Special visitors

Every now and again we are privileged to receive a 'special guest' from Triumphs illustrious past. Of course it helps being on the outskirts of Coventry where a good proportion of Triumph ex workers still live. Yesterday was no exception, on his second visit to us was former Triumph experimental worker David Lloyd. David was involved in some of Triumphs most exciting projects including being the actual guy who made the bucks (tooling) and the actual glassfibre deck and hump for the Macau Spitfire residing in our museum. You may know that we have decided to return the Macau to its 1965 spec which includes reshaping the hump that was put on the car in the 1980's (Kas Kastner removed the original hump in 1967). David has kindly agreed to don his overalls and help with this work, how about that! Forty years will separate David's efforts by the time this work is completed, but worth the wait!
David has also loaned the museum some of his extensive photo archive of his days at Triumph, a keen photographer and friends with Triumphs own chief photographer, his collection is interesting to say the least!

New car for the Triumph museum!

Sorry about the picture quality, but I thought I would capture the scene last night at 9.30 when the oldest Herald saloon returned to Coventry. We have been away for a couple of days driving the Chicane with car trailor down to the South coast and then back up to Frome in Somerset to collect our recent purchase courtesy of e bay. As far as we know this is the oldest Herald saloon in existance being chassis number G11, engine number G8E, and well worthy of saving for the museum. The Chicane again performed as expected with no drama's, this car never ceases to impress, it clocks up big, big miles, uses no petrol, never goes rusty, and all on a diet of neglect, cheap unleaded, and never being garaged since we have had it! Currently the mileage is at about 225,000 miles (it has kph clock so I did a quick conversion), the engine has never been apart, and it has had only 2 oil changes in the last 125,000 miles (Halfords fully synthetic). There are no signs of valve seat recession, and it starts without a rattle, but if you really cane it hard you can just get a whif of smoke out the exhaust, indicating a little wear in the valve guides. I just had a thought, that 948 Herald probably went faster on the trailor last night a couple of times than it ever managed to do under its own power, oops!

TR International Malvern

Been away at the TR International/Triumph World Picnic this last weekend. Good show again even more cars and people there this weekend than last year. I think if we hadn't got there early on the Friday we might have struggled to get our usual camping spot, sorry encampment area, we have a few tents/gazebo's etc!
Some nice cars there this year, how about TS1 and TS2, the first and second TR2 production cars ever built, and 928HP one of the TRS Le man cars, hmm, nice!
Noticeably one or two of the larger traders were either not there or their presence was much reduced, including one who did a no show at Stafford. Is this a trend forming or just a one off, some traders do seem to be putting less effort into the shows, whilst concentrating on mail order promotion?
We did well on both selling days, but it could have been very different if the stall had blown away on the Friday night, thanks to Dave Glead for saving the day in the early hours of Saturday morning!

Bird in the hand?

Just thought we would share this with you, happened about 10min ago. There was two of them feeding off Clares hand but I didn't get the camera quick enough. Someone here thought they were Housemartins, but then again he once mistook a bloke in a frock for an attractive young lady, so we don't trust his judgement that much! Is this usual behaviour for wild birds, they just landed straight on Clares hand, no bother?

eBay madness

Regarding my last Blog and its eBay theme, I have been reminded by a friend about the levels of knowledge (or lack of!) some punters exhibit regarding availability and pricing for some common Triumph bits. They don't get much more common than the following, and they are easily available from every Tom, Dick, or Harry Triumph specialist at less money, new in a bag, and usually with better postage rates!

For example -

Second hand master cylinder gaiter for £5.51 -

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=27383&item=2484670633

Available new for £3.50 -

http://www.canleyclassics.com/partfinder.asp?partnumber=125217

or

Pair bonnet stop cones for £7.50 -

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=27383&item=2484840855

Available new for £3.00 pair -

http://www.canleyclassics.com/partfinder.asp?partnumber=612962

or

Pedal rubber starting bid £2.50 -

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=27383&item=2484841147

Available new for £2.00 -

http://www.canleyclassics.com/partfinder.asp?partnumber=122289


Hmm, a little bit more research from buyers needed here me thinks!

I know, I know!

