Triumph Spitfire - 21 owners!!

The 21 owner Spitfire came and went and is now safe, usable, roadworthy and has a fresh MoT on it. We are now well into the busy season with our current lead time being around 3 weeks for mechanical and electrical repairs, servicing and the like, which is fairly typical for the time of year. The main bulk of our present workload is, as you might expect, servicing, MoT work and tuning to get the cars out on the road for the summer.

In addition to all of that usual work we seem to have had quite a lot of injection work lately with several ‘aggravated’ tuning faults, all seemingly injection based problems. One of these required a new fuel pump as the original replacement Bosch item had developed leaky seals and two required metering unit repairs or replacement, one delivering unequal volumes of fuel to the cylinders and one leaking from the control unit end and also fuelling unevenly.

Although these faults were fairly evident, it never pays to be too hasty in assuming that all else is well. One of the cars in question had two partially blocked injectors and were hosing badly and underfuelling, one had also sooted up four of its plugs and another had burnt out points, low tension wire and block from the coil to the points due to the absence of a condenser! The difference replacing/fitting those made was quite significant and the owner had no idea how long the car had been like it!

Mark 2 Triumph Spitfire Finished

The Mark 2 Spitfire which we had in with paintwork issues, welding work to structural areas and driveline repairs needed has now been finished and is back with its owner who is busily refitting all the equipment he removed for the body restoration to be carried out.

We have now had the first few ‘early birds’ in, three with TR6s all at the same time, for putting their pride and joy back on the road after the winter lay-up. One required a replacement fuel pump shut off inertia switch to be fitted and a relay fitted for the pump itself as it is a Bosch unit which will draw rather more current than the original Lucas one. Funnily enough one of the other two had the same upgrade this time last year.

The third one was in for some additional work to the rear brakes and rear suspension, with Superflex trailing arm, damper drop link and spring seat insulator bushes being fitted along with a new driveshaft UJ and grease up of the splines. We also fitted a spin on oil filter conversion to prevent that awful death rattle which some cars suffer from with the standard oil filter and an oil cooler with thermostat to help stop it from getting all hot and bothered in the summer.

We also had to reinforce the boot floor where the twin box exhaust system had been fitted as it was tearing through the boot floor which had become a little thinner over the years and there were no ‘penny’ washers fitted to spread the load. Luckily we had some paint to finish off with which was a reasonable match.

We are now attempting to resurrect a 2000 Mk1, a Dolomite Sprint and a poor little Spitfire 1500 which has seen better days and has 21 owners on the V5 – it looks like one of them was careful, but only one!

Spitfires

We seem to have been overrun by early Spitfires of late, two Mark 2s and two Mark 3s in fact. These have come in for a variety of repairs and associated work with one Mark 3 in for its annual pre-winter service and MoT plus a few minor alterations to the electrickery side of things to improve the lighting with some nice new Halogen headlamps, the charging with an uprated alternator and an additional 12V power socket for all those important little gadgets we have these days. The other Mark 3 was in to have a long standing and worsening brake problem sorted out and to have some work done to the clutch hydraulic system and steering. This ended up being a set of replacement brake hoses with fluid renewal, a new clutch slave cylinder and a master cylinder repair and a set of new Superflex Urethane rack mounts, one new track road end and resetting the tracking – that got it going where it was pointed, starting off and stopping – what more could you ask?

The Mark 2s were in for a list of stuff to be sorted on one including many interior trim and control requirements from fitting a modern Bluetooth stereo compatible with hands free phone technology to replacing the aftermarket steering wheel with an original Mk3 type and the control knobs with new ones showing the correct icons for their purpose. There was also work to the braking system, carburettors, one driveshaft bearing, the overdrive unit and a general check over, service and tune up. To say that it felt like a new car afterwards is no exaggeration. The other Mark 2 is in for a bit longer with a few paintwork issues and some welding repairs in structural areas being undertaken as well as some repairs to the driveline – more on this one next time.

Winter Rebuilds 2015

With summer now just a distant memory – even the Club Triumph Ten Countries Run was two months ago now, what a rush it was getting several customer cars finished on time for the start of the event in the Netherlands and what a rush the event itself was too! I don’t think I have ever experienced more breath-taking scenery; there was just a constant stream of surprises from quaint local roadside cafes through huge 2.5Km + high mountains, tunnels, little rickety wooden bridges over mountain rivers. It seemed that there was something around almost every bend in the road.

Thoughts are now turning to winter rebuilds with orders confirmed for two engines to be built so far and a gearbox too. We have also had a late rush of ‘Reinstatement’ jobs this month, with no fewer than three cars arriving on the back of the transporter for sorting out and putting back on the road – that’ll give us something to while away the long dark hours until spring – think I had better order some more midnight oil for the lamps. 

