Trim Items

Its always the trim and interior you do last, and in my experience you rush it as you are desperate to drive the car. Well at the moment as I wait to hear from the paint shop I have a forced layoff from working on the car directly, so I am concentrating on getting the trim items ready to fit when done, so there's no pressure to rush them and forever put up with bodges!

I have also realised how close I am now to finishing the car, I suspect I won't quite make my May deadline, which is the 2nd anniversary of the date the car first arrived home, but the jobs left to complete aren't many, and if I am correct are as follows:-

1). fabricate exhaust system
2). fit roof lining
3). fit heads and carbs
4). finish brake line to offside front brake caliper, and bleed brakes
5). fully test electrics, and fix things that don't work!
6). fit bumpers
7). finish leadloading to bonnet
8). fit wiper arms and blades
9). fit the rest of the interior trim and seats
10). fit radiator and fan
11). fit power steering pump and alternator

Apart from the final comission and test, and the exhaust system, thats probably only 10 or 11 days work, but a lot will need to wait until the paint rectification is complete, however items like the power steering pump can be stripped and rebuilt in the interim

So back to the trim items.

I wanted to complete the parcel shelves, which as you may remember were in a very sorry state. The driverside was all torn, so I stripped it to the component parts and cut out new pieces of millboard

I used the hole punch to cut the rivet holes for the bifurcated rivets, after using a stanley knife to cut the millboard. The new rivets are shiney steel, so I bought a Frosts metal blacking kit

and after dipping the rivets in the appropriate solutions as instructed I ended up with this

24 nice black rivets. After some struggles aligning everything, and then worse still working out how to clamp the rivets and fix them in place, an almost new driver's shelf

The passenger side one was complete, but squashed! However I reasoned that as it was really just thick cardboard, I could wet the cardborad, make it pliable again, and then hold it flat where required with some weights. This is how it ended up, just needs a coat of paint now

The next job of the day was to strip the chrome items off the rear seats, so they can be sent to a plating shop. So it was off to shed with a few tools and strip this lot off the seats

I suspect that lots going to cost a few pounds

The rear seats are in good condition, but need cleaning, and the black velour has faded a little, I am going to try some fabric dye on this. The backings, that form the load area floor, and indeed the load covers over the spare wheel and tank are in poor condition, the wood has warped, and the carpet is rubbish

So I stripped off the load strips, which are an aluminium channel with a rubber insert, and removed all the boards, it was fun finding the hidden fixings! I was going to recover the seat backs myself, but the carpet set I purchased is poor by the original standards, the carpets do not all have the bound edges that they should have, so after discussions with Aldridge Trimming all the boards, with carpet remnants are going off to be remade, accurately and with similar material to that which Triumph used originally, not some nasty synthetic carpet. They need the lot (as patterns), so there was no point stripping them further.

While they are away I will (gulp) polish and straighten the aluminium strips ready for refitting. They are also going to make the rear wheel arch carpet trims, and supply me some carpet for the footwell backing boards I made, and a few other bits of good carpet that I am missing.

hours worked now 797, 7 today 
costs now £14840, metal blacking kit £40, refitting tyres £50, parts last week £20

Nothing beats the fumes from Contact Adhesive!

I had to go into work early today, and as the Starret hole saw had arrived, and the foam, what better excuse than to leave early and do some theraputic work on the estate.

So I started off drilling all the holes needed in the hardboard, starret hole saw is also visible

One side of the board and the foam was then coated in high temperature contact adhesive, thats a lot of glue and a whole lot of fumes, as I was doing this on the breakfast room table Anne made me shut myself away and open a door to the garden, apparently the fumes were making her cooking taste funny!

Here's the boards with the foam stuck to them and all cut out.

Next job was to position the old vinyl on the boards and glue round the back edges only, when the glue goes off, you tension the vinyl and affix it onto the glue on the hardboard, so all the glue is on the rear face.

And here's all the finished trim panels, nice and flat, original vinyl with good fixing holes. I am going to give them a final finish with the vinyl paint, but I am happy with the result.

The 2 remaining hardboard panels need carpet gluing to them (ah more adhesive fumes) and fitting to the footwells. I have a plan for this, I am going to buy some carpet from a trimmer, and ask him to keep the rest to trim the rest of the car with.

