TR7 & Me
16th December 1999.
Why a TR7?
Because they're bloody good fun and cheap. Styling? I wonder if it would have attracted the same level of criticism had it been fitted with Ford badges? As I remember it, British Leyland could do nothing right in the seventies. Ah well, that's all in the past but the style is not out of place even today; a well turned out TR7 looks like a modern car.
Personally, I've never been a fan of any particular car, and free from prejudice, I am amused by grown adults who can hate a car because "it caused the end of the MGB" or "it is not a proper TR"(presumably because it doesn't resemble a reincarnated TR6). The TR7 does not even begin to try to look like a "traditional British sportscar" whatever that is, so take it or leave it. This rejection by traditionalists and the fact that there are still plenty of them around, would seem to be keeping them very affordable.
Why did I buy one? Well the F27 had been my main hobby for 3 years but it was still in the garage and looked like remaining so for the foreseeable future. But I was getting bored with building and wanted to drive (fun driving that is - I have a Peugeot 405 diesel estate, enough said?), so I started monitoring the local free-ads papers for inspiration. I noticed TR7's seemed to be cheap, as did the odd Fiat X19 and a friend advised me that the Fiat is more fun to drive than the TR7, was he right? I dunno.
So, looking for one local, with an MOT, I bought one with no MOT on the other side of the world in Welshpool!
So far away "Here I am again in this mean ol' town. You're so far away from me" - Dire Straits
Russ, the vendor, included his e-mail address in the advert (which appeared in my local "Loot" because someone thought Welshpool was near to Leicester and Northampton, which it is on a small map) so after much communication and having seen a picture of the car, I commandeered my mate Andy's Volvo estate plus trailer, and headed west.
Russ lives in an idyllic little cottage in the middle of Nowhere, near Welshpool and over a cup of coffee, he pointed out the car's finer points like the John Smiths beer can holding the two halves of the exhaust system together and I found for myself, the hole in the passenger floor, just forward of the suspension mounting point. Tyres were shot; it had been driven (a long way) with huge toe-out and the wires were sticking out (my fingers told me this!), so steering was going to get a very close inspection indeed and a complete overhaul had to be considered. The wheels look like Weller steels and were chromed at the time of purchase but severe neglect had allowed rust to lift the finish, especially around the studs.
I remember the first time I sat in the TR7. Even though I take it for granted now, the cockpit looked very cramped from the outside, but when you squeeze your arse through the door, the opposite is true. It's like the Tardis. The driving position is great, but visibility isn't. This is one of the few BL cars where the steering wheel, pedals and gear lever are in harmony. You get used to the poor visibility after a few crashes.
Overall, I was satisfied that the car could be rescued at reasonable cost so we loaded it up and I set off east. Into a garage in Welshpool as the Volvo's fuel gauge was U/S and the rear tyres both had slow punctures, which were now a bit quicker due to the extra weight. Out of the garage and the Volvo's exhaust hit the floor, releasing one of the rubber mounting loops into the Welsh wilderness just as it started to rain. At this point, the one windscreen wiper present, decided to give up the ghost as well. Is the exhaust system connected to the windscreen wipers on a Volvo? Strange, these Swedes. It was going to be a long journey home.
INSPECTION
Home around 8pm, start detailed inspection and formulate plan of attack, which was always going to start with a service for the ignition and brakes; it has to be moveable as there is nowhere for it to be laid up.
Up on the lift we discovered the dark primer of replacement panels on the offside front wing and front panel, but the repair is so old that the wing has now rotted through quite badly. Who pranged it? I hope to find out by tracing the P.O.'s. There was also evidence of a more recent frontal impact which would need a replacement bumper, but luckily, the steering rack was OK with all the play due to a badly worn upper joint, just below the column. The welding was deemed to be fairly straightforward; an evening's work, the ignition timing reset to give a steady tick-over and make it driveable, and we took it home. No we didn't. We had a "play" with it first, on a private road of course. Honest M'lud.
What's this? Arse-end steering? Have I bought a Honda TR7 or were BL more advanced than we gave them credit for? No. Gentle driving was OK but hard acceleration cause a steady drift to the right, then lifting off, the car would pitch sharply left. One of the trailing arm bushes which locate the rear axle was almost non-existent. Oh dear. 1am, home and bed.
READY FOR THE ROAD
Distributor stripped and cleaned, new points, condenser. No problems there. I admit to paying very little attention to the cooling fan's viscous coupling, even when I found it to be seized solid in Welshpool, but when I discovered the price of a replacement, I wished that I had. Fortunately rescue came to hand in the form of the National Restoration Show, Stoneliegh where, at almost the first stand I visited, I found a new coupling-pulley-bearing assembly for £20. Phew! I also picked up front light lenses and a complete clutch for £30. I can recommend this show, this year it's on the 31st October (1999).
The brakes were to provide the biggest shock. The World Wide Wedges is a brilliant source of information for these cars and it was there that I read that standard braking on the TR7 is barely adequate and no modification to engine performance should be attempted until the brakes have been upgraded.
Well, my front discs, which should have been 9mm thick were less than 5mm and the pads had turned blue with the friction material cracking up! With the spokey appearance of the wheels, I wonder if you could have seen the discs glowing red as it pulled up to let Granny across the road? Hmmm.
Callipers were stripped and cleaned and found to be OK, so new rubbers, flexible hoses, discs (of course), pads, and fluid. At the rear, strip, clean, new shoes and upgraded cylinders.
Carbs were stripped and cleaned and were fine until I knocked one of the pistons onto the floor and bent the needle. Bum! Anyway, I was looking forward to my first attempt at setting up twin carbs as previously, I had failed even with a single.
