Chicane Gets New Wings Part V, Nearly There

Nice Shiny Rebuilt Engine Fitted

Once painted I started to put the Chicane back together starting with putting the rebuilt engine back in. I haven't bothered with the bulkhead insulation thing because it was falling to bits. Unlike the rubber faced Coventry built 2000 pads the South African built cars had a thick felt type material faced with something akin to Bacofoil.

Looking complete

Over the years the Chicane has been plagued by water leaks so this time around I spent a long time making sure the new screen seals had plenty of sealant in all the nooks and crannys. Inside a new Stanpart main carpet went in along with the best of the s/h carpet sections I have. The horrible old sill threshold finishers went off to be stripped, polished, and re-anodised, and they now look fantastic. New original door rubber seals went on, but I'm still waiting to find some decent quality furflex finishers to complete the inside.

Nice Shiny New Stapart Wing!

I have even re-fitted the Chicanes 'Leyland South Africa' wing badges that have been off the car for many years. 

All that's left to do now is fit a reconditioned starter motor, the new exhaust, and the reconditioned Girling brake calipers.

Gold Seal Spitfire Peeling Back the Years

Thanks to some of the owners of the Gold Seal car who had owned it after its Richard Lloyd Gold Seal Racing, and Mugello Circuit exploits I have filled in some important gaps in its history.

John Petty in particular supplied some excellent pictures of the car whilst in his ownership.

I decided rather than strip its paint all in one go I would carefully peel it back layer, by layer, and tie in its various colour schemes to contemporary drivers.

The above picture shows the initial strip revealing a overall yellow scheme. The pictures John Petty supplied show the car in these colours during his ownership in 1970-72.

Courtesy of John Petty

Further sanding reveals more yellow.

A bit more and I could almost polish it!

John told me he brought the car in 1970 from a gentleman called Peter Long, and he thinks he later sold it on in 1972 to a Mr Russell Bracebridge.

Coutesy of John Petty (the marks on the print is water damage)

In the next instalment I reveal a totally unexpected short lived colour scheme!

Chicane Gets New Wings Part IV



OK so its escalated into a full respray!

So now its gone from fitting a new pair of front wings, and an engine rebuild into a full bare metal respray.

To be honest the paint was looking a little tired even though it has been painted before in our ownership about 10 years, and 100,000 miles ago. It had also been painted before we got it when it still lived in South Africa.  In our ownership its never been garaged, and it's only seen a polish a couple of times in that time. Taking that into account, and those new front wings I thought another comprehensive paint job was due.

Bare metalling threw up no surprises, indeed this car is still on its original sills, there cannot be many 2000/2.5 left with this sort of mileage still on their original sills.

Whilst I was at it I took the opportunity to replace one of the front doors for its original one that we removed during its respray many years ago. I can't for the life of me remember why we swapped it as its rust free, and fits far better than the substituted one?

  

FHP993C MOT'd

Resting on Llandudno Promenade during 2014 MSA Spring Classic Road Rally

I can't believe how time is flying by. This is brought home to me every year when MOT time comes around on FHP993C. It never seems to me than other than a few weeks have elapsed since the last time I did it.

All she needed this year was a couple of gallons on fresh petrol, a charge of the battery (she hadn't been out much since Aprils MSA event), and a couple of flicks of the reluctant light switch to wake it from its slumbers. One of these days I'm going to change that switch, but it seems to respond each year to a bit of exercise.

It must be getting on for 20 odd years that I have had the privalege of looking after FHP, one of my favourite cars of all time.

More Vitesse RBRR progress

Having completed the rebuild on the Vitesse slipper diff I turned my attention to the halfshaft assemblies. A couple of new short shafts, some GKN (Hardy Spicer) u/j's, new wheels bearings, new trunnions, and one new housing were consumed in the rebuild.

Over the years the back end of the car had settled to the point where a new swing spring was required so that went in. Everything then went back in with Polybush Red mountings, and new bolts, nuts, and washers as a matter of course.

Whilst the prop is away being checked for balance James had a poke around the car looking for any corrosion issues that might interest the MOT man.

In a matter of minutes he was attacking the passenger footwell with an angle grinder. I had never really given it a second look as it has been effectively hidden under a large aluminium passenger foot rest that was bolted through a rubber floor mat.

It turned out to be a little 'frilly'!

Chicane Gets New Front Wings Part III

OK so I know I'm only supposed to be replacing the front wings, but it seemed a shame not to re-fresh the engine whilst it was out.

I have barely layed a spanner on the engine in all the time we have had the car. When it came to us it was showing nearly 100,000 miles (kms?) on the clock, and we have added a further 200,000 miles (kms?) to it. At one time it was our chief towing car hauling our twin axle tilt car trailor up and down the motoways with various Triumphs in transit.

When it came off the road a couple of years ago it was still pulling strong, with no undue rattles on start up, and minimal oil consumption. The only signs of age was a slight puff of smoke between gear changes  from the exhaust when it was being thrashed. However I didn't want to push my luck so it was time to investigate.

The crank was still on standard bearings, but it was at its upper wear limit so got ground to 10/10 and a nice set of lead copper bearings. Surprisingly it had been previously bored to  +20, but we bored it again to +60, and fitted a nice set of County pistons.

There was some valve seat recession on the exhaust's, but there again it had been thrashed mercilously on a diet of supermarket unleaded for over 15 years, and at least a couple of hundred thousand miles. New unleaded seats, guides, and valves, and a quick face of the head, and all was good.

The cam had seen better days with a couple of lobes showing quite bad wear. Chicanes came fitted as standard with 18/58 cams, but as I was replacing it anyway I have fitted a 25/65.

After a coat of black paint, and a new set of core plugs it was nailed back together to await it's next 300,000 miles of service!

I get bullied into 'choosing' Vitesse for RBRR

Well I suppose I had put off a decision on what Triumph to do the RBRR in this year long enough.

Last Saturday Tim Bancroft turned up and removed a cheque from me for the entry fee for CT's RBRR.

The ink had barely dried on the cheque when James removed the Vitesse from its slumbers, and promtly ripped its entire back end out.

Its last time out was the CT Autosolo at Bovington a couple of years ago. During the day it was thrashed by eldest daughter, her mate, and myself, I don't recall the engine being switched off all day!

A couple of days later on the way to work I detected the whine of death, meaning terminal crown wheel, and pinion wear. A couple of other things needed addressing including a saggy rear spring, seized adjusters on the radius arms. Also something I had wanted to do for a while go back to short halfshafts, as I had never been happy with the look of it with long shafts fitted (and its abilty to break them).

 

I stripped the diff yesterday, and sure enough the 4.11 gearset had seen better days. The Quaife LSD centre was fine (it has now survived two gearsets!), and we are not short of factory  4.11 gearsets so a new one was fitted. While I'm waiting for some Timkin bearings to come into stock for it I set about pulling those long shafts out of the rear bearing housings.

To be continued.