I have to do the estate load area and seat backs now, because these are all warped and twisted too, but these will need 7 or 8mm marine ply.

Hours worked now 790, 4 today, and £14 spent on foam, £6 on hardboard.

Today I have been mostly doing woodwork

My first day back on the car since Stoneleigh (more on that later), I wanted to get on with the interior trim parts, so I started by stripping the vinyl trim from its backing hardboard and giving it a good clean. Washing up liquid and scrubbing brush!

I needed to do this because all the backing board is damaged and warped

I need to source the thin foam that covers the board as removal and reuse is a pig - anyone know where you can buy 3-4mm thick foam?

Anyway several hours later here are all the backing boards remade and tested for fit.

I still need to drill the mounting clip holes, which are 13mm diameter, but I need to get a sarrett hole saw for this, as large conventional twist bit drills just tend to drill a strange shaped hole in hardboard.

When complete I am going to give the vinyl a quick paint with vinyl coat paint, as there are surface marks after the cleaning, and the nos rear hatch board donated by Alan Chatterton (which was brown originally) looks really good after 3 coats of vinyl coat.

I then dug out the parcel shelves, which currently look like this

Getting the rivets out is a pain, and left me with blisters, but I got the driver's side unit stripped down like this

the shelf itself looks OK, so I am only going to replace the upright trim, now that I have some millboard and the templates to make it from.

One of the tyres is still going flat too, so I only managed to fix 3 out of 4!

That was all the work for today.

Back to Stoneleigh, although I had a good show, 3 of my visitors were also involved in painting cars professionally. They pointed out various paint defects to me, and suggested that I get a report from a qualified assessor. This I have now done, and his report is a bit depressing. because as well as the dirt which has surfaced in the paint, there are fish eyes (from silicon contamination), some evidence of micro blistering (from trapped water), and pin holes developing from solvents trapped in the primer layer. There's also shrinkage and various other defects are appearing. To rectify it appears that there's a lot of rework to be undertaken, and several panels need stripping back to bare metal. Needless to say this takes some of the enjoyment out of the project, and is certainly going to cause delays while the rectification is undertaken. Additionally some of the exterior trim needs stripping off . I am not a happy bunny!

Hours worked now 786, 6 hours today.

More work ready for Stoneleigh

At the NEC Colin, Amanda and others on the register stand had a slight problem with the Estate, it required the tyres pumping up every couple of hours!- I did give them new footpump though. Anyway time to sort that out before I have to pump them up at Stoneleigh. I had the tyres removed from the rims today, and have applied two thick coats of Hammerite to the inside of the rims to assist the tyre seal, get the tyres refitted tomorrow.

I hope that fixes it!

Did a few other jobs this afternoon, finished the 2 rear doors too, although I am missing one weatherstrip seal

I also fitted the NOS rear carpet that I won on ebay recently, what a difference to the repro ones, its moulded to fit, and has underfelt padding in places

Fits perfectly. Its also made me decide to get a proper trimmer to finish the carpets and load area carpet trims. The repro stuff is not good. I tried one of the rear wheel arch carpets today, it just about fits where it touches, but its not great.

So, got to fit the rear windows, handbrake cable and its ready.

7 hours worked today total now 787

I prefer to call it cleaning

2 days work, and only one blog update, because I went out with Anne last night and didn't have an opportunity to update the blog.

I am trying to fit as much as possible to the car before it goes to Stoneleigh on the 2000 Register stand, and I want to make it water proof this time. Hunting for removed parts (to refit) in my shed, always turns up some other items to fit too.

I wanted to get the fuel tank in, so I could complete the fuel lines, so first job was to inspect the sender. Like everything else, rusted solid, so new one to hand it was put in the tank.

Then I remembered that before the tank goes in, there are some sound deadening pads to fit, and from the depths of the shed here they are,  what a mess!

Covered in paint, underseal, ziebart and grot, so after cleaning ( I'll leave the polishing to others!) with white spirit and soapy water they look almost new when glued into place

so next it was in with the repainted tank, and make the fuel lines up

typically the replacement filler hose has too large a diameter to fit the original hose clips, so thats another item to purchase, and when I fit those, I will also fit the breather pipes and drain from the fuel filler. I also need to fit another inline fuel filter before the fuel pump.

