped at the side of the M6. Apparently there is a terminal engine problem so they were awaiting a recovery truck. As there was nothing I could do to help I gave them the remainder of the P&P chocolate and wished them luck.

All in all, quite an eventful evening.

Good luck for the rest of the event everyone.