Do you need a Magazine?

eBay Seller: zoe deere: Magazines, Books, Comics Magazines items on eBay.co.uk

My daughter Zoe is disposing of my collection of magazines - acquired from various sources in a quest for info on World Cup Rally cars etc. I've done a deal with her that I'll help her list them on eBay and she can pocket the profit - if she makes any :-)
I think she should make a few quid but we've kept the prices down so we can shift them - if you need anything from the 80's and 90's. Titles include Practical Classics, Classic & Sportscar, Your Classic, Autosport, Motor, Classic Car, Cars & Car Conversions and many others. There are an absolute load of Practical Classics mags. As I acquired piles of them I have got 2 and 3 copies of the same mag in some cases.
I am a terrible collector and unable to throw stuff away so help her to help me!!
All proceeds go to sending her to see her mate in Florida OR towards her dream car, a Herald Coupe.

Idle hands and a keyboard!

In a moment of boredom I've managed to do some more RBRR preparation. I've bought some Castrol Valvemaster lead replacement additive for the run off eBay of course! Funnily enough when you look at the listings they all seem to come back to one seller! Nevertheless http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Chequer-Plate-Supplies have a few quid of mine and will be sending me a sack of leaded jizz to squirt in my engine! We'll see what occurs.
I also bought one of those sil blow up travel pillows - I saw a couple of people using them on the plane home from holiday and they seemed to get some sleep - with ear plugs in and my head supported I think I may have a better chance at some rest. Granted it's very unlikely but you gotta try haven't you - I don't think the back seat is going to be any good but who knows. I'm not averse to pulling over and getting 30 mins kip if we need it. With a 2 man crew we have to be sensible about these things. I'm also intending on running with a few other cars - safety and strength in numbers I think :-)
I also went silly and bought an electronic ignition - I have mixed feelings about this but for such a lot of sustained speed driving I think it's a good idea. The last two I've bought have come from http://www.vintageperformance.com/retrorockets/triumph.htm and have been fine. I don't usually like electrickery igntions because I like to see what's happeing but they have been so cheap and reliable in the past I thought "What the hell!" I will of course, like any true Triumph driver, have an igntion set in my spares kit to convert back to points!
I need some service bits for the car and I suspect a new set of brake pads won't go amiss (got an annoying squeek and they look a bit low) I'm sure I have a nice set of NOS with mucho asbestos lurking in the garage somewhere!

PI Plumbing sorted

A bit of a landmark today, I managed to collect the last of the plumbing fittings and sort out the fuel line. I went down to the local Pirtek fluid systems place - they are hydraulic experts and can make up hoses etc for you. I didn't want the hose made up but I did need someone to help me get around the incompatibility of the fitting I had with the PRV. Result, they had exactly what I needed - it did cost me a whopping £7.79 which was more than all the other fittings combined but it works. The down side is that I had to lose the fuel tap that was connected to the PRV but I can live with that.
The hose I've used is pretty serious stuff with massive burst pressure but takes "push on" fittings. Easy, you just push on the hose and it will take a couple of hundred PSI no problem. So you "just push on" the fittings do you? Yeah right! They were a bitch to get on, now they are on I've no doubt they will stay on! I made up a clamp to hold onto the hose and make inserting the fitting at the metering unit end easier.
So, the pump now has a cooling coil, a big bore T piece and a tell-tale drain that goes out of the car. The fuel pipe is connected with proper fittings that pass through the wheel well via a grommet. It then runs up alongside the chassis side rails but up out of the way behind the sill. I managed to get it around the front footwell and up into the engine compartment between chassis and scuttle - I relieved the gap a little with my die grinder and made sure I tool all the sharp edge off - this took a while but seems to be OK now.
I ripped all the temp fuel line out of the car and plugged up the two holes with silicone and a nut and bolt The fuel that leaked into the footwell has destroyed the duct tape that I'd used to seal the tunnel so I've left that all open for now. I ran out of time so I'll go back to it and re-seal it all tomorrow evening (if I get back from Norwich at a reasonable time).
So what's left to do?
Well

Buy a fire extinguisher - Done
Tune the end float on the Lucas pump - Done thanks to Draper who replaced my faulty multimeter 2 years after buying it!
Find a way to fit the cooling coil - Just found and bought of eBay a pump, PRV, cradle and cooling coil all fitted together - Done
Plumb in a "helper" pump for the Lucas pump - undecided on this
Tidy up the throttle linkage and fit a stronger return spring - sort of done, need to find a better spring -
Make the plenum to throttle body joiners - Done
An air filter
Sort out the tell tale drain from the pump - Done
Re-mount the filter bowl lower
Make a boot floor - piece of MDF or ply or similar - so I can use the boot again
Mount the spare wheel in the boot, on the new boot floor
Change the fuel filter - just in case, get a spare too.
Source a take off for the fuel pressure gauge I've got
Recon a couple of injectors, a spare pump and a spares kit for the car
Select or buy some tools specific to the car
Oh and get some inserts in the cylinder head but that's a whole other can of worms!!!

I've seen it and it's big

I've just managed to wrestle Zoe's camera from her and downloaded the pictures. This one gives you an idea of the size of the rig I was driving - it's BIG!

