Arch repair on order

Last obvious bit to order sorted - thanks to Lloyd Reed who has organised remanufacture of panels I ahve now placed an order for an off side wheel arch repair panel.

The wing is kinked out a bit and the wheel arch which had had a repair is split so this should certainly do the trick.

Not pictured is a fixing kit for the electric fan which arrived this week.

I think the next step will be to replace the sump which I don't think is actually damaged but has always leaked from around the sump plug area so a £20 replacement seems a worthwhile gamble. I'll see about then having the one I take off checked over and maybe repaired.

Such a small thing

I took the radiator off PMW today so that I can replace it with a new one I aim to get this week.

From the picture you can see the damage which really seems quite small for the consequences that followed.

 I then moved on to removing the diff as we had suffered a whine from it at 2500 RPM and one of my codrivers has kindly offered to get it reconditioned.  It was a bit of a struggle outside in the cold but I managed it. I didn't take a photo of the diff but here is damage to the spare wheel well and the exhaust is hanging low as the "bobbin" has pulled off. I wonder if this is further damage from one of the wild boars or maybe in transit somewhere on and off the back of transporters.

Back home

At last PMW is back home.

With a few £ from the insurance company I can now assess what I need to do to get the car fixed and back on the road.

At the least it needs a radiator and a repair to the offside front wing as can be seen in the photos.

The hole punched inthe radiator as it was pushed back into the pulley is visible here

Panel has been pulled back out by someone

Damage to offside front wing

Things that go bump in the night

Our 10CR was going so well, the car performed absolutely fine all the first morning and, after a lunch in a cafe at Treysa, Germany, we set off on a cunning plan to go “off piste” and visit Colditz. We drove through some epic downpours and lightning storms later on the Autobahns and reached Colditz Castle, which is certainly an impressive site – even from the Lidl car park!

By now it was late afternoon with no time for a visit, so we made our escape towards the Czech border, regaining the route as we actually crossed the border at about 10.30pm. Little did we know what was about to happen and how our adventure would be a very different one from the one we planned.

I was navigating whilst Dave was driving on the road north of Plana in the Czech Republic when I heard and felt a huge “thud”. “What the eff was that?” was my question and the reply was “3 pigs just ran out in front of the car and we hit at least one of them”.

Immediately the ignition light came on so we switched the main beam off and it went back out again. Scanning the volt meter and the temperature gauge, to start with they seemed OK but soon the temparatue gauge started going up. At least all the lights were still working and the car still drove OK.

Now, what would you least like to happen next? Oh yes, the Czech Police waving us down. They didn't speak any English and we certainly didn't speak any Czech but after showing them that we had papers for the car and they had seen our passports they waved us on. They were probably more interested in the trucks that were passing and wanted to stop them instead.

It was at this time, though, that we noticed the steam coming out from under the bonnet. I didn't want to investigate in the presence of the Czech Police, however, so I took over the driving and we drove on a short distance into the next village and pulled up next to a pond. We lifted the bonnet and, by the light of torches, we could see a hole punched in the centre of the radiator where it had been pushed back into the pulley.

So, what to do next? First thing make sure we are safe, so put the emergency triangle out and pull on the hi-viz. Next, remove everything out the boot so I could see if we had any Radweld, to which the answer was no. Maybe we could keep going if we could just stop every few kms and refill the radiator? We tried putting in a bottle full of pond water but it came out from the radiator as fast as we poured it in.

I next made a phone call through to Dale Barker of Club Triumph asking if anyone had a spare radiator, unlikely as it may seem, or any Radweld. Unfortunately not, so we decided to try and get into the next town rather than stay in a small village. We drove on to Plana and just made it into the town square with the car “pinking”. Not good, and any thoughts of trying to limp to Cortina, for example, were clearly off the agenda.

I had hoped that if we could cut the route and get to Cortina then we could have done some panel beating with a lump hammer and, with the help of other Club Triumph members, sourced another radiator or found somewhere to get a repair made.

By now though it was around midnight and I made the decision to call for breakdown assistance under my insurance policy with Peter James and that was only the beginning of a heck of a saga!

Just about there

With the Club Triumph 10 Countries Run fast approaching and me working away from home so much I delegated remaining work on PMW to my local garage, Vicarage Car Company in Barnoldswick, Lancashire.

Having replaced all the springs, shock absorbers and bushes in the rear suspension myself I didn't like the way the car now rolled around at the front even more than it did before. With lots of miles to do including mountain passes in the Alps I wanted to get things right.

So I bit the bullet and bought completely refurbished front struts with new inserts and appropriate fast road springs to match the rears from http://www.chriswitor.com/
Also threw in an order for fast road drag strut plybushes too.

They didn't arrive though until Wednesday of last week which didn't give Vicarage long to fit them after my wife Deana dropped them off. I also asked them to investigate a "bearing" noise, replace some perished fuel pipe and fit an inline fuel filter just before the fuel pump.

All of that was done and the car returned Friday afternoon just before I got home and I then used PMW to go to the Club Triumph Pendle and Pennine area meeting. I must say the ride is vastly improved so I am well pleased with that.

The bearing noise is still there even though the diff oil has been changed but we are just going to have to live with that and drive at a speed when it's not so obvious - or turn the music up!

So, this weekend it's been packing spares, sorting out what tools I want to take and then generally cleaning the car applying Rain X etc.

If anyone wants to follow our 10CR we are car 34 and reports should be on the Club Triumph message diary     http://www.club.triumph.org.uk/events/tencountriesrun/10crmessagediary
(as well as Facebook for my Facebook friends) 

New purchase - Rover 214i

I have gone and bought another car!

Incredibly cheap for such a gorgeous little car. Only one owner before me who bought it using the Rover employee scheme and then cosseted it until he passed away. It's only done 53000 miles and I can only find 3 small blemishes on it.

I know about the head gasket failure syndrome but I am hopeful I will be lucky with this one and it has had it's coolant chnged very regularly through it's life. Also the cam belt was changed less than a thousand miles ago.

Many years ago now I had an early Rover 414Si as a company car and I loved it. I feel the same about this one!

Here's a number of photos for you to feast your eyes on. The last one is with the only modifications I intend to make to it, the Rover alloy wheels.

Original Rover Radio cassette - and it works like everything else on the car

Jack and wheel brace still in original wrapping

With Rover alloy wheels

Plugs,battery and coil

The 10CR is getting closer and I am tidying up PMW, finishing off a service etc.

So today I checked the brake pads and they have plenty of meat on them. Then fitted a set of new plugs I have had for a while and kept the old ones as spares.

Next I thought it would be a good idea to tidy up the battery tray which was showing some surface rust. Ideally I would ahve taken some photos at this stage but forgot so you will have to take my word for it. Anyway, a quick clean up, primer and a couple of coats of Valencia Blue from a rattle can and it is muche better preserved.

Something I have thought about but only now have actioned is the position of the coil. It's mounted to the engine block which doesn't seem optimum to me as heat build up does them no favours so with some careful thought I have remounted it at the rear of the battery tray. Unfortunately the photo is blurred but you should be able to see it here.

I had to re-attach a connection on one of the coild leads anyway as it broke so that would ahve been a possible breakdown in the future, now avoided (touch wood).

Below is a picture of the battery tray with battery and electric fan wiring looking pretty good.

The car actually started as well after all this! A test drive was fine apart from an annoying noise that I can't pin down that might be a bearing but I can't pin down where it is. Soemtimes it's quite loud, sometimes it disappears so I am hoping it will  last 3000 miles on the 10CR!