Richeee

If you try to buy online 2 tickets you only save 3 as they hit you for online booking fee of 3£. Might as well buy on the day if undecided wether you are going. Grrrrrrr to online booking fees. Total rip off.

Thank you. Intending to put the doors, cills front and rear valence on pre top coat to allign everything before taking all off again again for temp storage whilst i prepare the chassis for painting and refurb the running gear to accept the, body work once again. Hoping i dont have the hassle with the cills you had but no doubt will.

Most of it so far has been brushed and is for more temp protection whilst the restoration is going on. The only spraying was the epoxy mastic today. The novol primer was brushed on and layed off. Couple of cans on doors and door internals. It was about 15c in the garage. 2 wired in 3kw electric heaters and with a ceiling in the garage warms up quite well. Will probably brush inside the doors with the cellulose top coats as well. This is just so that if you look in through the window channels its blue. I have sprayed befor on a 2a landrover i restored. This was a bit orange peely. Building up courage to do it again.

Whilst waiting for the paint from the shop to arrive have carried on sortimg out the roof for hinges and other door gear. It is easy to forgot what you have squirreled away. Not sure how many quaterlights a 2 door car needs but have several broken ones. Hopefully i will get a pair out of them. When i finish i will have to have a pitch at Stoneleigh and or Beaulieu. But until ive finish will need to hang on. Also carried on rubbing down door faces applying Novol primer and epoxy primer. Whilst at it located a couple of nos cills that were up there. Again from my brother who had the basket case befor me. These were rubbed down and coated with Vactan rust convertor. Had some supermarket crates arrive today Got a few already and as i move more stuff out garage loft need to put them somewhere. Got one of the dollies for these already and are great for garage storage but can also be pushed around out the way as well. So if the paint does not arrive and its only been 2 days. (I should have ordered earlier ) will continue to see what treasures there are in the roof. Or i could primer the rear valences. To be continued.

Not sure if your going but Aacuspark appear to be listed as an exhibitor at Triumph Spares day. You might be able to advise them personally where they can store yours.

Couple of days off but did grab a few hours this afternoon. The new skin I ordered from Fitchet's arrived sat morning. This today was rubbed over with course paper before wiping with thinners and acid etch applied. The left hand door dottom was replaced including both radius's. This was a fiddly process with welding and grinding. Followed by straightening out and cutting the excess off as per the right side. Took one of my JSP mask filters apart to see the muck in it. Considerable. And of course i could not resist offering a door frame to give myself a little boost. Have ordered some Valencia Blue from the shop to brush inside the doors before i put the skins on. Maybe not be totally necessary but too late later on if i can peer in from the glass chanel and wish i had done it. To be continued.

Managed to get the door skin to fit. First off pur the right or offside with near side left of a rhd car sat in drivers seat looking forward. Tbh not really matter for this exercise. End to end. Any way lined up the swage contours and marked with duck tape. When i compared the bottoms of the doors the drivers side was 5mm longer. As the skin fitted one end and not the other took a taper piece off. 5mm to nothing along the door. With a minor trim around the quarter light to the new skin , the skin now fits. So well pleased. Not fitting the skin for a day or so as will have more coats internally. Also have to drill a drain hole and put the captive plates for the hinge bolts back in. Oh and the strengther. Bound to forget something when i do put it on Started now to attack the 2nd door frame. In a worse condition. Also need to prder a door skin. Must make sure i get the right side. No i mean left. If you get my drift. To be continued.

