Cookie's Blog

Oh no it's MOT time

2012-02-06T19:55:00.003Z

Put the GT6 in for MOT this week and it failed. Nothing too bad fortunately though.

Windscreen Wiper blade, Wheel Bearing Exhaust Clamp and a small bit of corrosion on the chassis.

I must admit, the wiper blades have only been replaced once in the 24 years I’ve owned the car so I deserve that one so I’ll even splash out and treat the car to a pair!

The tester fixed the exhaust clamp there and then, it had come loose and had moved along the pipe, no big deal there then!

The wheel bearing is unfortunately a rear one which is a bit of a pain to do with rotoflex suspension both because any job on the rear axles is a bugger with rotoflex, plus the bearings are shimmed. Still this will be the 3^rd bearing I’ve replaced and I've have managed to shim them up OK in the past so it should be OK this time as I know what to do.

The chassis corrosion is just in front of the suspension turret, it was repaired in the same place on the Chassis about 20 years ago. I’ll have this repaired at the MOT centre as it’s only a small bit of work.

I had the car tested this year at Moonface Service Centre in Hook, up until a couple of years ago they were a classic restoration company but changed direction a couple of years ago to change their business and concentrate on MOTs and servicing. They did a load of bodywork and a respray on the GT6 a few years ago when they were into restorations and I’m happy with the quality of their work. The good news I did get from Jim the owner is that they he is expanding into restoration work again and is currently setting up a new bodyshop so that’ll give us back a reasonably priced and reliable restoration company locally again….

Door Locks

2011-10-16T13:05:00.000+01:00

Spent the morning fixing door locks on the GT6, the door lock mechanisms are so fiddly it's a real PITA especially if you've got short stubby fat fingers and poor eyesight like me!

Any way, replaced the door latch assembly on the drivers side so I can now actually lock and unlock the door from outside the car. Big thanks to James Cooper who had a spare door latch assembly which fitted the bill, a new one is stupid money and even 2nd hand ones now seem to be getting rarer unless you want to pay Rimmers prices....

Then I fixed the passenger door which wasn't locking from inside. I've fixed this about 3 times this year and the rod that runs from the inner handle to the door latch pivot keeps popping out of the plastic block at the door handle end. |This time I decided to hold it in pace with some electrical tape, to me this is a sensible improvement not a bodge but others may beg to differ!

Anyway all sorted now, except I've now found the Drivers door check strap has some bits missing so I have a new kit on order from ebay, that's a job for another day.

Running Cool

2011-10-09T18:51:00.000+01:00

Today I fixed my electric fan on the GT6. The old fan thermostat had packed up, a couple of weeks ago it was sticking on which wasn't too much of a problem, just needed to disconnect it when I stopped and re-connect it when I drove off. However on the way back from Duxford it decided to fail totally and stuck in the off position. I managed to Bypass it to get home but it was now time to fix it properly.

The old thermostat that came with the Pacet fan kit was a capillary type with a probe that you stuff up the top hose. I've never been much of a fan of these as there is a risk of leakage where the capillary connection enters the hose. So I forked out for a nice aluminium billet housing with a modern sealed thermostatic switch unit from ebay. It was only about a fiver more than a replacement pacet capilary one so well worth the extra.

The instructions stated it was to be fitted on the hot side of the radiator, ie the top hose. I must admidt I thought about fitting it to teh bottom hose because, a there is more space, b it would be measuring whatever the radiator was coping or not and c I wasn't convinced that it wouldn't cause problems due to a lack of flexability in the top hose as the standard hose is a bellows type to allow flex.

Anyway after a few Club Triumph Forum discussions and finding out at my local TSSC meeting that a couple of guys have them fitted to the top hose I went ahead and fitted it there. If I had fitted it to the bottom hose I would have had to experiment to find a suitable switch as the temperature would have been lower so it saves a lot of hassle.

The kit stated that it must be fitted with a relay to switch the fan, the old capillary kit didn't need a relay so I had to do a bit of wiring and fit a relay. Anyway all done now and having tested it it works fine. Temperature sender fitted is a 90/82 degree one which comes on at about 7/8's of the way top the red on the temperature gauge and switches off just above 1/2 way.

New arrangement, billet aluminium adaptor in the top hose and relay fitted.

Old Knackered capillary unit previously fitted.

Duxford Sunday 2nd October

2011-10-09T12:54:00.001+01:00

Took me a few days to get around to write this but last weekend had an enjoyable trip to the Duxford all Triumph Day organised by the Herts and Beds TSSC. This was the 18th year the event has been held so a bit of a birthday. I was one of the organisers of the original event as it started off being run by the Essex TSSC area 18 years ago. Right from the start we decided that this would be a general Triumph event rather than just a TSSC event as we invited loads of other Triumph Clubs which meant we had a great variety of cars right from Razoredges, through to Bergerac type roadsters as well as the more modern stuff. Here's a couple of pictures from then, let me know if you can see your car in the picture after all these years!

We had a prize draw 18 years ago to win a flight in a Tiger Moth and they gut who won it (Richard) took the flight there and then at the event. Here's a picture of him with his prize.

