ahebron

You are dreaming of summer arriving.

I ended up with a set of doors from an early Herald. Front corners are different. IIRC I swapped them for a carpet set. When I picked up the doors I also got a Spitfire O/D box which is still in my garage. I must get rid of stuff I do not and will not need!

The one I rebuilt for my 1600 Vitesse was made up of the best of a bad bunch of parts as the one fitted to the engine was a bad mix of Mk2 and Mk1 rocker parts. Yes the shaft is worn in places and the rockers are as well but with the correct gaps this is the quietest 6 cylinder Triumph engine I have ever heard. It had me very worried and I have striped the rockers shaft down a couple of times and rebuilt the same way it came apart. Rechecked the tolerances multiple times and it is always correct. Probably jinxed it now and it will clatter like a clattery thing on clatter day next time I start it 🤪

And thern drive along a dusty road to coat it in place till next year😉

I found where it went. Life got in the way and it got used up on other things Painting the trim boards on the house has taken a bit of my time over christmas as it has been at least 10 years since I last did them, and a cyclone got in the way this time Rhyna came back from visiting family up north over xmas and bought a chinese room divider back that her dad gave to her mum many years ago. We spent far too many days painting it to make it into a head board for our bed. And finally that ugly 4 letter word that takes up so much of our time and often away from our Triumphs for months on end

I have the same nuts and bolts box as the one at the bottom of your photo. Cant blame it on winter as it is summer here mind you we are in the tail of a tropical cyclone at present one of seven predicted this summer. Its very wet so that makes me feel ok about not working in the garage.

I'm the same. I lend tools to people and sometimes have to ask them for them back after a year or so. Even had one person tell me my compression tester was cheap chinese crap (yes it was cheap and chinese) but he kept borrowing it as it was the only one he found that he could use on his V8 Chev engined Transit van. The last I knew of that was when someone else needed it to test a motorbike engine and I told them he had it and they had to ask for it from him. Funny thing it is so cheap why dont they buy one themselves. But the worst are family who borrow and destroy then give it back broken without any offer to repair or replace or get upset when you ask for it back even after a year. A mechanic mate has a blackboard that he writes loaned tools on. Personally if I borrow a tool it is straight back to the owner once I have used it as I know what it is like when it is not returned.

Has anyone got a box of motivation they can spare. In particular I need the version that is for finishing off a Vitesse 6 I have owned for 40 years this year and only driven it for 1-2s year when I bought it. It seems to have always been 6 weeks away from finishing and I can never get any closer. Used or new not that bothered but I suspect used will have had its niggles sorted even though it might be a bit slow in the morning. My old one ran out a year or two ago. Thanks Adrian

If you can track down someone with and english wheel they should be able to create the correct contour roof panel for you. But what no one has mentioned is to turn it into a convertible using a Spitfire rear tub............................................................ I will get my coat. Strangely I never get on with sunroofs as they take headroom away as the frames are generally where my head needs to be to operate the car properly apart from the original Fiat Bambinas I used to drive as a kid, I would stick my head up through the opening

Had a conversation similar to this recently. Basically it was about the points building up on one side or another and that meant that the condenser was too big or too small. If you have a negative earth engine and the build up is on the positive side of the points ( the moving bit) then you have to increase the condenser size. And vice versa if the build up is on the fixed part of the points. I hope that is correct.

On my VW Amarok I diagnosed an open thermostat because when I went down hill the temperature gauge dropped and when I went uphill it went to normal temp. This was late summer driving. The replacement was 9 hours I will never get back but the re-replacement due to a pinched o-ring on install only took 6 hours.

I was going to post the one PeteH has. It seems to be a reasonable unit and there is info on waste oil conversions. Pricing in NZ is comparable Not needed here though we are high 20s C which is not good.

I agree with John, whatever works to get the job done and is comfortable, as we all know theory is great till it comes to working on old cars. I know these are just demo photos but those gloves look a bit melty to me, a few sparks and your hands will covered in little red burn marks. A good pair of leather gloves are great for welding in. What is the vehicle and why was the panel cut off then reattached?

There will be many opinions to this but in the past I have used conveyor belt rubber as a replacement and currently are mounting my Vitesse 6 solidly using stainless steel spacers and penny washers to get the correct adjustment.

And please remember brake cleaner containing Tetrachloroethylene when heated can create phosgene which is very similar to 'mustard gas' This would mainly be if you used it to clean metal before welding.