Shoving the end of a tube in your lug-hole with the other end in one of the engine's most intimate orifices is weird if you've never done it before. The instructions are something like, "Listen to hiss from each carb and adjust until both the same." So I listened, and lo and behold, they were different. But which is the better hiss? I mean, do you adjust hiss No.1 to hiss No.2 or visa-verc, vica-vi, the other way round. After just 3 attempts, I managed to get a nice, steady idle.
The evening's welding went fairly smoothly, where we managed to patch the floor and replace the beer can in the exhaust with a repair piece, a short-term repair for the MOT. Just about ready so out for a test drive.....but wait, what's this? Clouds of steam from the exhaust....AAAAGH! THE DREADED HEAD GASKET.
I did say somewhere that there is no room for the TR7 to be laid-up, so I borrowed a trailer and someone's empty garage to store the F27 for a couple of weeks so that I could work under cover. Why does every job I do seem to generate 3 others?
Removal of the cylinder head of 2 litre TR7 engine can be such a hassle that shooting yourself has to be considered as a viable option. On this engine, there is a row of bolts and a row of studs/nuts holding the head down. The bolts are normal but the studs go through the head at an angle which is good news when it comes to re-tightening them, (recommended every 3000 miles) as they are accessible without removing any covers, but the steel studs can, and often do, weld themselves into the ally head or snap off. Everything short of Semtex has been used to shift a stubborn head but I have to declare that I was extremely lucky, mine almost fell off!
I was warned about the possible troubles by the very kind people, mostly Americans, on the TR7/8 mailing list, accessible through World Wide Wedges.
This being a restoration, taking the head off suddenly creates a whole list of other jobs that common sense dictates, have to be done. The pistons and bores were OK, sort of. They had seen plenty of action but you couldn't quite drive a bus down between them. The head itself was cleaned and found to be pitted and corroded due to the dreaded cheap/complete-lack-of anti-freeze, so it went away to be skimmed. Not knowing how much it may have already been skimmed, I asked the engineers to be careful and just remove the minimum required to get it smooth.
In the meantime, I cleaned the gunge off the front face of the block, overhauled and painted the alternator, and overhauled the water pump.
Head returned from the engineer's. Oh dear, that looks a bit thin! Never mind, here goes nothing. Two attempts at getting the valve clearances right then buy some Plasticine. I'd like to sound all knowledgeable here but the truth is, I was following orders from Andy. A small piece of Plasticine was placed on top of each piston, across the valve recesses and the head thrown on with an extra thick gasket. Torque it down, fit timing chain and turn over one revolution. Take it all off again, slice through the Plasticine to see if the pistons are going to clobber your beautiful, shiny head every stroke. Nah! Good 1/8th inch there.
The timing chain needed some thinking about to get right. I sought advice from the back-room boys of a well-known supplier who shall remain fairly nameless, (but who may rhyme with "Skimmers") who told me that I shouldn't attempt to fit the chain if I had never done it before. Funny nobody told me that when I bought it. It was quite straightforward really. I think anyone capable of stripping engines could do it with a bit of patience and good advice.
M.O.T.
Failed. Not a disaster though, only silly things like a sidelight and a tyre (which I knew about), but great news: Emissions? - Perfect! The tester's own word, no prompting, "Perfect". I could have kissed him. It passed second time with two new tyres and after all the under-bonnet lighting connectors were cleaned and sprayed with WD40.
ON THE ROAD AT LAST
I really like the driving position in the TR7 but I thought the performance was a bit pathetic for a two litre at first, in spite of my excellent work on the carbs! I was blown into the weeds by a Renault Scenic for Christ's sake! Then I realised that the trouble was me. Hands up, I admit it. You see, I always drive at low revs; my Peugeot diesel hardly ever revs over 3k because I look after it. Once I found the power is all above 3500ish, I was away with the mixer, all over the Leicestershire country lanes where I used to deliver agro-chemicals to farmers.
This is where the fun really started; it soon dawned on me that this is the first car that I have owned on which I do not rely for every day transport. So what if it breaks down? This car gets thrashed, but cared for.
Near to where I live is the village of Ashby Magna which is little more than a few houses, a couple of farms and a pub called "The Chequers". There is an informal gathering of classic cars at this pub once a month on a Sunday during winter, and Thursday during show season. The keyword here is "informal". No competitions, no little badges, no committees, no organising and no arguments. We, the English, are world champions of forming club committees, power mongering and falling out.
Any road up, I had been visiting these gatherings for some time so it was going to make quite a change to actually take part, as it were. As I sat in the car waiting for my wife to join me, I noticed a green panel behind the dash, I was looking through the hole where the radio should be. "I haven't noticed that before", I thought. When I stuck my fingers through the orifice, they got wet; it was anti-freeze. Bloody expensive anti-freeze at that.
I presumed the blowing head gasket had pressurised the ageing heater matrix to the point of bursting, but as I had already done a few miles since the head job, it should be OK for the 4 mile trip to the pub. And it was, but at the first right-hander we came to, the green liquid lurched towards my wife's white slacks. Aagh! This is not start to a relationship that I envisaged (wife-car that is). Luckily she moved quickly enough to avoid the flying disaster and it missed. We enjoyed lunch at the pub and returned to consult the Haynes manual.
BLOODY HEATER
Now it would seem to me that when they built a TR7, they started with a heater matrix and bolted every other part of the car to it and consequently, removal is the opposite of that process. Or that's how it seems.
The whole dash has to be removed and the main moulding is the width of the car, and has to come out through the passenger's door. Drophead drivers have an easy life here. Three days spare time to get the heater unit out and the trouble was..... the two puny little rubber seals where the pipes enter and exit the matrix. Five pounds worth! Bugger.
