First tour of the year

It is already almost four months ago that I took ‘t Kreng for her almost traditional final drive of the year. And today (after being allowed back on the road for almost three weeks) I finally found some time for a short first drive of the touring season.

I had planned a few jobs on this car but again time (mostly lack of it) and the weather intervened. But I did a service check of the car last month. So the only thing I had to do today was fire up the engine and enjoy the driving and the countryside:

It was good to be out again. Hopefully more miles (and smiles) to follow this year!

FHC resto nr. 77; Heater rebuild part 8

Again a set back with the heater’s connecting tubes. It has already been several months ago that I visited the shed in search of a good original heater pipe assembly. But before sending it of for coating I thought it a good idea to have the ends shot blasted first to check if there was enough metal left there to get a water tight seal. There was. After which it was well over a month later that I finally found time and motivation to have them galvanised. Sadly something went wrong there and the assembly was badly damaged. Both pipes were torn from the mounting plate leaving me with three loose and parts:

Being rather fed up with the whole thing I decided to go back to one of my initial ideas for the pipes’ fire wall crossing. As the base plate was badly deformed where the tubes had been welded to it I decided to use the plate I prepared for my original set up last year. But with a slight adaptation of the extra mounting point to make sure this wouldn’t foul the larger grommets now being used: 

In my previous post I mentioned an upgrade I am working on for the DHC (actually PAS). As there still are some doubts about the clearance for such a set up I decided on another trip to the shed. This time  for a comparison picture of some inlet manifolds. Clearly visible is that the FI manifold needs some extra space at the front where the PAS pump should sit. And one of the other future plans is to the fit a modern injection set up to the DHC using an original set up as base:

Both to be continued, the heater hopefully soon! Because as long as that isn't fitted I can't and won't start with the wiring and the rest of the remaining jobs on the car …

Brake repairs for the DHC part 2

Earlier in the year I dropped a rather used looking brake master cylinder plus servo unit of at my local brake specialist C&C Parts, with the instructions to renovate them or replace with new units where necessary.

After a few days I received a message that they had completed the inspection. It turned out to be best to refurbish the servo unit, though the diaphragm had to be replaced. And the piston rod needed machining to get rid of any oxidation damage. But the master cylinder was beyond economical repair so that would have to be replaced with an new one.

And after authorizing the order there was nothing more I could do but wait for a message that the order was ready for collection. This took slightly longer than expected,  but a few weeks ago I was able to collect the parts. And as ever their work looks rather good as these pictures clearly show:

The new (old stock) brake master cylinder

The refurbished brake servo

And they even had the correct brake fluid reservoir in stock!

So as soon as the DHC gets out of here still mandatory annual hibernation I will fit these to the car. But before that I hope I will be able to use ‘t Kreng for a few runs. I  really had hoped the weather would have been good enough to take her out as today was the first day that both cars were allowed on the road again after their three month hibernation. Sadly the weather didn’t cooperate. So instead of enjoying some driving, I went to the shed to search for a part that will be needed for another upgrade I have in mind for the DHC before Club Triumph’s 10CR. And I found one, though it needs some tender loving care as the bearing and the viscous coupling both are pretty worn. Also to be continued …

FHC resto nr. 76; More exterior trim

Some more small jobs finished on the car! To start with the repairs to the head light surrounds. True to their reputation all the bonded in steel mounting washers had fallen off. Time for a well proven though slightly messy repair. When I adapted the head lights for ‘t Kreng, I fabricated a batch of alloy washers to replace the original ones. At the time I thought it a good idea to fabricate a few spare sets. And it proved a good idea indeed, as I used one of these spare sets to repair the FHC’s head light surrounds. Though this time the sealant I used was slightly more difficult to work with. As a result of which the finished product looks a little messy, but that will be completely hidden from sight And at least the washers are properly bonded to the rubber surrounds!

After I finished the head light surrounds it was time for the next job, preparing and fitting the sill mouldings. These had been powder coated almost two years ago, after which they had been safely stored away. But due to the fact that I had to move a lot of my TR7 stuff to another location last year, I had these mouldings in my hands far too often while searching through the parts. And I finally got fed up with them lying around, so I decided to fit them to the car! Last summer I already had made a start by searching through my spares for all the parts I’d need to fit the mouldings to the sills:

And to make sure the end caps will stay firmly in place, I used a generous amount of PUR based sealant to fixate them in their designed position:

Remained the final task of fitting everything to the car. To start with the plastic mounting clips (GHF1167 and ZKC2272) were put in place. There were a few small problems here, mainly caused by the clips themselves, and the cold temperatures in the shed. Let’s say I was glad I had enough spare clips with me! Sadly while fitting the LH front clip (ZKC2272) the pop rivet pliers managed to slightly damage the paint work. Grrrrr! Luckily it is only a very small and hardly visible chip. Will see what I’ll do with it …

Finally all the clips were aligned with a straight rule and some more PUR sealant was applied to the ends of the mouldings to bond them to the car’s body. After which the mouldings could be fitted to the car. Which turned out to be the easiest part of the job. Carefully align the moulding in its correct position, and place it over the top notches of the plastic trim clips (GHF1167 with two notches pointing up). And while holding it down with one hand whack it in place with a few well aimed blows with the palm of your other hand. Making sure it seats properly over all the mounting clips. Job done!