Round up

Haven't posted for a while so here's a round up of where I am at.

The ragtop has an MOT and I will be taxing it as soons as I can in May.

I have collected some spares from S&S on the usual arrangement for the Jack Neal Memorial rally.

I also collected a second hand rear axle I bought for £20 as a spare which I can rebuild at some point. I can confirm it goes in the boot of an Audi A4 and also that it reduces the Audi's MPG from 53 to 49!

Next up is accompanying Bryce in his TR7V8 to the Club Triumph Cadwell Park track day this weekend followed by competing in the Jack Neal the weekednd after.

It's good to keep busy.

Nearly an MOT!

I took UNJ into my local garage today for an MOT to see how much it would fail on.

Well actually it has failed on emissions and a headlamp not working on main beam.

For me that's a

I have left the car with them to fix these and will be picking it up on Wednesday so I will be taxing it for May 1st.

The guy said "it's really solid underneath - that one's a good'un"

It's amazing what you find out

Yes, it's amazing but before going on to that how about this picture of my carport today. 2 TR7s, it can't get much better than that.

And have you noticed the sign?

Anyway, what's amazing? Well it's what you find out when you work on a car that you have bought which "needs attention".

I just put a couple of hours in on the ragtop today and found out a number of things.

1) It has a brand new nearside front wing. How do I know? Well it still has the sticker on the inside which also means it has no rustproofing of any kind , now why would you not rustproof it?

2) Someone's wiring is even worse than mine I have spent alot of time removing totally superfluous wiring some of which was actually "live" Joints were made up of wires twisted together and wrapped up in insulation tape whilst other connections were in the wrong place. Meanwhile the wiring to the auxiliary flashers on the wings is just rubbish and hanging loose but for now they work and I have other priorities.

Listing the progress though is a psotive thing to do so we now have

A car that runs
headlights that work
Indicators that work
Heater fan that works
hazard flashers that work
Even the rear fog light works
The interior panel lights work.

What still isn't working tho is the headlamp flash and the horn but that can wait until tomorrow.

Once that's sorted I'll book the car in for MOT and see what happens

I've never been topless before!

A beautiful day today here in sunny Lancashire which is just the type of day to go topless!

A fair bit of work needed first though before I could get the convertible up and running. I fitted a new battery and then had to amend the battery clamp to hold it.

Also had to get more water/antifreeze mix into it and then start it up, which it did quite happily.

A very quiet running engine which is a bit of a surprise and no overheating which is also very welcome!

Other than that the clutch needed freeing off and then I could try topless motoring out for the first time ever and very agreeable it was too.

Not all the electrics are working yet though - the headlamps are a bit iffy and the horn/interior lights and hazards don't work. When I sort these out I'll get the car in for an MOT an we'll see what else is needed.

Helping Bryce

Bryce has helped me out so much with my car I wanted to do at least a little bit to help him out so I spent the afternoon assisisting as best I could as he builds his car up.

As can be seen in these pics it's looking great but what you can't get from the pictures is the sound of it when it fired up for the first time.

Oh yes, we got it running and it certainly sounds like there's some power there!




































Then we fitted a brake adjusting valve - you can see Bryce doing so in one of the pictures. Really there's still alot to do but patiently working away at it is the way forward.

I reckon Bryce will be at the May1st Club Triumph track day with the car.

Under the car port

When this old world is getting me down - there's one place I wanna be - under the carport.

Well nearly anyway!

I have at least spent an evening under the car port and fixed the headlights etc. A diagram in the handbook that wasn't actually the same as the fuse box layout foxed me for a while but replacing a fuse sorted it.

Then I rebuilt Sarah's door - repositioned the map light further forward, fitted a door strap and put it all back.

Super but I have had to move Sarah's flag denoting her ancestry and also the door pull is from a 2000 so it's good to keep it Triumph but I am not sure how long it will last! Still, we'll see if it's in the right place and useful first and if it is then I'll replace it with a better one.
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Nothing to show

5 1/2 hours effort and nothing to show for it!

Well, that's actually what's needed - with Bryce's help I have got the plastic film fitted to the door windows in BRP so the scrutineers should be happy. The windows have never been so clean and the film is not tinted so you can't see the result unless you look very very closely.

If anyone out there has to do this job - don't take the window out of the car. That's what we did and then couldn't put it back without scratching the film.

So, we put the window back in and fitted the film in situ which is so much easier and quicker.

Another lesson learned the hard way I suppose.

Oh, and another thing - the headlights didn't work on the way home so I drove back with sidelights in the dusk. I reckon I blew one of the fuses when the wires to the door light sparked during the in out in out window session!