Whilst waiting for the rubbers to arrive, I still needed to use the car and get it to the workshop to carry on with replacing all the suspension rubbers etc. We had only replaced the one needed for the MOT, but carried on with the rest once roadworthy. All are uprated rubber, not poly.
I put the instrument pod back in with two screws, connected the light switches and taped them somewhere, but no dash! Sitting in the driver's seat reminded me of the in-car shots of group C sports cars; there's acres of space in there. It was great to drive in that condition so I took it to the next Ashby gathering and almost stole the show! It fascinated me, why people would be fascinated with it in that condition.
Re-assembly provided a golden opportunity to fix one of those irritating little problems you get with old cars that is not normally worth the trouble to fix. You know what I mean: loose heater controls. You can never get the heat turned off completely, air will not blow up the screen when you most need it etc. I set the linkages up and replaced the foam bits as well, sorted all instrument bulbs and took three attempts to get the dash back. Job done.
WHEELS
Notice any difference in the wheels? It's amazing how much the appearance of the car improves just by smartening them up. Of course your modern GTi fan bestows more attention on the wheels than the car itself!
The chrome finish was always going to be a problem and ultimately proved too costly to restore, although I suppose it depend how much you love chrome. I don't. No one seemed to want to commit themselves to answering the question, "How should I paint them?", so I "scraped" them up as best I could with a wire cup on the angle grinder and wet-and-dry paper. This scratched the surface up to blazes then I etched and primed them before finishing with Hammerite silver, same as the "other project". I am pleased with the result but the car still doesn't appear much different from the day I got it home!
TRDC.
The car's next outing was the TR Driver's Club's National Weekend at Billing Aquadrome, near Northampton. I enjoyed the Saturday here so much that I was really sorry that I hadn't joined the club earlier and gone for the whole weekend. Although I prefer the more informal meetings, the lack of serious rivalry helped to create a similar, relaxed atmosphere, to a newcomer anyway.
It was great to meet so many people with similar interests from all over the country, and Scotland, so I joined up there and then and resolved to meet Rupert and Justine at the Boat, Catherine-de-Barnes, Solihull on the first Sunday of each month.
EXHAUSTED
Unfortunately, just before the next meeting in Solihull, the exhaust gave up the ghost. Not any easy repair this time and besides, I had now decided that the car was worth keeping and using so off to Royston for a stainless system.
What next. Errrmmm. Can't remember. I'll have a coffee and get back to you.
FLOOR - HOLE
There's a hole in the floor.
Whaddayerwant, details? OK. There's a bloody hole in the floor!
The top link bars on the rear axle were the last to have their bushes replaced. A straightforward operation but as I refitted them to the car, I noticed what seemed to be evidence of movement around the previous owner's (which previous owner?) repair to the offside bottom trailing arm mounting. There was plenty of underseal around which looked to be hiding something. Unfortunately, this discovery was made on the eve of one of the TRDC's regional meetings and we had to take the Peugeot instead.
Closer inspection revealed that the previous repair had been done from inside the car and was in fact more solid than it appeared, but it was quite old and the surrounding steel had now weakened so the whole thing needed re doing.
Up on the ramp and with underseal already removed, Andy tickled it with the de-scaler to see how far the metal had softened, then started cutting..... "Oh look, there's the carpet........ Oh look, there's the seat..... Oh look, there's the headlining." WHAT??? The hole in this car's floor was now so big that the whole of Wiltshire could have passed through it with ease.
So with that now plated over and new bushes all round, that should be it for while on the running gear front, but wait, what's this? Just as we're packing up we decide to have a quick butcher's at the headlights which didn't seem to be all that bright. Turns out to have one halogen and one sealed beam, the sealed beam being the brighter of the two!
Now let's see, there's this rubber surround and.. Whoops! It came off in my hand. Bum. There was one screw of the wrong thread but that was all! Doh!
NOW
That just about brings it up to date. It's 00.30 Wednesday the 9th of November 1999 and I have the rubber covers off of both headlights waiting for attention, and the driver's door has trim removed, ready for the start of it's (the door's) renovation.
Now sod off and do something else for a while until I get some more done!
BACK AGAIN
18/11/99. Worked on the car all day yesterday but still didn't manage to finish off the floor. I did however, do most of the renovation work on the driver's door. I fitted a new weather seal, regulator and should have fitted a new lock barrel but as I removed the little spring clip holding the old one in, it pinged off into oblivion. How it managed to disappear in such a confined space beats me; I even put my hand over the narrow window slot above it to keep it restrained. It vaporised.
I still have to renew the top door hinge and may have replacement passenger door as the present one looks beyond hope. But I may also have somewhere to lock the car away for the winter to facilitate removing doors, bonnet and bootlid for painting. I should know about both shortly. Sorry to call you shortly.
19/11/99. THE PERVERSITY OF THE INANIMATE.
My TR7 is normally parked with the left hand side extremely close to the side of my house so I thought it best to have no lock barrel on that side until I could get a new clip. Before you read any further, how interesting could that be? Remove a lock barrel and refit on the other side? Somebody is out to get me.....
We are currently having a bit of winter and I was working outside. I removed the passenger door trim and probably won't bother putting it back; if you look closely at the photo of the interior, you will notice that the tartan door panel looks very dark. That's because it's black. One of the previous owners has painted the headlining black which is a good idea as the seating position is so far back that the front part is in your field of vision. Unfortunately, they then decided to empty the can, trying to cover the tartan panels. They must have run out of paint doing the first panel and it looks terrible! The original label still adorns the back and shows the date of 12/6/79, made in Exhall, about 10 to 12 miles away.