I know I'm supposed to do this everyday, but I have found myself a little distracted this week. It's busy anyway being inbetween shows, Stafford TSSC a week or so ago, and Malvern TR International this coming weekend.On top of that I've been into a bit of an e-bay fest, I'm trying to wean myself off it honest, but so far this week I've bought a couple of cars and some other bits and bob's I'm hardly ever likely to need! I've also got some of my own stuff on that's sat festering in the corner of the workshop since I finished a couple of my own cars, stuff I've had for years and years. Life laundry time, flog it or chuck it! Some of the stuff is hardly worth the effort monetary wise, but its just the thought of chucking something nice and new (well 30 year new anyway!) in the bin. The worst thing is sifting through and finding something you were desperate for a couple of weeks ago, forgot you had one, and bought another one from elsewhere! Hmm that reminds me I've just remembered another pile of tackle I stashed for the eventual restoration of my TR5's, I bet there's duplication in that lot, now where's me digital camera!

Couldn't think of anything interesting to picture so I've just popped out onto the car park and taken this little number I'm titling, "Canleys by Night!" I'm sorry, I'll try harder next time!




Canleys by Night!

Busy busy busy!

The workshops are full to bursting point with everyone doing their bit to get some cars out for the weekend. Had to tell the girls in the office that we are closing the diary on any new work for a month or so in an attempt to clear some backlog. Apologies in advance to anyone trying to get through for advise in the next couple of weeks, but it might be difficult to get to talk to anyone in the workshop.
Karl is finishing off a MK1/V Spitty that's having loads done prior to its owner driving down to the Le-man Classic. So far its had a diff, rear spring, door handles and locks sorted, and today he MOT'd it and sorted out a O/D fault. Oh and in amongst that lot he rebuilt a Stromberg for a guy in our shop, and changed a J type solenoid on a visiting Herald, busy bloke.

Daz the diff, is doing a run of 3.89's, but he managed to fit in rebuilding a 3.45 for a customer with a 2.5S saloon that had been purchased at vast expense from another trader, hmm, not good!




Daz

Fudge finally got around to putting top coat on that GT4, looks good, and with today's decent temperature it soon hardened, which means he can flat and polish it tomorrow.




GT4


I have been cracking on with an insurance job on Fay Presto's (a magician!) 13/60 convertible. It came in with a badly bent bonnet, front valance, chassis front bar and extensions. Bit of a blast from the past for me, as I did a chassis off total rebuild on this car nearly 10 years ago, its nice to see its held up well, apart from the dents.




Fay Presto's Herald


Mick is doing his best to catch up with the gearbox, overdrive conversion backlog, and John has left us for a month or two for his summer sabbatical to his farm in Ireland.

Last Stafford?

No blogs over the weekend and yesterday, sorry, been a bit busy.
Had a good time at Stafford (TSSC International) as usual, both on a trading level, but also on a social level. Same old faces in the camping area, up for the 'crack', and wanting to party!
Fewer people about this year, and the number of traders was down again, one of the larger traders was noticeably absent. At one point on the Saturday morning it threw it down with rain, so one would suppose most of the people on the site would have been in the main hall, if so numbers attending was depressingly low. Gone are the days when the top car park was full to brimming with the parking by model, a feature of Stafford that I used to enjoy a good luck around in my breaks from the stall.
Still can't complain about what we as a company achieved, managed to get two of our cars there for the displays, the Macau Spit (parked next to Bernie's lovely recreation) and the GT6 race car (thanks to John Muggleton for towing it up). We also did well on the stall, helped by the lack of competition undoubtedly, but I like to think also by our wide spread of new products and keen prices!
No something needs to be done sharpish about the dwindling numbers, and a move to a new venue seemed to be top of the agenda for most of those who expressed an opinion to me over the weekend. It's a pity because Stafford is really handy for us being just up the road, and the facilites are good, excusing the toilets on the Sunday morning!
The Saturday night 'do' didn't have the same sparkle as other years, fewer people in fancy dress, and the band? We cleared of comparatively early back to the tents for some cheese toasties done on the barbie, and some more beer.
Thanks to Jason and Zoe for their stirling work over the w/end, and to Craig and Sarah for bedecking our stand in advertising stuff.

Stafford here we come!