Anyway back to this year, as the weather was so great (yes you may remeber we had a heatwave last week), I decided to camp over the night before with my son James. A nice little camp site up the road at Fowlmere had been recommended by Pete Lewis who organises the Duxford event. had a walk into teh nice little village, a curry in the local curry house washed down with a few pints of Abbot Ale in a social club opposite the campsite. The actual event at Duxford on the Sunday was well attended, I understand there were about 300 cars in attendance. Plenty of airborne activity as is usually the case at Duxford with some lovely passes by the Sally B B17 Flying Fortress. On the way home the GT6 started overheating, a problem with the electric fan thermostat which had packed up, easily bypassed with the fan wired in permanently as a temporary fix. However this week's job will be replacing the old capillary type thermostat fitted in the top hose with a nice billet ally housing and modern screw in thermostat switch.

Flat Battery

2011-09-12T23:35:00.000+01:00

Went start the GT6 tonight as it was the local Club Triumph Meeting at Potters Mytchet. Turned the ignition on and no ignition light turned the key and nothing. Put the battery on charge and it wouldn't take any charge at all. High Quality Bosch battery as well none of your cheap crap....

Oh well the good news is it's only 18 months old so under warranty. And in fact the last one failed under warranty and Costco gave me my money back with no quibble and I bought a new one there with a fresh warranty. Hopefully it'll be the same this time around. If it goes on like this I could have batteries for life under guarantee like the old Samson Bartteries that BL used to do! I used to have one of those but Unipart stopped honouring the battery for life garuantee around the time Rover went bust which is why I ended up buying a Bosch one from Costco in the first place.

Midsummer Madness and Fathers Day

2011-06-21T21:48:00.000+01:00

Had a great weekend last week at the TSSC Southern Midsummer Madness Camping Weekend at "the Flowerpots, Cheriton,near Winchester. The Weather was a bit wet, especially on the Friday evening but the fact that the campsite was afield behind a pub that brews it's own excellent beer more than made up for it. We built a Gazeebo city in the corner of the field with 5 or 6 Gazebos so everyone was able to keep out of the rain.

Saturday there was a nice drive out through the Hampshire Countryside and a visit to the Army Museum of Flying at Middle wallop which was great for my son James as he's been wanting me to take him there for ages.

On Saturday evening we had a bring your own food Barbecue as the Pub had kindly let us use their Gas Barbie. This was followed by a quiz in the Gazebo City and a Raffle where I reckon nearly everyone got at least 1 prize with some lucky winners getting several.

Sunday was Father's day and I got a couple of small presents, but the main one was saved until we returned home. An Excellent Haynes Book with a collection of cutaway drawings of 60s, 70's and 80's cars, the drawings are the ones that Haynes used to put on the front of all the workshop manuals, real works of art and a great bit of classic car memorabilia.

Nice day out at the Ace Cafe

2011-06-11T22:11:00.002+01:00

Today was the annual Triumph car Day at the Ace Cafe on the Norf Sirk....

I love this venue, steeped in modern history and so cool, the atmosphere is stright out of the 50s & 60s and it's absolutely perfect for a classic car meet.

The food isgreat as well, I had the fish & chips and the batter and the homemade tartar sauce was well scrummy!

Nice to meet up with Mark Smith in his immaculate wedgewood blue GT6 and his friend Bex. Good company, good venue, good food and a nice selection of cars, plus the sun was shining, a good day out in the GT6!

A Nice Day after a Soggy Night

2011-05-08T22:19:00.000+01:00

Saturday Night at SEM was a rather soggy affair as it absolutely bucketed it down with rain. I'm glad James brought along a gazebo so that we had somewhere to try and shelter from the downpour. Sunday came though and it was a lovely day which brought out shiny Triumphs in their droves. My GT6 started making a whistling noise as I drove into the site on the Saturday afternoon so I investigated under the bonnet and found a 2 inch long split in the hose connecting the emission valve to the manifold. A few minutes work with some plastic insulating tape gave a good old fashioned bodge repair to get me home. The TSSC club shop had some double walled silicon hose versions of the hose for sale which should be a bit more durable than the rubber ones which only seem to last 2 or 3 years nowadays, so I now have a set and will be fitting them this week.

Another weekend another Triumph camping Do...

2011-05-07T19:18:00.000+01:00

Not quite such a salubrious location as last week's Isle of Wight camping weekend but I'm at it again, camping with the GT6 at a Triumph event. This time it's the TSSC South of England Meet (AKA SEM) at Leatherhead. The main event starts tomorrow but there are a few camping over tonight so it's Barbeques and Beers at the campsite for the rest of the evening for me!

End of another great weekend in the Isle of Wight

2011-05-03T00:22:00.003+01:00

Sunday was an eventful day at the Isle of Wight Camping weekend.

A run out to Calborne Water Mill, again the weather was kind and it was a good run around the Island to get there including a part of the run along the sea front at Ventnor and a climb up the infamous zig zag hill.

Then back at the campsite was a demonstration of lead loading followed by an excellent hog roast.

Then in the evening the TSSC Hants & Berks area (+ friends) teamed up for the quiz and duly won, From memory, this is the 4th time in 5 years we've won the quiz! Not bad as we don't take it that seriously and have a good laugh while taking part.

Then came the results from the treasure hunt, the raffle and the announcement of the winner of the Appuldurcombe choice trophy presented by the owners of the Campsite for their favourite car of the event. Well as a group we did well in all of these, Jason, Poppy and Kelly came 3rd in the treasure Hunt, Anne Marie and Glynn got 2nd place, Jason won the star prize in the raffle a tablet PC. But the most unexpected result was that I won the Appuldurcombe trophy for my GT6!