Anyway, the barrel. This time I levered the clip part way out before attaching a pair of sprung tweezers to the little blighter. That upset it's aerodynamics!
Trying to fit the new barrel was too awkward to do inside the confines of the door itself, so I loosened the door handle, hoping to be able to create enough space to push the clip into it's slot; it needs quite a bit of force to do this. It wouldn't happen. I had to take off the door catch so that handle could come clear but remain connected (I wasn't going to undo all those fiddly rod connectors!). Success! I did it.
How exciting was that eh? I put it all back together, put my new key in my new lock and... it wouldn't turn. I tried the inside knob thingy... that wouldn't move either. ( !) Enter the worst expletive you can think of. Is that your worst? God! you have lead a sheltered life haven't you? The opening mechanism worked fine, inside and out, but by now my hands were turning blue with cold so I said, "Sod it!" and gave up.
That was yesterday. Tonight, Andy and I had another look at it. Everything seemed loose enough but something was jamming the lock mechanism. What could it be? Are you there yet? We removed the door handle, catch and mechanism completely and there, nestling among the plates was.....THE CLIP !
The Lost Clip of Leicestershire. The lock was working up until I removed and replaced the catch yesterday so this bloody clip must have been hiding somewhere in the door, waiting to make it's move. Either that, or someone put it there when my back was turned, when I came in for a "warm-your-ass" break. It was one of you out there. You're ALL out to get me aren't you? BASTARDS.
10th December 1999, Dear diary......
Bootlid off, paint stripper on, count the layers downwards:
Patches of rattle can shit - brown colour - hi build resin stuff ( very fashionable in the eighties for covering bad surfaces ) - more brown colour - grey primer - black "primer" as per replacement panels - rust!
I thought it was junk but my father-in-law, a retired bodywork man convinced me that it was saveable, and glory be, it is saved. A good scrub with 130 grade paper brought it back to life, followed quickly by Kurust ( just to be sure ), etch and primer.
11th and 12th December 1999Isn’t it amazing how your family seem to have an in-built sixth sense mixed with an overwhelming ambition to cock everything up for you?
I get to the top coat stage of painting, half way through applying the penultimate coat and the garage door opens, "Dad?" "Go away".
That was son number two, aged 18 years. Half way through the last coat, son number one, 20, pulls up and seeing the light on in the garage, makes a bee-line thus missing son number one and a warning along the lines of sticking your head in the Lion’s mouth.
"**** OFF!" is what he received. Luckily my wife’s timing wasn’t so good; she waited until just after I had finished, "It’s nearly 6.30 you know!" very deep breath, "Yes Dear!"
16th December
Just found an hour to nip out and attack the driver's door with a wire cup on the angle grinder. Oh dear! A bit worse than I thought and there is more bad news to come as I know the passenger door is much worse. both the outer and inner skin are rotten in the corner but as time is not a big problem, I'll have a go at a repair. Anyway, here's a piccy taken with my new, cheapo digital camera.
2000! Happy New Year!
Having made a repair piece for the corner shown above, I decided against trying to make a repair for the rest of the outer skin as I can't guarantee a good finish after all the work involved. Also, a good spell of overtime at work has left me short of time but flush with cash, so I went to Lincoln in the drizzle to fetch a door skin. Boxing day I got the dreaded winter flu and everything has ground to a halt since.
13th January
Better now. I've just about finished making repair bits for the door structure, one for the corner in the picture above, and one next to it about 10 inches along the bottom. I have treated the inside surfaces to Kurust, Finegan's No. 1 and some rattle can left over paint to seal it. Some kind of rust sealer will sit on top of all this to keep out the dreaded damp. I am hopeful that the new skin will be fitted by the weekend.
Volvo owners please note the heafty SIPS - side impact protection system. Colours are weird due to old paint; dark red with detail picked out in a lighter colour for the pic.
8th February 2000.
Here we are again, new PC in place and I have come to realise that everyone else in the world could see my pictures with better quality than me!
Of course the door skin didn't just fall into place. It wouldn't be right now would it? I found that the door itself was slightly warped due to a heavy frontal impact that caused the replacement of the front panel and right front wing some years ago. At the front edge, the inside frame is buckled slightly (but you almost never see it) and the old skin had filler applied in a corresponding dent on the outside.
The side impact bar had to be technically adjusted with a large hammer to allow the new skin to go on but even then, the skin made contact with another part of the inner frame which needed the use of new filler. Also, using an edge crimper wasn't successful; the skin rippled in places needing more filler.
Paint went on as per the bootlid but with no interruptions! This time, I did it on a weekday morning with the place to myself. The finish on the bootlid wasn't quite good enough so I flatted it for one more "final" coat.
I cleared the garage so as to be able to work all around the panels and luckily, it was a fine day. The F27 started after just a little coaxing and that saw daylight for about the third time. Since my first attempt at spraying the bootlid, I have picked up a new Sealy spraygun from a show and this has made all the difference; I never realised the old one was so poor although it'll do for primer.
6th Feb
Overall result is acceptable. I've seen better and I've seen worse and when ever it stops pissing down with rain, I'll polish it.
Fitting the door back up became a fight to the death with window glass, channels and seals. And they nearly won. Trouble was, it had been so long since I stripped the bloody thing down, I had couldn't quite remember which order to put it back!
The top seal was first to go in and out, followed by glass, regulator, front channel, quarter-light, rear channel and finally, the new weather strip. Oh, and before all that, I hung the door using a new top hinge so it fits in the aperture better now. This door would now survive a direct hit from an ICBM.
Hold Everything, It's MOT Time.
It didn't pass. Shit.
Last year, the chap that tested it was an ex-TR7 owner who gave a few tips etc, and was standing in at the station due to illness. Not so lucky this year.
