More new stuff!
http://www.canleyclassics.com/products.asp?article=HRFOAM.xml
No excuse now not to do our own 2.5 saloon head rest's as they are currently that limp I might as well have an Asda bag full of polystyrene loose packing material sellotaped to the top of the seats!
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
New Product
Strange time of year to be launching new product I know but here go's. We have copied the massively heavy cast iron GT6 specific alternator mounting bracket. On my scales the cast iron original is 1045 grammes, and our alloy copy is 398 grammes, a useful saving! Steve Phillips produced a short run of something similar many years ago, but he sold his last one a few years back. Not bad value at £34.95 inc VAT considering some fairly hefty pattern prices that we have to cover (it's cast and machined this time, not CNC'd from solid, that's getting expensive as aluminium get's pricey). To be honest we are not predicting huge potential sales for this one, but it had to be done. Oh well it's a good job I love my Triumph's, they ain't never going to make me a millionaire! Nearly forgot the all important part number, it's 214268A.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Warp drive!
Or at least that's what it feels like to drive a good TR5 after a month or two driving the works diesel Transit. I had sort of gotten into a rut of driving the Transit because it was 'convenient', big mistake. A couple of days ago I went home in a customers TR5 (all in the interests of science you will understand), what a revelation! It's been a year or two since I last drove one (even though we own a small fleet of TR5's ourselves), I shouldn't leave it as long next time. By the time I had pulled up on my drive at home I was really buzzing, fantastic. What superb cars Triumph made. Make mental note, I need more regular Triumph 'fixs'.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Ewan McGregor (Long Way Down), lightweight!
Two blokes on motorbikes, two 4X4's, an on-board medic, a film crew, and a 'mission control' back in Blighty handling all the paperwork etc. Very cosy. Worse still its taking them nearly two months to get from JOG to Cape Town! What's that all about, call that progress.I recall back in early nineties being involved in a failed attempt (not our fault, just something to do with a war in the area) to drive a Herald, and a Morris 1800 to Cape Town. Just two cars, no service crew, medical back-up, mobile phones (or Satellite phones!), and no minders to get us across any borders. We got as far as the Western Sahara (pictured above), which is right in the middle of the west side of Africa before our progress was halted. We waited a full week in some god forsaken hole called Dakhla for a UN guarded convoy to take us through one of the Worlds longest running disputed areas. It had only taken us just over a week to get to this place from the UK, and we were fairly confident that if we had got across that border the whole trip could have been done and dusted in under three weeks. As it happens we turned around and headed home. After dropping John Kipping off at Casablanca airport on the way back I drove the whole way back to Blighty including the two ferry crossings in three days of virtually none stop driving.
Ewan, and Charlie need to invest in some faster motorbikes!
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Countdown is progressing
2007 will be seen in the future as a watershed in the availability (or otherwise) of Triumph core (old mechanical units) . These units are the basis of future major mechanical unit supply.
In the space of a few months I have had two major Triumph specialists, and a few smaller outfits offering me large amounts of engines, gearboxes, brake calipers, differentials, etc. Most have come to the conclusion that the projected market will not support storing many tons of oily, greasy, rusty tat for year after year ad infinitum. Factor in the rising costs of storing this stuff, rent, and rates etc, and it's not surprising that it's been given the critical eye. In every case we have had to decline adding to our own pile as it was already larger than most as a result of a certain Mr J Kippings veracious collecting strategy throughout the 80's, and 90's. Indeed a few years back when we tidied up our engine core (removed heads and sumps so they would stack) we counted very nearly a 1,000 units of various types. I have tried where possible to point traders in the direction of others who might still be in the market, but it seems that every case they had been there, done that. So with the spiraling cost of scrap metals the inevitable is happening, a lot of it is getting weighed in. We ourselves have been guilty this year of much the same, indeed we bought a snotty Transit solely for the purpose of doing the scrap yard run once a week or so. At least we have looked critically at our pile and worked our way systematically through it only removing stuff that is either damaged beyond economical repair, or vastly over stocked (try 1300/1500 FWD short engines).
So will 2007 be remembered as the year the Triumph trade foreshortened future parts availability, or are we doing the right thing? Is this a critical re-examination of future needs based on current sales? Or is it a short sighted clear out to avoid spiraling rates bill's, and to benefit from a out of control scrap price hike with some nice rollin foldin in the sky rocket?
