Triumphs of Nick B.

Rebuilding rockers

2011-06-09T09:15:00.002+01:00

Work beginning by giving two old set of rockers a sonic bath

Hopefully there will be enouigh parts to make one good set.

When this is done I will swap out the worn one in the car - hopefully the car does not have to be out of service then.

Pics galore:

GAVNØ2011

2011-06-05T20:52:00.004+01:00

Time for thiis years autojumble at Gavnoe. It is an annual show with appr. 1.000 cars on show.

The type of cars are wildly different. From concourse Rolls Royce to tatty Mazdas

Well, before getting to Gavnoe I gave the car a good wash, fresh oilfilter and oil, and just for the fun of it, a magnetic sumpplug I had.

On a sidenote - the classic gold filter does NOT have a satisfying oilvalve, so I am still lacking oilpressure for the first ten seconds cranking.

Nice magnetic drainplug. Hopefully nice and clean at the next oilchange. The oil I took out where not to bad. A tad darker than what went in 3.000 miles ago, but still brownish and transparent

Fair bit of triumphs, most of them very polished TRs though. A bit boring really

I met Peter S. with his family in their new 2000 mk2. Nice straight car in need of a respray.

First drive of the year

2011-04-19T11:55:00.004+01:00

I went to the inlaws (200 miles away) to pick up the spit. I had been parked there for the winter.
Car was rather dusty when I found it.

Also most of the alloy bits had suffered a bit. Blisters of alloy dust over most parts.

With the battery hooked up it started with no probs. 3 seconds of cranking and it sprung to life.

Took a nice 4 hours drive home with a quick stop for a photo

Drives as expected. Still have a fair few points I want to correct over the summer. Hopefully the MJ is going omn this year.

GT6 Rear valance

2011-02-01T08:12:00.004Z

Rear valance has been in place for a while, but the small brackets for holding the fueltank and plate on the luggagearea needs to be welded to the new valance.

Here is the old top part of the valance with one of the brackets

And after a bit of slicing and welding

oops - another one

And another one

Thats about it for the rear valance. Result is fair. Just needs a good decking.....

BANG

2010-09-30T11:15:00.002+01:00

New needles

2010-09-27T09:43:00.004+01:00

Swapped needles at a clubmeeting yestersday. I have been suspecting a bit of lean running with my HS4 AAQ needles. So the went for for a pair of ABA.On paper the ABA is a bit richer, though the change isn't much noticeable.

Car stills seems to be a bit down on ooomph. Ignition is set a 6 degrees. I better sort the megajolt soon ......

The twilight zone - between bodging and destruction...

2010-09-14T13:45:00.006+01:00

True horrors revealed. I started removing filler from the bonnet. There were a small hole which needed to be cleaned up in order to be patched. It turned out that this bonnet has been the object of severe bodging - borderline destruction.

Car has obvoiously had a front impact. The nose had been cut of another car. Not as such an entirely bad idea.

Where things go wrong is:

1: it isn't properly aligned.
2:it has been done by someone who prefers working with filler more than working with metal

So basicly thing has been put on - then beaten half to death and given a good filler- job.

Amazing thing is that it actually wasn't visible due to the amount of filler. That said - parts of the bonnet had appr. 1.5 cm's of filler.

Future plans aren't clear. We will give at a go with repairing. If it turns out to be beyond salvation we have another topplate which migt be put on instead. Though wwe prefer not to, as we kind of have other plans for that one....

Sad thing is - this bonnet is really really nice (apart from the bodge)- There is no rust in the wheelarches and everything looks OK.

Enjoy the horrors

Still alive

2010-08-27T23:00:00.006+01:00

No updates since march. Hmm. Well - a few bits and bobs have been done.
Mostly I have been driving the Spit. It has given me 3.000 effortless kilometres this summer. It has even been flogged round a track at the club track day. Not exactly sure that it was a good idea though it was funny.... Looong story which ended up with a melted plug

Also a bit of work has been done to the GT6. Rear valance as been attacked.

Also the rear light panels were quite bashed in due to the rear-ending.

Effort to put it right has made it somewhat better. Actually as good as it gets without replacing the entire rearwing.

Removing a bodge

2010-03-25T08:37:00.006Z

.... and introducing another.

My generator has been held in place by a less than pretty mix of jubilee-clips and strips. Last night I removed the old dynamobracket and replaced it with a newer one fron Canley (kindly given to me by The Mad Welder).

The original bodge - produced "en route" during Round Denmark Reliability run when the rear bolt snapped.

And here the result of the evenings work - another bodge. It appears that my generatorbolt is on the shortish side. When tightened the rear leg of the generator moves inwards. Must purchase another bolt, and shim the bracket.

On the road again - spring has sprung

2010-03-24T09:29:00.002Z

What a nice (though a bit chilly) day to bring the spit out.

Got to get the idlescrew spring on the carb. Idling at 2000 RPM . Embarrasing....

There is a hole in my GT6 (and pocket)

2010-02-27T20:42:00.000Z

This pretty piece of rust came out of the GT6 the other day. Bye bye rusty rearvalance.

Amazing piece of repair - car has been rearended once, and had just the middle of the rearvalance replaced

Hmm - has got BODGE written all over it

YUK

Glad it is out

Bonnet ready for sandblaster

2010-02-07T15:44:00.004Z

YIHAAAAA. Finally done removing underseal from the yank GT6 bonnet. It was well and truly given a very thorough underseal, hich was extremely difficult to remove.

Here the bonnet has been put aside. Next task is to remove underseal from the mad welders car (while he in exchange helps putting a new rear valance in the GT6

Sonic cleaning

2010-01-29T18:10:00.004Z

New toy bought - sonic cleaner with a nice 6L tank capacity.

Made a few experiment last night. Not too succesfull, plenty of room for improvement. A proper cleaning agent for instance. Was using fairy liquid. Also need a baske - not good enough just lying in the tub like this.