One rear tyre on or below legal tread limit. Funny, It's only done 1000 miles since last year.
N/S door corroded. Hmm, didn't I just rebuild a door? Bum. It was the other side. Just a sharp edge though, tape over it is OK for MOT.
O/S/R floor corroded. That's because we never finished the repair. It's false to say "corroded" on the fail cert, it's just not there; we chopped it out!
N/S/F inner wing corroded. Oo er. One of the patches applied by a P.O. has rusted through. NOT the original wing, just the patch! It must has been extremely thin sheet steel so I checked the other repairs and sure enough, there is another one underneath that will easily buckle under light finger pressure. Oh dear, better do it again.
Headlights poor and odd (?). One side is a halogen conversion and the other not. The sealed beam is the brighter!!
Number plate lights in-op. Rubbish! They work perfectly, AND they've been cleaned of all the green algae and crap. It's just that they're still on the kitchen table at home. Must do that wiring.
8th Feb.
The headlight situation should have been straightforward and it was, then it wasn’t, then it was again. “Explain Pete.” OK:
I couldn’t get to the Triumph Spares Day on Feb 13th due to work, but I wanted to get my mitts on a halogen conversion set. Andy just happened to have a set hanging around so I could fit them and replace them later. No. Closer inspection - like when we took them out of the packing - revealed that they had sidelight holes in the reflectors. Oh knickers.
20th Feb.
See, I told you so.
This is bare metal after a coat of Jenolite but it looked better after a coat of Finnegan's No.1 and will improve further with the application of Hammerite and underseal.
26th Feb
I have made the decision to take the car off the road for a month as it has become obvious during the MOT work that water is getting in through various orifices when it rains - windscreen base and top, rear window and sunroof. The insurance and road tax are due at the end of Feb so now is a good time. The F27 will be wrapped in a plastic cover and put on the drive, whilst the TR7 enjoys the luxury of the garage.
Here's the plan: Remove 'screen and repair surround, remove rear window and repair surround, remove passenger door and repair, then (if time allows), repair rear end. Paint roof and everything repaired!
So far, I have removed the passenger seat and some of the upholstery and discovered that water is also piddling in through the black panels of the rear pillars where mounting screws are missing, and the windscreen base finisher.
Look, apart from a hole at the driver's side corner, the metal under the finisher is solid. The lip is another matter but I was dreading the amount of corrosion I would find under here. On the newspaper is the pile of mud and shit that was under the finisher. Just as mud preserves ships under the sea, this pile of kak protected the screen base for years!
4th March.
Well, since putting it in the garage and starting the strip-down, I have uncovered a few more horrors I wasn't quite expecting. The passenger door came off first so that it could be worked on, and to aid access to the inside of the car within the cramped confines of my garage.
The carpet seems to have been stuck down in sections, with a large one down the centre and white adhesive such as Copydex is all over the back of it. But there was a small piece of red, foam-backed shag pile held down by a self tapper. I wonder. Could this car have spent some time as a victim of someone's over-zealous fashion sense, or was it owned by a pimp? (That's put some of the previous owners off coming forward!) Under the carpet was Lake Windermere.
During the MOT work, I was ferreting around in the boot and noticed the rust on the underside of the rear deck. Poking it with a stick released a downpour of disintegrating bodywork after which I could see rubber? This was the bottom of the rear screen seal, look:
Horrible, ain't it? That panel below the screen is almost eaten through.
Of course, the water has dripped from there onto the wheel arch and down to the inside of the rear suspension mount area where it munched it's way back to the outside world.
The front screen had started to leak again after an earlier silicone application, so I decided that it should come out to help make a decent job of the repair to it's base, and a better edge to the new paint. The Haynes manual says something like, "..specialist tools and equipment....should never be attempted by the DIY owner etc, etc".
I broke it.
What can I say? It was my foot that did it. Ah well. Actually, it was going a bit foggy at the edges and there was a neat arc scratched by an errant wiper, so it needed replacing anyway I suppose.
I removed the sunroof because it was easy to do so, to get a better paint edge, but I will also try to get a replacement as some of the fittings are showing their age.
The biggest surprise was waiting for me under the nearside rear pillar grille; I had an idea that water was getting here through the missing bolt holes but look at this:
The inner panel (unseen here) is doing all the support work as the outer skin at the wing/pillar joint is just somewhere to hide filler. Replacing this lot with sound metal is going to be quite a challenge for someone. Me, I suppose. I can't get to the other side at the moment; it's tight against the garage wall.
Next job is to strip the rear deck of paint and I hope this is the end of DE-struction and the beginning of CON-struction.
15 April.
The car was only supposed to be off the road for a month but as usual, it's taken longer than it should. I have re-built the lip around the window aperture and butt-welded a piece into the rear deck, which resulted in heat distortion. Because I didn't do it right, O.K? Thanks to my Father-in-law who came round with his retired body hammers and beat it back to shape.
Big Andy also appeared one Friday afternoon at which point I stood back out of the way, and in a couple of hours the rear pillar had re-gained it's original strength. After that, I welded new metal into the tops of the rear wings and my Brother-in-law (this is becoming quite a family thing isn't it?) suggested he come round and practice the art of lead filling. He did, now this must be a very rare car indeed; a TR7 with lead filling? It must have tripled the value...to £30.
As I write, work is delayed due to the inclement (cold and damp) weather which prevents me applying the final colour coats to the paintwork. Having carefully prepared the area and masked everything that needed it, I was ready to apply the first coat of primer.