In the space of a few months I have had two major Triumph specialists, and a few smaller outfits offering me large amounts of engines, gearboxes, brake calipers, differentials, etc. Most have come to the conclusion that the projected market will not support storing many tons of oily, greasy, rusty tat for year after year ad infinitum. Factor in the rising costs of storing this stuff, rent, and rates etc, and it's not surprising that it's been given the critical eye. In every case we have had to decline adding to our own pile as it was already larger than most as a result of a certain Mr J Kippings veracious collecting strategy throughout the 80's, and 90's. Indeed a few years back when we tidied up our engine core (removed heads and sumps so they would stack) we counted very nearly a 1,000 units of various types. I have tried where possible to point traders in the direction of others who might still be in the market, but it seems that every case they had been there, done that. So with the spiraling cost of scrap metals the inevitable is happening, a lot of it is getting weighed in. We ourselves have been guilty this year of much the same, indeed we bought a snotty Transit solely for the purpose of doing the scrap yard run once a week or so. At least we have looked critically at our pile and worked our way systematically through it only removing stuff that is either damaged beyond economical repair, or vastly over stocked (try 1300/1500 FWD short engines).
So will 2007 be remembered as the year the Triumph trade foreshortened future parts availability, or are we doing the right thing? Is this a critical re-examination of future needs based on current sales? Or is it a short sighted clear out to avoid spiraling rates bill's, and to benefit from a out of control scrap price hike with some nice rollin foldin in the sky rocket?
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
The perils of offering technical advice
In the old days it used to be pretty straight cut most Triumph specialist's/suppliers were Triumph enthusiasts turned parts purveyors so brought with them a grounding in technical knowledge. These days it's more difficult, when was the last time you saw your preferred specialist turn up for work, or attend an event in a Triumph? Factor in the all invading spectre of public liability worries (and it's associated insurance implications) and it's not to difficult to understand why some are reluctant to help in your hour of need. Indeed I have been in competitors shops and noticed the proliferation of signs stating something like 'due to insurance company guidelines we are unable to offer any technical advice' or words to that effect.
We (John Kipping's/Canley Classics) have always been known for our freely given technical advice based on our own usage of a fleet of dissimilar Triumph's that have been used (and abused!) for 30 odd years. That enthusiasm however is waining as others loose interest for whatever reason and the burden is shifted to the few of us that still care to proffer an opinion. It's not helped by the increasing numbers of waif and stray customers of other specialists who cast around for advice in the absence of any from the people they normally buy their stuff from. A good example of which we shall call Mr X. Mr X had been a regular caller, so regular in fact that the sales people here got to recognise his voice over the period of 18 months or so he had been calling on average once or twice a month. In the end they would know without him asking to put him straight through to someone with a bit of technical nonce. Then someone thought to ask him his name/customer account number, to which he replied 'oh I don't buy anything from you, I get my parts from supplier XYZ, but they never help with technical advice'. He should have thought through his answer more carefully! Now the sales people here filter technical enquires as a matter of course, and do you know an interesting statistic that has come to light as a result? Well it's not exact by any means, but I'm being told only about 20% of these enquirees are coming from our own customers.
Harping back to the 'old days' even more, back then if a punter asked an opinion of a specialist it was taken as semi gospel based on the fact that punter respected that opinion because of the specialists experience. These days it's all changed, it seems most are now canvasing opinion, and with the help of the tinternet that opinion can come from almost anywhere. One gets a little disenchanted when you have just spent 20 minutes on the phone to someone advising him how to do a job you have done a thousand times before only to find later that same person asking the same question on the World Wide Web through various club forums, or newsgroups! Time is precious, and never more so as staffing levels reduce, and workload increases, please remember that before calling anyone still willing to spend a little time helping.
You might think miserable old bugger (only the wife is allowed to call me that) but sometimes I dread Friday afternoons when everybody else and his dog have finished work early and feels the need to speak to me about seized trunnions, or Monday mornings when punter X of supplier Z has wrestled all weekend with, and failed to, remove his rear hub with three legged pullers, oxy/acetylene, and a BBH (Bloody Big Hammer). Sometimes it starts to feel like groundhog day, can I hear Sonny and Cher playing on the radio?
We (John Kipping's/Canley Classics) have always been known for our freely given technical advice based on our own usage of a fleet of dissimilar Triumph's that have been used (and abused!) for 30 odd years. That enthusiasm however is waining as others loose interest for whatever reason and the burden is shifted to the few of us that still care to proffer an opinion. It's not helped by the increasing numbers of waif and stray customers of other specialists who cast around for advice in the absence of any from the people they normally buy their stuff from. A good example of which we shall call Mr X. Mr X had been a regular caller, so regular in fact that the sales people here got to recognise his voice over the period of 18 months or so he had been calling on average once or twice a month. In the end they would know without him asking to put him straight through to someone with a bit of technical nonce. Then someone thought to ask him his name/customer account number, to which he replied 'oh I don't buy anything from you, I get my parts from supplier XYZ, but they never help with technical advice'. He should have thought through his answer more carefully! Now the sales people here filter technical enquires as a matter of course, and do you know an interesting statistic that has come to light as a result? Well it's not exact by any means, but I'm being told only about 20% of these enquirees are coming from our own customers.