Carb float bowl before sonich bath

and carb piston

Two hours later, not impressive, but OK. Saved me a lot of work.

This is because piston was standing and not rotated once in a while. Needs another go - perhaps suspended with a piece of string

Bit more luck with the float bowls

Water got plenty dirty though

Yawn - still scraping

2010-01-27T10:20:00.002Z

I am getting closer to being able to send the bonneet of to the sandblaster. Nearly there now.

Underseal, underseal and more underseal

2009-12-01T09:50:00.003Z

I have been slightly unmotivated by the task of removing underseal from the bonnet. I did however manage to spend a few hours last night by this tiresome task. Only good thing about it was that it kept me warm!

I am almost done with it - I guess it will be ready for the sandblasterafter next session.

The bonnet was worse than I had hoped. The left hand wing will have to be replaced. And some repars around the headlamppanel is also needed.
Bit of pics.

bit of this and that

2009-10-12T11:17:00.004+01:00

Ages since my last update. It is not exactly as if I have been doing nothing. On the spitfire I have done next to nothing - not even bothered to adjust the dampers. And foolishly I have managed to misplace both set of keys for the car, so it is sitting miserably in the carport these days. Actually the keys werent misplaced - I had a moment of paranoia and hid the keys very weel for the instance the house would be burgled while I was away. When I needed the keys 4 days later I couldn't remember where I had hid them :B They will turn up eventually - hopefully before spring!

So basicly what has been done to the spit this season has been putting almost 3.000 miles on it and done nothiong but an oilchange and new oilfilter (well, then the insurance has sorted out new bumper and fixing the bonnet, but that does not count!)

On the GT6 major work is going on. Most of the car has been taken to bits now.

I am currently removing old underseal (waxoil?) from the bonnet, so it can be sent of to the sandblaster. The bonnet is far worse than expected. I will most likely have to replace a wing plus the panel under the headlight. :-/

Fair bit of filler around the headlight panel :o

:'( :'( :'(

Removing underseal is a pain in the whatever - especially when the car has been left for 20 odd years in the california desert. One should thing it was dried out and easy to remove - but no - it has more or lees been burned into the paint. Actually I am removing more paint than undersealer.

Do notice that the yank who was the previous owner of this vehicle did not believe in welding - he has obviously put all his effort into soldering the car together!!!!

Wont be pretty when it comes back from sandblasting!

2009-09-03T20:36:00.000+01:00

Taking GT6 apart

2009-08-07T11:59:00.007+01:00

After a long vacation, it is time to get on with the GT6. The spit is with the painter. Need a respray of the bonnet after the reversing woman incident...

Anyway - was in the garage yesterday. Has been pulling all interior and doors from the GT6. It turned out that the tank was completely shot. A good example has been sourced.

Last night was "pull the dashboard" night. Was a bloody nightmare. Basicly the dashboard are held in place by the gauges. Unfortunately the small knurled knobs were rusted solid to the studs on the instruments. And it is so cramped behind the dash that I could not get to it with any tools. Amazing where this car is rusted - the sills and floors are spotless - but the gauges - oh horror!

I spent the better part of 2 hours removing the dash! The dash itself has pretty much disintegrated - will be a right challenge to get it sorted. Great fun ahead!

I suspect the former owner of this car was either a plummer or just has a serious fetisch for bathroom accesories. The draintap on the batterybox was this

and even worse - a bog roll was used on the steeringcolumn for unknown purposes (unless the car was used as a loo!!)

In an attempt to reduce heat/noise the former owner also glued foam all over the car (as seen above). Had a party removing all this. Nasty stuff. A really bad idea fitting this kind of foam - it absorbs moisture and had it not been removed car would have suffered in the danish climate.

Bits and pieces.

Bulkhead is soon cleared - master cylinders and pedals has been removed. Starter solenoid and wipermotor are also gone. Batterybox was some homebrew thingy riveted on - was a bliss to se it gone!

Next time the heatermatrix will be out, and I can proceed on removing the engine. On seciond thought - might leave the engine in until I am done with the chassis. Rear valnce is doomed - will soonish be replaced. Progress really depends on when I will get the spit back from the painter - I will need to prep it for Round Denmark Reliability Run which is in 6 weeks. Uh oh - I am in a busy...

CRASH, crap ........

2009-06-16T20:22:00.005+01:00

Crap. Women should NOT be allowed to drive >:(

I was in town witing for the lighths when some woman decided to reverse her car into mine. She didn't see me - she said. :'( :'(

Bumper is dead. There is a kink in the frame just behind the rad - I fear the left hand side of the frame has been lifted.

Paint has cracked on the bonnet where the lamp panel is joined with the centerpanel.

Shit

Stats of the day - Gavnoe

2009-06-08T09:56:00.003+01:00

OK - was at the autojumble on Gavnoe. Wether was arite - not fantastic - but at least not raining! I got up at around 6 oclock in the morning. Grapped som coffee and headed south. Got lost around Roskilde and switched on the satnav. Said I would be 17 minutes late for the meetingpoint. Booted the car - turned up 7 minutes late. Entered parking lot sideways :-)

It was bloody cold - next time I will be wearing gloves!

Back home (add another 50 kilometers that wasn't logged before I turned the satnav on.)

Car is running close to fine, but still need alot of adjustment. Dizzy is crap and cant wait to get rid of it. Shaft is slightly bent and car is running very uneven with a lot og missing beats. Bring on the megajolt please! Need to get the wiring sorted!

We had a good run from the meeting point to Gavnoe. Got to check out the brakes a few times. I love those mintex pads. Locking the wheels is no problems - especially when the pads are warm.

My spit next to Peters very nice TR4

Dirks Spit Mk2/Mk3 hybrid.

Lovely GT6 engine department

More spits

Nice steering wheel! (but probablu pretty uncomfortable on the long trips)

Well sorted TR4

With proper tyres!

Prepraring for Gavnoe

2009-06-06T19:58:00.004+01:00

Got a bit of driving last few days. Went to see hillclimb yesterday. Good fun, and the lonely Triumph did very well coming in second overall.

