Josef

Fitted a new fuel pump, and probably more importantly put some more fuel in (which I think was more likely the problem before..). So the fuel pump change probably wasn't necessary but I wanted one with a fuel priming lever anyway as that's what my Herald has, and it makes it simpler to see if the pump is doing anything. Anyway, with that I got it started and drove it outside. This was May 2021. With the car on the drive I could get all the muck that had accumulated from 10 months of metalwork cleaned off, and popped the alternator conversion on when the engine bay was a little less filthy. IMG_0673.MOV

Finished off the outrigger end, and capped it off too to stop anything getting in when it’s back on the car. Then tried to test fit the centre valance, and found I’d dropped the rear of the boot floor on the LHS by about 4 mm so it wouldn’t fit… Had to cut through the repair on that side and do some correction, got it fitted up ok in the end though.

My Dec 1969 built 13/60 (convertible) has black sun visor and rear view mirror brackets, I guess this is something that changed between earlier and later cars?

So I’ve hummed and hahed, and decided to try saving the rear chassis extension. It’s an original style one, and it’s not actually that bad, just splitting a bit where it’s rusted between the non welded seams on the lower side. Been rebuilding the end I lopped off to give me access to both sides of the boot floor this morning. It had been drilled out and long bolts put through the whole thing so was a bit misshapen, it’s straightened out ok though.

Bit more fiddling with the door shut and then getting stuff seam sealed and painted.

Got the boot side panel welded in and mostly tidied up. Not going to go too crazy with grinding down the welds here as it’ll be behind the valances and may as well benefit from the extra strength. I’ve been starting to think about how to do the reinforcement bracket. I did buy the repair section Chic Doig sell, but I am not impressed with it, it’s not flat for starters. So I’ve been working on the images Colin posted for me the other day to make myself a template of the bracket’s shape and see what I can manage to build myself.

Now I had no excuses left I went looking at the last place there were crappy looking older repairs, the leading edge of the boot floor. I was worried about this bit as the shapes are complex, and I wasn't sure there was going to be anything there to reference. The inner side had brazed plates over rust, and the underside was covered with a sheet of fibreglass (which fell straight off when I poked a screwdriver through the rust holes). I managed to cure the distortion in the axle well panel by welding a few slide hammer pins to it and yanking on them with mole grips, popped back into place very nicely! I made the curved section where the floor and axle well join (why did it have to be that shape!?) with reference to a number of photos I found online that I scaled and printed at actual size. The main repair section for the drain channels in the floor was made from three parts and welded together off the car.

This sill was actually a NOS Rover branded one, so I’d be more inclined to trust it to be ‘right’ (I could see the tool wear marks on the BMH version when comparing them), but who knows really without a known original to check against. I had to use a ratchet strap between the a-posts, jack under the a-post, door gap adjuster, and a lot of trial and error, so I don’t feel I could justify blaming the panels for anything

Thanks guys, I really do appreciate the positive comments! @Peter Truman the crescents you can see in the hinge reinforcement plates are the remains of the original hole. I let in rectangular-ish patches and the rot was centred towards the innermost third of the plate so the patches ran through where that hole should be (I bought an appropriately sized hole saw to re cut them).

I am self taught (hadn’t even touched a welder prior to August 2020). Actually prepping and welding two new bits of metal together isn’t very difficult. Making the right shaped bit of metal to repair the odd shaped hole in your car and then welding it on to an older, thinner bit of metal (possibly while lying on your back with your head jammed in a footwell), that’s the thing that took a while to learn! So I’d be tempted to say just having a go (and accepting your results might not be immediately perfect) might be better than a course if it’s not a classic car bodywork focussed one.

With the door skinned it was time to do a lot of fiddling and adjusting getting the sill, wing and door placed nicely relative to one another. I ended up having to split the tread plate along about a third of its length to the rear to push the outside of the sill, and the wing that little bit further outboard. Likely means I was out by a few mm somewhere on the b-post / inner sills / floor fitting. But given the lack of anything useful to reference on the car to start with I'm not too unhappy about that.

Got the rearmost section welded in, and the side panel repair fitted up ready to weld tomorrow.

Shell complete, skinned and back on the car. I had to do some remedial work to save the lower edge as I didn't mange to get it straight to start with. Mostly to blame there was me following a tutorial from some Youtube video that suggested cutting little v's in the skin lip to facilitate welding when it was folded round. This meant the bottom lip especially refused to bend along a straight line... I have learned for next time though.

More patch making this morning. I want to get the section to the rear of the car in first as then I’ll still have access to the normally boxed-in side of it to push the original (slightly distorted) panel to meet up neatly.

I cut pretty much everything with an angle grinder and a thin cutting disc. I prefer to use a fairly well worn down one for more curved shapes and do a light cut along the marked shape, then follow that groove for a few more passes till I’m through. I’ll often dress the edges with a file too.

As the lowest layer of paint on the shell was Royal Blue this was probably the original door, so it was also nice to save it as I'd lopped so much else out of the car that having some original bit remain was a bonus!

Many repairs later...

Well, the door shell needed considerably more work than I anticipated. The top part that shows above the door card was covered in filler, hiding rust holes and a great big dent. Where the hinges mount all three layers had rotted through in places. I considered trying to find a better shell but figured that might just leave the damage I was seeing as a future problem...

Got the curved corner bit of the boot corner filled in and relatively well shaped today, and started building up the patches needed for the edges of the boot.

With a curved surface like that I've tended to form the patch in place. Basically a scaled down version of what's shown here

There's a listing of which gearbox / engine / diff codes were originally supplied with which Triumphs here. I'd assume it's fairly accurate as most of the info is a copy of an e-mail from John Kipping https://www.teglerizer.com/triumphstuff/spit_and_gt6_specs.htm Doesn't cover some of the prefixes discussed though!

While trying to get the wing and sill aligned and fitted nicely around the door I noticed the bottom of the door really wasn't all that straight. Stripping the paint (and filler) off showed why, and oh that hinge area looked pretty grotty too. Time to learn how to skin a door then!

Repairs to the rear deck just above the b-post, and more wing prep.

With the wheel arch finished I started to prepare to fit the wing. This is the point I discovered the repo b-post / door shut panel was poorly shaped, and had to scavenge the remains of the original from my scrap pile and heavily repair it. With that done the door to wing fit started to look more sensible, and I could shut the door! IMG_0589.MOV

Oh, that’s handy. I hadn’t twigged from Colin’s photos that there was a drain hole (makes sense that there is though!)