Need some avdice and the knowledge of others who have fitted door skins before. Continued with door repairs. Noticed the corner i fitted yesterday was too short and was not in line with the rest of the bottom flange so had to add a bit on. Might have to cut a bit off this later but will see. Also repaired around the guarter light screw hole , think that is what it is ,on the front of the door frame. Repaired the flange by the door handle and some cracking by the rear of the quarter light. This hopefully is last of repairs to door frame. Rummaged in the roof for the skin support bracket which eventually found. Question? there is hessian acting as a soft joint. Its not too bad a condition but was thinking what else i could use. The thought of the carpet that i am working on came to mind. About the right thickness. ? Trialled fitted before it was coated in rust convertor. Next i trial fitted the skin to the frame to see the problems i might have. The major one is that at the hinge ends it appears to short. If i clip it ovrer the top it wont reach the bottom. And vice versa if i start with the top. Also.if i fit over the top first the swage lines dont line up on the frame to the skin. But if i clip the bottom first it does There is a rolled flange on the skin. In my mind i need to fit from the bottom up as the swage lines correspond and im thinking the top flange is too tight. At present i have left as is to raid your brains. Advice or anecdotes please? So carried on and zinc phosphate'd the door internals. To be continued.

Todays tale is of frustration but getting there at the end. Drivers door: First off was cracking to the metal around the bolt holes where the hinge bolts on. So so using the hinge plate which i did up tight with a bolt , first hammed the metal in. Ground it a bit and welded. My welds today were like the curates egg. Good in parts, some welds i thought i was gods gift, then the next a series of complete rubbish as the photos will show. Oh well battled on. In side decided to weld the hinge plate to the door frame to give moor support and hopefully stop the tearing. Next was the bottom corner with the complex curves. Not helped by my repair panel not matching up to the curves as on the door. So had to cut bits out and jig saw together. After much grinding, cutting and welding managed to al least have new metal welded to old metal. At this point dark cold and hungry so slapped some primer on. Re attack tomorrow. Dressing the welds and flanges. Have a nice steel angle i can use to check the bottom flange is straight and smooth. To be continued.

May have answered my own question by looking at old photos of the strip down and reinforcing brace. Thanks

Progress. Managed to assemble the bonnet, bulhead and rear tub, and joint them with bolts to the chassis. Happy with allignment and bonnet to bulkhead gap. Also have the measurement i was hoping for middle of the door opening. Of course as soon as i offer up a reskinned door it may well be coming apart again. But thats another time. At the moment have screwed the bulkhead to floor joint. Used a piece of timber as a persuader to open up the rear bulkhead floor where it had the tendency to twist in. Progress. Right. Next job doors. These i dismantled and took the skins of in May 22. I purchased a door skin off Guy, at Beaulieu autojumble the same year and recently a door bottom. All i have to do now is join them together. First time on a door for myself. But up for it. Tbh the door bottom not that bad but with the complicated curves gecided a new bottom would make things eaiser. Need to file off some metal where the door skin is brazed on by the 1/4 light. Small repair to flange by door handle. And need to also learn the hammer and dolly tricks of 'on and off' dolly to repair a few minor dents where the door bottom has it looks been shut on the seat belt a few times There is some tearing / cracking to the metal where it joins the hinge reinforcement plates. Will weld along here to reinforce between the two as well as repairing cracks. Got to go in garage foof to get the brace that goes in the door. From what i can remember from 18 months ago this was srewed or bolted to the bottom of the door. , but how is fixed at the top or does ot just clip under window seal flange.? Can it pe put in after the skin is on. ? Dont believe it fixes to the skin. Is it just pushed up against it? Any packer or soft foam in between? Thanks. To be continued.

Started todays efforts by tidying all the tools away and sweeping the floor. The idea was for organised logical thinking. That was the idea anyway. Following on from last session had come to the conclusion that what i was doing was not working. So i suppose that is progress in a way. The bulkhead and tub were now fixed in the set dimension i am trying to achieve as a datum at this point by screws in the treadplates. I remove all body mount fixings and just concentrated on the 2 at the front of the bulkhead and the two on the rear axle crossmember. Had to ease 3 of the holes. I butchered a bit of bodywork on 1 rear one . Whoops. A bit of repair work required. The other side was sot on. At the front just had to ease minor bit. But seems good and symetrical. The rear outrigger bolts fitted. Well plenty of play to these. Seems to be all good with wheel clearance equal both sides and bonnet gap ok. Also managed to trial fit some ot the side body mounts. These will be ok When i take apart again to restore the chassis and running gear will need to weld plates on the body mounts and re drill with a hole saw. I will need to carefully measure and record where. One persistent problem is that the back of the bulkhead floor is not straight. It tapers in both sides. You can see from this red string line. Almost as if the rear of the bulkhead is distorted. Which it might well be. Will be difficult to get the srews / bolts in to fix the two floor edges together. May need to add a strip in to extend the trailing floor edges of the bulk head at some point. Anyway am happy that i can nip up the body bolts and work on the doors next. And see what delights that brings. Thanks for all advice so far. To be continued.