Tomorrow is Gavnoe Autojumble, which hopefully will be graced by nice weather. I went to a mate today and who was so kind to get the carbs in perfect tune. Found out the dizzy has a slightly bent shaft causing all a somewhat uneven engine. I reaaaally look forward to megajolting it!!!

Come autojumble tomorrow and hopefully some nice pics. Here is a pic of my car last time I went - think it was 2001. My spit mk 3 with the missing front valance. The short big bloke resting his hand on the window is the previous owner. All the panels you see in the pic has been replaced since the. Front, door, sills, windowframe, rearwing, bootlid. It didn't look to bad from a distance but it was very very bad! Actually - the only thing in the pic still on the car is the wiperams and the front bumper......

It drives

2009-05-26T21:54:00.004+01:00

Isn't it great. There is absolutely NOTHING to report. Car drives - gives me a good 20 minutes therapy each morning commuting to work, and then again in the afternoon. Nice ride through the forrest. Excellent. I need to adjust the carbs and ignition. Can't really be arsed with ignition - I will megajolt it sometine in the future. So it's max a question of using to minutes on the ignition.

Carbs are completely out of balance and running to rich. I broke the choke-cable holder thingy - so cars is running with a slight choke permanently. Need to adress that one!

Back on the road - life is wonderfull

2009-05-21T15:33:00.010+01:00

Been a while since last update - been busy with all kinds of non-triumph stuff. However - there has been progress - car is now back together, brought home and put into daily service. Nice feeling. My clutch release pin operation has been a succes, biting point is now exactly where I want it - right in the middle of the pedal travel. This small mod making the pin adjustable is really a wonderfull thing.

Here is as pic of the modded pin and an old one for comparison

Love the feeling when things work out as planned.

Braking was a new positive experience. I had gone from noname cheapo pads to Mintex 1144. Brakes like a moderne now!!! Again - wonderful.

I took the exhaust of a while bace in order to refit gearbox. I took the opportunity to correct a minor flaw. The exhaust had been blowing - just a very very little bit due to the joint from 2 to 1 not being equal lengths. I chopped a ring of the exhaust. Another problem of the list. Wonderfull.

As a positive sideeffect - the vibration I had round 55 mph has gone as I rotated the propshaft - Wooooonderful.

So all in all - everything is fine. After a good long drive last night I checked the plugs. I really need to get the lambda sensor fitted so I can get some more info on the AFR. Plugs looked like this after 30 miles cosy driving.

Plug 1: (closest to the radiator)

Plug 2

Plug 4

Maybe a slight on the lean side??

Project now is getting the interior trimmed decently. And fix the sidewindows. The are deadstuck in the middle - and for the worse. I suspect some quick and dirty assembly of the doors are to blame. Seems that the winder mech is interfering with the doorskin - making an outward going dent - not so wonderfull.....

Tapping for Megajolt

2009-05-07T22:26:00.002+01:00

First - sorry - no pics. When I wanted to get a few pictures I realized (again) that the battery on the camera was flat. That's second time recently this has happened. Better get some fresh batteries soon.

Still - I have had some fair progress. The exhaust prop and engine are all bolted back together fine. I took the inlet manifold of and drilled 4 holes in it for vacuum. First a 2mm pilot hole. Then a 4,2 mm hole and finally tapping for 5mm thread. Went quite smooth was OK result. I have had some problems with the choke sticking. It is a SU1.5. It has been converted from waxstat jets to proper jets. Problem is (I think) that the links used to convert isn't all perfect and creates a bit of tension. Morten and I tried messing with the links to see if we could release a bit of he tension. After quite a bit of fiddling the choke got better - not perfect - but better. Carbs went back on - all nuts on the manifold studs were tightened.

I found out I had forgot to put the radiator overflow bottle back on when I put the radiator in. Bit of a problem as the radiator has to be tilted a bit to get to the bolt where the overflowbottle-bracket attaches. So - undo 6 radiator bolts - overfowbracket in. Tighten bolts again. Mission accomplished.

Finally I put in a very neat bit of wire harness that The Mad Welder had made for me. I am converting from dynamo to generator plus a few other thing. So I needed a new harness for the generator, the oilpan temperature and halogenlights. But it was made perfect and very easy to fit. Thanks Morten

Enough for this time. Next time I get to spend a bit of time with the car I will try and start it.

A few steps forward again

2009-05-02T10:49:00.002+01:00

After a few setbacks thng are progressing again

Gearbox has been bolted back on the engine. I har to take prop ang exhaust off to get to the gearbox - and now the exhaust wqs off I used the opportunity to get a few things right. The joint from 2 to 1 was never really good as one pipe waqs a bit longer than the other. I pulled the manifold and made a cut. Now lengths are perfect. I also made another bracket to hang the exhaust by on the differential. It was onky attached on one side making the two exits not sitting even.

Exhaust and prop are now back on - and theoretically I should be out enjoying the fine weather. Ahem - now everything waqs off I couldn't resist taking inlet manifold off in order to tap holes for the megajolt vaacum takeoffs. It needs four holes tapped.

I was going in circles round this job last night doing all kinds of other stuff. Perhaps I get a chance later this weekend. I don't really like the thought of messing up having the takeoffs looking weird pointing in all directions. I have t get the drill and tap entering manifold at exactly same angle. Better not rush this job.

Also need to work a bit on the choke. It is sticking. A bit of fettling with grid 1000 on the jet should help - hopefully....

Thats it for now

Triggerwheel attached to front pulley

2009-04-27T10:19:00.004+01:00

So - despite my cars effort to piss me off there has been some progress. Triggerwheel has been attached to the front pulley.

First - clean pulley - find out how to position triggerwheel - done a while ago

Next - engage The Mad Welder to do his thing

Finally - put nut back on and tighten it well. Rad in.

