FHC resto nr. 135; Brake pipes part 3

With the start of my Christmas holidays, I decided to continue where I left this job in mid-November: Bending more pipes. But first I had to collect the last missing pieces from the Shed (the fuel pipes). Luckily I knew where to start my search. What I didn’t know was that I had a full brake pipe set hidden there too. And these pipes turned out to be in far better condition than the set from the attic! So they were also taken home to act as template. Though they looked like a tangled mess on the drive!

With the templates sorted, it was time to get the next batch of pipes out for bending in their proper shape. To be precise the short fuel pipe between tank and back of right hand sill (PKC390), the brake pipe from the pressure reduction valve to the LH front strut (RKC1007) and the two pipes for the back axle (RKC1015 and RKC1036).

But as you can see they first needed a bit of straightening. For the shorter pipes that was fairly easy. Straighten them by hand as best as possible and roll them between two wooden planks. Same method was used for the longer pipes, though due to their length it’s not as easy as with the shorter ones. Took me about an hour to get them straight enough to start bending them.

With the pipes more or less straightened it was time to start bending them. Using the bending tool as a reference, all bends were marked on the template pipes.

After which these markings were copied to the new pipes, to enable positioning the bending tools in the correct place. Fairly straightforward, but rather time consuming.

But it is the only way to get a decent result! Though the eagle eyed will have spotted a fault in the picture above. Two of the male nipples fitted to the back axle’s pipes were too short. Actually the same happened while restoring the DHC over eleven years ago. But I had completely forgotten about it till yesterday!

Luckily C&C Parts, who are my preferred supplier for brake and clutch parts, are only a stone’s throw from where I live. So that was quickly rectified, and of course free of charge. And with the correct nipples fitted I was able to finish the first batch of brake pipes:

RKC1007

RKC1036

RKC1015

I have to admit that it was more time consuming than expected. I am clearly losing the hang of it 😵 But nevertheless rather pleased with the results so far.

Final job will be bending the three remaining pipes (fuel pipe along sill to engine bay and brake pipes from pressure reduction valve to RH front strut and back axle). Fitting them to the car might be postponed till the weather warms up a bit, as plastic clips are involved! And they have a tendency to break when they’re cold.

p.s. I forgot to take some pictures of the fuel pipe. So that will be for a future post …

Calendar Girls 2022

The cover:

My 3 registered TR7’s together in the shed for the first time

Time again for my traditional end of year post. As previous year, 2021 wasn’t a good year from a TR7 point of view. Not much work has been done on the ’76 car. And ‘t Kreng and the DHC both haven’t seen as much action as I would have liked. In total I covered only 1766 kilometres in my TR7’s so far, of which 1316 kilometres were covered with ‘t Kreng and only 450 kilometres with the DHC. At least I managed a few more kilometres with my TR7’s compared to last year. And maybe there’s an opportunity to take the DHC for a spin during the festive season, if time and weather allows! But I do hope 2022 will be a better year (famous last words).

At least one proper tour booked for 2022; Club Triumph’s 10 Countries Run. Actually booked is a bit of an understatement, as I’m part of the organising committee. Hopefully this event will go ahead in 2022. Time will tell! (here’s an impression of the 2019 edition)

But as last year my Defender again clocked up more than its usual annual mileage. Work again being the main culprit, including some wading action during the summer floods. And it was also used (again I should say) for a two week walking holiday in Süd Tirol.

Inspecting flood defences, Bergen (18-02-2021 NL)

Sewage pipe renewal, Hagendoorn Neer (18-06-2021 NL)

Placing part of a new sewage pumping station, Molenstraat Neer (22-06-2021 NL)

Trying to reach our sewage treatment plant in Roermond (16-07-2021 NL)

On top of the Timmelsjoch (10-09-2021 A/I)

Lovely sunrise on my way to one of the construction sites, Buggenum (28-10-2021 NL)

Finishing flood damage repairs, Ohé & Laak (17-12-2021 NL)

As last year these pictures didn’t make it to the calendar for 2022. But the few trips with my two road worthy TR7’s again didn’t supply enough pictures to fill this year’s calendar either. Luckily I was able to spend some quality time on various jobs on my TR7’s. This included a brief visitor to the shed that was donated by a friend and which I partially dismantled in the shed, before passing it on. This again resulted in a calendar which has a mix of a few touring pictures of the DHC and ‘t Kreng, supplemented with some pictures showing various jobs carried out on my TR7’s.