On Monday it was the usual run out to the Wight Mouse Pub for some lunch and then [pack up camp and off home having had an excellent weekend. Thanks Go to Angela and Graham and their team for putting on yet another great weekend.

2nd Day on the Isle of Wight

2011-05-01T01:02:00.001+01:00

Another good day today, run out from the campsite to Carisbrooke Castle. A nice run even if we did get lost on the way when James acting as navigator missed a turning, we had about a dozen other Triumphs following us who obviously weren't following the directions properly.

The castle was very interesting and there was a treasure hunt with clues to find around the castle to add to the entertainment.

Afterwards it was back ton the site for more beers, a barbecue and an 80's disco.

Over on The Isle of Wight

2011-04-29T17:53:00.000+01:00

Cookie is currently over on the Isle of Wight at the Triumph Camping Weekend, meeting up with lots of old Triumphing friends. A good way to avoid the Royal Wedding as I'm well away from any TV!

Started off the weekend by taking my boy James for a curry, which was good until he ate what he thought was a runner bean but was actually a green chilli. Poor little chap suffered somewhat.

The event proper starts this evening so today I let James decide what he wanted to do and took him to the military museum, he didn't want a tank ride but did enjoy playing with the Bofors Anti Aircraft Gun.

Got Back to the campsite, had a barbecue and then a few more started to turn up so started on the cider and beer!

Nice day out in the Sunshine

2011-04-25T21:53:00.000+01:00

What a difference a year makes, today I went along to the Wyke Down Spring classics meet and autojumble in glorious hot sunshine. This nice little show and autojumble takes place in a filed behind the Wyke Down pub near Andover on Easter Monday each year and last year it got cancelled as the weather was so atrocious and the field was totally waterlogged. I like to get along to this as it's one of the first local shows of the season and has a good variety of vehicles and a interesting autojumble. Always a few unusual or desirable cars that carch my eye and this year was no different.

The traditional picnic by the GT6...

Not for the feint hearted, a chopper bicycle fitted with a Honda 125 Engine, even has the original bicycle front brake!

If I had a few bob to blow on a car collection this Atom would be one of the cars in my garage

Believe it or not, this is a car not a boat, Reliant Robin based

The Old and the New Jags, XK8 definitely has some styling cues from the E-type

Apologies if this is your car, but that wooden hard top thingy on the back is sooo ugly, why oh why???

A Brace of Meschersmits

Back on the Road and Nice photos!

2010-10-15T22:41:00.000+01:00

I've fixed all the mechanical damage from our "incident" on the Round Britain run, tie rod arm replaced with new assembly, handbrake reattached, Exhaust fixed, Bonnet re-aligned (reasonably well anyway), dent in the wheelarch fettled. I also took the car in for a 4 wheel alignment, good news is that nothing is bent or twisted chassis wise and the garage was able to adjust everything to within tolerance. I have found another dent, but this is in the floorpan (just in front of the tie rod mounting) so I won't worry about that too much. Still need to get the rear valence replaced, the small dents in the quarter valences filled and painted.

New Tie Bar fitted

Dent in the Rear Valance, panel to be replaced....

I've still not received the magazine or photo copies promised by the journalist from the practical classics article despite chasing this up. However, the article had the name of the freelance photographer, Mark Fagelson. I googled Mark and sent him an email politely asking if he could send me some photos. Mark duly obliged and sent me a disc with a copy of the photos in the next post, so he's a jolly nice bloke as well as a damn good photographer!

There were quite a few really good pictures that hadn't been published as well. Mark included a letter regarding copyright and I'm allowed to use the photo's for my own personal use including publishing on the interweb as long as it's not for profit so here are 3 of my favourite photos from the shoot.

It's been a strange week!

2010-10-07T23:33:00.000+01:00

After the damage from the Stag avoidance off road antics on the round Britain run at the weekend the GT6 is now featured in an article in the November issue of Practical Classics magazine that came out this week.

Some excellent pictures of the car looking in really fine fettle. The article it's self is pretty generic regarding GT6s rather than specific to may car. In the 3 way road test against the MGA and the Sunbeam Alpine they liked the Alpine best but did admit that the GT6 sounded more "sophisticated" but was the noisiest of the bunch. That'll be the fact that I have a sports exhaust and the others were boring standard ones then!

Probably best that I don't publish the actual article on my blog but the picture below was extracted from Practical Classics website so is already in the public domain.

The article doesn't really say much that I haven't heard before regarding GT6s but I must admit the photos are excellent, especially the action shots, there's one action shot that clearly shows me behind the wheel, my 15 minutes of fame I guess!