The continuing rise in Classic Car prices seems to be fuelling more and more people’s efforts to dig old family motors out of hiding and get them back on the road. Either that or modern cars are so boring to drive that anyone with a sniff of a classic wants it ready for next year. Keep them coming I say, it’s just so nice to see them on the roads again.

My only reservation about all this work is that I have somehow to find the time to get my own little ‘garage find’ on the road in time for a few fairly important runs next year, the first of which is the Club Triumph ‘Tour of Ireland’ in May which I hope to be taking part in with my wife. Perhaps I had better stop typing and get to work – until next time then…………………

Triumph Stag head gasket replacement (and other work)

Following an unbelievably busy few months, so busy in fact that I didn’t even have time to update the blog, things have settled into a nice even rush! All of the engine rebuilds have been successfully completed, another head repair/gasket replacement on a Stag with chains, sprockets and all that jazz has also been and gone and we seem to have had a few fuel system issues with various customers vehicles.

There have been a few injection problems on TRs one of which turned out to be a very badly routed and undersized supply pipe from the tank to the pump with another couple having injector issues. We have also seen 2 TR6s both with replacement ignition switches fitted which have been overheating and causing breakdowns in heavy traffic – one on the M25! This looked at first like an overheating fuel pump causing a misfire then cutting out completely, only to restart having been left to cool down for a while.

What it transpired was actually happening though was that partly due to the ignition controlled feed from the switch to the fusebox being too small (smaller than the original) and partly due to the fitment of a Bosch pump in place of the Lucas unit (the Bosch unit draws more current) and a couple of additional ‘modern’ add on pieces of electrical equipment, the poor old switch was overheating and going high resistant just to make things worse, until it failed to pass sufficient current for the ignition coil to function.

Once the true cause of the trouble had been established it was a relatively simple matter to replace the switch and fit a new 40A switching relay to take the strain off the switch so that it wouldn’t do it again. Until next time, ta-ra.

Triumph Stag engine rebuild complete - on to the next jobs.

The Stag engine rebuild is now complete, the engine is back in the car, has been run to temperature a few times, tuned and road tested. All that remains is for the owner to reclaim his prize possession at the weekend.

We seem to have a plethora of six cylinder engine work underway at present. The first is a TR5 unit which is being fully rebuilt to more or less standard spec but with an unleaded head and balanced bottom end, following an unfortunate incident when last used on a touring trip to Europe. This would seem to have been caused by a prolonged period of detonation – have a look at the piston!

The second one is a Vitesse mark two which the owner wishes to have the cylinder head somewhat ‘breathed upon’ to increase power output particularly in the mid-range and to generally optimise efficiency and improve gas flow by fitting different sized valves and cleaning up the ports and throats. We will also fairly obviously be converting this one to run on unleaded fuel – it would be silly not to at this stage.

The third one is a 2500 carburettor engine intended for a 2000 saloon, which is being built to a recipe which I have successfully used many times now. This is designed to maximise the torque of these units whilst improving the breathing and top end performance with twin 1¾ inch SU HS6 carbs on the longer 2500S inlet manifold, a custom camshaft, different valves, a little head work and a balanced bottom end. This recipe usually delivers around 140 bhp or so with a good spread of torque and a lovely smooth free-revving engine which is still perfectly tractable in traffic and not too heavy on fuel. As such it seems to be about the best compromise I have come across for road use with a good performance.

Stag Rebuild

The Stag engine rebuild is continuing. We have received the crankshaft and cylinder block back from the engineers reground and rebored respectively and refitted them to each other with new bearing shells, thrust washers and pistons. The cylinder heads also returned from having new valve guides fitted and being refaced and have now been refitted with new valves, all duly lapped in, new cam buckets and mostly new tappet shims too. These are all now back in with the camshafts in place and ready for refitting to the block just as soon as the paint on that is fully dry.

Meanwhile we have had the pleasure of gaining a new customer by word of mouth recommendation from an existing customer, and have had a look at his very recent purchase of a nice shiny red TR6. It came in with a misfire/holding back issue and poor brakes. The misfire turned out to be nothing much more sinister than a couple of recalcitrant injectors; the brake problem was mainly down to geriatric DOT 3 or 4 type fluid the colour of Newgate’s Knocker which had unfortunately had Silicon type fluid added to it! This took a while to suck back out of the reservoir and then flush completely out of the rest of the system, but some other things we found were a bit more problematic.

The principle issues were a distinct lack of weld holding the body mount brackets to some repair sections welded between the floorpans and sills and also holding the plates to the floor! Apart from that there were some alarming gaps at the rear of the sill to floor areas, two seat anchorages which had pulled through the floorpan and were in danger of coming completely adrift and some column stalk wires which were trapped by the channel designed to protect them. Luckily we were able to resolve all of these little problems and the customer now has the car he wanted.