Saturday 22nd August. A run out for the Pi.

I can't believe I've not written anything here since April! What have I been doing with myself? 

Well, not a lot, is the answer to that one. Work has been manic and a serious back issue and a trapped nerve has sidelined me for a number of weeks now unfortunately. 

However, with the back issue now almost gone I decided to give the Pi it's first long run out in my ownership. 

I took the car to work on Friday for a bit of a shake down only to find that it decided to drop down to 5 cylinders on the way home. (This was the first time it had done this since I'd had the injectors refurbished in June.) Anyway, with no.5 injector removed and unblocked, it then ran as it should and all was well.

Early Saturday morning saw me heading for the M25 and M11 and making the long journey up to Wisbech in Norfolk. The car managed to behave itself and I eventually made the show ground at around 9am.

 Lee Godfrey was already there and before long we were joined by Peter Jackson in his Mk2 estate with his 2 door Mk2 saloon on a trailer. 

It was a classic car and tractor day and the line up of Triumphs was quite impressive. It was also a blistering hot day and long spells of it were spent under a tree, in the shade consuming tea, coffee and cake. Very nice. :)

I decided to make tracks just after five and again the Pi provided me with a trouble free run home. It was only when I parked the car on the drive, open the gates to the back garden, then started it up to drive the car in that it dropped down onto to 5 cylinders again! My exact thought was 'bugger it, it can wait until morning now'. 

Here's some more pics from the day. 

April 18th & 19th Club Triumph Historic Counties Rally.

After a long week of working on Gertie every night after work and installing a new complete clutch, alternator, and giving her an oil and filter change, she was now ready to take part in the 2015 HCR. I collected my co-drivers Saturday morning and we had an enjoyable breakfast in Collier Row near Romford, before leaving for the first start location at Stourbridge. (Although my choice of vegetarian fried breakfast probably wasn't the best choice for a long journey and left the car smelling very herbal at times!) 

We arrived at VeeBee Filteration for around 14.45 where we took part in a very short Gymkhana event before moving onto the Wagon and Horses for a quite un-spectacular dinner. Eventually we received our clue sheets, plotted our route and left the pub at 18.40. 

Our plotted route took us back up towards Stourbridge, then we headed for North Wales picking up the counties of Shropshire, Denbighshire, Gwynedd, Conwy, and Flintshire.(Anglesey was on the optional list, but we decided that would be a bridge too far.) We then headed for Cheshire, a Cheese factory in Macclesfield before heading over to Derbyshire. This was the last last county on the list, but on returning to the car after  gaining the obligatory photo evidence of the county sign, we found that our eta for the check in Control at Corley services was 12.59 hrs. This was ok, but the control closed at 01.00 and penalty points would be awarded for lateness after that time. However, some err... spirited driving saw us arrive at the control at 12.47am. Spot on!

After our enforced one hour break we had plotted the second part of our run which then took us to Northamptonshire, a bedding supplier in Bedfordshire, Essex, a hospital in Hertfordshire, Stansted Airport, the imperial War museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire, Rutland, Lincolnshire, and a pork pie producer in Melton Mowbray. (yes, really!)

We then headed further north to collect a county sign for Nottingham before heading for breakfast and the finish location in Leicestershire. 

After a hearty breakfast and a chat with the other crews it was time for the results. We were quite chuffed to find that we had finished in fourth place. Quite pleasing for a car who's gearbox was still on the garage floor Tuesday night!  

When you looked at the route we had taken throughout the run, we had almost covered a massive figure of eight shape across the country. That will be why the event was sub-titled 'Loop the loop then! :) 

11th & 12th April. Bending things and breaking things.

A trip to Normandy in France this weekend with a few mates provided a fantastic laugh and a great time. However, it was slightly tainted by a couple of unfortunate issues.

The first was when we stopped to let an old lady cross the road on a Zebra crossing and a French white van man decided to drive into the back of us! The crash caused damage to the inner and outer rear valance and bootlid. Thanks to help from some of the crowd we were with, we managed to pull some of it out and get the boot opening and closing properly again. 

before...

after....

The second issue was worse on the 'going home' part of the run. The clutch had been getting quite difficult to operate smoothly. In fact, sometimes, the pedal seemed to stick and wouldn't  release at the biting point when it needed to. Luckily, we managed to get the car home ok, and the following morning the gearbox and clutch was removed for inspection. 

Investigation revealed that the fingers on the pressure plate were badly worn and also not quite in line in places. 

Even more investigation also revealed a broken engine mount. I suspect this was caused by the amount of 'jolty' pulling away we had had to do with the awkward clutch. 

So, a replacement engine mount has been fitted and a new clutch has been ordered. Hopefully, it will arrive in the next few days and all being well Gertie will be back in action on the HCR this weekend. 

       It's just a pity just this will now be two years running that she has had to compete with accident damage! 

January 24th 2015. What colour Pi would you like?

