FHC resto nr. 80; Door striping

It has been a few months ago since I carried out some work on the orange FHC. But with a few days of my vacation left I decided to pay a visit to the shed. As reported earlier there are a few jobs that have to be done to the car before any other tasks can be carried out. And today I finished one of those tasks; fitting these two parts of my striping kit to the doors.

In these two previous posts (#34 and #35), from well over four years ago, I outlined how I made them. As it is easier to fit these with the door positioned on a level surface, so this job had to be done before the doors were fitted to the car.

The actual fitting process is rather straightforward. Wash the door properly and add the adhesive stripe, with the positioning foil over the front of the stripe still in place, to the wet surface. This way it is easy to position/align it without all the different parts of the striping wandering all over the place! As reference or alignment point I decided to use the door handles opening.

With the stripe in the correct position I used a bank card, a window squeegee and a hairdryer to remove all the water trapped underneath the striping, before removing the positioning foil. The only real problems I encountered was the fact that the thin positioning foil had started to age a bit. Which made it hard to remove in places. But with the necessary patience and a pen knife it came off in the end. And in some places a few very small pockets off water refused to move. Will see how that develops, once the sticker material that was used has settled down. So it is not a 100% perfect finish, but nevertheless quite happy with the end result!

And obviously there’s now no way back as for the engine of choice for this car. This brand new 16 Sprint head will eventually find its way under the bonnet.

Enjoying the fine weather

The weather was far too fine to not take the DHC for a short spin this afternoon. So that is what I did! Sadly enough I had some other jobs before I could set of. Which meant I only had a few hours to enjoy the car. But despite the rather overcrowded roads in the direct vicinity it still was rather enjoyable. As the sun is still fairly strong and still not much autumn colours in the trees I decided on a slightly different back ground for some pictures of the car. The first three being taken in front of Michael Kors’ European distribution Centre (@ Tradeport Venlo) …

And below two pictures of the same site taken four years ago. In the pictures above the car stands in the approximate location of the white lined container in the first picture below. They certainly have been busy here at Tradeport Venlo over the past few years!

As for the car, and especially the brakes. After the last check and especially resetting the rear brakes and hand brake seems to have solved the small but niggling problems. But when you are used to cars with discs all-round the rear drum set up will always be somewhat off a compromise …

A walk in the country side

A completely non Triumph related post this time! Last Sunday was an exceptional fine day. So I decided to leave the Triumphs at home, as it would almost certainly be far too crowded on the roads in the area with walkers and cyclists. I put on the walking boots and took one of the cameras instead, to explore the area at a more leisurely pace …

10CR 2019 – The Aftermath

After the successful completion of the 10 Countries Run last week I carried out some post event checks on the car. The first thing I noticed during the run was that it was noticeable more thirsty. And a quick check and clean of all the spark plugs proved this. They were now much more brown coloured than before I fitted the current carburettor needles. Though there also was what looked like a light oil deposit. But as the plugs were dry that’s not something I will worry too much about. Especially bearing in mind that this engine was rebuilt well over 25 years ago and seen a lot of action since!

Another point to inspect was the oil level. Or better the source of the leak! Over the event I think the engine lost/burned between 0,5 to 0,75 litres of oil. Not what you would call very worrying. But as it looks like it is coming from the front crank shaft seal, together with the down pour on the German Autobahn on Saturday, it did make a fair mess under the bonnet and car. In particular the lower right hand side of the engine. Still working on an attack plan to remove this.

Than for the most important bit, the brakes. Shortly before the event I had a go at adjusting the rear brakes, but that attempt was only partially successful. Due to a slight ridge in the drums I wasn’t able to get the shoes out as far as I wanted. So on return I removed the brake drums and dropped them of at local brake specialist C&C Parts for machining. Also used the opportunity to show them the rather sad looking remains of the hand brake lever dust covers. They agreed that just over a year was way too short a life span, so they supplied two new sets free of charge. And they finished machining the drums the same day. That’s what I call service!

And with the inside surface of the drums now nice and smooth, I was able to get the shoes two more clicks out with the automatic adjusters.

For the rest the brakes have been performing fairly well during the event though still not how I would like to have them. Under certain conditions the pedal travel still can be a bit vague. Though it has been improving (very slowly) over the event. See how that develops over the next few weeks or months! The only noticeable thing was that the brake fluid level had dropped slightly. But that’s not a big surprise regarding the sort of driving the car’s seen last week.

With the rear of the car jacked up and on axle stands I could also inspect the probable source for an irritating rattling noise. This only occurred under a curtain engine load and while going uphill. As it was clearly felt through the seats rather than heard I suspected the exhaust was touching. It indeed had been, as this bare patch of the rear left chassis leg proves. Still undecided what to do with it as under “normal” driving it doesn’t occur …

Last suspension and brake check were the front bearings. I had some slight worries about the left hand bearings. During the inspection before the event I found that the outer bearing had a very slight yellowish tint over the rollers. But as it was operating smoothly and without any play I just packed some clean grease in. And almost 2800 kilometres later it is still running nice and smoothly. No sounds and no play at all! Maybe I should worry less …

Another Item to check was the clutch master. Shortly before the event I thought it had developed a leak. But after cleaning the area around the clutch pedal's push rod I didn’t find any leaks. And it remained so during the run. Also the level in the reservoir didn’t drop. Though the uncountable number of gear changes have taken their toll on the clutch system's fluid. Especially bearing in mind it was only changed shortly before the event …

Final check was the coolant level (spot on) and the drain hole underneath the water pump. It wasn’t a surprise really that this still was bone dry. To sum it all up, pretty pleased with how the car behaved last week!