While in the shed I found and cleaned various other sound deadening pads and fitted those too

I cannot find a footwell mat for the passenger side, so that looks like another part to aquire.

Having also found the choke / heater cable re-inforcing bracket in the shed, I wanted to fit the centre console.

I had purchased a new Stag choke cable (it needs 2 cables for the 2 Strombergs) however the Stag knob is incorrect for a 2000, now this should be easy to change, the original ones have a little pin you depress and they slide off the shaft. Sadly not the repro cables, the knob is molded onto the shaft and is not removable. The fix was obvious, use my old inner shaft, inner cables and knob with the new outer assembly and outer cables ( it was the outer cable sleaves that were U/S on the old unit. However that means threading the 2 inner cables down a 3 inch tube into the correct and narrow inner core of the cables. Not Easy !! in fact a real pain, I wish I hadn't started this game. I hour later and much swearing I achieved the almost impossible, and here's how the complete assembly looks when fitted. Well worth the grief in retrospect.

The it was time for the rear doors, got all the mechanisms in these, and the winders fitted. I still need to fit some rubber to hold the glass in the lower channel that lifts it up and down, but it all works, and as soon as I fit the rubber strip the door cards can go on.

I need to refit the rear estate windows now, but these are simple and the fit will be temporary, because there is a little bit of paint rectification to be undertaken around the rear window frames, before these can be completed.

780 hours now worked, 14 in the past two days.

Doors and Glass.

First job of the day was to get the new gear selector rod fitted and the gear stick actually connected up (the auto parking brake now works too!)

I cleaned up and fitted the starter inhibitor wiring at the starter end, and to the reverse light circuit, and then found that there is no way to get to the inhibitor switch until the front propshaft is removed - I left this for now, it can go on the pending jobs list.

The rest of the day has been spent fighting with door lock mechanisms, window winder parts, and all the other inaccessible parts inside the front doors. I have fitted the polythene liners too, I remember from bitter experience with my Stag that if these aren't fitted the door cards get damp.

I had 2 nos front windows from Chris Witor, so these went in. The worst job was remembering how to get the winder mechanism in. At one point I thought it needed to go in before the glass and the quarter light frame, but luckily at the correct angle, with the fixing mechanism at a certain position compared to the lifter arm in it went.

So here we are 2 front doors complete, with window seals, door cappings etc etc, just the striker plates to adjust now

I want to finish the rear doors next week, handbrake cable and a few other jobs so its water proof and ready for Stoneleigh.

766 hours now worked, 8 today.

Dash it

With the arrival of the reconditioned wood from Chapman & Cliff I couldn't wait. Today had to be the day the dash went in. Took a long time, there were more bits that needed cleaning and painting, including the glove box hinges, but it was well worth the effort, its looking more and more like a car as the parts go back on.

Its only a trail fit of the centre console and heater controls, I wanted to see it all fits (and the finished result too!), but its got to come out to fit the gear selector linkage, from the box to the gear stick. I do have one, but like a lot of the original parts its very very rusty, so thats another item I got from Justriumph. The gear selector cover does fit, but I have no clips for it at present, so it won't fit correctly unless you hold it in place. I also cannot find the switch panel reinforcing plate, so its either time to make one, or have a good hunt about for it.

I managed to pop rivet the metal straps under the plenum vents today too.

I also solved a mystery today!

For some time I have been wondering where the cable is that connects to the gearbox inhibitor switch for reverse lamps and the starter inhibitor, with it being an automatic.

While I was hunting for other bits I found this.

Its a small loom extension, the 4 lucar connectors on the right connect to the inhibit switch, the 2 green (currently dirty black) wires connect to the existing reverse lamp switch wires, and the 2 white red wires go to the starter motor and pick up the solenoid wiring diverting it via the inhibitor switch. Obviously no relay fitted then! just a simple break switch in the starter ignition wiring. Thats got to go on the car, and sooner rather than later. When I get the gear selector wired up, I can test the inhibit switch and then fit this. I hope the inhibit switch is reliable!

After that it will be back to the doors and their fittings, I'd like to finish the front doors tomorrow, and get their wood trim on.

Hours worked 758 7 today and 3 in the week

Money spent £14730 - £495 on the woodwork