Nick Jones Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 There is another Triumph in the Jones household - and it's not mine! No 1 son Chris has been looking for a project and after looking at various ropey, over-priced tat, this came up locally 1972 Mk IV 1300. Originally pimento. It was cheap. The rest of it's merits make a short list though. Don't be fooled by it's semi-intact appearance, it's just piled on the trailer and strapped down! It was dismantled at least 10 years ago, then the PO was posted overseas and it got moved to a barn and left. He had made a start on it - chassis had been stripped painted and the running gear partly renovated. Some of it seems to have fallen victim to (2 legged) rats over the years. The chassis is pretty good As it arrived. Paint was flaking off in many places and had to be scraped off, treated and re-primed. The RH hinge box was missing and there was some minor rot in the bumper rail. This has been remade and Chris made a new hinge box as he didn't like the price of a new one. After tacking the hinge box into what seems to be the right place it was time to tackle the tub. First it had to be bolted back onto the chassis and the doors and bonnet fitted so we could check the shape of it. This actually went ok. It does all fit together quite well. This is because the tub is in fact remarkably original. All the panels are original, with just 3 patches on the whole thing. However, there are major rust issues now....... The RH sill and floor pan are especially ugly........ Chris's panel making and welding skills are going to be tested! Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Nice wing mirror on the red bonnet. Have you considered going for a better tub? Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share Posted July 30, 2015 Yes, was looking (am still looking) around for better tub/bonnet/engine. Thought we might have one, but that fell through. This does at least have the benefit of being more or less unmolested (except by tin worm). And Chris genuinely wants to practice his metal working skills. He's out there making a floorpan as I type...... He's starting as an apprentice at Augusta Westland in a month so should learn how to do it properly! Last night we manipulated the broken bones and applied a brace Heelboards are actually quite good (and in fact the whole of the LH side is very much better) Scary hole in screen pillar though...... Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share Posted July 30, 2015 Today he cut the RH outer sill off. It's REAL ugly in there. Even Chris (who seems to be an even greater skinflint than me!) was glad to see that there is a lower A pillar repair panel available. I think he accepts he'll need to buy one of those and the outer sill. He reckons he can make/repair the rest. This is the LH front floorpan taking shape. I'd have done it the other way up but it is working Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triumphlux Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Nice project with a lot of potential to learn new skills Are the inner sills solid ? I suppose its only the center part of the floor that is rotten ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning, I'd hammer in the evening...... Some of my neighbors would shoot me. With three cars now restored in the last 12 years I have used up their patience . For grinding and hammering I have now to go to the backyard of the machine shop of a mate. 20 years ago especially Saturdays everybody was doing something in his garage or driveway or garden from early morning to late afternoon. Repairing the car, painting a fence, hammering this, building that .... young guns had their bikes tuned on the street (including test runs ), ..... Today more and more people are not accepting this type of work / noise. "Do what you want, but not here, ..." The most loved children are the ones playing whole day inside with PC, Playstation,.... please no noise. Using the lawn mower is strictly regulated in which times with specified noise level, ... Seems to be more tolerant in England Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted July 31, 2015 Author Share Posted July 31, 2015 Jean Claude, Certainly a project with plenty of learning chances..... pretty much everything will be covered! No, the inner sill is not ok...... it is rusted away from just above floor level downwards. We will get a strip folded to match the profile and weld it in. The floors are worst along the outside edges and the front footwells much worse than the rears. Martin, It certainly is a noisy process. Fortunately we have only two neighbours who are within 100m - except for those in the churchyard, who should be past caring...... though yesterday I was wondering! We have a village "magazine" (2 pages) and in one issue, just after we moved here, someone had written to say that they thought it would be nice if nobody used any power tools on a Sundays...... This was a retired person (most in our street are) and afterwards they were asked (many times apparently) if they would like to come and cut grass / hedges etc during the week while the house owners were at work so they didn't have to disturb the peace on Sundays. I think the idea has gone away! More bashing today probably. He will also have to sit down and order some panels..... He won't like that - hates parting with money even more than his father! Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 We had until this year no retired neighbors. That was good. So for "hard stuff" work I took a half day off from work and i.e. sprayed a body with primer in the morning. No one realized it and the smell had long gone until people returned in the afternoon. Now the direct neighbor to the right is retired and the neighbor to the left will stop working end of this year. Within 100m , uups, within 5 m from my garage wall is the living room of one of the neighbors. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pomwah Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 I must be one of the lucky ones. Rental properties on either side of me, and across the road one chap runs vintage motorcycles and his neighbour is restoring a Model A Ford. Some weekends it sounds like an industrial estate. Good project to start on, it'll either give him a lifelong interest in restoring wrecks or put him off forever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triumphlux Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 If he enjoys doing all the panels on his own he should have gone for a car where you don't get any repair panels :-)) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted August 3, 2015 Author Share Posted August 3, 2015 Those of a nervous disposition - should probably look away now..... It's going to get worse before it gets better! Floor, inner sill and X member have to come out............. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 get another body. eBay item number: 171817484696 Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted August 4, 2015 Author Share Posted August 4, 2015 Yep, we should look at that one. It is only 20 miles away. Certainly there are some parts of it we could use! Some panels arrived today....... Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted August 23, 2015 Author Share Posted August 23, 2015 We did look at the ebay car........ the tub was not great. Smaller holes than ours, but still holes and probably in more places. Bootlid shown in the pictures is not for sale (bastard! I wanted that!) and the one he was offering even worse than ours. Bonnet already sold and really he wanted to sell the "whole" car, not parts of it. Waste of diesel...... I think we are committed to the original one now......... RH floorpan fitted, lower A-post repair fitted, inner sill repaired (should have just bought a new one!), new middle sill made and fitted, new (Heritage) outer bought and fitted. The door still fits pretty well I'm very happy about this! The RH wing is buggered.... but Chris doesn't feel like paying for a new one (and the inner one) so he's making a lower repair section for the wing...... Brave. Actually it's really quite good. He's made quite alot of sections for the arc as well. Unfortunately he seems to think it needs someone who can weld properly to stick it all together..... dunno why he's looking at me!! The welder is being intermittently crap too....... bloody SIP..... Still, some progress is being made. It's going slow down now though as Chris starts work on Tuesday! That's going to be a big shock to him - grown-up working hours....... Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted October 29, 2015 Author Share Posted October 29, 2015 So, he/we has been working on this alot and is making good progress. I fixed the welder - one of the major connection points inside it was badly corroded and once I cleaned all this up it started working better than it ever has before. This will be a BIG help! Door skin removed. Door frame repaired (was not too bad in fact). Door bars made and fitted and electric window mechanism adapted. There's a central locking solenoid in there too....... Kids! He's been watching Project Binky! Door skin fitted - I got to do that. Went ok considering this is the first one I've done in almost 25 years! And the door still fits. We did have to tweak the back of the sill as it was sat a bit to far in (problem was there with the original door but I didn't want to do anything until the new skin was on. Then we fitted the lower wing repair panel Chris made - impressive bit of metal bashing that! So the right hand side is mostly done now. The left hand side looked better, but although the inner sill and rear floor is a bit better the rest is just as bad and the base of the screen pillar is worse. Much worse than it looks in this pic..... Lots of spot weld drilling later and all the little panels in that corner have been removed, remade and replaced He's working on the sill and base of A-pillar now. Also the are where the top of the heel board and floor meet the inner arch - really tricky....... Thought I'd found another engine locally, but that turned out to have 5mm of crank end-float when I went to look at it, so I left it..... Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT6MK3 Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 Awesome work Nick - love the door bars idea, might just steal that. Are the welded in? Repair patch looks great - I've gotta do the same, but wimped out and purchased one. C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted October 30, 2015 Author Share Posted October 30, 2015 Thanks. To be clear, Chris is doing the vast majority of the actual work here. I'm mainly consultancy, tool supply, consumable supply and stuff like that. I was doing most of the welding initially, but now the welder is working properly Chris is doing most of it and is getting better all the time. He's definitely better at tin bashing than I am. There have been some really classy repair sections made. Door bars are welded in. 2 x lengths of 20mm x 2mm wall box section welded together corner to corner. At the front they are welded directly to the original door structure, just fitting between the hinge plate boxes. The structure is already strong here. At the back there is an additional plate to spread the load. Late federal spec 1500 Spits had factory door bars but I've never managed to find a pic showing how they are made/installed. Nick PS. Sorry about the pic orientation. These last few days my computer has developed a new habit or randomly opening pictures in different orientations in different bits of software. I don't know why. I've had 3 goes at getting these right now with only 50% success, and now lost patience....... They may a different way up on your screen anyway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMH Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 (edited) Looks really good! Believe Mattius did post some pictures of late federal spec 1500 doors, where you could see the door bars - or was it someone else... I might have saved a few pictures of these on my HD, but can't find them for the moment. Will have a look later. *edit* Found this: Edited October 31, 2015 by JMH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 (edited) Door bars? I wasn't impressed, although if those are to Federal spec, OK. This young man is installing DOOR BARS! He's building a US Stock car to race, so way beyond what your Chris needs, but he is doing superb work. All tube cuts ground by hand and eye to shape, and beautiful welds! It's fascinating in the Binky way John PS I wish he'd put his hair in a cap, though! Edited October 31, 2015 by JohnD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT6MK3 Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 You might want to watch a little more of that series John - you'll be in for a surprise... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted November 1, 2015 Author Share Posted November 1, 2015 Yeah...... he's a she Our own "Dog" is pretty hairy too, but it's a big woolly mass. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 I shall have to chuck away my "This is what a feminist looks like" T-shirt! I clocked the female narrator, but just assumed that this was the fond 'Mom' of a talented lad. But No! For this is Jeri Ellsworth, a proper engineer, who has a host of YouTube videos on among other things, how to make a transistor at home! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClTpDNIOtgfRkyT-AFGNWVw I am suitably ashamed of my stereotyping. But I still wish she would put her hair away, while grinding in particular. John PS sorry to hijack your thread, Nick - back to Chris' car! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattius Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 Looks really good! Believe Mattius did post some pictures of late federal spec 1500 doors, where you could see the door bars - or was it someone else... I might have saved a few pictures of these on my HD, but can't find them for the moment. Will have a look later. *edit* Found this: Hey, thats ma door. lol yeap my doors are late US spec, thats the original door side impact bars. Im not really too sure on how well they function, they do add quite a bit of weight to the door but given the mess i made of the last door, every little helps. Good old triumph with their modern safety features back in the day, side impact bars, collapsible steering columns... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted November 2, 2015 Author Share Posted November 2, 2015 The Federal 1500s have rear outriggers under the boot floor for rear impact protection purposes too. We are thinking of adding something there too - but purely to give the boot floor some extra support as if the cracks are anything to go by it badly needs it. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattius Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 Found another blurry photo of the door bars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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