We're In!

Craig beat me to this!

We're in the 2009 10CR - Car number 9, lets hope it's a better number than last time(33) - this time all wheel bearings will be new, don't plan to exit early this time!

If anyone remembers, my brother and I had to retire early in last years event due to a seriously knackered rear wheel bearing - Mr Pearson kindly supplied me with a nice exchange unit following the cars return to Blighty. This time, I plan to replace the other rear wheel bearing during the winter, check the front ones and replace if necessary, and I'm considering changing the front uprights to Caterham style.

Apart from these updates and the normal annual checks, I need to sort out the exhaust manifold which is leaking (again!) - would be nice to pickup a sports one at a decent price, and some K&N's to replace the tatty pancakes that are on the car at the moment.

Then there is the front numberplate - badly cracked from a French towrope last year - good excuse to get some Euro GB ones, and replace the spotlight I dropped a couple of months ago whilst replacing the front valences.

Why am I not using the Stag for this trip? - mmmm 20mpg max against 35 to 40 from the Spitfire might have something to do with it!

Triumph-Less!

Well, its only temporary really, I started changing the front quarter panels on the Spitfire about 3 weeks ago for some second hand steel ones that I sourced from ebay in excellent condition, sprayed them up and dismantled the front end of the Spit to fit them. This is where the problems started - hadn't noticed the replacement ones had no capture nuts. This meant some devious fitting of them to the chassis using new nuts, bolts and gaffer tape to hold the nuts in place until I could tighten them up. Now have to fit the indicators, using 'modern' plastic screw inserts and the bumper etc.

One minor self inflicted injury - I dropped one of the driving lamps and broke the lens, as they only cost me £5 at Stoneleigh last year, I have decided not to fit them back on as they didn't seem to improve on the excellent halogen headlights anyway. - So that is where the Spitfire currently is - awaiting half a days fitting together hopefully this week.

The other tale regards the Stag - it was such a nice day yesterday that I decided to take it to Penshurst where I was officiating at a wedding - got mostly there when after rounding a particularly bumpy bend that was a loud knock from the o/s rear - this was followed by a regular knocking sound of metal against metal for the next mile or so until I got to Penshurst.

Didn't have time to investigate before the wedding - very impressive, bride landed by helicopter andt he guests were treated to a display by a real Spitfire over the grounds after the ceremony (TA 805 if anyones interested - one of the Duxford few I believe)

Limped home afterwards and after a cursory examination it appears the bottom part of the Shock absorber spindle has sheared off. So in this lovely weather I am Triumph-Less!!

Showtime and other bits 'n bobs

The last month since my last Blog entry has been interesting - firstly was a holiday to Alaska, not expecting to see any British classics there when I was surprised to see an immaculate Moggy 1000 motoring along in Anchorage! This was followed by spotting the following in Vancouver on the way home, MGB, TR3 and Healy 3000! One of the many highlights of this trip was a memorable ride in a 1960's De Havilland Beaver Floatplane over the Alaskan Fjords, described by the pilot as the Cadillac of Floatplanes.

Anyway, back to the plot - I've been to two shows recently, the Kent Classic Car & Transport Show at Boughton, which was basically a washout, it started off quite well although the high winds destroyed my local TSSC areas Gazebo, Still we did manage 10 cars on our stand with the help of Essex area.

The next show was much better and one I always enjoy going to, the Darling Buds of May show which is held on the farm where they did a lot of outside filming. No club stand here, it's a well organised show covering all makes of cars organised by the P5 Alive club. The weather was excellent and I introduced my daughter and her husband to the delights of classic cars.

At both shows I took the Stag which is now becoming a bit of a celebrity having had my enforced restoration story printed in both the TSSC and SOC club magazines. On my return home from the Buds of May I noticed that the slight coolant link from the heater matrix had got a lot worse and the carpet was very wet on the drivers side, subsequent investigation identified the heater valve as a source of the leak with a continual drip.

After much research on the subject, mainly from the SOC forum I decided to bite the bullet and tackle the problem. Not wanting to drain down the whole system, I joined the heater inlet and outlet hoses together with some copper pipe so that I could also continue to use the car, then followed the workshop manual to remove the heater valve. Despite some worrying experiences relayed by other Stag owners concerning seized valve, mine came out very easily - the source of the leak was a perished O ring. So a new one has been ordered (£1.75!) which hopefully will arrive in the next day or so.

