Fitting Brightwork

Its a job I hate, its time consuming, there's lots of it, its easy to damage the paintwork, and I normally leave it to last.

Not this time though, as its cold outside, and I don't fancy fitting brake pipes and propshaft and handbrake cables at the moment so I decided to get on with the outside trim.

Now if anyone has ever fitted the trim on the windscreen on a 2000 you'll know what a pig it is, still after a couple of hours got this on

and then got all the trim on the doors and the rain gutter

I have run out of clips to do the rear estate window trim so thats for another day.

also got the bonnet catch fitted.

and thats 7 hours work, bring the total to 720

Keeping up the Momentum

In the rush to get this car ready for the show, I didn't publish the last items I managed to finish on it a week last wednesday, so here they are, all the FF bits in,

brake reservoirs

extra large vacuum storage reservoir

and some pretty bits, front grill and headlamps

and the NOS tailgate seal - a perfect fit.

Being tired today, and a little bit relieved to have got it back from the show in one piece, and its cold outside I didn't really fancy working on it, however as I was reminded yesterday, "I need to keep the momentum up", so I braved the cold and did a few hours work. All fiddly stuff, as I wanted to finish the trim on the tailgate,

so I fitted the correct rear triumph badge (especially for Dave Harvey, who was the only one that noticed I had put an incorrect badge there) and started to mark out for the rear trim.

Its a job I hate as the holes have to align up perfectly if the trim is to fit, still, all drilled and fastenings pop riveted in place.

Now trim fitted, and doesn't it look better?

The tape visible top right is holding the trim above in place while the sealant cures - I always glue these edge trim strips on, as it saves the clips that Triumph used ruining the paint.

And thanks to everyone that I saw at the show, and thank you too for your kind comments about the car, its good to know that the restoration is appreciated.

Hours worked, 4 today and 8 last wednesday so the total is now 713.

Tuesday's work on the estate

This blog is a bit brief because everything went to plan and I am knackered after another 12 hour session on the car.

So updates today.

Got the front wiring loom in.

Got the windscreen wiper wheel boxes and motor in

Got the Stag inertia switch in - cuts the fuel pump if you have a prang

Got the dash in

Got the steering column in and connected to the rack - can steer it now. - The column will have to come out as there is too much play in the top bearing - I think its something I have done on installation - I have probably disturbed the top star washer that holds the inner race in place, which now leaves a little up / down play

Got the front screen in - no trim finishers - they are too time consuming for now

Got the front sidelamps in and a Triumph badge on the front

Got the tail gate glass in - again the trim finisher can wait

Got the tail gate lock, striker and mechanism in and it all works

Got the number plate lamp in

Got the tailgate vents installed

Got the NOS tailgate seal installed.

Got the rear lamps installed

Got the ABS servo and control valve installed - some of the vacuum hoses need replacing but thats for another day

Tomorrow its check and tighten up the bolts on the rear suspension, and then try and get door locks fitted and the rest of the glass.

713 hours worked - 12 today

Thought it had gone too smoothly yesterday............

Well removing the front subframe with all its bits and pieces was easy.

Putting it back with drive shafts in the way was NOT!!

The day started well, I got the 2 front drive shafts into the CV joints in the hubs and I thought this is easy.

Its not, I couldn't get the subframe back in without stripping everything off it, and to fit the rack I found that I had to partially fit the frame at the rear, leaving the front unfitted, feed the rack in, then fit the rack mounts, and then fit the frame correctly.

Couldn't get much worse - wrong - couldn't get the track control arms and the ball joints to fit the struts and onto the frame. The only method was to compress the strut, and then fit the TCA and drag strut - took a while to fathom that one out - the reason is that the designers limited the suspension travel to protect the CV joints, but don't do it in the strut, instead there is a piece of metal in the subframe where the tca attaches that limits its downward travel - hence you cannot fit it until you compress the strut.

All done though, but took 8 hours to finish the front suspension.

Did a few quick other jobs, internal bulkhead mat, heater, and pedal box now fitted.

