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!
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Saturday, 20 September 2008
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!!
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!!
Monday, 21 July 2008
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/
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/
Thursday, 5 June 2008
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!
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!
Friday, 30 May 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, 29 May 2008
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.
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.
Monday, 12 May 2008
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