As an aside, another reason for the delay in updating this blog is that I have also been busy creating a website for our local TSSC area on Freewebs, a marvellous free website resource if you don't want anything too fancy. see http://www.freewebs.com/tssc-west-kent/

Radiator Fitted

Just realised I'm not the only one on the CT web site fitting a radiator - Alan Chatterton has done the same to his Stag.

Anyway, the full width rad has now been fitted to the Spitfire, resplendent in its new coating of Matt Black Barbeque paint! I also moved the electric fan to the rear of the rad and as a sucker rather than blower as there is more room to do this on the wider rad. It's a Davies Craig fan, and managed to get some purpose designed plastic fixings that attach through the rad. The fan is insulated from the fins by rubber washers on the fan side and foam pads on the front where the fixings tie down


I had to move the temperature control and air horn compressor as these were mounted on the metal panels either side of the standard radiator.

Using the car today, the temperature stays lower on the Temp Gauge, and the fan does not come on so often now. What is even more impressive is that I now know this rad was recored over 20 years ago, hasn't been used for most of those and has no leaks!

Radiator Testing

Checked the radiator today - hooked up the hose, closed off all the outlets - no leaks, at least at mains water pressure.

Just need to paint it now, after a bit of research on the TSSC forum, off I went looking for heat resistant spray paints and found this: Hammerite barbeque paint in our local DIY store. Just need to arrange some sort of grill on top of the radiator to hold the steaks!!!!

Also ordered some new Pacet fan ties from fleabay to secure the electric fan.

Radiator painting

No, nothing to do with DIY around the house, I happened to casually mention to a neighbour that I was thinking of replacing the standard radiator in my Spitfire 1500 as the existing one has sprung a slight leak on the header tank, when he said 'why not try the full width one I used to use in my Mk 2 Spit'

Not being one to ignore a gifthorse, I bit his hand off and away he went rummaging around under his workbench and lo and behold, an original Stanpart badged (Coventry Radiators) full width radiator emerged, somewhat dusty and grubby following a 15 year or so storage.


Incidentally, his Mk 2 Spitfire, currently in pieces since his son decided to restore it some 15 years ago will shortly be appearing on Ebay, having been replaced recently by a very low mileage Toledo 1300 in excellent condition.

Next steps are to test the radiator for soundness, - it was OK 15 years ago!, paint it as it is very grubby - see photo, and then install it in the Spitfire.

Stag Weekend

Well, not what you're all thinking - this was a weekend of using the Stag. I had an opportunity to join the beginning of the European Stag weekend organised by the SOC on Friday. This was a train ride from Tenterden to Bodiam on a specially chartered Steam train, appropriately titled the Stag Express.

It was a great start to the weekend, a nice leisurely drive down to Tenterden to join approx 50 other Stags in the Station car park, a leisurely ride through the Kent and Sussex countryside on the train followed by local beer (Shepherd Neame Spitfire of course) and beer battered Haddock and Chips at the Castle Inn on the sun terrace, leaving a short time to stroll around Bodiam castle before the ride back to Tenterden.

Returning to the car park to see 50+ Stags parked there was very impressive.

Saturday I was working so used the Spitfire on this occasion, parking it in the registry office car park whilst undertaking my duties there. When I came out to go home, I was confronted with the Bride and Bridesmaids of the wedding adorning themselves over the car!

Sunday was a Stag day again, met up with a couple of local TSSC members in their Vitesse convertible and Bond Equipe and convoyed along the M20/26/25 to Leatherhead for the SEM there making sure we blatted past any MG's we came across!

The SEM was a good turnout, unlike last year although there was little in the way of autojumble. Met up with TSSC Canterbury area and had a good day with them

Whe the time came to go home, Chris (Vitesse) and I decided to go home across country, as I used to work in Dorking some years ago I led the way down some very nice leafy lanes skirting Dorking, Gatwick, Lingfield and Tunbridge Wells arriving home about 1.5 hours later - great run. Only problem on this route is that all the nice leafy lanes I used to use are now 40 limited!

Stag went very well on both days, just getting a bit of misfire on kickdown at approx 4000 revs, but otherwise it is running very well indeed.

Bits 'n Bobs

Sundays run out to Manston was great - 38 Cars in total from TSSC, CT, SOC and the TR Register, covering all models of the marque (except Toledo/Dolomites). Just goes to show that we can all 'club' together when needed!