Thank you. Will check that as well.

Spent the afternoon lying on another cold concrete floor. Even though both heaters were running. Remind me, why this is an enjoyable hobby. Things did not want to go right. Another fixing kit turned up. It was cheap. No plates to go in body mounts or nuts for the bolts. Generally dissapointed. But with it and my original kit was able to progress. Or rather i didnt. Just could not get my rear tub to site any sense on the mounting holes. As if whole dody needed to rotate on the right forward. But then i get losing the door gap dimensions i measured several times off my donor car. Yes i do need to rebuild my doors asap. In the end i self tapped drilled the two parts together at the kick plates. Can see that the far side looks like it wants to come foward. But the door opening is same both sides. This was at the dimension i had measured off my parts car. I measued the doors at the top swage line and they were 1120. And on restoration car at the same point i have 1130 beteeen bonnet and rear wing. This would allow for 5mm gap. I totally realise it depends on my actual doors. There has been a lot of work on my car and it was a collection of tubs etc. Next job when i have thawed out will be to remove all body and bulkhead fixings. Leave the two parts fixed together and start again. I was attempting to have two main panels loosely bolted before introducing the doors. The two axle locating points were miles off. So will start with them (solid mounts) and the front bulkhead fixings only. All others can follow from there. To be continued.

Managed a bit more yesterday. First job was to fire up the 2 heaters and pop a pasty on the heater tray for lunch. Then down to work. From my parts car removed the bonnet catches and plates so that i can fix my bonnet down. Quite mucky and into wd40 they went. Theres 2 or 3bsets squirreled away in my garage roof somewhere but these will do for trial fitting. The previous days problem was the new inner arches were clashing with the bulkhead. I had cut back each by 20mm thinking from my measurements that this would be enough. But it was not and had to cut back another 20mm off each. This done and with careful reassembly was able to push the offside wing out a bit so that if missed the bulkhead on the outside as it descends. The little roller on the catch just touching the skid plate as it descends. The bonnet i am now pleased with. Cleco's removed and Its still only pop rivetted together at this stage as the rest of the body shell and doors are positioned. The bulkhead is packed with 1 horeshoe spacer an the very front. 1 rubber at the front side and a rubber plus steel packer at the rear. The reat tub which was roughly placed was manhandled on to position. From the parts car i took a measurement from across the door opening in the middle, and am using this to initially place the tub into position. Trying to line things up was physically tough. Almost like a feat of endurance. Lying on cold floor. Even with heaters going and lying on cardboard. Up down , jumping on it to bed down. Bit of body twist as not been on the chassis for at least 20 years. Maybe 30. Then forget something. But getting there. Rear tub not fully positioned as my at least 20 year old body fixing kit was as i suspected had bits missing. It also came with the basket place. And im having difficulties with the threaded holes on the two rear boot floor outriggers. So have ordered a new fitting kit. Questions: If anybody could help. There are two support brackets inboard, just in front of the rear axle by the heel board. 1 either side of the tunnel. I presume these just have an isolator pad under. Any body know the thread size of the two rear crossmember mounting holes above the spring. And similarly the 4 , 2 either side of the back of the boot floor outriggers. Where the the bulhead and the tub meet is the main body joint. Between the two is a rubber joint. Below this appears to be another rubber strip. Presumably this gets packed using suitable material until its fully supported. At present with two packers under the rear of the tub , 1 strip of thin jointing rubber would not be adequate. Thankyou. To be continued.