Things are brightening up

One step forward - and 10 backwards :-(

2009-04-24T18:04:00.002+01:00

The plan:

Put exhaust on
Put front pulley on
Put radiator on
drive and enjoy the 20+ celsius weather this weekend

Reality:

Put exhaust on
By accicdent drop a nut down into the exhaust - I fear the unlikely event that it will be drawn into engine by bacjpressure
Take exhaust of
Remove nut
Refit exhaust
Put frontpulley on
Try to tighten nut to 150 lb/ft, engine turn, hhmm now what
Put car in gear and slam the brakes
Find out that something is very wrong with the clutch
Diagnose shows that idiot me has NOT managed to get the clutch actuator pin into the slavecylinder
Cry for 10 minutes
Undo all bolts round bellhousing
pull gearbox back - realise that this does not offer enough room to get pin out
Exhaust and prop must come of
call it the night - i give up

Off course batteries on camera are flat. well just enough power to get lens ut - but not in again

Lets realise - I will not enjoy a drive next sunday - it will be well into may before I get all this sorted.

Pick-up sensor and triggerwheel for MegaJolt

2009-04-03T08:42:00.006+01:00

Last night in the workshop had one purpose - find out how to attach the triggerwheel sensor. When sensor is placed I will know where on the pulley the triggerwheel has to be, as the sensor has to point 9 tooth before the missing tooth when engineis at TDC

First I knocked up a very rough template for at bracket (no points for aesthetics!) which can be seen here

The triggerwheel had been attached with clamps, so could easily be adjusted so the sensor would point at ninth tooth.

With this position, TDC would be appr. at third tooth

Now - mark it - and leave it for the mad welder to attach to pulley while I am taking a well earned vacation under the sun waaaaay down south :-)

The bracket will be fabricated when I get home again. Initial thought had been along the lines of some angled iron. I have deserted this thought when I saw the rough mock up. I might just make the bracket from heavy gauge iron without angles on it.

This gauge should just about do it.

BUSTING BRAKES

2009-03-27T10:06:00.007Z

In an attempt to improve braking I have fitted Mintex brakepads to the fronmt of the Spit. To avoid glazing of the pads I decided to bust the surface of the disc.

So caliber of, and start rubbing with rough sandpaper. The disc have a slight blueish/brownish tint which dissapperar after a little rubbing with grit150 sandpaper.

Ideally disc should be machined, but time is short, havent got the hardware for it and really didn't want to disturb the bearings.

After a while (10 minutes each side of disc) disc had got the right slightly rough surface, and all the miscoloration had gone - clear silver!

Next find pads - mintex at the left, Countys finest at the right (500 miles wear on them)

I fitted the anti squeel shims, and slammed the entire bit together.

Job done.

Daniel R. (aka SpitmkIIICPH) came by and dropped off a much needed lift. It is more rusty than rysty, but will hopefyllu clean up nice and work. A lift is defo needed. I can't get under the car anymore. I say it's because car has been lowered - some says it's because I am getting old and fat!

Anyway - here is the solution. Just needs a lot of care and grease/paint/slight repair

Round Denmark Reliability Run

2009-03-22T20:54:00.002Z

Do not forget this years Round Denmark Reliability Run.

http://rdrr2009.blogspot.com/

Anyone interested can mail me direct at nikolaj.blomberg@gmail.com for more info

It's the weekend 18-20 september.

1250 miles in 36 hours.

Cheers

Fooling around with ignition coils

2009-03-14T13:32:00.001Z

A few mates and members of the Danish Triumph shared my interest in finding out - what is unside an ignition coil, and is there any significant difference in power output of traditional oilfilled coils vs modern dry coils

We made a simple test bench from an old distributor and a battery. Looked like this

Next step was to test the coils: an unipart coil, a lucas sports coild and a modern dry coil

The very scientific test was to experiment with how long a spark the coil could draw, and look at color and "fatness" of the spark.

In action it looked like this

There was no doubt that the modern coil supplied the longest and warmest spark. In second came the lucas sportscoil, but only marginally better than the Unipart coil. I doubt there would be any difference in car - at least not any that would justify the extra cost!

Now to the fun part - take the coils apart (boys will be boys...)

There was no big difference between the coils. The lucas coil had more windings, but basicly same construction.

Great way to spend an afternoon with good friends :-)

Going down with 0.00000197285353535 MPH

2009-03-12T07:50:00.002Z

Or in other words - I managed to install a rear lowering block on the spit. What I thought would be really simple (still that naive yes!) turned out te be a 4 hours task. The rear suspension being a swing spring does not make matter easier....

I loosened the spring - lifted it a bit and tried to place the lowering block on top of the diff. Then putting the spring back on. Fiddle with diff studs (long type). Hmmm, something was defo wrong... Toiook me about one hour to figure this out. Thought I just had the studs misaligned.

First I found out that either the spring were to wide, or the recess in the lowering block were to narrow. Either way - they didn't match :-( Fettled a bit with a file, and in some 15 minutes it was (theoretically) suitable to go on the spring.

Back to the car - try to put the #¤%#/ bock on again. Turns out that either the stud on the spring isn't properly centered - or the hole in the lowering block is to small.

Block out - find the file - enlarge hole. Another 15 minutes gone. Swear a bit. Drink a cup of coffee.

Back to car- hooray. Block fits on spring. At this time I was easily distracted, so when a mate came by I took a break.

One hour later - back to block. Now the challenge were to get the studs past the block and down into the diff housing.Not easy as the block is shorter ythan the diff, so there is really nothing to go by.

Eventually I had the spring/block and diff holes lined up. Studs went in fairly easy. Then washer and a nylock. Voila - car is now half inch lower - in just 4 hours - which makes car going down at the terrifick speed of 0,00000197285353535 MPH. ;-)

Progress

2009-03-06T10:29:00.000Z

Surprisingly amount of progress last night.

