Easter Weekend 29th March- 1st April

Good Friday 29th March: The day started well enough as I began refitting the trim and front bumper to the Red Shed. Once this had been done I started to look at the exhaust system again. I had noticed when driving it home from the paint shop that the slight blow from the exhaust had turned into quite a major one.

A quick look underneath showed that the extra length of pipe I’d had added on (I’d asked for it to be welded, but the bloke who did it brazed it!) had snapped nearly all the way round!

The downpipe was removed and one I already had in stock was tried but found to be pointing at the wrong angle. No matter which way I tried it, it was always hitting the propshaft. So, back to the drawing board on that one! Finally got round to washing the Mk2 estate too as it was still minging from the journey home from the CT dinner at Milton Keynes the Saturday previous!

 

Saturday 30th March. A nice drive out to the other side of Great Dunmow was the order of the day as Gavin (Iggy on the CT forum) was leaving his Mk2 over there to have the differential sorted out. The guy we visited had a vast amount of spares lying around and luckily, he even had a Mk1 saloon downpipe! Result!
The snow started coming down on the drive home but fortunately, it wasn’t settling. Once back at mine, the new downpipe was fitted and this time we had no problems with alignment and it fitted really well.

Another mate (Steve)  called round that had problems with his Mk2 brake master cylinder. After pulling his one to bits and a spare that I had in stock, we were able to compare the two and see what the problem was. Once this was done he helped me refit the rear bumper on the red shed as this would have been a bit awkward doing it on my own and would have led to huge scratches no doubt! The only problem was that the original overriders were completely knackered with dents and rust holes in them, so I left them off until I can find some good ones.

 

Easter Sunday. March 31st: Couldn’t get going today and too much good stuff on TV (Touring car racing) so it was a late start. Didn’t do much, just removed the carbs and cleaned them up a tad and refitted them. I had to fit a new O ring on the mixture jet in the rear carb as the old one had disintegrated. I also added a stick on front number plate as well to try and get the look of the original 60’s Triumph 2000 rally cars.  (See Peter Colliers book-Triumphant rallying)  It’s probably not to everyone’s taste, but I like it so that’s all that matters. J









Easter Monday. 1^st April. Dave (Davemate on the CT forum) came up for the day and fitted the Alfa seats while I refitted the carburettors. The seats looked quite good once fitted although I could do with finding a beige coloured rear seat now to match up a bit better with the beige leather fronts.





 

On starting the car up I found that the needle valve in the front carburettor had stuck again and she was only running on three cylinders. I’m just going to have to order a new needle valve I think because no end of cleaning it and adjusting it is keeping it operating as it should.