Door hanging and a bit more bodywork

After what seemed like the whole day, I have managed to re-fit the drivers door of the 2000. It turned out to be a right swine of a job, having to drill out all three parts of the hinge pin. The longest part of the pin was easier to drill out, as this could be done on the bench. The other two parts were not quite as easy, having to be done on the car, with limited clearance between the hinge body and the wing.
Not being able to fit a electric drill or even a Dremel in the space, I ended up using a old hand drill with the top removed to let me get a straight line between the two parts of the hinge. It is still not perfect, but at least now the door shuts a bit better and can not open so far that it hits the wing.



Decided while I am waiting for the GT6 to return that some more of the bodywork on the 2000 should be seen to. The car has had a dent in the passenger side front wing for at least two years, when the previous owner acquired it, so it was about time something was done about it. Now, the car came with a complete front wing when I bought it, but I did not want to get into a lengthy bodywork job of replacing the whole wing.
Instead I went for the cheaper option and decided to have a go at pulling the dent out, the proper way of doing this is to drill a hole in the panel, fit a screw and then pull out the dent with a slide hammer.
Not having a slide hammer or the inclination to buy one I chose a different method, which involves welding a nail to the dented area and then pulling it out with a pair of mole grips. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on which way you look at it, the panel would not budge by pulling on the mole grips, so something a bit heavier was needed. This came in the form of a ratchet strap anchored to a nearby milling machine, that got some of the dent out.
Another nail was welded on about a foot lower and more of the dent was pulled out without assistance of the ratchet strap.



Further forward on the passenger wing, part of the wheel arch had rotted away quite severely, so once again the rot was cut out and a new piece from the spares front end was let in. A layer of filler has gone in to cover the join and has also had a coat of undercoat to slow down the rust, just need to wait for some better weather to spray over it.

Having done repairs to both front wings, it seems that a previous owner has already repaired both wings, but the rust has come through again, which really strengthens my resolve to make sure that the car is throughly waxoiled as soon as possible.

A few more miles & those annoying little jobs.

Been out again doing some reasonable miles in the 2000, taking a trip over to Cambridge to see my folks and catch-up with friends at The Cambridge Museum of Technology. It really is a pleasure to be out driving in the old 2000, with it's better road presence and more comfortable interior, quite a shock to the system after a Spitfire.
On my way to Cambridge I stopped in at Northampton to meet up with Tim Bancroft to pick-up a tow bar for the MkI, it will not go on straight away but is part of my future plans for the car.

I now have the reconditioned propshaft fitted, getting rid of that annoying vibration when accelerating up to 60mph, but my current headache is the clutch master cylinder, it needs new seals, but due to the postal strike I do not know when I shall get the parts from TD Fitchetts.
So for now the car is laid-up in the barn having a few other jobs seen to on it.
First off, last night the indicator ring, which also holds the indicator stick, was replaced, as the old one seems to have broken many years ago and caused the indicator stick to be somewhat limp in your hand. Luckily there was a spare ring on the parts front end, which I got when I bought the car.
Next was the drivers door, I had thought for a while that the bottom hinge pin was just worn, but as I removed the door it became all to evident that the pin had actually sheared off. So some time today has been spent first of all trying to punch out the old pin and then drill it out, made more difficult with less than brilliant access for straight drilling through the pin on the car and a case hardened hinge pin.

Another run out with the 2000 & Spitfire be gone.

Over the weekend the 2000 has been out for a bit more of a shake-down, covering an easy 300 miles. After driving the Spitfire for so many miles around the country and on the motorways it has been a great pleasure to drive a Triumph with reduced road noise and better road presence. Unfortunately the reconditioned propshaft has not arrived yet, but the old one did not seem to give any more problems.
Although I already knew about it, I need to make some serious investigations as to the cause of a whistling wind noise from the passenger side door. Above about 55mph the noise gets quite noticeable and once up to motorway driving speeds it can get somewhat loud and annoying. One way to reduce the problem is to open the window slightly, but then with the weather we have been getting recently it is not so preferable.
Another part which needs attention sooner than later is the fuel filler cap, as I have been filling the car up with more petrol for these longer journeys and have also been pushing the car a bit harder round corners it soon became evident that when cornering hard right, petrol has been sloshing out through the filler cap, not good.

While on my journey out to Leicester I popped in to see GT6Jim to have a chat, a nose around his MkI GT6 and give him a quick ride out in my 2000. Afterwards I drove up into Birmingham to pick-up my latest eBay purchase, another Triumph 6 cylinder head. Not absolutely sure what I shall do with it just yet, though it might be used on the 2000 as part of an engine upgrade in the future.

Yesterday (Monday) the Spitfire was driven back by it's new owner all the way back to the Lake District. I have not heard any complaints yet so I can only hope that he has got back safely.
It's a shame to see it go, but it was getting to a point where I was not enjoying driving it as much as I used to and it was also going to need some attention to the bodywork, a job I felt I did not want to get into.
Still hoping to have the GT6 on the road before the end of the year, so the small chassis Triumph fun can start again.