Painted - but a few hiccups

Got the estate back to the body shop - few areas of orange peel and dust specs that will flat out but the main issue is that we suspect that the bonnet and tailgate (painted about 6 months ago) may have a slight mismatch despite coming from the same paint tin. Mike is on holiday until the end of May so a blow over of the mismatched panels and another coat or two of clear coat will have to wait until then. Looks OK for the moment. Resprays - who needs em !!!!

Paint your Wagon

My PI estate has finally made it to the paint shop after an extended restoration of its bodywork which was precipitated by rear end damage after a wheel hub breaking en-route to my wedding in 2004!! Final prime and flat applied on Monday 25th and now three top coats and two clear coats in two pack this afternoon followed by an overnight bake. I inspected the booth and final undercoat before the first top coat and hopefully months of careful preparation will pay off in a trouble free respray.
Colour is Cadet Blue - a 1960/70's Ford colour that is so close to Wedgewood Blue it is indistinguishable. Reassembly will begin next week with a host of NOS parts and rechromed bumpers. I also have some 7*15 black spoked minilites.

Next real issue is a complete retrim - probably in biscuit/tan leather and a rebuild of the Britax sunroof.

Masked up and primer applied and flatted - about to be blue

Inside car and under bonnet already painted

Stone chip on rear wings

Sealer in front seams

Sealer in rear lights

Sills made by folding steel section locally

First coat of cadet blue - will have two more coats and then 2 coats of gloss clear coat with high UV resisitivity

Excellent panel fit

Mk1 Cold air intake



Knocked this up on Friday afternoon with 4" silicon ducting hose




Cut the rear out of a Mk1 bowl and welded a stub of 4 inch exhaust pipe to the rear - I have fitted headlamp wiring just in case




Stainless kitchen sieve grill to prevent big bits getting in



Just need to build a bracket to direct the air and heatshield, may still build a cold airbox in time - glassfibre?

The sacrificial kitchen sieve

Added these polycarbonate headlamp guards - covered headlamps mandatory for most competition - very 'works' look and better than plastic film used previously which destroyed the headlamp beam

Bumped into the old family estate

On a ride with the wife and kids and bumped into the Tahiti 2500S Estate that my Dad bought back in 1982 and I brought to Oz in about 2000 - looking good -Mal Miller really loves it and uses it most days - wood just been re- veneered at vast cost



Beautifully restored wood - think I know where my PI estates wood is going now



Back from Canada - time for spannering

Been busy over the last few days fixing up the Herald and the PI with lots of bits and bobs

Fitted these caterham uprights to the Herald - seeing as I drive it on two to three wheels most of the time I though it might be embarassing to break one - seem well enough made - actually has Vitesse front brakes etc so it helped when I found an inner bearing was fubared that they are the same as a saloon - hence I have heaps squirreled away - pity Triumph didn't extend to using the Triumph saloon inner seal - that felt seal is Victorian - I kept the fitted one as I hear replacements are worse.
New pads fitted - very uneven wear - reckon not replaced as a set at some point - found some Datsun 240Z Mintex pads that fitted fine - Thanks to Dave Sideways for the tip

Newly fitted S/H black "works" style Motalita and boss - horn push need fixing better - lands in my lap under hard acceleration

Fitted Witor hoses and thermostat to the oil cooler - oil now up to 70 degs after 10k drive

Also have fitted a programable 123 Dizzy with hiccup in advance to help cure off cam behaviour - I have set it up with 10BTDC base setting - so about 29 deg total advance. Could use fine tuning for optimum power/torque on a dyno but is much better starting and idling now that I can run more low rpm advance then back it off as it come on cam. Rev - Limiter seems to disagree with my VDO rev counter - not sure which one is wrong - yet

Finally fitted some air filtration - ITG socks - unlike the previously fittted Redline sock which choked the engine to 3500rpm the ITG are not exactly a neat fit but WORK!!!! all the way to the rev-limit with no hesitation or issues - I may re-arrange the cold air supply - thinking of pulling out an inner headlight for track work and trunking air to the back of the socks. Also a heatsheild of sorts is on the cards.

Finally found a TR6 manifold for my Mk2 PI estate - no rush to fit this one!