After the journey home, as the brakes on the Spit were feeling a bit spongy, I decided to jack up the rear and give them a bleed before the MOT Monday only to be confronted by a puddle of oil from the nearside rear shock. Monday morning came, cancelled MOT appointment as I knew I couldn't fix it that day, rushed out in the afternoon and bought a couple of cheap bog standard County items to get it through the test. Fitted them Wednesday, passed the Test first time today - Yay!!
And yes, I did bleed the brakes. I'll replace them with better items when funds allow, or, more likely, when one of them breaks!

I also did a small mod to the Stag this week, I now have illuminated heater controls!. A thread on the SOC forum was discussing how to acheive this, so whilst in Halfords I bought a couple of small LED lights for a Tenner. A simple fit, currently powered by a switchable plug in the cigar lighter, but will be wired into the dash lights soon. I would have preferred a red glow, but the blue light given off does complement my Blaupunkt Stereo!

West Kent TSSC Drive it Day Pictures

The pictures say the words- Great Day - 37 Cars at Manston

TSSC West Kent Area Drive it Day Update

An update on the applications received so far:

15 Confirmed and paid up - models covered are Spitfire Mk 3/4/1500, Herald 1200, 13/60, TR4,5,6, Bond Equipe, Hurricane, Stag.

Support from other Clubs is very encouraging as well with members from SOC, CT and the TR Register joining us, and the possibility of 5 or 6 additional Stags arriving in Convoy from South London. Members from Canterbury Area will also be joining us at the musuem, so it looks like we will have a good turnout - just hope the rain stays off!

MOT on the Spitfire runs out on the 21st so it's booked in for that day as its the day after the run!

A Triumph Break!

Nothing to do with Triumphs, although Land Rover are mentioned! - we've just come back from a Safari in Kenya, our fourth time there so we're a bit addicted to it. This time we took our daughter and her husband with us and for the first time had a 'real' safari vehicle a Land Rover Defender instead of the usual Nissan/Toyota safari vans. This was a great improvement, particularly because there had been some significant rainfall this year and the Defender went where no mere Nissan.Toyota dare, we even had to pull two Toyota Landcruisers out of the mud! (I say we loosely, it was actually our driver Gimo who performed the feat, we merely provided additional weight in the van!)

In short we had a great time, travelled through the Great Rift Valley, visited Samburu, Sweetwaters and the Masai Mara and saw lots of game. It was actually very quiet as so many tourists had either been put off by the recent troubles there or had had their holidays cancelled which is a great shame for the local tourist industry. We saw no sign of any troubles there and everyone we met were as friendly as they ever were. At one hotel we stayed in on Mount Kenya, we were the only 5 people for dinner and breakfast, clearly outnumbered by the staff there.

Anyway, here are a few pics we took there, the odd looking land rover was a 70's British Army one used to transport us to our balloon ride over the Mara, finished off by breakfast in the bush - great time.

Wind Deflector Part Two

Spent some time last week finishing off the wind deflector on the Stag. Took it up to South East Trimmers near Faversham where the owner matched up a piece of vinyl to the Stags Beige Trim, which is now commonly referred to as Biscuit apparantly.

Only cost £15 - what a bargain! - the next stop was B&Q for some aluminium strip and Evo Stick (new fangled solvent free white stuff!) This was followed by a quick trip to our local 'Grace Brothers' department store for some elastic, eyelets and velcro.

Whilst I was at the trimmers, he had a tonneau already made up so he drew the profile on the back of the material for me - this made it much easier.

Once home, the material was cut, edges glued and one of the ally strips embedded in the front edge, this was then bolted to the other ally strip sandwiching the plastic window. Eyelets were added and elastic attached. I needed to put two small bolts through the rear hood tonneau seal channel to take two of the elastic ties.

First Test Run had to wait until Sunday morning due to the weather - very impressed with the result.

And now for the bad news - I have had to withdraw our entry from CT's HCR due to a clash of dates - my nephews wedding is on the same day and I'd already promised to video it for him - Damn, was looking forward to the HCR!

Adding a wind deflector

I've been meaning to do something to make journeys on cold days a little more comfortable in the Stag and add a wind deflector to it. I did this with the Spitfire some time ago and the difference on that was huge.

