My TR7’s in 2025

One final look back on 2025 from a TR7 point of view, before 2026 is well and truly upon us. Starting with the repairs of the DHC’s body. Below are a few shots of the work done so far. More in the relevant blogposts;

Early in the year the original body shell of that car saw the light of day again,

after many years of storage in the shed.

Ready for the next chapter in this car’s life and a new beginning!

After paint removal and shot blasting.

The repairs of the right hand sill and rear wing edge.

Rear of the right hand cabin floor section.

Left hand sill repairs.

Rear right hand suspension pick up points.

Next car in line for some attention was the 1976 TR7. Actually looking back not much work was done to this car (proof HERE!). But there has been some progress. Starting with a few small interior jobs.

Refurbishing and fitting the early style roof mounted interior light.

Fitting the gear-lever-gaiter-finisher to the gear-lever-gaiter.

It wasn’t as straight forward as it looks because I wanted the top of the

gear-lever-gaiter to be folded inside by a few millimetres to give a nicer finish.

Reassembling and mounting the steering column.

Always nice putting nice shining parts back on a car!

Than there was the business off redoing the gearbox extension because

my first attempt turned out not to be thorough enough. I think it is now.

And swapping the mounting hardware for the brake

balance pressure reducing valve for some nicer items.

Later in the year I had a go at fitting the ill-fitting but very nicely refurbished repro parcel shelf to the car. Needed an extra pair of hands to complete this job. But well worth the effort. And with the parcel shelf in place the boot trim could be finished:

But most of my Triumph time was spent on ‘t Kreng. Starting with another water pump replacement earlier in the year, after which the car was used as much as possible.

So far this pump has been pretty fine, with only a few very tiny leaks from time. But that is nothing to worry too much about with a graphite drag seal. These can always leak a tiny bit. So the most worrying bit is the lack of time to use the car on a regular basis. And thus preventing oxidation starting on the water pumps sealing surface. Which in turn can start another leak. But I did my best, covering exactly 2750 kilometres since fitting the new pump in the second half of April 2025. With the last drive just over a week ago:

End I reached an important milestone with this car. The car's odometer is around the clock for the second time in its life! Sadly at the moment the roads are covered in rock salt to prevent icing. So the next drive will be “somewhere” in 2026!

Mission accomplished

Alongside the “Heerenvennen” part of the national parc

“De Hamert” near the small village of Wellerlooi.

Or another milestone in the 45 year life of ‘t Kreng. Last month I mentioned that I was on a mission with ‘t Kreng. And that mission was to clock up some more miles before the end of the year in order to get the odometer back to its original setting, when the car left the factory about 45 years ago. This would be the second time that happened with this car in my possession. I actually purchased her with 73993 kilometres on the clock. And after the restoration was finished in July 1997, it only took me 2 years before the clock was back to 00000 kilometres:

The next 100000 kilometres took slightly longer. Mainly because the car was relieved of its daily duties at the start of this century. But this morning I set of for the final 160 kilometres of my mission. And it was quite a lovely drive!

View across the river Meuse on the monastery village of Steyl.

Brangk Baarlo

Old monastery wall along the Legioenweg, Baarlo

And when I turned into the forecourt of a petrol station just across the border in Germany, the odometer turned from 99999 to 00000. Call it timing!

On a mission!

I wanted to use ‘t Kreng for the final check of “our“ LTV Nachtrit a few weeks ago, but the weather forecast wasn’t in favour of it. So I used my little Landy instead. And it turned out to be a wise choice. It rained quite a lot over the day, making road conditions quite slippery and treacherous in places. The fallen leaves didn’t help here!

But that left me with a challenge for ‘t Kreng. And I have given myself until the end of the year to successfully complete this challenge. So I have decided to use that car as much as possible for the last two months of 2025. Starting with a works related trip to the sewage treatment plant in the small village of Rimburg which is currently being renovated. I decided to take the scenic route there!

Roadside chapel (het Waarderkapelke),

on the plateau above the village of Rimburg.

Starting with a business lunch in the old water tower of Rimburg.

‘t Kreng in front of the temporary influent pumps,

used during the renovation of the sewage treatment plant.

I also used the car for a trip to inspect the progress on the body shell of the DHC this Saturday. The welding on the rear of the car is nearly finished. A few shots:

And the challenge? Have a good look at the picture below!

FHC resto nr. 174; Finishing boot trim

With the rear bulkhead panel and the parcel shelf fitted to the car I was able to finish the boot. Which meant fitting the two small rectangular trim panels against the back of the parcel shelf, and the trim panel in the right hand wing. These hadn’t been fitted to help access to the wiring while fitting the parcel shelf. And it turned out that the nuts for the rear mounting points off the parcel shelf were much easier to access this way. Call it foresight!

Despite that it was a bit of a struggle. Especially aligning the overlapping mounting holes of the left hand wing and rear bulk head panels with the hole in the body. Certainly not helped by the fact that I applied a self-adhesive flocked covering to the panels. And thus adding some extra thickness. Luckily I had a few longer non-standard plastic (drive) fasteners lying around to bridge the extra thickness!

Another problem that reared its ugly head was the shape of the trim panel for the right hand rear wing. That didn’t fit at all. It clearly was for a later car were there is more room in front of the shroud around the fuel filler neck. Luckily that was easy to rectify with a pair of heavy duty scissors.

Also used the opportunity to trial fit/check the position of the centre arm rest. It looks like the rear mounting holes align quite nicely. Though the carpet around the front of the arm rest needs some tiny rectifications before the arm rest and centre console can be fitted. But that should be easy!

FHC resto nr. 172; Fitting the parcel shelf

One of those tasks that has been haunting me for several years now: installing the aftermarket fiberglass- parcel shelf. And it's been even longer since it was beautifully covered by the late Lambert Craenen, a local old school car upholsterer.

So I'd decided to tackle this job during my current holiday and install it. So, full of good spirits, I headed to the shed last Monday! But after a few frustrating hours, I had to admit my defeat and throw in the towel. The fit of the parcel shelf was so poor that I couldn't install it on my own: While trying to align the front of the parcel shelf with the mounting holes, it went wrong. I had to stretch the shelf so much that it put too much strain on the four screws securing it to the rear to the body underneath the rear window. The result was that all four screws including the plastic distance pieces, were pulled cleanly out of their respective mounting holes. Time to call in the help of a good friend and come up with a solution to fit the shelf.

In the end we decided to tackle the problem with long flat Allen headed M5 bolts together with longer distance pieces for the rear mount. The lower front edge was fitted using the original mounting method. It still was a bit of a struggle to get everything in place, but we manged it in the end. And it was well worth the effort, as the pictures in this post prove. Special thanks go to Jos for assisting me today!