Triumph World Picnic 3rd September

Triumph World - Feature: 10th Triumph World Picnic

This year it's being held at Wellington Country Park just South of Reading off the main A33 Basingstoke Road - litterally just down the road for me! I think we may try and take both cars for a run out, the Vitesse is not 100% but it'll be OK for such a short run out (famous last words!) I'll pack a tow rope!
If you're intending on going let me know or come and say hello. There seem to be a few guys from my TSSC Area going, it is local afterall :-)

Cool man!

One cooling coil fitted and nestling nicely in the boot. I wish I could get the filter lower so I could put a cover over all this but it's just too tall. I may take a saw to it and trim off the top of the housing. Then I can mount the bolts lower and it won't stand to tall - there's no real need for it to be so tall. 

The battle of the sexes, plumbing style!

I should have known, there are different types fo female fittings! No wonder I can never understand women!
I finally managed to get out to the garage to attack the Vitesse plumbing and sort out the fuel lines. I fitted the larger cpacity T piece weeks ago and today I thought I'd get the cooling coil and Aeroquipe hoses in place. Well the cooling coild went in surprisingly easy, I even managed to plum in the tell tale drain from the motor - this is the little pipe that tells you if your seals are failing. If you have failing seals you'll get a little drip of petrol out of this, it's important that you ensure it routes out of the car - petrol leaking and collecting in your car is not a good thing! So I extended the hose down to the drain in the boot floor, added a grommet and all is well.
So, bouyed by my success, I set about the real job. I fell at the first hurdle!

I had bout the neccessary fittings and hose as soon as I realised the plumbing wasn't up t the job. I ordered from www.thinkauto.com the stuff came and all was well with the world. Now I come to fit it I find that there must be 2 different types of adapters - where the hose needs to go onto the pressure relief valve I need to go down from 1/4 BSP to 3/8 BSP - easy enough BUT (why is there always a but?) although the thread is right and the size is right there's a matching problem - the pressure relief valve has a "pointed" end to it's thread ie it's like the left hand thread in the picture above. The Adapter should therefore have a seat that matched it - it doesn't, it has the same "pointed" seat - so the two can't seal :-(

I'm a little hacked off with this as now it's 3:30pm on Saturday (and a Bank Holiday weekend) so I can't do anything about it, Think are close and my local hydraulics place is too. So this will have to wait! I guess I can still try and sort out the pipe route and the metering unit end (that fits OK) but I don't want to immpobilise the car if I can help it - I hate having a dead car in the Garage! 

Smell a Rat?

I'm back from holidays and ploughing through a sea of emails at work and at home. I was bored at work so I delved into the "home email" bin and found one from a mate. Seems that well known breaker of Triumphs Quiller Triumph has spun off a vermin themed operation - RatSport - check out their contact pages, it's all the same.

Having had a look around Rat's site it seems the rodent themed outlet may just be the shiny bits selling arm of Quiller, it's all general shiny bits for the yoofs to bling der motas wiv.

Only in America....

....can you be overtaken by a Moose!

Moving moving moving

We've moved again, this time to Wisconsin Dells, the Blackpool of Wisconsin! Full of waterparks, fun fairs and tourist attractions - should be fun for the kids. We've seen a lot of US muscle cars on the roads getting here, there must have been some sort of car show somewhere! It's been good to see some of these cars being driven but Americans really do respect their speed limits out here, it was a shame none of the cars were being driven hard :-) Claudia says I can't have a Plymouth Satellite, it'll use more petrol turning round than the Vitesse does in a month (and that's a lot) - also, it won't fit in the garage!

eBay Motors: Plymouth : Satellite (item 120018428776 end time Aug-19-06 08:40:36 PDT)

eBay Motors: Plymouth : Satellite (item 120018428776 end time Aug-19-06 08:40:36 PDT): "Item number: 120018428776"

This isn't the car I was on about but another one, looks nasty in this colour but still a serious piece of kit and in Wiconsin :-)

Bloody left hand drive!

Where's the steering wheel gone?? 

In the land of the free

Well I'm sat in the world's lrgest shopping Mall, sipping my frothy coffee and collecting my emails from the Apple shop's free WiFi internet connection (that only works when you're sat right in front of the shop).
Mall of America in in Minneapolis, a city I have driven through in my Dad's 50 foot long "rig" - a pick-up and "fifth wheel" trailer - an experience for sure!
I've seen one Triumph, the one I knew I would see. I've also seen a couple of MGs, one Midget and one B, both in what looked like daily use. I parked my 7 litre 6 seaterpic-up next to the Midget to get a photo but then realised I didn't have my camera on me!
Never mind - I went to a car show and saw many many US muscle cars - I fell in love with a brutal thing called a Plymouth Satelite - one of 315 made with a huge "Hemi" in it - the car that first brought the Hemi to the public - I asked the owner what gas mileage he got "one gallon ever 500 yards" was his reply, he wasn't joking - the thing runs on 106 octane that he "makes" himself - this was a standard road car :-)
Anyway, I'm off now to ride on the theme park that's inside the Mall, of course it's the worlds largest indoor theme park!
I'll try and put some photos up soon, as soon as I can figure out where to sit in comfort and do it.