Wonky Car

So, just after I got the car back from having the MOT work done, I parked up outside my house and immediately noticed the car was wonky. Bad enough that the grill looked higher on one side than the other. I was not a happy bunny.

So I put the car into my garage which has a relatively level floor and measured the distance between the front tyres and the wheel arch on both sides.

The long and short of it is that the left hand side of the car is 30mm lower on the front and 10mm lower on the rear than the right hand side.

A quick post up on the forum and the general consensus of opinion is that 54 year old coil springs are going to be pretty tired and leaving the suspension hanging while on a ramp for 3 weeks isn’t going to help. A quick bounce test and the left hand side (where the driver is normally sat) is considerably firmer than the right

So just to add to the list of jobs is a suspension overhaul, with new coil springs, leaf springs and bushes all round. This will be done when the car is in having the roof fitted.

MOT Success

A little good news! JSK 404 has a shiny new MOT, with the only advisory being stiff steering where the steering box has just been rebuilt and a couple of bolts are missing that hold the chassis and body together!!

The look on my face said it all and the MOT tester assured me they were not particularly important and the car was fine. So they are being replaced when the car is in having the roof fitted.

Actually getting the chance to drive the car should loosen up the steering over time, otherwise I can always get it adjusted prior to the next MOT.

Roof Re-trim and more work

When I bought JSK 404, the roof was conspicuously absent – I guess the owner in America didn’t bother to replace it when it aged due to lack of use. Here in sunny Britain, weather protection is a little more important.

Unfortunately, this meant I had to source a hood frame, hood, tonneau, sidescreens and hood cover. I’ve decided to buy these in the same tan/grey colour as the seats and interior panels are trimmed in.

I sourced a second hand hood frame from a chap on Ebay and this was delivered in a pretty sorry state for £115. As it needs completely reconditioning I have asked Phoenix Classic Cars to do this and powder coat it in British Racing Green so it matches the paint colour (which is original spec).

Unfortunately, Phoenix seem to have ignored this and have powder coated it in a tan colour to match the trim which is annoying. On the other hand, the hood frame isn’t really something I want to feature in the car and the fact it’s tan might hide it a bit if it’s folded down and I can’t be bothered to put the cover on. Also, the hood frame in Bill Piggots book looks pretty terrible to me so I’m leaving it tan for the moment. If it annoys me I can always strip it and paint it the correct colour later.

In terms of the sidecreens, hood, tonneau and cover, I decided after reading comments on the forums about the quality of Moss sidecreens, to source them from Moto-Build. The total cost in Tan Vinyl (I didn’t want mohair – to my eye TR3’s with mohair roofs look like they are trying too hard) was £1338 including delivery. On top of this I need to source a Sidescreen Fitting Kit (£125) and Hood Frame Webbing Kit (£33) from Moss/Rimmer.

Moto-Build were good to their word and delivered the items to me in time which is always nice in a supplier. I didn’t have much of a chance to inspect them before dropping it all down to Phoenix but the sidecreens certainly looked very good and matched the design for the later TR3a which is excellent.

The car is at Phoenix Classic Cars at the moment so I will update with images shortly.

MOT Work

In the end, I took my car to Phoenix Classic Cars in Wareham for some work to be done. I have used Roger Taylor before when I had my MG Midget and he has built up a good reputation over the (many) years he has been in the classic car business. And to be honest, Southern Triumph seemed reluctant to book the car in when it had an overheating problem and suggested some remedial work to carry out myself.

So I took the car in and “Big” John put it up on the ramp and we worked out a schedule of works as follows:

• Recore Radiator (keeping hole for starter crank) £100 extra!!
• Replace Waterpump
• Replace (missing) thermostat
• Resolve fast idling problem – replace missing idle screw
• Adjust Steering Box to remove excess play
• Fit Vent Pull escutcheon and rod
• Fit Boot Stay
• Replace damaged bump stop suspension bracket
• Fit brake pipe to chassis
• Fit new tyres
• Fit the gear lever gaitor I bought from Rimmer Bros and refit carpet over transmission tunnel
• Recondition Dynamo
• Repair indicator repeater on dashboard
• Weld inner wing splash guard – corroded

A nice list I might hear you say but as with anything, when you take it apart after 54 years the jobs seem to grow. So added to the list are:

• Recondition worn out steering box
• Replace top and bottom radiator hoses
• Maybe replace thermostat housing as stud broke off
• Maybe replace temperature sender as also frozen into thermostat housing

Hopefully, after all this, the car will pass its MOT and coupled with the work it has already had on its brakes, all the important stuff will be resolved so I can continue with the restoration rather than repair work.

Tyres!

The tyres on my car are pretty knackered. The tread is fine but as with many little used classics, they have become hard and the sidewalls have cracked. A cursory investigation into the spare wheel compartment to check the spare revealed it’s missing completely. So five new tyres it is.

Now I had a bit of bad advise when the car was originally inspected and I was told the tyres were 165/65 15’s. These are a modern tyre size and pretty easily available from anyone so I specified Dunlop tyres as they seem to be good quality and “British”.

Unfortunately, when the tyres were fitted to the car it was immediately apparent that the old tyres were 2″ bigger in profile than the 65 profile tyres I was told to buy. 2″ meant the speedo would be out of calibration, I’d lose top end speed, lose 1″ of ground clearance and increase revs and fuel consumption on motorway and dual carriage ways. Not ideal. Fortunately, the fitter offered to take the 65 profile tyres back and I could source the correct tyres.

So in the end I decided on Michelin XZX in a 165/15 SR size from http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk @ £97.50 each plus VAT. Fortunately, they were doing a deal online so I managed to pick up a set of 5 delivered for £516.00 all in.

The tyres are now fitted to the car and it is sitting correctly on the road. I just need to buy a spare wheel and jack now.