Managed to grab a few hours today after a couple of days doing other stuff. Present arrived from James Paddock. As mentioned by Dick and others the doors are crucial. So after fiddling with the bonnet and bulkhead will progress with the doors. My door bottoms are not terrible and to some of you no sweat and you may think i am wasting money. But never having done doors before. The complicated shape required and on closer inspection began to see a myriad of pinholes decided to bite the bullet. Wont use all the panels but will provide an invaluable source. Back to the bonnet. Decided to as i mentioned previously to adjust the push pull stays so it at least had 10mm of movement after i fixed its final position to the bulkhead. If im right 5mm either end gives me 10mm. Refitted the inner arches and b&%#@r me if they dont still clash with the bulkhead. So had to go through the process and cut another to cut another 20mm off the offside. Of course i had already cut the nearside to 20mm. So both to do again. My old case of measure once cut twice or 4 times now for me. Offside now fits pretty good. Quite pleased. But the nearside wing and arch still clash with the side of the bulkhead. Time coming for a bit of persuasion to spread the wing. Its probably the way the flange on the bonnet side and wing top meet. A bittle of gentle brute force. Bit by bit....... To be continued.

Definetly yes. When you tax it, even though it might be zero £ you are declaring its road worthy. What better way than to have passed the official test of road worthiness. Last year my son was in a bad car crash, air ambulance and his nissan micra was made a convertible by the rescue services. Broken arm and leg. Our local classic friendly garage had mot'd it the previous month. The car and the lorry involved were both impounded and inspected for road worthiness. My mot man's ears certainly pricked up as i recounted the story how the mot cert he issued was checked. Son and mot all good. Not so his Micra. Went off to make baked bean tins. Your involved in an accident somebody gets hurt. The last time you were under the car where the brake lines etc run and our cars may well have single circuit brakes was 3 years ago. ....

Thank you loads for the replies and advice. Its all part of a jigsaw of information. Hopefully a step forward today. At the end of the day achieved a decent gap to the bulkhead. There are many factors to take into consideration and things will change as i re skin doors and try to allign with bonnet and rear tub but a glimmer of light. There were a couple of comments re rotating the bulkhead forward at top by shimming the rear more than the front. Yesterday my bulkhead seemed to want to sit naturally with two shims at front and 1 at the rear. So today removed the four side bolts just let the bulkhead have 1 each at the front and pulled it fully forward on the two front holes. Ignoring the other 4 bolts. Then nipped these down and placed spacers as required to the others. 1 rubber at the front external corners and a packer and rubber at the rear corners. This obviously took the center of the bulkhead forward. Left the other four bolts out. They will need redrilling anyway once the doors and tubs are on and gone up and down forwards and back. So with my bonnet furthest back and the bulkead slightly rotated it will fit. Tbh would like the bonnet to have say 10mm or so play backwards incase needed later on but that can be addressed later. The new arches touch the bulkhead and so prevent it closing smootly with out a bit of twisting so will need shortening. Photos taken from under bonnet looking up. Decided to remove the near side inner arches and because only pop rivetted and bolted fairly easy to do, and remove 20mm. Because the arch is about about 45° Angle here it will hopefully be about 10mm clearance. Next job will be to refit and see if enough gap. Thanks again for all the multiple years advice, and hard gained knowledge. To be continued.

Two mentions now of tilting the bulkhead. At present my bulkhead has 2 shims ( 1 metal and 1 rubber at front) tapering to 1 at the back. Therefor tilting the bulkhead backwards and making worse. That was as it naturally wanted to sit. Guess what im doing next...... Playing repacking the bulkhead. After finishing ironing of course.