Task one: fit shorter springs and adjustable shocks to drivers side - only managed passengerside last week before I ran out of time. Was easy. No complications. Undo lower shocker bolt and lower trunnion. Remove old shocker and spring. Relase spring. Steal top hat. Fit the new spring and shocker. Admire ;D

Impressed by myself I started to removed radiator for the next task: Undo pulleynyt in order to rectrieve pulley so I can put the triggerwheel on it. Radiator itself was pretty easy to bolt of. But the hoses was as glued on. After a fair amount of swearing it all came of :)
Next, the pulleynut itself. Tried turning it - no luck. Stuck on tight. Well done when engine was assembled last year.... Next move - let the starterengine free it. Worked like a charm ;D A few good wack with the starter and it spun of.

As I was obvoiusly on a lucky streak I went to the rear of the car with a lowering block in mind. I had forgot the block itself at home, but thought I could undo the spring. Usually not a funny task. But - both spring bolts came out nice and I could undo the 4 nuts on top of differential. Everything is ready for next week (where I better remember lowering block!!)

All in all a very good evening in the garage. Spring is coming - depression is taking off. Life is good (knock on wood)

I HATE MY LIFE!

2009-02-20T10:26:00.002Z

But one hour later it was OK :-)

Modern rubbish

2009-02-17T12:43:00.002Z

Here is a picture of the culpruit that stoppet my last season with a annoying gearbox breakdown.

A small circlip that holds the gear in place. Slipped from its place on the mainshaft allowing the gear to slide on the shaft which results in popping out of gear.

This is what happens when inferior circlips are used. Made in china from the standard iron-butter. So soft that the egdes break give in and the clip break away

Crap.

GT6 rearseat

2009-02-03T11:26:00.002Z

OK - to make it up to the GT6 after years of neglect a rearseat was bought. Just really really hope the seller will find the brackets.......

OK - gearbox fixed

2009-01-28T12:37:00.002Z

It's been a while. Gearbox turned out to have the stupid circlip going AWOL. A new - but NOS - circlip was kindly donated by Dave Sideways and installed in box. I am going to install box either this weekend or next (to bloody lazy ATM)

Other news include a megajolt ignition which is currently residing in the basement. Will hopefully be functional on car within a few months (lazy again....)

Looooong test drive&troubleshooting

2008-08-14T10:59:00.002+01:00

Did first leg of RoundDenmark yesterday. Couldn't do second and third leg as I had to work.

Gearbox gave up 50 miles before home - left me with only third and fourth gear. Bit of a pain when you are stuck in stop%go trafick on most busy rpoad in copenhagen area during rush hour. At least now I know the smell of burned clutch (yuck)

Will have to examine the gearbox VERY closely now - I had hoped I could wait till end of season - but unless this is a small problem then yesterday was end of season to me (sigh)

Pictures and more ramblings will follow soon.

Cheers

Gearbox trouble

2008-08-08T11:14:00.002+01:00

OK - just when I thought things were good. Only minor troubles, then gearbox starts acting funny. It keeps jumping out of third gear. Not good. I (naively) suspects the gear selector forks - either worn or bent. Will try to fit another top with good forks. If that does not do it - I will have to dismantle the fbox for a rebuild. Till then I just have to do without 3. gear :-(

Passed MOT

2008-07-29T09:32:00.002+01:00

Whopeee

Passed MOT. Now next mission is to do some serious cruísing (well - that will be when I correct the minor flaws the MOT-man found)

Thing to do:

Fit correct headlights - the ones I have is for RHD vehicles - need to be european spec.
Do something about wiring of lights - I cannot turn the parking lights on
Fix the oil leak from valve cover
Find some nuts for the prop bolts that are less fat. Bolts does not engage nyloc properly.
Fix slight leak from exhaust manifold - got an annoying whistle

Apart from that - enjoy the summer :-)

Spending time

2008-05-23T21:14:00.004+01:00

OK, it has been a while since last blog entry. I have been extremely busy doing all kind of non triumph related stuff, and whenever I started working on the spit I just seemed to get deeper into spit-troubles. Trouble really started brewing when I bought a set of swing spring half-shafts. This was a good deal, and I got a fine pair of shafts. When I realised that these shafts had larger flanges, and would not mate up with the diff - well that were the first set-back. But it was not all bad, as I had a spare diff (a rebuild 4.11) with larger flanges. I just had to swap the two diff. That was setback two as swapping diffs is a bastard of a job!!

Well finally I got diff in and shafts on. Now I could very clearly see that the handbrake cable was to short due to the swing spring shafts being slightly longer. New cable ordered, arrived by mail a few day later. I will not tire you with how I managed to screw the cable up so it could not be used (doh!)

I have also been fighting the dual exhaust trying to fabricate some brackets. Well, lets just say I have been working through a few designs - and even though exhaust is now in place I am not entirely happy.

OK - fast forward a few weeks - had had no time for the spit, but arranged a club meeting, where we would try to start the engine. Engine had been rebuild, but had not yet been started. Everything ran more or less according to plan, and it was very revarding to hear the engine run. However - a bit of water was leaking from the water temp sender in the water pump housing. When I tightened the sensor I overtigthened and ruined the thread on the housing. (another doh!) Well - it was not entirely my mistake as the house was pretty much rusted to pieces. I should have done a better quality check before fiting it.

Well - yesterday evening I removed the rad so I could put a new (old really) waterpump housing on. Got it on, got everything put back together, and started the engine again. Succes.

Engine is running rather rough, but I blame it on the carbs which has not been tuned at all.

Has no pics, but a few from when we held the meeting

Speaking of NOS stanpart

2008-02-01T16:29:00.000Z

The mad welder took another step towards completeing right hand rear wing. Something had fallen hard on the wreck ruining entire rear wing. Got hold of a NOS stanpart gutter (thing between bootlid and rearwing. Nice to work with´NOS parts. The rear wing is a heritage - not as nice as NOS, but close enough.

More on The Mad Welder and his wreck right here:

http://thetriumphanimal.blogspot.com/

Odd spring and driveshafts

2008-02-01T12:33:00.000Z

Just removed the old spring yesterday as a part of the conversion to swing spring.