Ready and sorted for the TSSC International at Stafford yet, no? Neither are we!
As usual the best laid plans have fallen by the wayside and its the usual last minute rush to get everything done and dusted before we head off up the motorway tomorrow afternoon.
I've been busy keeping my head down in the museum (my 'colleagues' relegated me there are month or two back along with our race car project), nice and quiet in there, no telephone, yet! Today saw some major progress on the GT6, and by the end of the day I had a rolling chassis fitted with the bodyshell, gearbox in, just waiting for the engine if I get time tomorrow. For those of you that have been patiently waiting for our CV Rotoflex conversion I have included a couple of pictures of the finished article below.
Jobs to do first thing in the morning include washing and polishing the race GT6 and the Macau Spitfire as they both coming along to Stafford.
I could see from across the car park that we have had a fair few visitors to our shop today, and most of them turning up in Triumphs, good give yourselves a pat on the back, no good having them if you aint using them!
Lets hope the weather picks up for the weekend, it certainly looks like our new tent came just in the nick of time, should be able to try out the waterproofing on it good and proper!

Close racing in TR Register/TSSC championship!

Karl would like to share this with you, so that you can see just how close last weekends racing at Oulton Park was. Nice to see our sticker survived, just!

The day after the night before!

The barbeque went very well last night and we have had no reports this morning of dickie stomachs, or serious hangovers, so that can't be bad! We had an excellent spread of Triumphs in the car park with most if not all models represented sometimes many times over. We also had a good spread of Triumph club's represented, with official representation from Club Triumph (Tim Bancroft), and the 2000/2.5 Register (Alan Chatterton), also we had many members from the TSSC,and some from the TR Register.
The only problem that happened early on in the night was that a couple of cars parked blocking the entry to the overflow car park that had been set aside specially for us. It's a pity because last night was the grand opening of the car park extension and the main reason for our celebration (we have been waiting over a year for this!)
This meant that many cars had to again park on the street, apologies for this, it won't happen again, Dave the landlord will be painting some instructions on the car park for next time!
Anyway back to the food, in recognition of our visiting Australian guests, Adam (our tame barbie guru) had tossed a few shrimps on the barbie, hmm, they were very nice, we shall be having those again. One of our staff (mentioning no names, Daz!) was seen to visit the barbie at least six times and come away with a plate full, thanks for that info Karl. The only food left over at the end of the evening was some baked potatoes, a couple of chicken drum legs and some salad. That's not bad considering that we started with 50 burgers, 50 bangers, 50 bits of chicken, a bag of spuds, a table full of salad and stuff, and the shrimps which didn't last very long at all! You were hungry weren't you!
Several conversations were earwigged as I did the rounds, but I think the most popular subject was this years RBRR, there seems to be a real buzz about this years event. We had several of this years entrants in attendance including the event organiser Tim Bancroft who had ventured up from darn sarth in his GT6, many thanks Tim.
Someone counted at one point 29 Triumphs in attendance, but this did not include the cars that left early on (school night, got to get those kids in bed), and the cars that turned up later on, so we probably had 50 odd Triumphs in the course of the night, plus all of those who turned up in non Triumphs, not bad! We shall do it again, if we can get Adam to do the cooking again, poor boy had a very delicate operation the day before but still managed to soldier on, can you sit down comfortably yet Adam?
Finally thanks go to Dave & Pat the landlords of the Weavers for putting up with us, Adam and family for services rendered on the barbie front, and for all of those who attended.

Early Morning Blog

I usually do these things after work, but it's our barbeque this evening so probably won't have time.
6003VC our Macau Spit engined (Kastner 2ltr) Vitesse started without a hitch this morning after its 6 month rest at home in the garage. Did the usual last night changed the battery for a live one, put some fresh petrol in, and had the battery booster thing ready and waiting. A couple of stabs on the throttle and the thing started on the third try. I had forgotten just how noisy it was specially at 5.30am in a cul-de-sac! I tried to pull away as quietly as spitting triple 45 DCOE's with trumpets,a 6-3-1 manifold feeding an ancient straight through exhaust, and a full race cam allowed! Anyway 10 min later I was at work after a rather invigorating blat through the empty Warwickshire countryside, make note, must do that more often. It seems a shame to pull the engine out, but its going in the ideal home, our Kastner replica GT6, and the Vitesse really needs to return to its rebuilt MK1 triple SU 2ltr, it really was sweet in that form, the MK1 is a lovely engine, specially at 7,500 rpm!!
Anyway enough of this, I need to do some more purchasing, see you later at the barbeque all you locals.

Monday again!