Anyway, at the recent Ally Pally show I spied a Stag on the Club Triumph Eastern stand that had such an arrangement, what appealed to me was its simplicity - velcro fixings at the top and gate latch strikers at the bottom.

So late last week, I fashioned a cardboard template and went to a local glazer that also provides acrylic windows for saloon racing cars - he did all the required cutting and shaping leaving me to add the gate latches. Finished it this morning and tested it - great improvement - just awaiting some rubber door seal to edge it with and stop the acylic squeaking. The next step will be to make up a tonneau to go over the rear seats which will be attached to the bottom of the acrylic screen using aluminium strip.

Some samples of material arrived from Woolies today, but I'm not that happy with the match to the existing Beige (code74) trim, so have arranged to go to South East Trimming tommorrow who have some the right colour (I hope)

Total cost so far £45 - a lot cheaper than Bosscreen!

It's Sunny again!

The sun has just broken through the fog again today, over the last couple of days it has been so nice in the afternoon that I have been out each day for a blast around the countryside, top down in both the Spitfire and Stag - even collecting an 8ft tree from our local garden centre with the Stag.

The only mechanical tinkering carried out has been to replace a courtesy light switch on the Stag, all the interior lights now work!. I also keep finding little improvements following its return from Faversham - the heater fan now runs in 2 speeds, and the windscreen wipers now self park in the right position.

Noticed this morning a couple of deep gouges in the front left quarter of the bumper which are clearly a result of last years accident - must keep an eye out for a cheap replacement as its the only thing thats slightly marring its appearance.

Completed the SOC Agreed Valuation forms today and sent them off to Stuart at SOCTFL so that I can get a true value of the car to update the insurance - wonder what impact my accident will have on the premium renewal?

Must remember to take the camera out with me when I go out next time.

Tickets for Ally Pally turned up in the post today - taking my 85 year old Father there on Sunday - one of our annual outings. ALso spoke to the local (Kent) organiser of the TR Register this morning who is interested in promoting our local TSSC's Drive it Day run to Ramsgate. The more the merrier!

Stag is Home

Just got back from Faversham with the Stag, had to wait until I got back to take pictures as it was very foggy over there, was held up for 30 minutes on the M2 - passed 3 nose to tail accidents, know just how they feel!


The finish on the car is superb, I have to hand it to the guys at Faversham Classics, they certainly know their Stags - I recommend anyone that needs some work done on their Stags to consider using them, whether it is bodywork or mechanical, and their rates are resonable too.

Gave the car a good run back on the M2 (Fog had lifted), performed brilliantly - inside the speed limit of course, at least thats what the speedo said, I think it under reads by about 10mph!

Engine seems much quieter - were the timing chains that bad before? Temperature stayed spot on between quarter and half, but then it has had a new radiator to replace last years new one! Viscous coupling was new last year as well.

Stag twitch seems to have all but dissapeared although only one driveshaft has been replaced, there is some steering vibration at 60+ at the moment which was not there before the accident, I put this down to wheel imbalance, will get that checked in the near future when my funds have recovered!

Just need to give her a couple of coats of polish to protect the new paint (advised by Kevin), her next real outing will be on the Historic Counties Run with CT

She's Coming Home

Had a phone call today - the Stag is ready for collection, so tommorrow morning is the big day!

Over the last week she has had some additional painting down the sides to blend in the new paint - there were three layers of coach lines on her! I decided to have the timing chains replaced whilst the bonnet and radiator were out - Trevor at FC reported that they were well due for a change as the tensioners had a large gap to take up. I also elected to replace a driveshaft/hub assembly as the MOT man issued an advisory last year, so today she passed the test first time!

Can't wait to see the finished product with all those eBay bits fitted, new headlights and a nice shiny secondhand Stag badge picked up at Stoneleigh for a fiver last Sunday.

Will post pictures when she's home

Spot the difference

Had my weekly visit to FC today to see the progress. Kevin has polished the resprayed area now and it is looking very nice, the finish is excellent. The only problem is my photo's don't show this difference - Photo 1 was taken last week and appears earlier in the Blog, just after the paint was applied.

Photo 2 was taken today - both photo's were taken in daylight corrected flourescent light with no flash.

Had a discussion about the rear wings as the paint applied during an earlier repair is lighter, so depending upon the look when the doors are fitted it may be neccessary to flat back the existing paint and spray on a layer of the new. I am leaving this decision in Kevins hands as he is the expert!