I have to be honest, I've not much to report on the work front what with Christmas and freezing cold weather getting in the way. Oh!, and the National Grid replacing a gas main outside my house and digging a large hole across my drive and stopping me from getting cars in or out of my garage or even allowing me to park on my own driveway!

The weekend that they did this I decided to take a run up to the Heritage Centre for the HRCR (Historic Rally Car Register) open day. It was a good day out despite getting battered by the strong winds on the way up there and having to divert across to the M1 on the way back due to an accident on the M40.

There was some nice cars up there and I was lucky enough to purchase Bill Price's book 'The BMC/BL competitions department'. The lady who's stall I bought it from said to me 'If you turn round and ask that man standing behind you nicely, he might even sign it for you'. So, Bill Price's autograph was duly obtained for the inside cover. (Well, you never know it could double the price in years to come!)  :)

Some cars from the HRCR open day....

With regards to the Pi, all I've really managed to do is repair the driver side B post and start fitting the replacement panels that I bought for her, although for some reason the off side rear door doesn't seem want to line up properly no matter how much adjustment you make on it! Colin Wake has got another one I can try, so hopefully that one will be better. The front passenger door was a better fit and the bonnet and bootlid fit ok too. (The bootlid still needs a bit more lining up when time permits)

The repaired drivers door looked good when I collected it, but now fitted to the car isn't that clever. So I am on the search for either another door, or replacement skin. 

So, with all of it's new panels the Pi is now looking somewhat Multi-Coloured! Progress is slow, but it's getting there. 

December 23rd. Pi Work continues

A bit (and only a bit) more work has continued on the Pi. After removing the rear door as well as the  front drivers door, I started to grind down and then cut into the B post as it looked a bit 'crusty' around that area. I was dreading what I would find when I cut into it, but although the membrane in the middle of the inner and outer sills has surface rust, it hasn't rusted through yet. 

I'm not ready to start cutting sills off and carrying out a full restoration yet, as I want to have fun in this car first and give Gertie a bit of a rest, so for the time being the B post will just be repaired and patched up. 

The bonnet was also suffering in the form of a collapsed hinge mounting bracket so this was ground down and welded. I then discovered that the pin in the hinge was also broken, so my repairs had been in vain. I've fitted my spare 'Damson' bonnet for the time being. This should look rather nice with the two green doors I have to go back on and also the Damson, or Dark Blue boot lid. ( I have a choice of two)

Never mind, I can worry about the paint once it's all solid again. ( I was going to say rust free, but I don't think many of these cars are rust free now, they'll always be some rust  lurking somewhere now that they are reaching their 'senior' years) 

I've had to go back to work in between Christmas and New Year, so welding and repairs will resume when work and this bloody freezing weather has passed. 

Wow! An update! December 7th. PI Work starts

After a few months of the Mk1 Pi annoying the crap out of me with sticking throttles, snapping bonnet cables, (with the bonnet down and the throttle stuck half open!) collapsing clutch master cylinder seals and filling the boot up with petrol (Twice!) I've almost managed to get it semi-reliable. 

I took it to the last Essex club meet hoping it would behave itself, and apart from having to stop half way and wiggle the fuse to get the dashboard and rear lights working again it got me there ok. Getting home was also interesting as one of the injectors decided it didn't want to play and the remainder of the journey was completed on 5 cylinders only and me sulking. 

Over the past few weeks, I have been collecting some panels for it and have so far managed to find one front door, two rear doors, a bonnet and bootlid. The only door I was having trouble locating was a drivers door. So I removed my one and had it repaired by the guy that did the repairs to the Red Shed when I owned it. He's made quite a good job of it, despite the amount of rot that was in it. 

The next stage will be to remove and replace the rear door, although before the replacement goes on I will be looking at having the bottom of the door post repaired as this is a bit 'flaky' as you can see.

The only other modification I've done so far to the car is remove the Mk2 front seats that were fitted and fit a more comfortable pair. Instead of going down the 'Alfa Romeo' route as I had before, I looked from something different. Alfa seats are nice, but they aren't really black, they are more of a Charcoal colour. I wanted something that would look a bit closer to original, so I opted for the black leather Range Rover seats that my friend Gavin had in his car. (He changed to MGF seats in his MK2) As you can see, they are a good fit and look a better colour match. Just need to find suitable rear ones now. 

October 3rd to 5th. Round Britain Reliability Run

Friday October 4th finally arrived and after loading the car with tools, spares, snacks etc. it was time to make my way to Enfield for the start of the RBRR. 

After picking up fellow crew members Dave Maton and Graham Parkins from Cheshunt we filled up with petrol and headed to the Plough to  book in and meet up with the other 105 teams taking part. 

The 6pm departure time soon arrived and due to where we had been parked, we were the 101st car to leave out of the 106 starters. 