January:

Fitting the side/flasher lights to the ’76 car’s front bumper

February:

A Saturday afternoon in the shed, working on the ’76 car

March:

Dismantling the dashboard of the 1981 parts donor

April:

Swapping the back axle of one of my parts cars

May:

First tour of the year for ‘t Kreng,

Eikenbroeklaan Beesel (NL)

June:

Back in the shed after one of her few tours in 2021

July:

Second and so far last tour with the DHC,

Hillenraedt Castle Swalmen (NL)

August:

A few small jobs on the front brakes at a friend’s workshop

September:

Final tour for ‘t Kreng, the day after our “Nachtrit”

October:

Washing of the Nachtrit’s dirt at the local car wash

November:

Detail of the 1981 parts donor

December:

The shed

Seasonal greetings

2021 is quickly drawing to an end, and as previous year I am quite happy to turn my back on it. Welcome 2022! Hopefully it will be better than 2021. I know wishful thinking! But I nevertheless wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Glove-box-lock failure

During the final route check of our recent Nachtrit something inside the mechanism of the glove box lock broke. As a result of which the glove box lid couldn’t be opened anymore. The cause for the failure became clear immediately after I got the lid open. The back of the lock carrier was torn open.

This was most likely caused by the weight of the trip meter fitted to the lid for the past 20 odd years!

But it didn’t fully explain what really had failed. So time to dismantle the failed lock mechanism. It even took me a few seconds to work out what really was broken. Can you spot it?

The anoraks will have noticed by now that something’s missing from the rear of the turning knob/lock barrel carrier (bottom picture 2nd row left). The rear has been torn clean off (bottom picture top row 2nd from the right). And as such the cam at the end wouldn’t move anymore to operate the lock’s plastic latch. Now looking at alternatives to get the strain of the newly fitted lock. So to be continued.

A suspension check

After the recent edition of our Nachtrit I decided it might be a good idea to give all suspension pick up points from ‘t Kreng a thorough check. This was prompted by some knocking from various parts of the suspension, mainly from the back of the car and at low speeds.

And to carry out this check properly I (again I should say) used a friend’s work shop, and one of his 4-post lifts. Makes life so much easier, as it gives much better access to all mounting points.

I started with the back axle, unscrewing all eight mounting bolts. A few turned out to be slightly loose, but nothing worrying. More importantly, none of the bolts had seized inside the (poly) bushes’ stainless inserts. The insulation paste I added well over 10 years ago had clearly payed off! And after moving the bolts around a bit they could be torqued down again. The back axle’s wheel bearings also turned out to be fine with no play in axial and radial direction.

It also gave me a good view of the bottom of the car. And yes, it won’t win any prizes at a car show. That was never the intention. But glad that everything is still in pretty good condition and solid. Also no visible cracks around the mounting points, nor any visible deterioration or damage on the various poly bushes. And that despite nearly 25 years of (sometimes pretty hard) use!

Next in line was the front suspension. As with the back axle, the wheel bearings turned out to be fine. And there were no problems with the various mounting bolts either. Though the lower sub frame bushes (Triumph Tune 70 shore rubber items) clearly are showing signs of wear and old age. So these will have to be replaced over the winter. As can be seen in the pictures below the rubber bushes between sub frame and the chassis leg have already been replaced with solid alloy ones, and the TCA bushes have been deleted many years ago for spherical joints. And this of course results in all kind of irrelevant noises being directly transmitted to the cars interior!

Final check were the suspension’s coil-over top mounts. No further action needed! Forgot the pictures though, so I’ll bore you with a recent picture 😜

FHC resto nr. 134; Brake pipes part 2

Another small step in the car’s restoration today. I started bending the brake pipes. And to “warm up” I started with the two smallest ones, the pipes between the brake master cylinder and the pressure reduction valve.

Being small means they are easy to handle while trying out the new bending tool. But the disadvantage is that with the compact size and the right angled connections, they need to be shaped spot on. Otherwise the pipe's fittings will be difficult or impossible to engage in their destined threaded holes. Both needed some tiny adjustments for a proper fit.

And while I was in the shed with the correct tools at hand, I decided to fit the safety hooks to the bonnet. A few more parts that I no longer have to worry about.

Always rather satisfying to fit new or reconditioned parts to a car! Now thinking what to do with the rubber buffers (ZKC 287) for these hooks. The early ones seem to be no longer available and the original ones that came with the car are really not good enough to be reused. Choices!