Quick one tonight, as its 8.30 already and I'm tattered and need food/see kids/shower/sleep (not necessarily in that order).
Have been trying to work on the race GT6 all day, but its been difficult due to the usual Monday telephone thing.
Sort of calls that start, I took XYZ off my Triumph something or other, took it apart fiddled with it and put it back on my something or other, now it don't work, can you help?
Still keeps us in business supplying all the XYZ's that have been buggered all over the World on your typical Sunday morning!
Really do need to pull my finger out if we are to get the Kastner/Brophy replica GT6 to Stafford this next weekend. Did manage to get the rear suspension all done today which is a major hurdle out of the way. If its still light when I get home I'm going to get our Vitesse fired up after its lay up. If all goes well I shall bring it into work tomorrow and whip the genuine Kastner engine (came out of the Macau Spit) out of it to go in the GT6, can't think of a better home. It is reputedly kicking out 200bhp, but we shall see with a rolling road session, I'll let you know.
One last thing, don't forget all you local Club Triumph people and invited guests,in other words anyone with a Triumph, its the Canley Classics sponsored barby tomorrow night at that superb hostelry the Weavers Arms at Fillongley. Come along for some free nosh and good company, the more the merrier.

Well I be bloggerd!

Saturday afternoon and I'm sat here doing a raft of price up-dates, nice, not!
The letters from suppliers have been flooding in recently in unprecedented numbers all with a similar tale to tell. You may or may not have seen or heard on the news recently of the drastic hike in the value of scrap steel/iron as a result of China vacuuming the Worlds supply to feed its ballooning industry. Well it seems that UK manufacturing is playing catch up real quick, and these costs are being passed down the chain at an alarming rate. I have some of these letters in front of me and I quote some relevant bits,'Stainless steel for instance has increased in price by over 30%'. 'Over the past 3 months we have been bombarded with price increases'. 'The price list enclosed includes a 4.9% increase that purely recovers the cost impact of recent steel price increases' and more worryingly,'Since finalising this increase we have been advised that steel prices will increase by a further 20% from July 1st, with yet another increase due in September'.
What effect will all of this have on you the customer? Well without doubt you will start to notice a broad range of price increases as most if not all the parts in your car have some steel content. Worst hit will be panel work, and that's already started. Some retailers may be slower than others to pass on the inevitable, they may be sitting on stock, or as second tier suppliers they might not be dealing directly with manufacturers so might still be unaware of the forthcoming storm!
The moral of this story, if you are planning any major bodywork in particular, get your panelwork real quick, after comparing prices of course.
Don't say I didn't tell you so!

Captains Blog, Stardate Friday?

Finished off MkIII GT6 engine this morning after slight hiccup earlier this week, box of 6 plus 30 pistons actually contained 4 plus 30's and 2 plus 40's! Supplier pulled out the stops and got me the two offending pistons to me by the next day. Engine is already going into the GT6 in the w/shp as we speak, or at least it was until Karl disappeared off to fit some new tyres onto our trailer in preparation for towing his race car up to Oulton Park for this weekends TR Register/TSSC racing.

I also managed to finish off a 1500 engine that had been sitting on my bench also awaiting pistons, no rush for this one though as its for stock. That leaves a 2 ltr MkI customers own short motor, and a 2 ltr MkI/MkII hybrid customers own to build before I can get stuck into some more stock.

Daz the Diff has been busy today, apart from getting under my feet, we share a bijou workshop facility! He has been prepping diff cases (cleaning/painting) in readiness for a major build next week when the boat comes in with a shed load of new crown wheel and pinions. He has also been building type 14 calipers for stock, reconditioned rocker shaft assemblies, whilst still managing to turn up the radio to intolerable levels to every,'good tune'.

Fudge (unfortunate nickname for our paint sprayer Russell) has been preparing a GT6/Spitfire for spraying. Yes you read that right, we are doing the reverse of everyone else and building a GT6 MK111 with Spitfire 1500 running gear, why? Why not!

John is in on his day off doing a rebuild on his own TR6 engine, can't get rid of them even on their days off!

Mick the gearbox builder hasn't done a lot today, maybe something to with the fact that he is currently on holiday in Florida! He has quite a shock waiting for him when he gets back in next week, namely 15 odd gearboxes and 4 overdrive conversions on backorder.

The office/goods in/dispatch staff all tell me they are busy, but I don't see any dirty hands, can anyone really be busy if they never get their hands dirty? That's it I'm off to run for cover before one of the shiny arses catches me with their handbag, sorry Phil!

Not much in particular

Good News:
Saddam Hussein is facing the death penalty!
Bad News:
Beckham's taking it!