The old spring has caused a lot of trouble - that is positive camber trouble. Looking at the two springs next to eachother explains quite a bit.

Driveshaft will also be changed to the longer 1500 shafts. Should improve handling ( basicly - with that spring anything would improve handling ) If anybody knows what kind of sping i have, then please let me know)

Old and new spring together. New spring seeems longer and lower. Old spring axcactly same height as a GT6 roto spring, but considerable softer.

More locks, and even more problems!

2008-01-17T14:07:00.001Z

Well, it took a good two hours to get the passengerside lock to work. I had to grind the lock fork through a hole in the door as I couldn't get the lock (not the door lock, but the part with the key) out. But eventually it worked. Before I fitted the other side, I shortened the fork - saved me two hours work there! But of course nothing is ease. It appears that there has been added a liberal amount of filler around the hole in the doorplate where the lock shall be. And this means that the "legs" that hold the lock cannot engage. This meant another hour of swearing and scraping knuckles before I got all done

During this process I had to remove the locking mechanism - which were to say the least looking a bit tatty. Took the chance and gave it a good clean and a layer of paint. It was very red from a previous respray (by PO). Car is green now, and it really looked YUK.

Before
After

Next week the drive shaft, spring and diff will be removed and replaced by a new parts. Hopefully! I have new AVOs ready, and somewhere in the post is a pair of new longer drive shafts. Some years ago I bought a recon diff from Jon Wolfe. It is a 4.11 but rebuild into a later diff housing (only 4 holes for studs) and with fatter input and output shafts.

New locks - and new problems!

2008-01-10T13:26:00.000Z

Finally got around to fit the new WB-locks I bought for the spit. Quite nice locks actually, with nice WB-key set and FS-keynumbers. All good. And much better than other locks in the market, as I do not have to make the hole in the doorplate larger. After a bit of fiddling around, the lock went in very nicely. All very good - until........ I tried to lock the door!

The fork which is engaging the locking mechanism is to long and cannot turn as it touches the reinforcement plate on the doorshell. In the picture below you van see the culprit - it is supposed to turn counter clockwise. Crap! And there is absolutely no easy way to get these locks of the door again.

I will have to remove the locking mechanism on the door to be able to turn the lockforks downwards and gently remove some metal from the fork. Not what I really needed. Thought the lockjob was going to be easy - then again - what is easy with these cars and repro spares!!!

New boing and bling parts

2007-12-06T09:51:00.000Z

Got my new AVOs with courier the other day. Will be fitting these pretty soon. Also got a new rear swing spring setup - will probably alltogether transform handling quite a lot.

Just have to get hold of a new spring compressor, got a feeling that the old homemade wooden thing might be fine for 150 lbs standard spring but to weak for 480 lbs

Apart from admirering new shocks, I got around to fit front wing finishers and grille. Nice piece of 70's style black plastick. Looks like I might even make it for a ride in the spring. Can't wait!

RBRR2008 TEAM #3

2007-12-04T12:27:00.000Z

YES, we have secured a good entry number. I have heard that 3 is a lucky number. 3 Danes going as team #3. That must be good.

Now we (well, mostly Daniel as Morten and I are buried in our spitfires) just have to fix the 2000 MK2 (aka The Ferry). Nothing is going to stop us now - well, apart from British technology!

Fuelpipes

2007-11-08T15:12:00.000Z

Finally, the last fuelpipes has been routed. Was not quite straightforward, as the carb is a HS4 and fuelpump is for HS2, which means the nozle on the pump points in the wrong direction (MK3 usually routes from pump to carb in front of engine - later routes behind the engine) Not a biggie thou, got the pipe nicely along the firewall.

Basically I am ready to start the engine now. Exiting to see if the ignition works at all - bought at an autojumble. I am just waiting for my engiman Bjarne to come along. I have promised not to start the enginbe without him - healso has some special homebrewed run-in oil with a hint of Molybdenum in it which he swears to.

Carbs, ignition and waterpipes ready

2007-10-17T15:35:00.000+01:00

Had another go at the engine yesterday. Got the carbs in their proper place - just need to hook them up to the throttlepedal. Ignition also put on, though I am a bit unsecure about it. I was bought secondhand - the old distributor was dead, and this was a great bargain. The distributor is excellent with no play - I am a bit more suspicious about the electronic ignitionmodule. Well - I will give it a try. Of it does not work I will go back to contacts.

I got the waterpipe behind the manifold fixed too.

And to Vitessesteve - thanks for the advice on the waterpumpthread - will try that next week before going up in boltsize.

Finally - managed to push the chrometrim down in the windshield rubber. Generous amount of fairy liquid needed!

Some pics.

Water pump problems

2007-10-14T17:21:00.000+01:00

I - painfully - learned a few things today. First: put the adaptornut (the one for the water return pipe) back into the waterpump housing before you stick it on the engine and puts the radiator in front. Adaptornut cannot be moved one flat with house in situ. That sucks!

Second: check the treads on the waterpump housing before you put everything back together (again). When tightening the alloy thermostat housing the bolt kind of did not bite. and of course there is not any room for a nut under the housing. Going up in boltsize very shortly I believe.

I SEE - COMMENTS!!

2007-10-05T12:18:00.000+01:00

Sorry - wasn't aware anybody actually was reading my ramblings and leaving comments. Keep em coming.

Here comes answers:

Thorvald - sorry - I fixed the broken pics now.

Richard - yes - sidewindows and quarterlights are a pain on the roundtails. I beleive I possibly have aquired the last set of sidewindows in the world with the rounded corner. Judging from the price I would say they are very rare. Hope deal goes through. Othervise I must resort to the modify softtop thing.

Vitessesteve: Yes - nice patches - may hold water for a while, but certainly not pretty, and a sure place for rust to start eating again. Been replaced (and a the same time I could straighten out the damages from the sideimpact by a previous owner - he must have forgot to tell me somehow - ehh???)