It might do. My car is a basket case never been seen together in 20 years. My brother purchased in pieces and i purchased off him. The chassis looked fairly good and orginal. No welding to speak of. The bonnet tub and bulkhead all being loose. Eventually i had time to start the restoration. The idea is to bolt it all together dry. Bulkhead, doors, tub, bonnet , valences front and rear. The front and rear valences will be new. Rear wings and arches new. Front wings and inner outer arches all new. Door skins new. Not sure if anything will line up, tbh. Then when eventually happy remove everything to restore the chassis and running gear before re fitting the body work. Of course theres the auto gearbox and 1500 engine to complicate things as well. Been advised the bulkhead bolted to the chassis is the starting point. And bar running a drill up the chassis monting holes it fitted pretty well. The font bulkhead nuts are captive. At this stage going to try and leave bulkhead in situ as the datum and work away from this front and back. The front valence fixs behind the overiders and at the end of the front coss tube and i think a couple of brackets up to the front chassis. And will have some play, i hope. It may be that nothing lines up and i end up moving everything forward and dack wards and up and down. But my plan at present is to use the bulkhead as a datum.

The bulkhead is bolted down and fitted quite nicely. I could elongate holes and move forward. I might also , which at this stage is my preferred choice, is to make longer hinge plates. But longer hinge plates will take the bonnet front lower. But that can be got around if i make curved hinge plates to go around the front cross tube. A few mm here and there should get it down to the 8mm as stated in the Herald training instructions.

Bit more on the Herald bonnet today. Fitted hinge plates to front brackets. Bonnet restraints and push pull stays. Then with a struggle and pieces of polystyrene manhandeled the bonnet into place. (Note to self. Dont do it on own again.) But quite a large gap to the bulkhead. No problems i thought. Just adjust back in. So did this to the maximum i could by screwing in the adjusters and letting the pivot bolts down to the bottom so when pulled in get maximum extension rearwards. This mafe it better. But still 20mm gap. But really nice to see the bonnent on the car. If only for a breif while. On the rhs the exrension to the outer arch clashes with the bulkhead and will need trimming. And at present the rear of the arches left and right also clash with the bulkhead and will need attention Overall quite pleased. With the bonnet on the car can take each wheel arch off 1 at a time trim and put back on. Then have to see how to get the bonnet back 15mm or so. 1 step at a time. To be continued

Sorted. Hiding in plain siight.

Ignore me. Solved the above. Eureka. I was using the wrong spacers. Had a brainwave and went running out to the garage to check onother bag of bits. Whats the point of using sealed bags and writing on them what they are if you dont look at them. Doohhhhhhh.

Today was going to install this To this, But had problems with the spacers that go into the hinge on the support tube. First off i bolted down the bulkhead. Read a lot of threads and went down several rabbit holes over which spacers metal or rubber where and how many. Ended up with 3 on 1 rubber washer. 1 on 2 and the front 2 by the main chassis rail on 1 horse shoe spacer and 1 rubber each. You can see quite clearly here the alterations to the chassis to take the automatic gearbox. The next job i thought was fixing the bonnet hinge plates and spacers to the chassis and bonnet. But the spacers that I only took out 3 weeks ago would not fit. Absolutely certain they are the right 2. But could be wrong. But i doubt so. The other 2 spacers i removed earlier this week from the chassis brackets with the hinge plates. These are shorter and fit the brackets. Certain the two for the bonnet tube are correct but wont fit. They came out simply enough ow with a couple of taps with a hammer but wont go back in. I have filed them, ground them and even tried to pull in with a bolt but not playing ball. Will grind some more and clean out the hinge some more as well. But a series of questions: My understanding is that the bonnet rotates on this spacer in normal operation. There fore it should not be a tight fit? There should be copper grease or simlar on the outside of this spacer where it goes into the support tube.? The spacer being sandwiched on its ends by the slotted hinge plates and washers. The push pull stay being there as well. The spacer tube does not rotate. But the bonnet does on it? Not sure why they dont want to go back in. But have ordered a 16mm drill bit to ease the holes in the end of the bonnet tube.. To be continued