Graham was the first man in the driving seat and we were soon heading up the A10 and made good progress up to Blyth Services for the check point. I jumped out to get the book signed while Dave and Graham pulled straight onto the petrol pumps to fill up. Dave was now driving and we got going straight away, but unfortunately drove straight into a bad traffic jam on the A1 due to an accident. Once past this, we thought we were in for a clear run, but then came across another long delay this time due to roadworks! Finally we got past the hold ups and carried on up the A1 to the A68. Before long we were at the second check point at the Scottish/English border at Carter Bar and were amazed to find that we were the second car to arrive behind Andy and Sarah Johnson in their Triumph Stag. As soon as we crossed the border the rain started and there was lots of surface water laying around making progress slower than normal.

The third check point was Edinburgh Airport and after a quick coffee it was my turn behind the wheel for the 'Graveyard  shift'. From Edinburgh we headed up the A9 to Inverness and it was quite weird looking at the sat nav and seeing that the next roundabout was 110 miles away! Luckily, by now the rain had stopped and we had a good clear run up to Allness for the next check point at Skiach services. Graham then took over for the next stint up to John O Groats and we arrived there at around 7am. We decided to go and do the obligatory photo shoot before going for Breakfast at the Seaview hotel. 

After a good hearty breakfast we headed across the top of Scotland, through Thurso and over to Bettyhill before heading south towards Dingwall. Dave's previous arm injury was causing him considerable pain, so we all decided it was best he didn't do any more driving and rest. After lunch at the Conon Bridge Hotel, I took the driving seat for my favorite part of the run which is down past Loch Ness, Fort William and then through Glencoe. The only drama we had was when the driver's side windscreen wiper fell off! Luckily, it landed on the bonnet and stayed there until we stopped. A quick repair with black electrical tape was the order of the day and we carried on. We arrived at Stirling around 5pm and after another quick coffee at Morrisons garage Dave decided to try and give the driving another go. However, after half hour he was in pain again and handed over the driving to Graham. 

We arrived at the next control at Tebay (Cumbria) services early so all of us grabbed a very good hot meal while waiting. With Dave now unable to drive anymore we had now discussed the driving situation and worked out a plan. Graham was happiest with the motorway sections at night while I was ok with country lane bits. So, Graham took the drive down the M6 to the next control at Gledrid in North Wales while I tried to grab some sleep on the back seat in Readiness for my second 'Graveyard Shift' through the Welsh forest sections. 

A good crowd turned out to greet us Gledrid and I grabbed a can of Red Bull and a Mars Bar in the hope of them giving me some energy. (and I don't even like Mars Bars!) The drive from Gledrid to Sugar Loaf takes in some beautiful driving roads, but unfortunately for some reason also seems to encourage some ridiculous and dangerous driving from some of the other crews. A few times we were overtaken by other Triumphs on the wrong side of the road on blind bends in the pitch black! 

We arrived at Sugar loaf at around half past midnight and as soon as we were allowed, we got the book signed and made tracks for the next  control at Gordano Services on the M5 south of Bristol. By now we were on out second night without proper sleep and we were all getting quite tired. At Gordano services I found the shower open so took advantage. A hot shower and change of clothes had never felt so good! 

Graham took the driving seat for the next stage from Bristol down to Lands End, although I took over about 30 miles from Penzance due to tiredness creeping in on him. 

We arrived at Lands End to find that the cafe had forgotten we were coming and weren't ready. Not impressed! Eventually we were allowed in and breakfast was served.

After breakfast I took the drive up to Bude Motor Museum for the next control point. We removed the front wheels and checked the brake pads as we had been getting a squeaking noise when braking, but it turned out to be a loose backing plate. With that rectified Graham took the next drive over to Badgers Holt at Dartmoor.
After a short stop we then headed off for the famous 'cake stop' at Pimperne. By the time we are at this stage, things are a bit more relaxed. Although it's a great event, it's also a nice feeling knowing that you're on the homeward leg and almost at the finish.
With coffee and cakes devoured we set out for the penultimate stop at the TR Register offices at Didcot. Once again we were greeted by friendly faces and hot coffee and after getting the book signed we headed for the Oxford ring road to pick up the M40. It was here that the scares began when Graham suddenly announced that we'd lost the clutch. To be fair the clutch pedal had been getting stiffer since the early hours, but we were praying that it would hold out. I was pretty convinced that it was the seals in the master cylinder giving out. We had a spare seal kit and clutch fluid and a bleed tube, so we could have hopefully repaired it if need be, but how devastating would it be to make Didcot and then not make the final check point if we couldn't?
We managed to pull off the road to investigate and then after some pedal pumping, miraculously, it seemed to right itself. It was still wasn't as it should be, but it was good enough to select all gears and allow us to continue. We encountered quite a bit of 'stop-start' on the motorway but the clutch held firm and after about 90 minutes we arrived at the Plough for the final check point.
It had been a fantastic trip with some beautiful scenery and some good laughs, so a well deserved pint was downed in celebration. Roll on the 2016 event when I'm hoping to use the Mk1 Pi.