Peter Truman

Not pretty but they could be camouflaged here stall holders at markets use 15 litre plastic containers filled with water as anchors and tie the ropes to the handle. Yesterday I spent cleaning up after we had 110kph winds all through the night, shredded tree leaves everywhere esp pool, the 10 by 8 poly tarp cover over the BBQ is just rawl anchored with low profile U brackets (2 screws) into the garage brickwork, all OK no damage. Elsewhere trees down all over as we've had a wet Spring so the ground is saturated.

Have you still got the container workshop too

The top hose appears to have a plastic sleeve coming out of the crimped steel sleeve, under Aus ADR rules this is what's reqd here as there worried about the S/S braiding work hardening and fraying, so the original Goodridge steel crimped direct onto the braiding are an immediate MOT fail!! same as we can't use copper brake pipes, Hey don't shoot the messenger! I can use the later Goodridge fully plastic sleeved S/S braided hose, mine is carbon fibre coloured for effect. The extra length of the fixed fitting at the end with the plastic sleeve obviously shortens the S/S braided flexible hose length, I have the same problem here on the Sprint rear axle hose I had specially made its very tight because it has the short plastic sleeve, hasn't failed yet I keep an eye on it. Stupid rules we have as stated we can't use copper (Automec style) pipe here on the cars BUT you can on trailers and caravans so I was told by a very experienced brake specialist, go figure bureaucrats & I thought the EU was bad enough!

Oh Chris you want a laugh, when he finds the valve shut/restricted and the water jet blows backwards all over him!! How do I know?

Snap! I have 2/5.5, 2/4.5, & 1/5in, by the time I purchased them had them shot blasted, re-rolled (straightened) and powder coated cost as much as a set of 4 new Performance Superlites, (Aus Minilite replica’s) which the daughter subsequently pinched for her Spitfire, must admit they look good on the Spit

I would agree with Colin re the face but I have cleaned both the Vitesse and Spits gauge black faces successfully when generally cleaning the gauges, on the black faces I've very lightly used a very slightly oily (Wd40) tissue let it dry off a little before lightly wiping over , but recently I brought locally here in Aus an original Herald fuel gauge (full 12v)with white face, the gauge was generally good with minor external rust but the face looked terrible, so with an attitude of nothing to lose I wet a tissue with the end of my tongue and wiped the face over a white oxidized like deposit (sunlight damage presumably) came off but the paint under was ok and no damage to the grey writing, so I got a bit more ambitious and sprayed Nifty onto a tissue just so it was damp (also used a cotton wool bud in tight places) and wiped it over, more powdery deposit came off the faces totally cleaning the face & surprising there was no noticeable damage to the face or the grey printing, I didn't expect that so after moderate cleaning and straightening the needle it is a working original 12v Gauge cost $10. and looks good, I use a thinnish O ring under the chrome ring after scraping all the old deposits off. I was very surprised I didn't damage the face when cleaning, the reason for the exercise was the daughter wants magnolia gauges on her Mk2 Spiit which has a black real Carbon Fibre centre dash face, I have a request into the Danish fellow for a set of faces. Yep I know I need a replacement glass minor damage I have spares so will do so. So if you want to clean the faces TRY on an old broken gauge first to see if it's OK, I was unexpectedly and pleasantly surprised, photos of restored gauge attached, there is no shadow effect on the actual gauge face it's my photo limitation!.

Question, whats the engineering reason why Triumph would use such an odd ball thread, is the thread angle of the UNS thread such that it is less likely to come undone? Or only being a thin, 1/2 nut is the UNS thread structurally stronger. Ref the Aus eBay sale as the offending die it’s local, I’m tempted to buy it to see how it actually runs down the steering shafts thread!

Yep them carpets are manky, interesting looks like the fresh air grill has been removed and bolted back. On the daughters Mk2 Spit the PO had cut the mesh out and it’s been replaced with chromed diagonal mesh which I’ve held in with one rivnut thro the mesh and an alloy strip that goes over the top thereby locking the mesh in place the mesh is bigger than the holes so locks under the bulkhead lip.

BBQ Colin! I suggested the kitchen oven to cure the VHT on the Calipers, recently when I did the daughters Spit type 14's Wife's statement "over my dead body", daughter (her Spit) DaaaD no way! so BBQ at 160 from memory for 1 hr, but let the VHT paint dry for several days first. A friend did my exhaust manifold in the BBQ after painting with BBQ/Pot black several years ago (he has done all his concour classics this way incl the E Type) and it still looks like new, goes on thick so fills the air holes and looks very smooth. I got away with the starter ring in the oven and flywheel in the freezer a few years ago, but the wife was out handbag shopping! again! She's just got a new iphone it's bigger than the old one & won't fit in the pockets of her numerous handbags SOO off we go again, more handbags! & she ain't cheap their designer labels, fortunately were still in lockdown so non essential shops shut, Ha! But it makes my eye's water when I think of all the Triumph goodies I could get!