An Eventful Round Britain Run for Team 30

2010-10-04T00:17:00.002+01:00

Well what an eventful weekend, unlucky but lucky at the same time. Our Round Britain Run came to an abrupt end at John O'Groats yesterday morning following an incident that had happened a few hours previously in the early hours. A Stag ran out in front of us on the A9 in the Highlands (Just South of Aviemore) at about 4am. Mark swerved and avoided the beast but the car spun off the road doing a couple of 360s and came to a halt against a grass bank. Doug & Katie Foreman and another crew stopped to help. I managed to get the car out of the boggy mud and back to the road and drove it along about ¼ mile to a layby, the car was very unstable at the back end and the rear nearside wheel was at a very funny angle. Jacked it up and found that a rear tie bar was badly bent downwards. Managed to straighten it out a bit with the trolley Jack. Tried the car and it didn’t feel too bad so drove on to the next control point at Skiach Services, refueled and then carried on to John O'Groats. On the way the car started making a knocking sound on left hand bends so after Breakfast in the John O’Groats Seaview Hotel we jacked the car up investigated more in the daylight. We noticed that the tie rod was still a bit bent but couldn’t see much else wrong (except the handbrake cable had come un attached). I tried to straighten the tie rod properly but it snapped. That meant it was game over for us so we had to be recovered by the AA. It took over 24 hours and 4 relay trucks to get us home but that did include a night in a hotel near Warrington paid for by the AA. The car also has some dents, a dented and split rear valance, a dented front quarter valence and a dent in the return flange of the front wheelarch. We realise we were lucky though, the Stag was darn big and would have written the car off if we'd hit it. Also we saw that stretch of the A9 in the daylight from the breakdown truck on the way back and there are loads of nasty drops and sheer rock faces along the rod side so we were lucky it happened exactly where it did.

I think Mark should have drunk more Lucozade looking at the following advert (which features a GT6 and a Stag or two!)

The GT6 at the Start, the Plough, Enfield

More Cars at the Start

Bodders Changes a Wheel Bearing at the Start

Edinburgh Airport Control

Not Entirely Certain but I think this is where we spun off

We made it to John O'Groats

The offending broken tie rod

The end of our Round Britain Run

Doug and Katie overtake the recovery truck just south of Stirling

All Prepped up and Ready to go

2010-09-29T20:44:00.000+01:00

The GT6 is all prepared ready for the round Britain Run.

It's had a good check over, Engine Oil and Filter changed, blockage in the coolant system fixed, flushed and new coolant, door handle fixed, carb float chambers cleaned out (after a leaky float chamber on one earlier in the week) , all fluids checked and topped up, tyre pressures done, extra 12v sockets fitted under the dash, washed and stickers applied.

To be honest I made a bit of a hash of the stickers and may replace them at the start in Enfield if there's time on Friday.

I've also got snacks on order to keep going between the official breakfast, pie and cake stops in the form of pasties, egg & bacon bites and ginger bread men. Plus a few bottles of energy drink.

Sponsorship has started rolling in although the Virgin giving website going down the today is not good. Especially after I got a slot on a weekly directors briefing call at work to talk about the run and the charity to about 500 people. Several spoke to me today saying they would sponsor me on line but I suspect if they try and the site is still down I'll problem miss out....

Anyway, pictures of the car ready to go below.

Team 30 Changes Car

2010-09-23T00:10:00.000+01:00

Mark and I have now agreed to change cars for our entry into the round Britain Run and will now be using my GT6.

I have in any case been starting to prepare the car over the last week or two as per my previous blog post so no big deal.

Still have the door handle to fix, the part arrived today so this should be no problem. Then it's an oil and filter change, check the tyre pressures, give it a wash, apply the RBRR stickers and off we go.

Picture below was taken on the 2008 RBRR near Loch Naver up towards the top of Scotlandshire.

RBRR getting Close!

2010-09-20T23:58:00.000+01:00

Only 10 days to go until the Club Triumph Round Britain Run and at this stage team 30 are still not sure whether Marks's 2500 Saloon will be ready or not. I'm therefore busy preparing the GT6 as our back up car. Not that it needs too much doing to it as over the past year I've rebuilt half the rear suspension (the other half was done a couple of years ago), rebuilt the front suspension, changed the diff, changed the clutch, rebuilt the front suspension with new springs, shocks and polybushes, replaced the starter, replaced some of the seals and pipes in the braking system.

Apart from a basic service the couple of jobs which do need to be done are:-
1. Firstly fixing the passenger door handle so it opens from the outside, the broken link piece has been ordered.
2. Fixing the heater which didn't work on the last RBRR back in 2008 when Bodders and froze our nuts off driving up the A9 past Aviemore. I've just finished fixing the heater this evening, problem was traced down to a blockage in the pipe through the inlet manifold which feeds the heater valve. Cleaned it out with a bit of wire and then ran the car on bars flush for a while. this included a 190 mile round trip to the RBRR drivers brief on Sunday which certainly gave it a good flushing! I flushed out the system with clean water tonight and refilled with fresh water/antifreeze/barsleak coolant mix. The heater now works a treat!

Had a good run up to the drivers grief which was at Gaydon this year, good to hear from the Charity mind, hear Tim, Jason and Nigel's brief and get a quick look around teh museum. Talking of charity, I've now set up a virgin money giving site plus a micro website for team 30. See http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/RBRR30 and http://www.rbrr.cookiehome.co.uk/ .

Pictures from the Drivers Brief at Gaydon

My GT6 and a few other RBRR cars amongst the other classics at Gaydon.

Tim and Nigel go through the road book briefing.

Triumph Sprint Engined Formula 3 car in the Museum, ex Nigel Mansell.

Works TR8, ex Tony Pond/Fred Gallagher.

The last Spitfire off the Production line.

Practical Classics Photoshoot

2010-08-15T17:49:00.000+01:00

Had a busy day yesterday, went along to the practical classics photoshoot during the day which ended up being in the new Forest and then up to Bedfordshire that evening for a 40th birthday party for Matt Hollingsworth an old triumph mate who I first met around 23 years ago. Matt's now into American Mopar Cars but he does still own the Herald tucked away at home that he had when I first met him all that time ago. Here's a picture of Matt with his Herald back in 1988 taken at Dover Docks on a TSSC Essex trip to the International Spitfire weekend in Holland.

