Tag Archives: Uncategorized

The body panels I ordered arrived today. I have now spent more on replacement body panels alone than I bought the car for in the first place! It’ll be worth it though. I tried a test fit of the wings, they seem to fit with no problems. I just wish I’d known that the top channel came with the new wings before I spent an hour rubbing down and straightening up the ones on the car! So after all that work I ended up cutting them off. But it looks like I need to get the new closing panels, the old wings fitted directly to the A post and never had these panels. Now I just have a huge gap: Wheelarch panel isn’t such a good fit, it looks like I’ll need to do a lot of work fitting and adjusting them: I think I’ve got it more or less … Read More

I was going through this blog a while back and noticed that a whole load of my older posts had all the pictures missing. For those of you that don’t know, when you upload pictures to blogspot, it saves them in Picasa web albums (both run by Google), and you can use picasa as just an image hosting site, independently of the blog. It seems, though, that the majority of my older pictures just vanished into the ether, breaking the links on my blog. Very annoying… More annoyingly, I had a hard drive crash last year and lost a few pictures myself, so there’s some images on this blog that have gone forever. I’ve spent most of this evening reposting the missing images from my library, and in most cases it’s back the way it was (I think!). An interesting trip down memory lane it made too. So if you’ve … Read More

The sills are now more or less finished at last. Just a couple of little bits to finish filling, no more than an hour or so to do. Next up is the wheelarches, that’s certainly not one of my favourite jobs! It’s impossible to do any grinding work in there without getting a faceful of sparks, access is limited, it’s hard to see what’s going on and it’s generally awkward and uncomfortable. Still, it needs doing… I did have the intention of spending a bit of time in the evenings doing some work to speed things along, I managed about two evenings then the weather turned rubbish. So that was out – a bit wimpy I know, but I really don’t enjoy working in the rain! This is supposed to be a hobby, not a chore, so when the weather is bad I stay home. As it happens though, there’s … Read More

A quick round up of everything that needs doing before the back end is done: Finish up filling and shaping the rear sills Weld a couple of patches to the wheelarch lips (they’re good enough to not need replacing outright) Finish up the boot area and paint (at least in primer for now) Go over the underside, chase out any surface rust Apply POR-15 system (marine clean, metal ready, POR-15, top coat) Fill and finish fuel cap area Buy & fit new fuel tank Get suspension parts powder coated Paint axle (POR-15 again) Shape and fit rear brake lines Fit axle and rear suspension (new polybushes, old springs and shocks for now) Refit handbrake and cable (no actual brakes until the car is nearly road-ready, to prevent seizing/binding) That looks like a lot!

I was just on my way to work on the TR last sunday in my Astra, I pulled up to a junction, and the engine died. Uh oh. When I tried to restart it, I got a strange whirring noise from the starter – I’ve heard that before. A quick check and sure enough, the cambelt had snapped. Bugger. I called the RAC out for a tow home, and swapped the belt, hoping for the best. But it was not to be – the engine sounds like a bag of nails, and doesn’t even have enough power to get up the driveway. Oh well! So now in the driveway I have a replacement – a 1994 Saab 9000. It has it’s own problems (head gasket gone?), but it’s a runner, and in great condition otherwise, considering the £300 I paid for it. The upshot of all this is, I haven’t … Read More

Well, today (Yesterday!?) was the cars’ last day out on the road as a 2ltr TR7. The road tax expired today, and with the MOT also due in a couple of weeks, I decided it wasn’t worth retaxing it. If I’d been confident that she could have sailed through the next MOT without too much work, then I’d have kept her on the road for another couple of months. But as it is, I’m pretty sure she’ll need a fair bit of work doing, so it’s time to take her off the road. So by way of a send-off, I decided to use up the petrol left in the tank (about half a tank) with a good solid blast around the Cotswolds. The weather could have been better, but I still had a great afternoon out – perversely, the car seemed on top form, not missing a beat, and seeming … Read More

….Because for once, the ’7 is behaving itself. While I haven’t strayed too far from home, I have racked up about 100 miles over the last few days, all with no problems. It’s good to have it back again! As for the oil light, I have done precisely nothing about it. I’ll probably get around to ordering a new gauge next week, but my other car seems to have sensed the lack of mechanical maladies and has plunged into disrepair itself. A new alternator, rear brakes as well as various service parts – £180 I could have done without spending! Speaking of money, I’ve been doing a bit of forward planning recently – hopefully by the end of this year, I’ll have about £3000 saved, which I’ve earmarked for improving the car. As well as the obvious brake/suspension upgrades, I was planning on getting a new engine – slightly warmed … Read More

I bet you thought I’d given up, hadn’t you? Well I have been busy recently, and my recent house move meant I was offline for a few weeks. Anyway: The brakes are now finished, and I’m happy to report that the car is back on the road at last. The brakes are still rubbish, but I think they’re supposed to be like that! The only serious problem I have now is the oil pressure light – it keeps flickering on. In light of what happened last time, that worried me – however, the car isn’t losing any oil, and I’m happy that this is an electrical problem. In fact, when I was fiddling around, the connector to the pressure switch broke clean off! As I have other things going on at the moment, I’ve left it for now. However, all this has made me lose faith in the oil light, … Read More

I’ve just been very busy of late – not to mention poor! I’m in the middle of moving house among other things right now, so the TR7 has taken a back seat for now. The poor thing has been up on axle stands for nearly a month now. Still, I’ll be cracking on with it in a couple of weeks, then (barring any breakdowns) it’ll be back on the road for the summer. In the meantime, some random musings: 1. I’ve just got hold of a new 5 speed box to replace the frankly rather tired 4 speeder I have now. I already have the axle, propshaft etc to go with it, so I just need the clutch and a couple of other bits to do the job. The question is, what to do about the engine?It works alright (oil leaks notwithstanding!), but at 70k miles, it’s a little past … Read More

Last Tuesday was the monthly Club Triumph local meeting over towards Northampton – I thought that would be an ideal run out to give the car a bit of a shakedown. So off I went and all seemed fine, the tracking was perfect, no juddering at all. Then after about 30 miles, the problems started – firstly, a squealing from one of the front wheels – bearings? I checked the hubs as best I could by the roadside, they didn’t seem too hot, and there was still no free play, so I elected to carry on (on the basis that I was closer to Northampton than to home) and check them at the weekend. Then my oil light came on. Strange. Fortunately I had a bit of spare oil from the weekend in the boot, so in it went, and all was good – until about 20 miles later when … Read More