A clean "flying Log"

Gave The "flying log" as I'm now calling my poo brown Dolomite, a good clean inside and out yesterday ready for some photos to submit for the Insurance valuation. 

The car cleaned up nicely!

Inertia Rear Seat Belts in a Dolomite

Today I fitted some inertia rear seat belts into my Dolomite 1500HL. As one of the main reasons for buying the car is to have a 4 seater Triumph so I can still go to Triumph events when I've got the kids in a Triumph it is pretty essential that I have rear seat belts and the Dolomite had none fitted from new.

A quick tip for anyone looking for rear seat belts for a Dolomite or Triumph Saloon, don't buy them from any of the Triumph specialists, use a company called KCP Car and Commercial Ltd as they are a fraction of the price, KCP have an ebay shop under the user name "kcponline" and I got two brand new rear Securon seat belts for less than 54 quid which is less then half the price than some Triumph specialists are selling them for and significantly less than all the others I checked out. FYI the Securon part number for belts to suit 2000, 2500s, Dolomites, Toledos and Acclaims is part number 254.

Anyway, first part of fitting then is to remove the seat squab and back. The seat squab just pops out. The back is held by two pozidrive screws at the bottom of the seat back accessible once the squab has been removed.

Next you need to cut the rear parcel shelf above the seat belt captive bolts, the parcel shelf hardboard already has cuts outs ready in the right place, you just need to cut through the foam and leathercloth above. I removed the whole parcel shelf to do this but you can do this with the parcel shelf in place, just lift up the front to check where the holes are in the hardboard base.

Hole cut in Parcel shelf ready for top seat belt mount

Next you need to prepare the lower mountings that are in the car body below where the seat squab fits. If seat belts have never been fitted the holes are blanked off with plastic pugs, use a screwdriver to lever out the plugs. if you are just fitting two seat belts then use the two outermost and two inner most mountings like I did. If you are also fitting a central lapbelt (Secureon Part number 210) then remove all six plugs, use the two outer ones on each side for the inertia belts and the two central ones for the lap belt.

Note the 3 small plastic plugs in the sat belt mounting positions

If your Dolomite is like mine, the outer mount is located right where the factory applied seam sealant over a panel join and you may need to clean the threads out if they are blocked with seam sealant. use a 7/16 UNF tap to clear the threads.

Clearing the thread in the outer mountings using a 7/16 UNF tap.

Now you can fit the seat belts, use the spacers and plain lock washers in the lower mounts as per the instructions


Lower mounts in place

Put the rear seat unit back and then mount the inertia units on the parcel shelf using the extension brackets with the supplied nut, bolts and crinkle washers. You'll need to use the extension bracket to space the inertia units away from the parcel shelf to allow then to clear the top of seat back.

Inertia Unit in pace using the extension bracket supplied with the seatbelt kit 

Then replace the seat squab. I tucked the inner seat belt buckles into the arm rest to keep them clear while doing this.

Once the squab is back in place the seat belts are ready to use.

In place and ready to use.



Triumph collection expanded

Those of you who frequent the various Triumph Forums may already be aware that I now have a 2nd Triumph, a '79 1500HL Dolomite.

having become a part time single parent last year I have my two kids to look after every other week. Last year it I fely a bit out of place having to use the modern (BMW) to attend Triumph events when I had both Kids to look after so I decided I needed a four seater Triumph. Having owned the GT6 for 25 years I didn't want to replace it so the approach was to look for a cheap additional Triumph. I didn't want an Acclaim, sorry but I just can't consider them to be a proper classic car, so the next cheapest option was a Dolomite. I used to own an 1850HL Dolomite back in the early 80s, it was my first Triumph and was quite a new car being only 6 years old when I bought it so buying a Dolomite also would be a bit of a Nostalgia trip for me so I started having a casual look at what was for sale with the idea that I'd look to buy one early next year.

Then about a week ago I had a call from Club Triumph Secretary Darren Sharp to say that a Dolomite he used to own had come up for sale. When Darren owned it the car was an immaculate example of a 1500HL but it got damaged by a hit and run driver outside his house 3 years ago and had some rear end damage including the offside rear wing which is no longer obtainable new. Darren got a payout from the insurance plus the car as a repairable salvage as it was not actually formally written off . He decided to sell it and the last owner, Nick repaired it and got it back on the road this year. The accident repair is not that pretty and he had also blown over the bootlid and bonnet with rattle cans which had provided a bit of a dull finish. However the car was mechanically sound and completely rot free underneath, it also had an MOT until next July, a genuine documented 49,000 miles from new and a nice set of minilites and new tyres so I negotiated a price and bought it last weekend.

The only other drawback is it's in russet brown, or "Poo Brown" as I refer to it which ahs resulted in a fair bit of ribbing as I already have a nappy cack yellow GT6 so there is a bit of a pant filling flavour to my Triumph collection colours!

There were a couple of minor mechanical issues, the washer motor had packed up, so I picked up a new one from ebay for 7 quid and there was a slight leak from the manifold exhaust flange which is a ell known weak point. It was a long way away in Somerset so I caught a train down and picked it up today. I fitted the new washer motor but decided to take a chance on the exhaust gasket. The car behaved itself on the journey home but the blown exhaust gasket did get a lot worse so it sounded like a tank, However the car ran nicely on the A303 on the way back, it cruises nicely at an indicated 80mph in overdrive top and when I put my foot down it even managed an indicated 100mph (that's unless you are a policemen in which case it cruises well at 70mph and didn't go any faster¬!)...

