Jason's Blog

It's getting more difficult to think up titles to these posts and it's showing now with poor quality puns. Sorry (not sorry). When I got the car, there were several things that were not quite finished, they were close but not quite there. The previous owner had a deadline to get the car ready for a show, he's a thorough guy and thinks things through, he's a designed and meticulous. But he's also human and is governed by the same rules of physics are the rest of us - we all run out of time! One of the things that needed finishing was the oil filter arrangement. With the engine valance in place, there was no way you could secure the filter head and get at it to replace the filter. Impossible really, when I changed the oil, I ended up pulling the whole thing off and making a mess when I did it. Here's what we came up with, moving things up front where there's a little more space. This meant remaking the hoses. We still needed a way to anchor it and make the fil...

Well, it worked, sort of, well not really but..... OK let's go through it - O rings in the inlet manifolds.  This didn't go well, the O rings, despite being heat and fuel resistant Viton material, deformed. The machining came close to the edge of the manifold and we lost a bit, it sort of blew out. It was a bit think before but now, it's gone. We were aware of how close the groove had been machined initially and were almost expecting this. The O ring failure however was unexpected. I've researched other materials and I did find some that would work but at over £100 per O ring I just didn't feel we should go on.  All in all, a bit of an expensive fail but I hope we've come out the other side with a decent result. So, plan B - return the manifolds to flush fitting with some suitable epoxy metal and use a conventional gasket, maybe with some high temp RTV to ensure a full and durable seal. The reason that we took the inlets off was not to examine these O rings, the...

Before I go through this it's important to say that none of what we found on the car and I've described below is to be regarded as a criticism - this car was built using some top notch components and to a high standard. The thought and thoroughness that's gone into it is amazing. Not everything is perfect and it's not all to my taste but, and here's the key, it wasn't built for me, or you. I will keep a lot of what's been done, I will change some of it and I will doubtless have to do some re-engineering to make it work. I may even find that some of it just won't work but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it and I'll enjoy the ride.  Many issues are down to the effects of  years of standing and whilst I didn't do the work I'm writing about, I've done it before on other cars - I seem to be drawn to cars that have been stood for years, or stored for years, or just not used, this is the fourth Triumph I've had with a ling history ...

The fuel tank had been a bit of an issue - a lovely stainless bespoke handmade item. It had been fitted over an enlarged spare wheel well (with a suitably extended rear valance) but it didn't quite measure up. The full size spare wouldn't fit. OK, easy enough, just choc it up a bit, expect the hold down straps would no longer be long enough. No problem, extend those. Now once raised up the outlet pipe isn't in the right place, the hole in the body doesn't line up. No problem, cut a new one and remake the connections. Oh, now the tank isn't supported evenly. We decided on a thick base board, painted in POR15 to support the tank and give a stable base to sit the tank on. The whole lot is strapped down with steel straps bolted through the body. All this was not before the amplified for the ICE was slightly relocated :-) The battery box was a similar story. The original fibreglass box needed some support to provide a stable base. The same baseboard was used and after ad...

 I'm not sure why but I always find getting tyres fitted to be a chore and often a stressful chore. This was no exception, even though I wasn't there and this was all done for me, it was a pain. This time, the choice of rubber was fairly easy, I'd had Toyo Proxy tyres on my previous Vitesse and the 2.5PI. I tried to get them on the TR6 but couldn't source them. This time round I decided on Rain Experts by Uniroyal. Several friends have them on their Triumph and I've driven on them and been impressed. SO that was the easy part.  Now where to get them? Well Halfords of all places had them on offer and so 5 were ordered and the wheels dropped off for fitting. Specific instructions were given that they should no load up weights without optimising the tyres on the rims first - I hate it when the fitter just slaps the tyre on and tells you "It's your wheels mate" even when they are brand new (been there before). Well the Halfords fitter was not the greatest,...

This last year has been an interesting one, those who've followed my blogs from the start will note that work has had a big influence on what I've been able to do with my Triumphs. This last year was no exception. I'll cur a long story short but in essence, I've become a contractor, to the firm I used to work for as a salaried employee. OK so it's not a huge deal but it does mean that the day rate is king and if I don't work I don't get paid - but when I do work, it's at a decent rate. All this waffle translates to the fact that I can earn more working than I need to spend to have the Vitesse resurrected - Mrs C did the maths and pointed out that I should just get on with it or pay someone else to do so. Finding someone wasn't that difficult, I've always been interested in workshops, how they run, how you turn a profit, who's trustworthy and does quality work and who isn't. I've got a lot of friends who work on cars in their spare tim...