Thursday 30 June 2016

She would have been 35 years today


Today it was exactly 35 years ago that TPZDJ8AA403557 (or JL-GX-37) was first registered in California. The car was imported to the Netherlands on the 19th of September 1994 by a friend who eventually sold it to me on the 27th of December 2006. I actually bought it because I wanted to take part in the 2007 edition of Club Triumphs 10 Countries Run with a TR7 DHC. And after a fair amount of work she performed faultlessly during the event.





But after a few years of use I decided to scrap her and use her as a parts donor to restore my first car, an early Dutch TR7 DHC. So she lives on  ...



Friday 3 June 2016

MOT time

The weather hasn't been very brilliant this spring, so the DHC hasn't seen any action so far. But last week I took her out off her long hibernation in preparation for her MOT (or APK as it called over here). Only got round for the most basic of checks of all the essential items. And luckily nothing was wrong, so earlier this Friday I drove over to a friend's workshop to have the car tested. It was already her fourth (biennial) test since her restoration was completed in 2010. How time flies!

As expected nothing really wrong, only the CO was slightly high (4,9%) as were the headlights. Both were easy to adjust within the legal limits. One advisory were the dust covers from the lower ball joints of the front suspension. They are starting to age a bit, so will probably need replacing before the next test in two years time.

But we had a bit of a discussion over the gaiters from the steering rack. I always make a tiny hole in them to avoid them blowing up when on full lock. But according to the mechanic they should be completely closed, and as such should be rejected. As he saw my point we settled on an emergency plan in case there would be a (random) verification check by the RDW. The plan wasn't necessary.

Also nice to see some other wedges in his workshop, like one of his own TR7V8's patiently awaiting some much needed attention

And this rather nice and genuine TR8 DHC from one of his customers ...