Vitesse Mark 2's

We have lately had several Vitesse mark 2s all in at the same time, with, at one stage, four of these – all saloons with sun roofs – don’t think that’s ever happened before!

We have carried out head work and suspension work on a couple of these. One had a nasty misfire and was down on power with no. 1 cylinder doing practically nothing. This turned out to be a crack in the cylinder head, which Colorado would have been proud of, necessitating another cylinder head to be acquired so that an unleaded cylinder head conversion could be carried out, with smaller exhaust and larger inlet flow profiled valves, and a bit of blending of throats into ports. We then added an extractor manifold, sports exhaust system and carried out repairs and upgrades to the carburation and ignition systems. All of this helps to make the engine breathe more easily, releasing a bit more power in the middle ranges and helping it to rev out more cleanly at the top end.

The other one was a much more conventional unleaded head conversion, with new valve guides and standard sized valves. We have also added Suspension work has been mainly overhauling tired rotoflex driveshafts, fitting adjustable, telescopic dampers, Superflex urethane bushes and new ride and height adjustable dampers at the front with upgraded springs. Getting all this lot set up then allows safe use of the extra power made available by all the engine work.

Great fun at Stoneleigh

Stoneleigh was fun, I managed to flog a load of old rubbish (that’s valuable spare parts to someone else) and buy a load of new rubbish (that’s valuable spare parts to me!) and even made a small profit – until I took the cost of the stall, fuel etc into account…………………………Oh well, it kept me off the streets of Hertfordshire.

The ‘Season’ has now started properly with many regular customers getting their prized possessions out of hibernation and back on the road. There are of course the inevitable “You know that job we talked about last year?” type repairs too – funny how they don’t get better while the cars are in the garage over winter – least ways mine haven’t, I really must replace that iffy driveshaft UJ or the next outing is likely to be a really short one.
We seem to have a plethora of Stags at present, one of which I have been using to put a few miles on a new engine. I had forgotten just what great cars they are to drive regularly; all the luxury of your average ‘modern’ with that fabulous sound track and head-turning looks to boot.
An old ‘Non-Triumph’ friend has also returned for some additional fettling and fine-tuning, mainly cosmetic including the manufacture of a custom additional twin instrument binnacle to fit under the fascia. ‘Genie’ the ’63 Capri is a real eye-popper, never mind a head turner and her owner Graham has to allow double the journey time when he goes anywhere in her as opposed to any of his other steeds.

Other minor ‘custom’ jobs include modifying the rear case of a 3.63:1 Spitfire 4 stud differential to have 6 studs for fitment to a Rotoflex Vitesse (2.5 – 148bhp) and also provision of a drain plug to allow oil changes. That’s all for now, more next time.

Finished jobs and accident repairs to Triumphs

Having finished off a number of summer jobs and got them back to their owners including the Magenta Stag which had been holidaying with us for a very long time indeed, we proceeded along in the bodyshop with a couple of accident repairs – both front enders and both on TRs.

The first of these was a rather nice TR4A which turned out to have a bit more damage than it seemed at first glance and the second was a TR6 which didn’t – although it turned out that some previous repairs left a little bit to be desired and that on closer inspection it featured no fewer than three different shades of Triumph White (code 19) – match that!
Meanwhile, the other side of the great divide in the mechanical shop, work was turning to winter rebuilds. I really like these, you can get your teeth into them over winter in a way which is usually impossible during the rest of the year due to the laughingly referred to ‘quiet period’ – at least it’s quiet enough that you can get the job done!
There were two six pots, one a 2500S which the owner wanted re-spec’d to wake it up a bit and the other a Vitesse Mk 2 with a few previous mods which had stopped rather abruptly and needed a proper sort out before rebuilding. There was also a Spitfire 1500 which someone had tuned to a level that Professor Pat Pending would have been proud of. Unfortunately the current owner of this car had tired of 12 mpg and having something undriveable in traffic, so had asked us to do the opposite of the 2500S, i.e. tone it down a bit to make it more tractable and generally nicer to live with off the race track.
For those of you going – see you at Stoneleigh.

November

This month we have been mainly finishing off summer stuff and starting winter stuff. We tend usually to have a few engine builds and things of that nature generally to do over the winter months which can bring a degree of steadiness to the workload unlike the more normal pandemonium during the ‘season’.

The ‘previously interfered with’ TR6 finally got done and went back to its owner who now has a fun winter of recommissioning work ahead of him to turn the shiny rolling shell back into a car again.

We have also had a non-Triumph interloper in the shape of a ’63 Capri – all wings and wire wheels - belonging to an old friend, in for what should have been a week or two’s work (ha-ha, that old chestnut!) Needless to say that the tin-worm had been a bit busier than thought and ‘Genie’ spent a little longer chez nous than intended.

We are now just finishing off (hopefully) a car which has been with us for too long following a pretty substantial ‘put it back on the road job’. These are always a bit like opening Pandora’s Box, especially when the car in question is a Stag – more on this one next time.

A busy day!

When you are satisfied that everything fits, is welded and finished you can start to prepare the surfaces for painting. This involves cleaning the areas to be painted and then priming them. When sufficient primer has been applied you can then apply a thin tracer coat and start rubbing the primer down – which will truly allow you to see just how good the shape is. After making any necessary adjustments and re-priming, the whole surface is then cleaned with a spirit wipe to ensure that it is chemically clean before the colour coat is applied. Depending on the type of paint you use it will usually need to be left for a while to harden.

On this occasion it was just as well as this work coincided with the usual pandemonium which inevitably precedes the Club Triumph Ten Countries Run – an event involving around 150 or so participants (mainly old geezers), in around 70, equally old, cars, covering 2500 miles through 10 different countries across Europe in a ‘flying by the seat of your pants’ style over just 4 days.

The last minute type repairs included not only the by now normal engine tuning, oil changing, spark-plug replacing, brake and clutch hydraulic fluid renewing which we have come to know and love but also, on this occasion, cylinder-head stripping and valve replacing, plus broken engine mount-, fractured exhaust pipe-, blocked diff breather- split cv boot- and loose front crank nut- repairs. All in all, it was a busy morning and you can well imagine we were glad to stop for lunch!

More at Moordale Motors site

Body and chassis repairs to Triumph TR6

No two restoration projects are ever the same. In the case of this TR6, someone else had already started the job, but was unable to finish it and the vehicle owner had already elected to finish the job off himself. Effectively, we were tasked with carrying out all necessary body/chassis repairs which had not already been done, or which, perhaps, needed to be revisited. 

It is not usually necessary to separate the body from the chassis, however sometimes there is simply nothing else for it. When you have to get to certain parts of the chassis you just can’t do it with the body in place. This also makes it easier to get to the underside of the body.

However, you have to be careful to measure everything, brace the body shell and keep checking your measurements throughout the repairs. That way you might stand a chance of them fitting back together!!

More on this next time…http://www.triumph-car-restoration.uk.com

December 2012 - MK1 Triumph 2000

Reconstructive surgery on a Mk1 Triumph 2000 front chassis leg where the drag strut mounts before the whole thing tore out! Both sides were fitted with Superflex urethane bushes.

We also carried out an alternator conversion, rebuilt the carburettors, replaced all of the very old & perished tyres, collapsed engine and transmission mount rubbers, rehung the exhaust to prevent fouling on the propshaft and serviced, tuned & MoT’d the car.