I squeezed myself between the garage wall and the offside of the car to start at the front pillar on that side. Starting at the bottom of the pillar, I worked up to the top of the windscreen aperture and.... oh no! The aperture was rejecting the primer; pushing it away for around 1/2 inch. Bloody silicone sealer! I stopped quickly and wiped off the small amount of primer that had made it to the car, wiped with thinners the areas where silicone had been, and tried again. Same again only not so bad. Bugger.
I finally fixed it by rubbing with wet/dry using white spirit as a lubricant, and when dry, another wipe of thinners. As already stated, as soon as the weather improves I'll apply the brown, then Hammerite to the inside repairs.
11th June
I seem to have neglected this page for while, oh dear.
Well I got the roof etc painted then repaired and painted the passenger door. Sounds simple doesn't it? A single sentence, just a few words. It was a pain but I got it done; the bottom 5 inches or so of the door skin have been replaced with fresh metal and it looks better than the driver's door, (you remember, the one with the new skin!)
Anyway, I now need to get a move on because I've just been and bought the two Jensen Healeys (see page 4) and need the space.
I have replaced the bottom of the nearside rear wing and put a couple of patches on the B post. There was also a long slot in the back panel, just above the bumper - a rust hole.
All the welding done, this weekend has been about filling and painting. Good progress but it still needs some stopper before more primer and topcoat. Here's a pic.....
Just the other rear wing, the two fronts and bonnet to go!
Sunday 9th July
Did all that, (No I didn't, that reads wrong. All I had done at this stage was paint over the primer and fit it all up - sorry) fitted it all up complete with new gaskets around the lights and a new number plate. Now, have I got a picture of it somewhere? No.
I did get it reasonable enough to attend the TR Driver's Club National Weekend at Billing Aquadrome on Sunday 2nd July, here we are, second from the right:
Not a bad day at all. But the bloody thing still lets the rain in. Blast!
14th August Nothing done since Billing, just going to have a look at it with a view to removing the rear lower sills.
18th August Both rear sills off, almost ready for the new ones....bugger, it's raining. Jensen in the garage so there's an end to that. Off to work.
27th September It's been a long time, but we had a bit of a session the other night and managed to get the new, left rear sill affixed. The slow progress could get even slower as we head towards autumn and cooler weather, but with any luck, a couple of good sessions should kick-start the project once more.
24th October
I now have it in the garage and seem to getting an hour a day at least to keep things moving in the right direction. The offside sill is not proving to be quite so straight forward as it should be, having practised on the other side! The inner sill panel is a poor fit, but I have a big hammer! It's done now.
Inner sill fitted (matter of opinion!), note corner stove in where filler used to be.
6th December
Ooh, it's been a long time but things are moving steadily in the right direction.
Outer sill fitted, corner beaten out, rot replaced with sound metal. Spot the tiny amount of P40?
Christmas Day 2000
Still steady progress, just started on the scuttle repairs when I had to break off to sort my Son's bent Escort. That still need a coat of paint but at least he can use it now. I also had to overhaul the rear brakes on the Peugeot after a rear liner came adrift from the shoe and completely locked up a back wheel! Luckily this happened right outside Andy's workshop but it still took 2 hours to get the drum off.
With Christmas out of the way I should be free to carry on with the TR.
Two-tone rattle can finish.
Rot chopped out.
26th Jan 2001
Well, I have made steady progress since Christmas but not as much as I would have liked. The scuttle repairs are more or less complete, including a new catch for the under-bonnet air scoop and now the headlights are out and bumper off, there is more space to work.
I stripped and re-greased the headlight mechanisms on removal to stop the little buggers seizing up. I was impressed with the way they were put together. And with them out of the way, it was a simple task to beat out the dent in the offside wing.
I am just attacking the rot in the top of the wing. Luckily there are 4 bolts holding it to the front panel, into captive nuts. I have cut strip out which holds the nuts and this will come handy to secure the repair piece in the correct position i.e. slightly proud of the front panel.
3rd March 2001
Front wing done, after a lot of metal bending and stuff, but I'm quite pleased with the result. Just need a bit of filler.
One of the most awkward places to get to is the best place to find rot on a TR7: front chassis member, behind the horn, both sides. But with the bumper and headlights out of the way, this area becomes a little bit more accessible for the sake undoing the horn mounting bolts. It also allows welding around there from the top instead of crawling around underneath. I've done one side and there is a huge whole in the nearside where I've removed a previous repair. Just that and a small piece on the nearside wing and it will be time to think about preparing to paint!
17th March 2001
And the Foot and Mouth epidemic is taking hold; various parts of the countryside are shut down and everyone wants compensation.
I have taken the last two days of my annual leave to make a good break of five days in which to try and get some paint on the TR7. Three down and two to go and it's looking dodgy. Having finished the welding, I started stripping off the old paint - about four different lots!
Still, the filler's on and it's just a case of rubbing down, re-filling, masking....I'll never do it!
22nd March 2001
No, I didn't manage it! Sunday morning I had resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to get the thing brown all over, yet. I had the offside front and rear wings ready for paint but the weather forecast had let me down badly; it was not a bright day.
By the way, due to the cramped conditions of my garage, I can only work on the nearside front wing by pulling the car forward on full right lock which puts the other panels against the wall. To spray the final colour coats, I need a fine day to allow me to pull it straight forward (nose out of the garage) to get to all the panels.
Back to the plot. Sunday - I left the fan heater on in there for most of the day and around 3pm the sky looked to be brightening up. "I'll go for it!", I thought. I quickly masked up the panels and mixed the etch primer. I applied the first coat then it rained! OK by now though; it was nice and warm in the garage.
This new etch is supposed to be yellow but has very little pigment at all, so I sprayed some normal primer onto the filled bits to check my rubbing down. I'm getting better all the time!
