And you all thought today's blog would be about cylinder heads, well its not, and they won't be mentioned again for a few days.
However it was time to deal with the tailgate, so after removing this, I then unbolted the hinges and torsion bars.
I had realised that if I could reuse my hinges, with new bars, then the tailgate fit would remain good, and perhaps it would stay up without a broom supporting it!
How to get the torsion bar out was surprisingly easy, first hold the bar in a vice, and then rotate the hinge assembly with a pair of stilsons, until the one captive end (L shaped) of the bar came out of the hinge bracket
Not too difficult as there wasn't too much tension in the cut and shut re-welded bars. Reassembly with the new bars was a different issue,needing a good bit of pressure to align everything.
However the bar was still held in place by this "clamp"
Some oxy-acetylene heat soon softened the metal and let me open this up, and the bar came out. You can see how little tension it would give, if you compare it with an un-cut original bar (note the weld in the white bar done by the paint shop
Reversing this entire process had the 2 replacement bars fitted to the hinge assembly, however with the hinges properly tensioned they wouldn't go back in the car. I had to open up the hinge angle, and leave it fixed in the nearly open position, which was achieved with a long bar on the hinge arm to apply enough leverage, and a cut down bolt wedged in the mechanism
repeated with the other hinge, I was then able to refit the tailgate, and then remove the cut down bolts.
Does it work ?
yes, a perfectly balanced tailgate, that will stay in which ever position you open it to.
What joy ! another nasty job complete, and only minimal marks to the paint on the hinges, most of which will be covered by various trim items in due course.
So what next, has to be the headlining. First I needed to glue back in the sound deadening pads fitted by Triumph. I don't know what glue they used, but modern glues don't seem to stick very quickly, so I had to hold the pads in place for 10 minutes or so as I applied glue to each area. Pig of a job, glue everywhere, in my hair, on my clothes, and some where it was needed. Eventually all was in place
No excuse now but to fit the lining
I know its full of ripples, but I am going to leave it overnight, remove the front screen, tension it all, which is done via these strips of cloth at the tailgate end, and by pulling down the sides, and gluing and clamping
and hopefully have a good tidy headlining, but that's for tomorrow as I want a beer now!
Hours worked now 822 - 7 today
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