The photoshoot moved location, first I was told it was going to be at Popham airfield then it got moved to the motor museum at Beaulieu. I got up early and had a nice drive in the GT6 down to Beaulieu and met up with the journalist (Andrew Roberts) and photography team and the other two cars on the shoot an MGA and Sunbeam Alpine. The photograher then got "creative" and decided he didn't want to use the museum as a location, he'd recently done a shoot of some Ferrari's in the new Forest and wanted to use a car park surrounded by pine trees as the red MG, white Alpine and Nappy Cack Yellow GT6 would look good against a dark pine green background. Only problem was he didn't know exactly where the car park was. So we got taken to a pub for coffee and he went out to find the mystery car park. An hour and a half later he returned, he couldn't find it so had settled for another car park....

Anyway we lined our cars up as directed and he took a few pictures of the three together and details shots of the individual cars. I was surprised that even though it was daylight he used several remote flashes on tripods as well as a flash on the camera, still I suppose that's all about being a professional and knowing what you are doing!

The Journalist Andrew was not a small chap, about 6ft 4 tall and well over 20 stone, he wanted a ride out in the GT6. It was a tight squeeze to say the least getting him in the passenger seat. No chance of the seat belt being long enough! Also no chance of him driving the car as he wouldn't have fitted behind the wheel. We went out for a short drive and then when we arrived back at the car park he had to try and extract himself out of the car again. The only way he could do this was literally to roll out on the the ground in the muddy car park!

Another journalist who was helping (and didn't want to be named as he works for another magazine!) then asked me about the car and took the car out for a drive for a few miles.

We then had a very nice lunch at a local pub courtesy of Practical Classics then it was back to photo shooting with some action shots of the cars driving out on the new forest roads.

The article should be out in the November issue of Practical Classics, can't wait!

Door not opening plus photo shoot invite

2010-08-10T19:25:00.000+01:00

Tried to open the passenger door on the GT6 from the outside a couple of weeks ago and it wouldn't open. Ah I thought, probably just something come loose or out of adjustment. Took the door apart and all looked to be in place but it was apparent that the internal lever on the outer door handle assembly wasn't being operated with the outer handle. Stripped out the handle assembly and a piece of plastic fell out, this had broken off a key shapped moulding inside the assembly. This must be a common fault as Paddock's and Canley's sell the plastic pice on it's own. However I have been toying with the idea of replacing the handles, firstly to reduce the number of keys on the keyring as I'll be able to buy a matched pair, secondly because new ones will be nice and shiny! So do I spend about £120 on a pair of handles or about 6 quid on the little plastic bit. My brain says no my heart say yes..... Decisions Decisions!

Had a call last week in my capacity as a TSSC area organiser from a journalist working for Practical Classics, did I know anyone locally in Hampshire with a GT6 because they wanted to do a photo shoot, I immediately replied, "Well you could use my GT6!" so I'll be going along on Saturday to Popham Airfield to get a few photo's taken. Spent Sunday giving the car a clean, and I'll do a bit of polishing this week so it's extra shiny.....

Classic car Show in Beer (The fishing village not the drink!)

2010-06-06T23:17:00.001+01:00

I was away on my family holidays last week down in Dorset. Still I did manage to get along to a Classic Car show at Pecorama down in Beer in Devon on my holiday to Dorset allbeit in the modern rather then the GT6. Quite a few Triumph's there from the TR Register, Stag Owners Club and the TSSC Devon and Somerset areas, plus I had a nice chat with Robin Nichols from the newly formed South Dorset TSSC area, I found out about the show through their facebook group, I checked this out in case they had anything going on during my visit which is how I found out about the show.

Standard Triumph Marque Day, Prescott Speed Hill Climb

2010-05-24T21:34:00.003+01:00

What a fantastic weekend. Great Weather for camping and getting the tyres nice and sticky for a blat up the hill. Started off with a few beers and a barbeque on the Saturday night. Got up early on Sunday and walked the track. Then come 10 o'clock on Sunday morning the track erupted to the sound of straight 6's V8s and 4 pots screaming up the hill accompanied by plenty of tyre screeching. I had a nice couple of fairly aggressive runs up the hill in the GT6 and took plenty of photos of other Triumphs and the odd unusual car (eg even an Amphicar!) blasting up the hill. I also had a look around the Bugatti trust museum as well which was a nice cool break from the blistering sun.

On the way home I got a call from James Cooper who had left before us warning me the traffic on the M4 was a nightmare. The good thing about that was I managed to change my route and cut across from Cirencester to Reading via Fairford, Lechlade, Wantage along the A417. Pretty empty, picturesque and good driving road on a nice summers evening and a great drive home with the GT6 doing what is does best, a bit of fast A road touring...... A Nice way to finish off a great weekend.

In car Video of my GT6 going up the Hill

My GT6 on the Campsite

Richard and Stephanie Brake pulling away from the start

Richard and Natasha Brake exiting the Ettores Hairpin

Dave Aspinal in his tidy MK1 2.5 PI Saloon

Adam Chignall looks like he's ready to have some fun

And here he is attacking the hill!