Then I tried to dig a hole for a fence post and it started to snow like hell. It's Thursday and I'm no further forward; waiting for a brighter day.......
10th April 2001
Fence is up but I'm still no further than the bloody etch due to miserable wet weather, Aagh!
24th April
Two of the three panels are just about ready for the primer. The delay is due to bad weather and side-tracking onto Jensen work. I'm crap at rubbing down. Every time I think it's right, I find another little pin hole and have to apply more cellulose putty, thank God for that stuff.
Mayday, Mayday.
It's brown, YIPPEE! Well, most of it anyway. Due a break in the wet weather I've been able to get the colour on, just the bonnet and lights to go....
6th June
My mate Andy has is own little industrial unit to work in, doing injection moulding and stuff. Well it's not big enough for him so he's been and bought next door. Before he had a chance to move his stuff in, I commandeered it to spray the bonnet!
What luxury! Having the freedom to walk all the way around it. I had terrible trouble trying to remove the old paint from the bonnet and headlights due I think, to some crap paint stripper I had been sold. It'll be Nitromors only next time (if there IS a next time!).
The bonnet had only black primer and brown topcoat but one of the headlights had one respray and the other started life bright orange, then several coats of black, and now brown. Both lights were finished with copious amounts of rattle can acrylic stuff before I started removing it.
Anyway, no drama; the painting happened without major incident. Now it's on a back-boiler again fir a bit whilst I get the Jensen ready for an outing.
Mid-June
With bonnet out of the way, I poked sharp things through the repairs to the inner wing and turret. They had been applied some years ago probably for an MOT and not restoration, judging by the crap welding, thin plate, and the fact that not all the rotten metal had been cut away first.
August 14th
I re-made the repairs to the inner wings and painted them with a rattle can. Not the best
paint in the World but better than that black underseal shit under the bonnet. And just to
make for better presentation, I painted the header tank mount and had the header tank
itself refinished by a proper radiator 'shop.
So, all I need to do now is paint the off-side (right) sill black, and the car will be
ready to be turned around to allow me access to the nearside where I need to patch the
sill.
I started to rub down the sill by hand but found it a bit laborious so I shoved the wire
cup onto the angle grinder for a bit of help. It made a quick, easy job of taking the
surface off but all of a sudden, there was a hole in the sill at the bottom of the front
wing. Bugger! At least it matched the other side!
It was soon patched up, painted and ready for a short trip out into the sun....
August 23rd
I topped up the dashpots before trying to start the engine, and it turned over a few times before firing up. Sounds nice a crisp; I'd forgotten just how good it sounded through the new stainless exhaust.
But it wouldn't go into gear, the bloody clutch had locked up!
This is one of those annoying problems with a car in long-term storage like the brakes seizing. I just shoved it into first gear before starting and turned it over. When it fired, I tried to get the clutch free by dabbing the accelerator but to no avail. I managed to get the car turned around and back into the garage under it's own power, where I put the rear up on axle stands before starting up in gear and ramming the clutch and brake pedals together. That did it.
I then patched the nearside sill and applied the paint. Just the spare wheel well to to and that should be the end of the welding.
September 2nd
I've just noticed a lack of pictures down here. It needs them to break up this boring drivel, I'll find some.
Now, the spare wheel bowl is under the boot floor and is not deemed to be essential to the structure of the car for MOT purposes. Furthermore, the front edge, where the corrosion is, could not be further from view being just behind the diff. What I'm getting around to here is that the result doesn't have to pretty, just effective.
The bowl is not available as a new panel and I have seen many cut from donor cars and offered at autojumbles, but this one will get plated.
To keep things simple (like myself) I did the centre of the front, vertical face first, followed by the corresponding floor piece. This prevented distortion and gave me something to work to for the remaining bits.
Having wire brushed the area thoroughly, I was still surprised how much metal I had to cut away to find something solid to weld to. The result is.. effective! I even found time to reproduce the strengthening channels in the floor sections. I was very pleased with the result, but what a shame to cover it with all that underseal! There are several coats inside and out, to really seal those joints.
Re-reading an earlier part of this record, it seems I forgot to mention that I have painted the offside rear lower trailing arm with grey Hammerite (I mixed it). I had also cleaned up the spring on that side but I can't remember why I didn't do the other side. The next potential owner would look suspiciously at the scene, so I have just removed the nearside suspension to administer the required treatment.
October 8th
Where has the last month gone? Having matched the rear suspension, I started to coat the underside of the car with a mixture of Waxoyl and Tetroseal. I struggled like hell with the rear on axle stands, to paint the bit above the axle, in front of the fuel tank. Then I worked towards the back of the car. Nice job.
However, on jacking the car to do the nearside floorpan and sill, I spotted a small hole in a repair to the lower trailing arm mounting. Bugger. After an amount of tapping with a toffee hammer, the hole started to grow so I restrained myself until I get it back on the two post lift. And there was me thinking all the welding was done!
Anyway, I just realised the Restoration Show is on the 28th October so if I can get it "finished" and MOT'd by then, I should be able to take it and display it in the "For Sale" compound. We'll see.
16th October
I finished coating the underside of the nearside floorpan and wheel arches before taking down to the lift. Sure enough, the previous owner's welding was only good enough for the short term; to get through an MOT. Andy and I made two small repair pieces and welded them in. I also took the opportunity to underseal the offside floor pan.
All the welding done? You would think so wouldn't you?
Back home, I made a list of things to do and made a start at doing them. I removed the front seats to fit the carpet and...... Hello, what's that on the passenger floor? It's a sodding hole, that's what it is!!!!