I really really hope the engine and box work OK, I do not want to ever have to repeat / reverse this process to gain access to them. This was definitely not engineered for production, but I have had to admire the skills of the FF engineers in getting this all in place and working in basically a standard shell. When they did the Jensen FF interceptor the shell was lengthened by 6" compared to a standard car

9 hours work today and not a lot to show for it, I hope tomorrow is better.

701 hours now worked, 9 today.

Its Painted and its Home

I am really pleased, its a lovely colour and the finish is very good, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves,

Got it unloaded - thanks for your help today Alan, although he did say that he is looking forward to giving it a good polish at the Classic Car Show!

Started on the rebuild, no time to loose

Firstly removed the front wheels and the front suspension, then Bulkhead mat in place and tunnel mat

engine and gearbox back in - and that was really easy with the reduced height of the engine having no heads, drag it under the raised car and lift - simples - and no need to worry about dropping the engine on to the car.

Do you remember what the car used to look like ?

Thats enough horror pictures, and thats it for tonight, time for a beer, back on the rebuild tomorrow

No car yet, so engine and transmission today

The Paintshop just rang I can collect the car tomorrow - I am sooo excited.

Not long to the Classic Car Show, so the first job of the day was to rebuild the FF bits, this necessitated making my own gaskets, as my local Motor Factor doesn't stock FF parts!

Firstly hold the gasket paper in place using a couple of the bolt holes

then lightly tap round the edges with a small hammer

and low and behold you have a correctly shaped gasket, repeat the process on the inside edge, mark the bolt holes with some more hammer taps, and then cut them out with a sharp stanley knife.

4 hours later after much cleaning a complete transmission

I had been wondering how the FF transmission lubricated the bearings, as although the VC sits in a little of the transmission oil the bearings are too high to get a feed, then I notice a "scoop or cut out" in the case, above the VC, which goes to the bearings. Its very clever, oil flung off the VC as it rotates drops into the slot and then runs down to the bearings - clever engineering - you can see the cut out in the rear bearing housing, this is also the whole length of the VC housing too, and must ensure plenty of oil is collected. The picture shows the cut out just above the rope on the right handside. - unfortunately the housing is 180 degrees out from its normal working position, so its hard to see how the shape of the cut out retains the oil, but if you look at the picture upside down all becomes clear.

Then after some more work all bolted upto to the engine - I had to do this twice as I dropped one of the torque converter to flywheel bolts behind the flywheel, which necessitated removing gearbox and flywheel to retreive it - I was a little more careful second time around! I don't believe that I wanted to do that!

Here's the modified starter fitted and a view of the front propshaft

Anyway all complete, needs a little clean, and a car to put it in.

11 hours worked, 8 today, 3 on the FF strip in the week, so total hours now 692

FF Transfer Box and Viscous Coupling

Well, I made the decision, and I am stripping the FF Transfer box.

I cannot get the front propshaft off, even with the correct C spanner so this will have to stay on for now. The rear drive flange nut was tight enough, and took a great deal of effort to remove, but that done, and the speedo drive extracted I undid the bolts holding the rear casing onto the main body. Which reveals this

this comes apart bit by bit

and more bits

then I removed the next piece of housing

And thats basically it!

The tooth wheel and brass elbow are the speed sensor for the ABS.

On inspection there's some nasty gunk in the housings, and some little bits of rust on none bearing surfaces, so a good clean and it should all be OK.

Now how it works - the output from the gearbox leaves on the splined shaft shown above, this drives the centre of the epicycle gears and the rear output flange. The output ring of the epicycle drives the outside of the VC. This has an internal spline which drives the large shaft over the gearbox input shaft, down to the chain drive, and built up without the casings looks like this.

Firstly the output shaft to the chain drive for the front propshaft

Viscous Coupling with epicycle on top

output flange drive which sits ontop of all this

Viscous Coupling

and finally front diff output chain drive

Thats it, simple really - can't understand what I was worrying about.

Next a good clean, lubrication and reassembly after making some gaskets