Yours truly doing Round Denmark - 2000 kilometers, 36 hours

2007-10-04T12:55:00.001+01:00

Engine is back in!

2007-09-18T07:54:00.000+01:00

Finally - and after much struggle - the engine is in right back where it belongs. It was amazingly easy to get the engine in. Now things start to come together, and I hope that the car will hit the road this spring. Has started to fit all the life support systems, work of joy really. After being stuck for 4 months I can finally report some decent progress.

Here is the pics.

Sæder til salg!

2007-07-11T08:22:00.001+01:00

Send en mail på nikolaj.blomberg@gmail.com hvis du er interesseret. Sæderne er i rimelig stand. Vinylen er pæn, men der er et par små huller i stoffet. Skummet har set bedre dage, men er udskifteligt. Sæderne har sunde rammer og gode sædeskinner.

Det er 1500 reclinersæder inklusiv nakkestøtter.

Engine and gearbox ready

2007-06-01T11:59:00.000+01:00

Yihaa, installed the clutch, bolted up the gearbox. Now it is just about ready to go in!

Seeing things in the right perspective

2007-05-31T09:26:00.000+01:00

Now, things have been a bit slowgoing lately. To be honest, things have been boring. I am getting nearer the end of restoration, and have reached the dreaded last 5 %. Anyway, I get a little happier when I watch the rather artistic patchwork some PO did in the footwells. Clearly illustrated in the pictures below

Outrageously slow updates!

2007-05-20T20:11:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, things has been pretty frantic lately. Anyway, good news; engine has arrived.

Engine has been proffesionally rebuild, and was delivered last friday. I took a day off and painted the engine matt black (actually same colour as the window frame)

I also fitted the clutch. Had intended to put the gearbox on, but realised that I had forgot the seal at home (the seal that goes between the bellhousing and the gearbox)

Hopefully I will be able to put gearbox and engine back together next wednesday, and throw the entire unit in the car. This partly depends on testing the solenoid on the OD - haven't had time to do this yet. If it turns out OK I am ready to proceed.

No pictures in this update as I am presently operating on a 56K telephone modem. sigh!

FLASHING!

2007-03-09T13:52:00.000Z

Another few hours, and the front flashers and one headlamp could be taken of the to-do list. Nice.

Slow, but steady!

2007-03-05T13:10:00.000Z

Oh dear. Only one night i the garage, and only one update to the blog i February. I certainly got to speed up if I want to don the Round Denmark Reliability Run in this car!

Did pop by the other evening, though I didn't manage to do much. Got the bonnet locks on. They aren't pretty, but they work!

Also cleaned an old front trunnion that was broke due to neglecting lubrication. I had the doubtful joy of driving the spit with this trunnion just two weeks before it failed. I was driving rather spirited in the countryside. Scary when I think about it. It lost its front wheel 2 weeks later. To judge by the rust in the broken link I believe that it was already broken when I drove the car.

Morale: Don't forget to oil your trunnions regularly

More progress (well - a kind of)

2007-02-09T13:02:00.000Z

I must admit - it is very cold outside at the moment. Unfortunately - when it is cold outside, it is also cold in my garage. In fact is is so cold that the batteries in my camera went dead. (perhaps just a bad excuse for not charging them?)

Anyway, I did actually manage to do a few things before I froze to death (nearly) I attached the little handbrakecable spring that always go missing on these cars. I would not miss it now if it got lost - it was awful to get in place!

Second I fitted the rearwiev mirror. The very clever man who had treated the windscreen frame with new vinyl had forgotten to mark where the holes for the mirror were. After what felt like a really long time I found the hole and could punch through the vinyl.

Front valance also went into place. Nice little job - wish I had smaller fingers!

Replaced the door handle I put on last week with one from the shelf that was in a better condition (whoa - if I keep up this I can do everything twice - I need to get my stuff sorted out!)

Finally - I put on the bonnet stay. A bit tricky since I had none of the proper bolts. Previous owner used whatever he could find.

Over and out - going away for a looooong week.

It's all clear now - finally!

2007-01-31T15:44:00.001Z

Finally some decent progress. Yesterday I had some good quality time with the Spit. Managed to fit the front windscreen - this time without breaking it. It was actually rather easy to get the glass in once I had read the manual. And this time I read it a bit more thoroughly than last time!

I didn't manage to get any pics while working, but here is a picture of the window in place!

As one can see, the second thing I got around to was fitting the bonnet. I have had this job waiting since god know when. But didn't want to do it before I had the engine in. Well now, since I have been waiting more than a year for the engine, I can just as well put the bonnet on now and get the door gaps adjusted. That's a job for next time.

When door gaps and windscreen is adjusted I can fit the glove boxes. Hope I hit the road by spring!

Front end is sitting quite high due to the lack of an engine.

A spot of masking tape can be seen running along the lover edge of the front wing. I am bitterly regretting that I didn't remove this last summer, as it is a pain to get of now. I spent quite a while last night removing it. Just another hour or so left! Hooray

I am stuck - and it sucks!

2007-01-26T11:29:00.000Z

Yet another Thursday in the garage. It was bloody cold though, and I didn't get anything done (apart from putting on a door handle - pathetic really!)

Problem is that I am stuck. I would like to put on the door cards, so I can say doors are done now. But that's a no go since my windows is still in England - and I am waiting to get them shipped to me (get the drift James?)

Okay, I could put the panel covering the gas tank on - nooooo - have to wait for the bolts goes into the diff - rear end are lowered, and for some reason I have been supplied with wrong bolts.... Crap.

Okay, how about the exhaust - that really need some work. Nope - can't do without engine (still out of town, has some problems with the oil temp sensor which is going into the sump.
No engine - no gearbox.

Okay, what about the glovecompartments then. Nope - forgot the cord which I need in order to fit the windscreen. If the window frame isn't properly adjusted - it's a waste of time fitting glove compartments.

How about adjusting the doors the - no can't do without bonnet in place, can't put bonnet on without engine in.