Chocolate Stag?

Well, thats what my wife said when she saw the photos of todays visit to FC. Went in the Spitfire as the carbs are now nicely balanced - just need to check the timing/mixture as she's pinking a bit under load.

Had a very nice run across country on part of the route I've planned for the TSSC Run to Manston, bit bumpy in places - didn't notice that when I drove it last week in the Superb, wonder why?

Found a lovely piece of road just out of Ashford on the way to Faversham past the Chilston Park Hotel, they have this high brick wall that echoes the sports exhaust for about 1/4 mile!

Any way, here are the photos of a chocolate Stag (Actually Russet Brown)



The colour match is actually very good, next time I see the car the paint will have been flattened and polished, and the doors put on.

What a Plonker!

I've just spent the last 3 days trying to balance the carbs on the Spitfire - even bought a colortune today as a last resort as it was evident 3&4 were running rich. Plugged it in - good spark but no real fire!.

In frustration I decided to dissemble the carbs to get at the inlet manifold nuts just in case they needed tightening, took the heatshield off to find the gasket between it and the rear inlet manifold had missed the bottom bolt and was obscuring the inlet - what a plonker!!!

Put it all back together this evening, running really sweet now - just need to check the balance and mixture tomorrow

Stag in Primer

Had an early morning visit to Faversham as Kevin told me on Friday that the Stag would be spayed in Primer at the weekend, so I went down to look at her and take some photo's. He is hoping to spray her today/tommorrow in 2 pack, so the next visit will be even more interesting!

He has managed to get some excellent panel joins which are far better than she had when she went in there, notwithstanding the accident damage of course, I remain very impressed with his standard of workmanship.

Drive it Day 20th April

Spent Friday with a mate visiting the Spitfire and Hurricane Memorial Museum at Manston, Kent to sort out arrangements for the West Kent Area of the TSSC's proposed run out on the FBHVC Drive it Day. The run will be approx 50 miles from its start which is coincidentally in my home village!

The museum events coordinator is arranging for us to have a special parking area on a taxiway and the public will be invited to view the cars - naturally we are hoping for a significant number of Spitfires to join us and at least one Hurricane, although all Triumphs are welcome. I shall be there in my Spitfire - always assuming I've got the blessed carbs balanced properly!

The museum itself is fascinating, small, but unique in its history due to its close proximity to France during WW2

Carbs back on

Just finished reassembling the carbs on the Spitfire and linking everything together, although I do seem to have one throttle return spring left! Must check the manual/parts diagrams.

Started her up - sounds very throaty as I also refitted the Sports exhaust I had changed last year before the 10CR - the standard system was quieter! She is running a bit rough at the moment and refuses to idle off the choke, so I need to spend some time checking and balancing the carbs - I have printed out James Carruthers excellent guide on his website (see link) to follow, hopefully later today if work allows.

http://www.mintylamb.co.uk/?page=sutune.htm

Lots of smoke off the manifold when I first started her up - I guess this was a combination of WD40, 3 in 1 penetrating spray and firegum jointing paste burning off!

Getting There!

Went up to Faversham today - all the important bits have now been welded on - probably be painted this week and may even be ready next week!

I have also asked for the timing chains to be renewed as these are an unknown quantity and as I've entered Club Triumphs Historic Counties Run with the Stag I would prefer to be safe in the knowledge that at least that part of the car won't fail!

Also being MOT'd and a new nearside driveshaft and hub bearing fitted - this was an advisory on the last MOT

She's beginning to look like a car again!

On a different note I have been battling with the dreaded exhaust manifold to downpipe joint on my Spitfire 1500 over the last few days as its been leaking since the 10CR. One of the joint studs was stripped, so this has been drilled out and replaced by a bolt. At the same time, two of the lower manifold studs came out with their nuts seized on them, I managed to free one of them, but when trying to do the second, it snapped the stud!

Again - Faversham Classics to the rescue! - Trevor gave me a suitable UNF bolt that I have removed the head from and used to refit the manifold this evening. Thanks all to those friends on the CT and TSSC forums on advice on getting more easily to the lower bolts I am now the proud owner of some shiny 3/8 wobble bars and sockets that have made life much less stressful.

Tomorrow the carbs go back on - fingers crossed the leak is solved.