Congrats on the 13/60 MOT success Colin why not go for a drive instead of DIY? Re gearbox I''d Gernie it first with high pressure to remove the depth of dirt etc in an area where the debris doesn't matter, then degunk it with brush etc, your going to rebuild it anyway.

Pete I was referring to my "brute force & ignorance " when I have to try to realign my Vitesse Conv body onto the chassis so the rear wheels equally fit in the wheel arch's, things changed after I had pulled the rear tub across on the chassis to correctly gap the drivers door, one step forward several back!. Your work was extensively analysed and worked out, the Vitesse is a big meccano set!

Iain here's a photo of a spare vertical link I have with a brass washer soldered in, the original trunnion was damaged so I removed the steel washer and inserted a brass one, but on the actual car fitted units whilst the trunnion was off the car the steel washer was cleaned to remove any oil or corrosion, fluxed and soldered to seal. One trunnion the steel washer was quite heavily corroded and took some serious mechanical cleaning and well fluxing to get the solder to take. Don't know if JB Weld would succeed.

I don't think Triumph put that much thought into it Pete well done, now I have a problem with my Vitesse"++++! Well bluntly I've got the Used rear conv body tub slightly out of line on the last setting of the door alignments/gaps right, I will have to loosen everything btwn chassis and body and pull whole body across at rear, BUG***r, then start again! Then that probably means realigning the bonnet, but there's no great science in all that re-configering "just brute force and ignorance"

Opposite us a Burmese cat resides must be nearly 20 now as our Fox Hound lasted till 16 and they arrived around the same time, anyway they had a married type of relationship ie love and hate, sometimes they would get up close and sniff each other like rub noses, other times our Kimy would lunge at the cat or the cat take a swipe at Kimy, we never understood why the change in attitude, thought it might have been if the cat did it's business in our front garden, & Kimy either saw it thro the front windows or sensed it! Getting back on topic re trunnions I soldered the bottom washer into the brass trunnion to stop it draining out the oil ie keeps a reservoir of oil in the trunnion. I use a converted oil can BUT I had to modify the grease nipple as the spring in the nipple was too strong I dismantled the grease nipple cut a smidgen off the spring to reduce its strength reassembled the grease nipple ensuring the ball in the nipple still seals but the oil can can push the oil thro OK. A lot of faffing about but I have only had to do it twice ( 2 cars)

Surprised with a Mk2 Diff as the Rotaflex's take a lot of the transmission load, Eon's ago when I was restoring my Mk2 I stripped the diff rear cover off to find the pinion gears brass spherical thrust washers ripped apart and sitting in the bottom of the diff, it had obviously happened early in the cars life as the shim thickness was still clearly stamped on the washer (0.037 in), the car was restored at around 75,000 miles. I simply replaced it & the opposite one.

On both my Vitesse and daughters Spitfire for the pipe there's a hole off centre towards the bottom on the front diff mounting cross beam to hang the exhaust strap from, plus the one from the engine rear plate/bellhousing, plus the rear ones for the silencers

Biggest problem I have with vari focal working on the car is keeping them on! Re crimps the lad I borrow them off races Jags and builds replica all alloy D and C Jags.

love the car and Olive, we've had 3 Beagles, the first & 3rd definitely as Matthew says little rips the first from Bishop Auckland and came home to Aus with us in 74, the second a real little gentleman, the best dog we've had was the last a Fox Hound, sort of big, big beagle but a real softie, enjoy both projects.

Pete L, here's a Hydraulic Crimper or Swager for cables from 4mmsq, to 35mmsq, it's a friends I borrowed to make battery cables but locally can be brought for $50.

a bare copper wire stretched across the ridge of a terra cotta roof stops the growth of lichen, The old water supply practice was to hang a bag of copper sulphate in the water flow of an aqueduct to control/stop algal growth along its length, but around 30 years ago it was stopped due to public health concerns, (public bug**r everything up!), It's still used under exceptional conditions and individual license in large seasonal storage reservoirs where blue greens are detected BUT the res is taken out of service until all is safe again, we used to call it Nuking the Res.

thanks L a good explanation, so it's happened to you too i guess, always double check after fitting!

I’m old culture I use a small blade screwdriver and play silly buggers to push them and then centralise the spring tube, Pete must get a Ripault plier, but I replaced all the female and male bullet parts when rebuilding both cars!

Re oil pumps I brought mine off ebay to do my daughters 2010 Commodore oil changes as there's so many sump protectors its a pain to remove them to drain the sump the pump works well but not on moderns where the dip stick tube is so small a diameter no decent suction pipe will fit inside of it! We have Aldi not Lidi, Aldi do get some decent cheap tools but also some rubbish some things like a inspection camera good others have been returned! maYBE i EXPECT TOO MUCH!

How do you stop the rubber outer sleeve internal sprung tube from pushing forward in the rubber outer so the sprung tube isn't at one end of the rubber sleeve? Do you push both bullets in together to keep the inner sprung tube centralized.

from work experience S/S fails due to vibration and fatigue