Club Triumph's 10 Countries Run 2019

We returned home from another great trip through some countries of Europe. "10 Countries, 4 days, 14 Alpine passes, 2000 miles, 85 Triumphs" as the package states. Or we survived Club Triumph’s 2019 edition of the 10 Countries Run!

To the start in Sedan (F)

The Netherlands-Germany-The Netherlands-Belgium-France

(263 km, 3:10hr)

We headed off towards our hotel near the start early in the afternoon. This way we would be able to spend some time in the town of Sedan. Glad to say our hotel was above average for the town! Some pictures taken during our stroll through the town centre …

 The car in front of our hotel, in the courtyard of the imposing Chateau de Sedan (F)

And seen from the hotel room

Nice NSU 1200 TT in the centre of Sedan (F)

Nice hotel (AirBnB😂) in the town's centre, close to the river Meuse

Also came across this abandoned looking TR7 in the town centre.

Actually one of the entrants car’s in front of his hotel …

And a few more pictures of some of Sedan's faded history ...

Day one; Sedan (F) – Bartholomäberg (A)

France-Belgium-France-Belgium-France-Luxemburg-France-Germany-Switzerland-Liechtenstein-Austria

(655 km, 12:14hr)

As in previous editions the first day was a nice mix of all kinds of roads through most of the countries we would pass through on this run. Some truly memorable driving roads, including the Belgian-Luxembourg-French border area, the Col du Haut de Ribeauville in the French Vosges area, and around the Feldberg in Germany, to name a few. With the best bit, chasing a scooter down a fast flowing road down one of the many mountains in the south of Germany. Good fun! But a few pictures from the start in Sedan first:

At the start in Sedan (F)

Near the summit of the Col du Haut de Ribeauville,

in the Ballon des Vosges Nature reserve (F)

Fantastic turn out of the Swiss TR Club in Bütschwill (CH), where they were lining the road to welcome us.

Sadly a lot of the entrants had chosen an alternative route, so missed this sight.

Day two; Bartholomäberg (A) – Dölsach (A)

Austria-Italy-Austria

(458 km, 10:40hr)

The weather forecast hadn’t been too good for this day, but the weather turned out to be just fine. And with some lovely driving roads what more do you want! This day’s drive went over some high Alpine passes, inclusing the Silvretta Hochalpenstraße, Sella Joch, Passo Pordoi, Passo di Campolongo and the Staller Sattel. The last one being a one way pass. Brilliant!

On our way up the Silvretta Hochalpenstraße (A) early in the morning

(©EllisS)

Official start of day two, near the top of the Silvretta Hochalpenstraße (A)

Lunch stop in Sankt Ulrich, Grödner Tal (I)

On the Passo Pordoi (I)

On the Passo Pordoi (I)

On the Passo Pordoi (I)

On the Passo Pordoi (I)

Waiting at the traffic light for the driving direction to change

Staller Sattel (I) on the border between Süd Tyrol and Austria

Day three; Dölsach (A) – Adelsried (D)

Austria-Germany-Austria-Germany-Austria-Germany

(543 km, 10:13hr)

The third day sadly started as the second day had been forecasted, rather wet and dreary. But despite the bad weather it still was a rather enjoyable day's driving. Which included the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße, the Gerlos Paß and part of the Deutsche Alpenstraße to name a few.

Official start of day three at the bottom of the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße (A)

As it was rather wet and chilly we decided to head on ...

… and enjoy the views near the top of the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße (A)

Lunch stop in Achental (A), close to the Achen Paß

Along the shores of the Plan See (A), in the Austrian-German border area near Reutte.

Day four; Adelsried (D) – Kerkrade (NL)

Germany-The Netherlands

(632 km, 8:38hr)

Day four started rather wet. But by the time the sun got out we were trying to win back some time which we lost because of roadworks on the B25 between Harburg and Möttingen. Sadly they forgot to sign out the diversion. And the GPS decided it wanted to go back to the closed road constantly. I later found out that with the last map update all roadworks and speed cameras had been wiped of the memory. So we had to rely on the road book and the “emergency map” But we came back to the official route in the end. As we had lost half an hour, we decided to press on. Luckily the weather was fine by now which made for a pleasant drive through the heart of Germany. Taking in parts of the Romantische Straße and some nice roads between Nördlingen and Miltenberg. Soon after which we hit the motorway near Aschaffenburg the rain returned. And it would accompany us almost right till the end. Though the rain died away slowly when we were crossing the Eifel from the Nürburgring towards the finish in Rolduc, where we arrived around 5:00 in the afternoon.

Time for a quick shower and a look at the awesome abbey complex ...

... and some food and beer …

Boring statistics etc.

Total distance covered: 2756 kilometres;

Total fuel consumption: ±300 litres;

Average fuel consumption: ±9,2 km/lt.

Maintenance needed: not really! This time all fluid levels remained where they should be throughout the event, close to their maximum marks. Only the engines' oil level dropped a little, but not enough to top it up! The only “problem” (if you could call it that) was a brake light switch that decided to go on strike. But that took only a few minutes to rectify.

Overall the car behaved very well. But there will always be things that need improvement or repairs. The most important one still are the brakes. Though it is safe to say that the work I carried out just before the event did improve the feel of the brake pedal a lot. But from time to time the feel of the brake pedal still is a bit random. That needs to be investigated further. And I found out that crickets are very good at impersonating the sound of chirping brakes 😂

Other things that need addressing are the clock that stopped working. So I’ll have to pull the one from the original instrument cluster, because that was working properly. Also one of the four LED’s I put into the instrument cluster decided not to work. Probably a bad contact or something. And the fuel gauge still is registering in the lower area. So that points to a faulty sender unit in the fuel tank. But to get that sorted I’ll have to empty the tank first. To be continued …

And finally looking at the cars fuel consumption it looks like the fuelling isn't to lean any more. Will look at that when I check the car in the coming few days!