Jason's Blog

  When I had my tyres fitted the guy who balanced the wheels complained that the centre caps would not come off and asked me to take them off - he didn't want to break them, so I did. Looks like they were glued onto the wheels. Great for staying put but not so good when you want them balanced. The upshot is that I had 4 damaged caps that I tried to stick back on with something less sticky - well now I have three as one fell off and got lost :-( I took the others off and have been trying to get replacements. The caps are plastic with a 58mm diameter, 32mm tall and have fixings that are 7mm deep with a 4.5 mm recess in them. Anyone got any ideas where to get some from? 

I was looking for some cheap and cheerful recliners to put in for the Round Britain Run so Andy and I would be comfortable. Well of course I ended up buying some expensive non-reclining Sparco rally seats in leather :-) It's a long story but basically I got chatting through email about seats to a guy, he said he'd got some Bond setas that needed recovering and so we negotiated a deal to buy those, then when I asked abouy recovering them he mentioned he had these leatehr Sparco seats. Well then he mentioned they'd been in a Vitesse and were for sale, then to top it all he said he was due to visit some friends who lived local to me and he'd deliver them! So that was the clincher - a deal was done and he came over today with the seats. I;ve fitted them in and they look great - thanks Adam, I'll look after them :-) The down side is that now my wife, who's never been that keen on my car, sayd she likes it a lot more!   Ultimately I'd like to change the interior t...

The seat base covers are secured to the wire frames with hog rings, big metal "staples" that are bent round like a "C". You need a special tool for them and once they are in, you can't easily get them out. I picked up this tip from somewhere - use cable ties. They are great for adding tension, need no special tool and can be removed with a pair of side cutters or scissors really easily - oh and they are cheap :-)   

You don't think it will fit, the foam looks far too big, but it does fit - just use a carrier bag or some cling film to make a slidey cover and all will be well. You can rip it out at the end. Then a couple of nails or staples will hold it together before you put the base playe and screws back in - yes there's a bit of wood in there, as Triumph intended :-) The final product, lump and full, a bit like me! 

The headrests were, in the words of my dauhgter, "minging" - OK they were flat and formless. They didn't shed crumbs of foam but they really were crap! Take out the two self tappers and remove the metal base plate. Pull out the staples and this is what you get , a pile of crumbs and a metal ping pong bat. The intact foam is like a sock that sits over the crumbs - this looked fine so I reused it. I had some foam left over from rebuilding our old Herald seats so I thought I'd use that. The foams a bit of pig to shape but a serrated bread knife does the job ;-) 

Nice new foam on the frame - you can stick it on, the frame was very tacky with old glue and so I didn't put any more on as it just seemed to sit there and not move! As you try and put the cover over the foam you will find that it won't slide, the answer? A bit of plastic, cling film works great :-) You really do then just slide the cover over and replace the clips. Make sure you get that flappy bit through the foam - that's the only tricky bit. The end result is a "fuller" seat back which now offers some support! Spit seats are actually very good when they are in good order. 

Once you've undone all the clips and taken the recliner lever off (easier said than done as it's usually rusted to the mechanism!) you can now pull off the cover. Remember that there is a flap inside the cover that goes through the foam from the front to the back, this pulls the seat back against the foam and keeps it under tension. As these seats had been taken apart recently - well a couple of years ago, the straps were OK. You can see the disintegrated foam on the floor - there was lots of it! What a mess! Here's the nice new foam back - these aren't "handed" , only the bases are. 

So, this weekend I went back to the Sixfire seat rebuilding and carried on where I left off. The passenger seat was done and looked OK so I thought I'd take a few photos of the drivers seat rebuild. Here's what I started with, looks OK doesn't it BUT it's flat, especially the seat back and headrest. Theses photos show what you will find inside your old seats, foam falling apart! If you are careful you can removethe clips and not destroy the covers. These are pretty durable as they are leather but there's still a fair amount of vinyl in them  

Or is your arse dragging on the floor? Do you clean your carpets only to find what look like biscuit crumbs on the floor after a drive? Well you may have KFS - knackered foam syndrome. That's where someone replaces the seat covers but doesn't do the foams - te foam then starts to fall apart and fall out! This has been happening to the Sixfire, much to the wife's dismay. So I buit the bullet and bought a set of seat foams from Dave at Canley Classics, they ain't cheap but then if you want a proper job, get the proper bits. Here's what I picked up yesterday at Dave's. A pair of seat base foams and a pair of seat back foams - the bases are handed and come with the fibre boards. The backs are ambidextrous Fortunately it was good weather so I could do the job outside - cos it was messy! The old foam fell out all over the place. The towel was to work on so I could protect the leather covers the previous owner had fitted. The frames and straps were all OK having been r...

This made me laugh, two fingers up to Team Moskvitch - I bet you won't find a listing for Moskvitch brakes in a Ferodo catalogue anyway!

I'd always wondered where you would get a bag fuel tank to go in the boot of your World Cup Rally car if you had one, well now I know where you could get one in 1970! From the pages of Autosport 4th June 1970 - there's loads of post-World Cup Rally adverts in there.

Whilst trawling through some old magazines - it's the kind of thing I do when I'm bored (more on the results of my tralw later) - I found this. No more detail but it was interesting because firstly I never knew Fairthorpe were made in Buckinghamshire and secondly, I never knew they ever made a 2.5PI engines car! I've never seen one of these in the flesh, looks interesting if a little slab sided. Anyone ever seen one in the felsh so to speak?

The 17th IoW Triumph weekend organised by TSSC members ANgel and Graham was once again outstanding. A great weekend of driving, camping, drinking and farting. Although a TSSC event in name it's really open to anyone with a Triumph. Carl & Becky bought two cars over, Becky's green Spit is seen here at Cowes parked next to my Vitesse that seemed popular with the kids! We are both proudly sporting our Club Triumph sunstrips :-) 

of all shapes sizes and ages, even a Bond and a Stag or two as well as TRs and a couple of Dollies. 

.....the car hood stays down! 

 

Carl is VERY serious about his beer 

But we were very very drunk. This is a rare occassion when I got my Ten Countries T Shirt out - proud to have driven around Europe in a Triumph 

Andy Cooke, Nappy Cack Yellow GT6 pilot and my RBRR co-driver for this year is befuddled by the "Fuddle De Dum" Isle of Wight ale.