Harping back to the 'old days' even more, back then if a punter asked an opinion of a specialist it was taken as semi gospel based on the fact that punter respected that opinion because of the specialists experience. These days it's all changed, it seems most are now canvasing opinion, and with the help of the tinternet that opinion can come from almost anywhere. One gets a little disenchanted when you have just spent 20 minutes on the phone to someone advising him how to do a job you have done a thousand times before only to find later that same person asking the same question on the World Wide Web through various club forums, or newsgroups! Time is precious, and never more so as staffing levels reduce, and workload increases, please remember that before calling anyone still willing to spend a little time helping.
You might think miserable old bugger (only the wife is allowed to call me that) but sometimes I dread Friday afternoons when everybody else and his dog have finished work early and feels the need to speak to me about seized trunnions, or Monday mornings when punter X of supplier Z has wrestled all weekend with, and failed to, remove his rear hub with three legged pullers, oxy/acetylene, and a BBH (Bloody Big Hammer). Sometimes it starts to feel like groundhog day, can I hear Sonny and Cher playing on the radio?
Thursday, September 27, 2007
The love affair is dented!
You may or may not know that we (the wife and I) use 2500 saloons as our every day cars, always have, always will. There might be the odd dalliance with other cars in the collection, we have just used the Stag on the CT 10CR for instance, and it's not unusual to drag a Vitesse, or a TR out for a blast in the summer, or a CT track day. By and large though you will see us as happy as Larry tooling around in a 2.5. This love affair with the big saloon's received a minor blow last week when both the current cars decided to throw their teddies out of the pram.
The wife had been moaning about erratic clutch release issues for some time (read months), oh thought I, no problem its just that conical spring in the master cylinder broke again. As we are due a break in Devon shortly, and we always take the wife's car, I thought I would muscle it into the workshop schedule and give it the once over, and sort that master cylinder out at the same time. Part way through the service I drained the sump only to find a crank thrust washer attached to the magnetic sump plug, but no sign of the other one. A quick tug on the crank revealed 1/4" of end float, that's it game over, engine required.
While I pondered my options the wife took over driving the Chicane demoting yours truly to the works Transit (the Stag has gone into hibernation, and the rest of the fleet are out of MOT/tax). Only the day after this things got worse! The wife popped into the village to get some milk and upon her return mentioned that there had been a large bang, and then the steering felt 'funny'. A quick look under the car and all was obvious, the passenger side radius arm (drag strut some call it) had ripped itself out of the chassis, bushes, washers and all, and was dangling in mid air. Where it is normally attached through the chassis was now a hole at least as big as the washer that is supposed to hold it in place. Ive never seen that before says I, or words to that effect!
The Chicane was fixed pronto, I had to fix it to get home that night as the wife had taken the Transit. The wife's 2.5 is nearly fixed, but it got a bit more complicated than a simple engine change as I thought a gearbox swap, a new prop, and a re-cored radiator should happen as well. Oh and while I was under it there was the rest of that pre holiday service, including a steering rack gaiter, a steering column rubber u/j, yet another front bottom ball joint, and the odd drive-shaft u/j. It's been in the workshop for nearly a week, better hurry up it's got 300 miles to do next week!
The wife had been moaning about erratic clutch release issues for some time (read months), oh thought I, no problem its just that conical spring in the master cylinder broke again. As we are due a break in Devon shortly, and we always take the wife's car, I thought I would muscle it into the workshop schedule and give it the once over, and sort that master cylinder out at the same time. Part way through the service I drained the sump only to find a crank thrust washer attached to the magnetic sump plug, but no sign of the other one. A quick tug on the crank revealed 1/4" of end float, that's it game over, engine required.
While I pondered my options the wife took over driving the Chicane demoting yours truly to the works Transit (the Stag has gone into hibernation, and the rest of the fleet are out of MOT/tax). Only the day after this things got worse! The wife popped into the village to get some milk and upon her return mentioned that there had been a large bang, and then the steering felt 'funny'. A quick look under the car and all was obvious, the passenger side radius arm (drag strut some call it) had ripped itself out of the chassis, bushes, washers and all, and was dangling in mid air. Where it is normally attached through the chassis was now a hole at least as big as the washer that is supposed to hold it in place. Ive never seen that before says I, or words to that effect!
The Chicane was fixed pronto, I had to fix it to get home that night as the wife had taken the Transit. The wife's 2.5 is nearly fixed, but it got a bit more complicated than a simple engine change as I thought a gearbox swap, a new prop, and a re-cored radiator should happen as well. Oh and while I was under it there was the rest of that pre holiday service, including a steering rack gaiter, a steering column rubber u/j, yet another front bottom ball joint, and the odd drive-shaft u/j. It's been in the workshop for nearly a week, better hurry up it's got 300 miles to do next week!
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