Jessica Brake enjoying herself in the Herald

You don't see many of these, an Amphicar

Jigsaw Racing's Spitfire Le Mans Replica ADU1B

The well sorted Hart Racing Stag

Hampshire Treasure Hunt

2010-05-17T21:45:00.005+01:00

Paul “Bodders” Bodiam orgainised a Treasure Hunt last Sunday for our local TSSC area. It was a shame that only 2 cars and 5 people turned up as Paul had put some real effort into organising a really good Treasure Hunt with Challenging Interesting Questions and nice countryside.

I took my 7 year old Daughter Alice with me as Navigator/helper and she thoroughly enjoyed herself. We managed to answer all the questions and got them all correct except Paul docked us ½ point as we only got the month and year rather then the full date for a question on when the Basingstoke Canal was re-opened. Bodders is obviously a stickler for detail! Needless to say we came first, but then if we’d come last we still would have been in 2^nd place!

The Crooked Billet start of the Treasure Hunt

Carl in His Dolomite Sprint (the other car!) leaves the Crooked Billet.

Alice the "Navigator"!

One of the Questions was about the Wellington Statue. Only 2 miles from home but I'd never been there before!

New Clutch

2010-05-12T22:29:00.001+01:00

I've now completed my clutch change, ready for a couple of runs up the hill climb course at Prescott in 10 days time.

The old clutch was worn down to the rivets on the pressure plate side and had worn a tell tale groove on the pressure plate surface..

There was still a little bit of friction material above the rivets on the flywheel side so luckily there was no damage there. The new clutch is much lighter in operation than the old one and is biting much lower on the pedal travel, another sign that the old one was past it's sell by date! While the gearbox was out I took the opportunity to clean out the overdrive filter and the overdrive engagement is now much quicker with a clean filter and a change of gearbox oil.

One little tip for all you overdrive Triumph owners out there. The fixings for the overdrive gearbox mount are really difficult to do up or undo without the aid of an assistant unless you've got 4ft long arms like a Gorilla as you can't reach the bolt head inside the car and the nut under the car at the same time. I've got around this on my car by putting a nut between the overdrive mounting and the mounting platform, this only raises the gearbox by about 1/4 inch so causes no problems and it locks the bolt in place inside the car so you only have to worry about doing up or undoing the nuts under the car.

To finish off here's a couple of pictures from SEM at Leatherhead last weekend, I managed to get along to this but not in the Triumph as it was still in pieces!

The show

Turbocharged Sprint Engined Spitfire, this used to be seen regularly at Triumph shows a few years ago and was back out again being used in anger.

Nicely prepared TR7 racer

Over on the Isle of Wight

2010-05-03T23:28:00.000+01:00

Just returned from a great weekend again at the annual Isle of Wight Triumph Camping Weekend at Appuldurcombe camping and caravan park. As usual Graham and Angela organised a brilliant event, with runs out to Amazon World Zoo, Calborne Water Mill and lunch at the Wight Mouse Pub. Evening Entertainment on the Saturday included the excellent Darek Sandy (Reggae) and a Magician. On the Sunday our area did well again in the quiz, coming 2nd (although we had won it the previous 2 years).

Only one little problem for me, the clutch on the GT6 started slipping intermittently on the drive down to the Island and then on the various runs. So it looks like I need to do a clutch change sometime in the next couple of weeks as I'll need a decent clutch for the Triumph Marque Day at Prescott. I fitted the last clutch back in 1988 and it's done a good 75,000 miles so has lasted pretty well. It was a genuine Borg & Beck one though so I'll certainly be looking to see if I can find another genuine one to install as the extra cost more than outweighs the hassle of changing out a cheap one that may not last anywhere near as long.

It's Spring Time!

2010-04-18T00:10:00.000+01:00

2 years ago I picked up a bargain at Stafford, a pair of brand new Koni front shocks for £65. At long last I’ve got around to fitting them, together with a pair of Triumphtune lowered and uprated springs and poly bushed. Also replaced the top ball joints and trunnion bushes while I was at it, although they didn’t actually need replacing but it’s well over 15 years since I last changed them so thought it would be a good idea.

The nearside lower trunnion was a bit of a bugger, the bolt had seized to the steel sleeve within the bush despite assembling it with copper ease last time around. Ended up drilling the head off and hacksawing through the bolt.

One side completed, other just needs re-assembly, all ready for the Isle of Wight camping weekend, SEM, our area treasure hunt and Prescott Standard Triumph Marque day next month.

GT6 Cake!

2010-04-04T18:29:00.000+01:00

I've just managed to complete my half century, or 5 decades.....

Had a bit of a party with family and freinds on a narrow boat last night which I enjoyed immensely. The surprise birthday cake had a Nappy Cack Yellow GT6 iced on to the top, accompanied by cup cakes decorated with gear knob, speedo and headlamp symbols and also some little choccy cars!

A Fish n Chip Supper and a Keg of Hogsback Brewery T.E.A. ensured all were suitably fed and watered.

Christmas came at last!

2010-03-03T19:10:00.000Z

We had our postponed TSSC area Christmas meal last night which I had organised, a little delayed after snow stopped play last time around! A good time was had by all though at the Hoggett Pub Restuarant. We spent some of the money we have raised at the raffles at our monthly meetings on some Christmas Gifts for all that attended, and had a raffle with decent rather than naff prizes for a change. Many Thanks to Carl and Beckie for organising the shopping! a few Triumph's in the car park as well, I opted for a lift from my wife Julia though, I had intended to travel in the GT6 but she was feeling a little under the weather and offered to drive which meant I could have a few beers. As it is the week of St David's Day I opted for some Welsh stuff that they had on tap !! Picture below from the meal.