Unkel Kunkel got in before me. Most batteries don't like being too cold or too hot so remember the 3 bears and get them just right, a UK winter cold concrete floor will not be good for it. And yes battery acid on concrete is not good Headlight bulbs will not get hot and fail, they stay on for hours at night in a vehicle inside an enclosed glass housing fixed to a metal body that is banging and crashing along the road. Bulb wiring is the main problem using too small cable and under rated badly attached connectors, holders will generally only fail if they are old. Bulbs off a battery will most likely be receiving 12 volts dc max which will then decay, on a vehicle they should receive approx 13.5 volts if the wiring is good, lower voltage will be less stress on the filament. And try not to touch the bulb glass with your fingers as you will see the fingerprint once the glass gets hot, an alcohol wipe will remove them before you turn them on or use a clean rag when handle them.

Just you wait till they start throwing regen braking units. The stories in the pub will go well into the night

Lost a piston once, big hole in the side of the block but no piston outside the engine. Once the engine had cooled down I put my hand in the hole but still no piston. We all know a piston will not drop into a sump with a baffle plates so where was the piston. Started to strip the engine down to remove what was left of the engine and I found the piston. It was in one of the airfilters in lots of tiny pieces. Valves were probably shot as well.

It would be interesting if any of those Vitesse had a 2 prefix on the chassis number which would denote Australian assembly I am aware of a Vitesse with 3 prefix in New Zealand which means it was assembled in NZ

Either everyone else knows what these are or are just to scared to ask but I will. What are they?

I use them when fitting the body and chassis together on my Vitesse. Great for getting gaps and alignment correct.

This week I have been using my hot metal glue machines. First up was the MIG welder. I scored two 800x1400x5mm sheets of steel from a job I was on so decided to replace the top of my fold up welding table with a 800x600 sheet and make a 800x800 top for my fold up panel trestle. Fired up the plasma cutter which is a 40a machine but it wouldn't cut the metal as easily as it should have, turned out I had burnt out the plasma tip and nozzle last time I used it. Ordered parts from an online supplier as BOC who sold the machine are to expensive. I also ordered a new torch off Aliexpress, this is one with cheap consumables and I will porbably end up fittin this once the fitted one uses up its consumables. Eventually In got the plate cut and went to weld locating tags underneath to locate the plate on the panel trestle. It wasnt welding as I would like and on investigation the brass nut that holds the liner in place had fallen ond was in the crate the MIG bits live in. Replace the nut and run out of wire, off to BOC who had reasonable priced wire and they are also the closest. I got the table tops finished and am happy with the results. Yesterday was TIG day and I was welding aluminium for the first time. I made a bracket for a film light out of 10mm x 50mm aluminium, nothing like starting out TIG welding an over size piece of metal. My TIG is ACDC 185 amps so I ground down the sides of the alloy to allow me to get them to stick. Hook up the table, torch and foot pedal and start to weld but it wasn't welding. I knew gas was coming out as I could hear it, I had positive lead to earth so why wasn't it working. Well I hadn't connected the gas line for the torch being used to MIG where the one connector does it all I didn't even think about the gas. Gas now connected and back to welding but I cannot get the heat into the metal, pedal to the floor and not doing it. St this point I was considering taking it to a proper welder to get the job done. Then I remembered the foot pedal on the plasma has max and minimum trim pots and the max pot was wound down. Finally I start to weld and hey it worked but getting the plate to heat up was a lot of work, I ended up filling the fillet then running the torch back over it a few times to melt the metals together. The joints are not load bearing and just act as 50mm spacers between the two long runs. Next job was to get the holesaws out and lighten it all. Finished it all with a coat of paint, but that has runs in it. Bugger it I will leave it with runs and just see if it all works

I was lead to believe that the additive to oil to stop engines leaking contains a product similar to brake fluid in that it reacts with the rubber seals and allows them to swell thereby stopping the leak. Whether pouring a bottle of brake fluid in to your oil would work is not for me to say.

TBH that is something I have often thought about but getting the car back on the road is the priority, mods come later.

Here is a bit more info from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Humberstone Humberstone's first car design as a 19 year old was the 1965 Scorpion Sovereign. There were three models made. The 1600cc engined 616M and 616MS, and the 2 litre powered 620M. The car had a Triumph Vitesse drivetrain and a Williams & Pritchard body. Humberstone was approached by Tom Gratrix of Bond cars and later found out the Gratix had used designer Trevor Fiore to restyle the Scorpion by making it into a fastback. Bond then produced it as the Bond Equipe 2 litre without Humberstone's consent. This resulted in Humberstone successfully suing Bond. and more here https://www.rapport-forte.com/timeline/scorpion-sovereign-616m-616ms-620m/ Yesterday I could access the facebook page and today I would have to sign in.