Just where the floorpan joins to the sill, where water had found it's way under the seam sealer, I had previously peeled away all the loose seem sealer to let the rust dry out. The hole is no longer there.
I have just treated/primed/ painted the rust patches and new metal inside the car so that it is now ready for the carpet. I have also just found the door mirror but the bad news is that it looks like the window has to drop right down to allow the backing plate in. If you remember (if you are sad enough to have read all of this crap!) I put a new skin on the driver's side and it came without holes.
I have booked a place at the Restoration Show so have just over week to finish it. It's getting exciting isn't it? Just like those crap documentaries on the telly where they invent problems and make a BIG issue out of them to add drama. Ho hum........
21st October
It's Sunday and I should be working. I took leave as Andy has been kind enough to put the TR7 in his workshop to allow the work to get done in spite of the awful weather.
Good news: I didn't have to drop the window glass to fit the door mirror. More good news: It passed the MOT. Well, after we fitted a couple of rear light bulbs and freed off the rear brake cylinders once again. Both problems due to the lack of use. Hopefully a new owner can start to use it and get some fun from it, as I have in the past.
Almost came a cropper with the "new" carpet. I've had it for over a year now without fitting it, and as it went in the car, I realised it wasn't going to cover the inner sills! Bum.
Luckily I have found the old bits that do the job and because they get little abrasion, they are usable.
The rear parcel shelf thingy has been standing in the corner of the garage for ages and needed a good scrub before it was in a fit state. I had forgotten about the rear interior panel, the bit behind the seats, then remembered it was under my bed! (behind the potty)
As I write, the two side panels are on the dining room table behind me with a row of clothes pegs along one edge, holding the cover down while the contact adhesive sets. Just re-glueing the original coverings.
It may be worth a note that there is a manufacturers label on the back of one of the side panels, and most of the others, as follows:
"FR product from Gallow and Maddox Bros Ltd, Cambrow Works, School Lane, Exhall, Coventry."
Then mine are dated: 7/4/79 Batch: 769
I really must get some pictures up here soon; There are no pics here of the car after the respray. The side stripes have gone and so have the stickers. I will replace the stickers at the Restoration Show but the side stripes are up to the new owner; Personal choice. I would put cheapo stripes on but the new owner may wish to put on the original factory items. Once on, they are a pig to get off so better to leave it.
November 2001
Well the Restoration Show came and went and I would have to say that I enjoyed it, just. What I did not enjoy however was the hassle leading up to it in regard to the paintwork. It was just like one of those crap documentaries on the TV where there is a deadline and things start to go wrong, just to add dramatic effect.
Well there was certainly plenty of drama from Wednesday to Saturday as we strove to get the thing presentable - and on the day, in it's finest hour.... it looked CRAP !!!
There was a series of blunders but the main ones were: the paintwork was rubbed through to the primer due to excessive flatting on Wednesday ( a small patch on the wing), re-done on Friday only to rub through the adjoining area! And due to cloth ears, the driver's side was polished after just flatting and rubbing compound with insufficient time to T-cut it before shipping to Stoneliegh. Purely a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth.
There was a degree of interest that I saw but we spent a lot of time away from the car so couldn't really tell but the main fact is that it did not sell, probably due to the lousy paint.
Announcement: from earlier in the year but so what.
It is with great sadness and a fair amount of regret that I have decided to part with this car. It has surpassed all expectations in terms of fun/money ratio and I will never be sorry that I bought it, although when I think back to the day I dragged it back from Welshpool...... :-)
Unfortunately, I am a man of limited means (and brain power) (Who said that?) and there just ain't room for all these cars around my house. Bottom line is, the Jensen wins the day. (It's not the bottom line is it? There's a fair way to go yet. I wonder why we say that: "Bottom line"? Still, "The two-thirds-of-the-way-down line" just wouldn't sound the same would it? It would sound longer for a start.)
So, there you have it. I intend to complete the renovation to "useable classic" standard but that means I will only patch the front wing with steel just like the other repairs. I WILL fit a new wing if the potential new owner wishes, but only if he/she shouts up quick enough. Too late! I've done it, so there.
To the speculative enquirer: If you can hear cash registers ringing forget it! I will ONLY sell this car to someone who wants it because it is a Triumph TR7 FHC. That's FIXED HEAD COUPE. it is NOT a convertible and never will be. If you really want a soft top, you don't want this car. (Unfortunately, there is a legacy that when selling a car such as a TR7 or MGB GT, some plonker invariably comes out with, "Well, I was really looking for a convertible." after you've spent an hour explaining all the car's finer points.)
It will however, make an ideal base car if you want to commit the unforgivable sacrilege and convert it to V8 power. And why not?
I will also chuck in all my spares: a new clutch (3 piece), a tow bar for your speedboat that you won on Bullseye, and some odds and ends (not so many ends, but quite a few odds).
3rd August 2002
Let's have another go at selling it only this time with pictures. I've recently taken delivery of a new camera so here goes:
There, that's better. Now try these:
It still starts well despite lack of use and is ready to go. I still say it needs another coat of paint but you may be happy with it as it is. I did get a set of decals for it at Stoneleigh but no point putting them on yet. Oh, there's a very minor dent in the N/S/F wheel arch where I pushed it into my outside tap!
Latest pics of the interior - I haven't touched it, but I do have spare door cards which don't have the interior light orrifices so work needed there to fit. The new carpet looks good and is thicker than the original but the original sill pieces are not glued down to ease inspection.
£1,200
A snip.
I will still throw in the spares but the renewal of the MOT is down how much I'm offered. Forget it, I'm keeping it. See next page.
I decided that this page is long enough and this seems a good juncture to start afresh. Go here
Take a look at John's TR7 site: www.MyTR7.co.uk