On top of this it was something like 10 degrees below zero - cold cold cold cold!!!!

Should I go on??? This sucks!! I want the car ready for spring.

Notice the fancy red paint on the door striker - just visible in the door gap. Looks awful - should have given the striker a good cleaning before I fitted it. Alternatively the moron who painted the car red years ago could have used masking tape. (moron! (me that could just as well be - moron, not painter that is!))

So after 5 hours I could evaluate the evening - I managed the impressive job of fitting a door handle (max 10 minutes!). At least I took a picture. Hope next Thursday will be better.

At least I got around to sweep the floors!

Next Thursday front window goes in ( and hopefully I will not break it this time!)

Work work work

2007-01-18T09:29:00.000Z

Dropped by for a few hours Tuesday night. Forgot the camera though. Spent most of the time scraping old rust treatment of The Wreck (Mortens new acquisition - follow link top left). Dirty boring work really. Though at the time I found it more appealing than working on my own spit. The last 5 percent is so bloody boring. I did eventually - very late - fit a Lucas sports coil and tightened the water hose clamps from the heater to the heater valve. They were finger tight only. So I did kind of work a little on my own spit too. Can't wait to finish it and start the GT6 project!

We're back - and working the Spit

2007-01-12T13:21:00.000Z

Finally I got time to go to the garage. Had a minor fight with the doors trying to get all the stuff inside them lined up. Pretty simple - if you pick the right bits of the shelfes first time!

Got around to fitting the last of the extra instrument - an oil temp-meter. Now all three is nice tugged away in the bracket. From left: amps, oilpressure, oiltemp. The bracket is a Lucas bracket I have picked up sometime in the past. Came with a nice little bag with bolts and nuts. I had to modify the bracket slightly to get it in line with the other instruments.

My engine man called me today - the engine is close to finished now. Had had a little trouble trying to get the oiltemp sensor fitted to the sump. Hope to have my engine running within a month.

Happy new year

2007-01-04T08:58:00.000Z

Not much to report. I am still kinda alive. Hasn't been in touch with the triumphs for a month or so.

It ain't all that bad

2006-12-07T12:02:00.000Z

I have been told that the pictures in earlier post lead to the conception that this particular GT6 is well beyond repair (or at least quite bad). That is indeed not the case – actually it just seems bad because I have been documenting what is bad. Here are the only 2 pictures of sound areas I have taken. Usually a-post on these cars are welded and patched up beyond imagination. Here you see a pair of nice unmolested floors and a-posts. The outer sills is perfect – no rust whatsoever. Actually the only rust on this car is the rust in the rear valance due to the car being hit at some time in its life. Ahh, there might also be a minor problem whit the front – I have noticed something looking odd – maybe a repair or something covered with rust-treatment. Hasn’t had time to check yet.

It never rains in southern california

2006-12-06T13:01:00.000Z

Obviously this car was from northern California!!! Naaah, honestly - this rust was well described by the seller. It is much better than it looks. Just need a few patches to the boot-floor and a new rear valance that should arrive sometime this week. Me and my friend did the rear valance on the spitfire some years ago - quite painless.

I do think that this rust might be a bit more difficult. The car has at some stage in its life been hit from behind. The rear valance is very damaged - not very noticeable from the outside due to a huge amount of filler.
A funny bit of imaginative plumbing (literally) round the battery box

Always wondered where the small sticker with trip counter warning should be - now I have finally realised!! On the doorcapping. Thought it should be below the speedometer. Bought a couple of these stickers on eBay a year ago.
The interior is what the seller described as "shot"

And who else is in the garage?

2006-12-04T10:27:00.000Z

Morten has just started rebuild of the latest acquisition "Vraget" (which can be translated directly as "the wreck") also see his blog http://thetriumphanimal.blogspot.com/

Any comments?

It's alive!!!

2006-12-04T09:16:00.000Z

Okay - spent a night a the garage - got around to do a few things. Mainly with Morten's help fixed the last bugs in the wiring. The wiper motor couldn't start. turned out to be a bad ground due to a very generous amount of paint to the motor housing. This combined with a somewhat dodgy switch. It all worked out finally - and I could wipe away! Also got around to put the bracket for extra instruments in the car. Its some kind of Lucas thing bought many years ago - it did need a fair bit of fiddling since the angle was rather strange for my car.

I did enjoy the small bag with bolts and nuts though. Almost seems a shame to use them

I also managed to get a picture of the passenger side door with recently attached mirror. There will be absolutely no chance that the quarter light will ever allow me to see anything in that mirror.

Do please add your comment if you have got any!

What used to be my homepage

2006-11-30T14:13:00.000Z

Late 2002 I lost the password to my homepage (which is now my former homepage) Anyway - if interested you can wiev the homepage here. Danish only - but a few pics though

http://hjem.get2net.dk/blomberg/

Another pic

2006-11-29T10:07:00.000Z

A picture of the spit in its present condition would be appropriate, so here it is. And here is what it used to be (sorry for low quality)

Before and after (the red/black spitfire is before)

More triumhs round here

2006-11-29T09:30:00.000Z

Okay - since everybody also has a blog, I better get one too. Not a lot to say; bought my Spitfire 7 years ago - first car ever. Spent the last 4 years restoring. Been a somewhat entertaining nightmare. What I thought would be a quite simple job turned out to be a complete frame off. I have had to replace both sills, driverside floor, driverside rearwing, rear valance, bootlid, both frontdoors and both frontwings. On top of that a lot of repairing to bootfloor, passengerside floor and both a-posts. When I get around to find some more relevant pics I will post

Status is that I am done welding, have had a rather poor paintjob (hopefully to be redone sometime in the near future). Everything is more or less in place - just missing the engine. It is outsourced to a friend who is rebuilding with new pistons, lightened and balanced conrods, balanced crank and flywheel. Ported head, tubular manifold and new 1.5 SUs
That's more or less it.
As the Spit project was coming to an end I bought a GT6+ from California a few months ago. That will be next project.