One step forward two steps back !

2010-02-17T23:33:00.000Z

Part way through putting the GT6 back together I decided to start it up as it hadn’t been run for a week or so but found the battery was KO’d. I thought that the battery was only a couple of years old and it was a high quality Bosch one so thought I’d dig out the receipt and take it back under warranty. When I found the receipt it turned out it was actually just under 4 years since I bought it. I wasn’t sure whether it had a 3, 4 or 5 year warranty and couldn’t find any paper work or signs on the battery to give any clues. So I went back to Costco the cash & carry where I bought it, the good news was it had a 4 year warranty, the bad news was they wouldn’t do an exchange but were happy to give a refund so having been refunded off I went to their tyre and battery dept to get a new one. Battery’s have gone up a lot in the last 4 years, the last one cost me £32 from Costco, the new one was £56 but having checked out Halfords the same Bosch battery is £104 so I’m reasonably happy.

I got home put the new battery in and started the car up no problems. I then finished putting it back together and bled the brakes etc. Then went to start the car out to take it for a test run and found that the starter was KO’d! So now I need a new starter, maybe it was on the way out and that killed the old battery. Ideally I’d change it for a high torque starter conversion but I’m in a hurry and can get a good old reconditioned Lucas LR101 locally tomorrow
All being well the car will be back in one price by tomorrow night ready to take back to the MOT centre for some welding and a re-test….

MOT Issues :-(

2010-02-11T23:55:00.000Z

It's been a long time since my GT6 had any problems passing the MOT, 2001 was the last time I had a MOT failure so I was probably about due for another one!

One of the rear wheel bearings had excess play, the brake pipe across the rear of the chassis had signs of corrosion and there were 3 areas of corrosion underneath. The most serious being a hole about 1 inch x 1/2 inch that the tester managed to poke in a front out rigger. The other two are pretty minor a very small split in the passenger floor pan near a seat mounting and a small split at the edge of the boot floor. The last two are not in a particularly structural position but were within 30cm of a load bearing area so are a failure under the MOT regulations.

I'll get the corrosion plated by the MOT place just to get a quick pass.

I took the halfshaft out last night and rebuilt it tonight with a new bearing and a new genuine metalastik rotoflex coupling that I was lucky to pick up cheap on ebay. It's been a long time since I've done a wheel bearing on the GT6, I did have a stock of shims and spacers for setting up the end float but I can't find them anywhere in my Aladdin’s Cave of a Garage. Luckily though the existing spacer was the right size to give about 1 thou of end float which is within tolerance. I remember last time I replaced a bearing I had trouble getting the outer bearing off the hub as it disintegrated leaving the inner race in place. So this time around I treated myself to a bearing splitter tool, that certainly makes the job nice and easy.

So just need to change the brake pipe and put the halfshaft back in, I can then book the car in to get the corrosion plated and the car retested. I always take my car to a place that does free retests on principle, however they have now reduced their free retest time limit from 14 to 7 days and I'll probably miss the 7 day cut off which means I'll have to pay for the retest which is a pain....

Christmas is Cancelled

2010-01-05T23:43:00.000Z

Well at least our our local TSSC Christmas bash that was due to happen tonight is cancelled anyway.

Despite Heavy Snow in North Hampshire this evening I did try and drive through the snow to be there, after all I was organising the meal. However after just a couple of miles of slithering about in the Jag it was obvious that it was not a good idea. A few other members also threw in the towell and reluctantly there was no option but to cancel.

I think we'll have to organise another meal in a few weeks as a belated celebration.

Nice Way to Spend the last day of 2009

2009-12-31T18:15:00.000Z

I went along to the informal CT meal down at the Bridge Inn near Amesbury today. A nice way to end the Triumph year. A 100 mile round trip out down the M3 and A303 to give the GT6 a rare reasonably long run out for this time of year, only issue was that the overdrive packed up due to an electrical fault.

Had a nice meal , and good conversation with like minded Triumphers at the pub and a chance to take some photo’s afterwards beside the River Avon .

My Boy James enjoyed himself as well although he did eat the majority of the Baileys Rice Pudding desert we had agreed to share!

Joined up Panoramic picture of the Triumph’s.

Mark caught on camera pumping up his flat tyre!

Entry in for the CT Round Britain Reliability Run 2010

2009-11-12T22:04:00.000Z

My entry is in now for the Club Triumph Round Britain Reliability Run (RBRR) which is taking place first weekend in 2010. This time around I'm co-driving for Mark Bland in his 2500S Saloon rather than using the GT6. Well that's the plan anyway, last time I was down as a Co-Driver for Jason in his Vitesse he broke it on the way over to pick me up for the event and we used my GT6 at the last minute.

Photo below is of RBRR 2010 team 30, not sure whther we'll be wearing the team shirts for the run though, it get's a bit chilly for Hawaien shirts at John O'Groats in October!

Starting issues tonight but fixed quickly

2009-11-03T23:19:00.000Z

Over the last few week’s my GT6 has been taking longer to start. It’s never actually failed to fire but need a lot of turning over before it would start to run.

Tonight was worse though, it would turn over and almost catch but wouldn’t actually start. Of course it was one of those nights when I really wanted to use it as it was our local TSSC meeting.