It only cost 44 quid to add to the GT6 insurance although it's a shame it's not tax exempt as road tax is 140 quid a year....

Anyway it's home with the GT6 now. I've got a set of new rear seat belts ready to fit to make it safe for the kids and I'll be cleaning it up ready for an insurance valuation for the agreed value this weekend.

Duxford All Triumph Day 2013

Just got back from the annual Triumph Day at Duxford. Numbers were well down this year probably as a rather nasty storm had been forecasted for the afternoon. In the end there were few heavy showers and quite a gale but the torrential rain that had been forecasted held off for the show. Star of the show for me wasn't a car, it was the Naked Spitfire Merlin Engine that was started up and run at full chat several times during the afternoon, what a sound!

Merlin Engine mounted on a frame to be run Naked...

The ear defenders are definitely required!

 

Sounded great, click on the video above!

Anyway, back to the cars!

Nice Peerless

Lovely TR5
 

Good Reg Number for a 72 TR6!

The Lightning McQueen themeed Spit/GT6 hybrid always brings a smile to my face

This Green Gitfire was even more lurid in the flesh!



Lotus Lookie Likey Triumph Kit car was well prepared.

Numbers down on previous years due to severe weather being forecasted.

And as it's an aircraft museum it would be rude not to include some pictures of the museum exhibits.

Warm welcome to Team Torpedo at the Crooked Billet

We had a visit from Team Torpedo at our local Club Triumph Meet on 3rd September, a group of Americans who have come across the pond to take part in the Club Triumph 10 Countries run. The Guys have purchased 4 cars in the UK to take part in the event.
T1 is a 2000 Estate, looks a little tatty around the edges and has already had to have a repair to the radiator today and sounds like it has a knocking UJ. Hope it makes it around guys!
T2 is also known as Flipper, a 1300 fwd car that as it's new owner Joe Earnest says "drives better than it looks thank God!", although it's a bit tatty it does look reasonably solid. It's had a rather chequered history having been recovered from a scrap yard by one of our local area members (Marty Dolomite) a few years ago and re-commissioned. He has owned it a couple of times since and may even want to buy it back from Joe at the end of the run! There was one little mishap at the meeting, Flipper decided to shed the nut from the crankshaft pulley, luckily eagle eyed James Cooper noticed it lying in the car park and it was bolted back into place.
T3 is a well sorted Dolly Sprint that will be well known to Club Triumph and Dolomite Club members as up until now it has been owned by Jon Jackson (known as Trackerjack on the CT Forum). Now owned by Billy Ray it's going to be shipped back to the US after the run.
T4 is also known as Casper, a very tidy 2000 Saloon which has been prepped ready for the run and looked after for the last few weeks by Roy Boy Lacey. Now owned by Doug Jenson this car is also going to be shipped back to the US after the run. The Guys all looked the part anyway with their rather fetching team Shirts!
As the visit to our meeting was prearranged I had put the word about to try and get as many people along to the meeting as possible to welcome our American Freinds. And indeed the turn out was great, we had approx 18 Triumphs and 36 Triumph Enthusiasts at the meet, Roy and Julia had even travelled from as far away as Telford! At times the car park was totally full with no space for other pub visitors!
Anyway, good luck to Team Torpedo for the run and also good luck to the UK Club Triumphers taking part in the run which takes in 10 European Countries in 4 days over approximately 2,500 miles. Wish I was going.

T3

T1

T4 Casper

T2 Flipper

Fixing a rattly GT6 rear seat

I finally got around to doing one of those little jobs that has been on my to do list for ages this evening.

My GT6 is fitted with the optional occasional rear seat conversion. To be honest it's not a brilliant seat as there is no leg room so it just allows one very small passenger to sit sideways in the back, however it does finish off the interior nicely! I fitted the conversion shortly after buying the car having managed to get hold of a brand new Stanpart kit complete with all fittings and instructions. These are as rare as rocking horse poo!

Anyway that was about 80,000 miles ago and for the last few years the seat has become very rattly. The reason for this is Triumph's rather crude design whereby shoot bolts like you get to hold a loo door closed are used to hold the seat in the upright position. What's more rather than having a block to locate the bolt into like one on a loo door the bolt simply runs up against a flat steel bracket. Over the years the bolts have worn about 1/2 of the way through allowing about 3mm of play which causes an annoying rattle.

Bolt in place (one fitted at each side of seat)

Wear on the end of the bolt shaft which is causing a rattle, both are worn in the same way.

The parts for the seat conversion aren't listed or stocked by any of the Triumph specialists, however as they are pretty much the same as a standard loo door shoot bolt I went off to B&Q to find as close a match as possible. I found one that was slightly too long which I was able to cut down and also cut some slots to match the fixings on the original.

New bolt slightly longer than the original

New bolt shortened and with slots added to match original as closely as possible.

I then installed the new bolts. Also to help stop rattles I used a short piece of windscreen washer pipe split over the bracket which provides a cushion and makes it a tight rattle free fit when the seat is held in place. Job done !

New bolt in place with split washer pipe anti rattle cushion.