32nd Edition of “De Nachtrit”

The preparations:

After last year’s cancellation of the event, due to the Covid pandemic, we decided that 2021 would go on regardless! But that meant we had to find a Covid proof format for our night time navigational rally. And that’s what we did. Though it wasn’t up to our normal standards. So no nice accommodation for the reception, no coffee and vlaai and no beers in one of the cellar bars at Rolduc afterwards. Instead the start and finish was on the rather bleak parking area of Roda JC football club's stadium in Kerkrade (NL).

But before that some work had to be done, to start with translating the road book into a GPS file for the satnav. Didn’t go as planned but on the Thursday evening I was finally able to upload the file to my GPS device. Frankly the built in “intelligence” of these systems is way beyond me!

Next on the to do list was a check over off the car of choice. Which was ‘t Kreng of course! I hadn’t been able to spent much time on her, so I took a day off from work last Friday.

And the day was mainly spent on getting her out of the shed and on to the drive and a basic check of all systems. Nothing really wrong, only the engine oil and coolant levels needed topping up a little. But that was more for peace of mind than a real necessity! And I found some proof of the cars hard use over the years (almost 25!).

Final job was fitting a removable mounting point for the satnav. For this I used an old and lightly damaged facia top grill panel, to which I glued a disc for the mount’s suction cup. Suctions cups were also used to secure the rally plate!

The final route check:

As ever our task, on the day of the event, was to do a final check of the route. This is mainly to check for any last minute road works or diversions. But also to have the road book checked by someone who doesn’t know the route. This task was for my regular navigator. Sadly when we set of early on the Saturday morning it was raining heavily. And this highlighted one of the mayor design flaws of the car, the demister. It took a long time before all the windows were clear. Maybe the car was punishing me for the fact that she had to spent the night outside in the rain for the first time in many years! But by the time we arrived at the start location all windows were clean. But it was still raining. And the rain would stay with us on and off for most of the day.

As I didn’t fancy getting wet while taking pictures, I didn’t take many! And I concentrated on the driving instead. And rightly so, as in places the driving conditions were very treacherous indeed. Nicely illustrated at the cross roads near the Val Dieu abbey. It was covered in fallen leaves, resulting in no grip at all for the front wheels. Only remedy to prevent the nose from sliding wide was to use the throttle to get the back out, and the nose in the correct direction. Good fun indeed! And there was lots of mud on the roads, caused by harvesting farmers. Added bonus of the mud was that the car got a nice new streamlined coating.

But apart from the challenging conditions, there were no more problems or diversions. So well within the time schedule we were back at the start, with an average speed of a little over 50 km/h over the almost 160 kilometre route. And a rather muddy car.

The event:

Despite the difficult pre event conditions due to Covid, we were pleased to get 25 cars at the start. A small selection.

And with the last car disappearing into the rainy darkness, we headed to a local restaurant to while away the time over some very nice food, while the teams were negotiating a wide variety of different types of roads. Luckily for them the rain stopped pretty soon after the start.

After finishing the food we went back to the parking lot from the Roda JC stadium, to welcome the teams at the finish.

There’s always some doubts about the route, but we needn’t have worried. The first team arrived nicely on “schedule”. And close to midnight all teams were accounted for.

The aftermath:

Most important job for the day after, was a trip to the local car wash of course. But not before I enjoyed the car during a very fine Sunday morning. With lovely weather and autumn colours. And more slippery leaves ...

After which the car was treated to a shower at the local car wash, before being tucked away in the shed.

There was a slight problem though. During the day’s driving I found out that the glove box lid couldn’t be opened anymore. But back in the shed I managed to open it with a slim screw driver from the car’s tool roll and the smart phones led light. With the lid open the cause for the failure became immediately clear.

Clearly visible is that the back of the lock is torn open. This has probably caused the lock innards to come apart, resulting in the lock not functioning anymore. Luckily I have a few spare glove box lids in the shed so switching the lock mechanism was only a few minutes work. Only down side is that the current boot and glove box key won’t fit anymore.

As for the reason of the locks failure. This is probably caused by the trip meter hanging on the lid in combination with many badly surfaced roads over the past 20+ years. I might go looking for a method to take some strain from the lock mechanism over the winter.

I have to admit that from a driving point of view it was a good weekend, clocking op circa 670 kilometres. Though I will quickly forget the bill for the 102 RON fuel!

And to finish this post a picture of the imprint left behind by a small leaf that managed to stick to the rear bumper long enough for it to leave a visible imprint in the built up dirt 😊