As soon as I opened the bonnet though I saw what was wrong straight away. On twin stromberg carburettors only one carb actually has a choke mechanism. There is a little plastic tube that joins the choke on one carb to the inlet of the other which provides a richer mixture on the carb that has no choke. I saw straight away that the tube had come away from the carb with no choke. So One carb would have had choke whilst the other one would have been running weak. Diagnosis in about 30 seconds flat! I can only assume that over the last few weeks the tube was just starting to fall off which was why it had become more difficult to start.

Only problem was the tube had hardened with age and wouldn’t go back on. No problem though, I shortened my washer bottle tube slightly and used the piece of tube that I cut off to replace the tube between the carbs. Job done!!

Diff Post Mortem Result!

2009-10-07T22:39:00.000+01:00

Just got the result back from Canley’s strip down of my old diff as this impacts how much of a refund I got on the exchange deposit. Seems it broke in a big way, the note from Canley’s states; “Lost Tooth, hole in rear case – scrap, Run without oil – carrier scrap!”. Obviously the run without oil was due to the oil escaping from the hole in the case as I had only topped it up 1500 miles before it broke!

Duxford All Triumph Day

2009-10-04T23:29:00.000+01:00

Had a good day out at the Duxford All Triumph Day organised by the Herts & Beds area of the TSSC. I've always got a softspot for this event as I was one of the orgnaisers of the first one back in 1993 when it was orgainsied by the Essex area of the TSSC. One thing we did right from the start was to invite all Triumph Clubs and encourage Triumph's outside of the marques then represented by the TSSC to attend. Add the excellent venue with a museum with enough to keep anyone interested for more than a day and it's easy to see why this event has remained a success.

Today's event was graced with a nice sunny if breezy day, as usual there was a bit of flying going on with Harvard up above the airfield carrying out a few aerobatics. A pretty good turn out of Triumph's as well, must have been a couple of hundred at least. The interesting thing was that the MG club had a meeting at the other end of the site which only had a handfull of cars in attendance!

A few interesting cars as usual, including this stag engined Vitesse.

Good to catch up with a few old freinds and family, including ex Triumph enthusiast my sister Lizzie and her husband and my mate Colin with his Sierra Cosworth Turbo Engined GT6.

Plus it was the first chnace to test out my car on a long run with it's new 3.63 diff. Crusining is a little better on the motorway with 70mph at 3,500 RPM in o/d top, that's with speed measured by satnav, the speedo is still somewhat optomistic and was showing 80mph!

Back on the Road!

2009-10-03T00:24:00.000+01:00

After my mishap with a broken diff at the TSSC International in Stafford my GT6 is finally back in one piece and I drove it around the block this evening. The 1st time Ive managed to drive it for 7 weeks!

The Diff that Dave at Canleys built me seems nice a quiet so thats good news. Hopefully take it for a run out of town tommorow so I can see how much difference a 3.63 differential makes over the original 3.89 ratio. I'm hoping that besides giving me a better motorway cruising experience the speedo may even be a bit more accurate as it was overreading quite a bit. The change of ratio should help this.

Just need to give it a good clean now to get all the greasy finger prints off. The target was to get it on the road for the All Triumph Day up at Duxford on Sunday 4th October so it looks like I'll make it. If you are going up to Duxford look out for the nappy cack yellow GT6 and come and say hello!

Diff Picked Up and Fitted !

2009-09-29T00:16:00.000+01:00

Picked Up my new Diff from Canley's this afternoon so I've been busy tonight fitting it. Well at least the Diff itself is in the car bolted up with new Polybushes. I've owned Spitfires and GT6's for 25 years but I've never had the pleasure of fitting a diff before, one of the few mechanical jobs I've never had to do. A bit of a tough job lining everything up single handedly. Still managed it in the end.

Need to reconnect the driveshafts and put the rear rotoflex back togther tomorrow.

Cookie Now has a Blog!

2009-09-26T23:37:00.000+01:00

OK, So I keep seeing all these blog type things on the club Triumph Website so thought it was about time I started one!

So what am I doing Triumph wise at the moment?

Well, having broken my diff at the TSSC international in Stafford I'm in the middle of changing it. I've got a new unit being built by Canley Classics and I'm upping the ratio from the standard overdrive GT6 3.89 to a 3.63 as fitted to the later 1500 Spitfires. As I understand it, not only will this be a bit more relaxed for motorway cruising but also it's supposed to be the strongest set up.

While changing it out I'll add a few replacement poly bushes in place of the original rubber.

I also had a few problems with the overdrive on the way up to Stafford with the wire through the gearstick shorting out intermittently and chattering the overdrive in and out when in the switched out position. No big deal just need to replace the wire, something that seems to go wrong every 18 months or so. Wires in a constantly moving and hot and oily environment do have a habit of chaffing their insulation!

I also had a little job to do re attaching the front numberplate which got half broken off when the recovery truck hauled my car on when the diff was broken. I've tucked it up a bit closer to the front valance this time so it'll be a bit less vunerable.

While working on my car I've also found a small crack in the chassis near the rear lower nearside wishbone mounting. This has been fixed once before about 15 years ago. I'll be looking to get this fixed professionally once I get the car back on the road.

I pick up my new diff on Monday and the target is to get the car back on the road in time for the Duxford Triumph day on the following Sunday so I have my work cut out next week.