All posts by John Ewbank

At Home in Woodmancote, Triumph

Forgive me father, for its been three months since my last Blog

No excuse really, other than whenever my conscience has told me to sit down and update the blog there always seems to have been a valid reason/excuse for not doing so.  Its not as though we’ve been sat at home twiddling our thumbs without having lots to report – such as buying (another) Triumph, a fun trip to Belgium (not a phrase that would readily spring to mind), an enjoyable reunion with old friends and a few days camping on the South Coast, to name but a few.

Anyway, with that confession out of the way I can now hopefully get back to reporting the odd short snapshot of Ewbank life as and when interesting things happen that liven up our otherwise bleak and empty lives……………..

The latest addition to the motoring stable is a 1975 Triumph Stag bought at auction back in May.  With the rebuild of the GT6 more or less complete it started to dawn on me that, lovely little car though it may be, driving the tiny Triumph for longer distances was going to be a less than comfortable experience – the fact that I need a Stannah Stairlift to extract myself from the driver’s seat says it all.  Despite their early reputation of abysmal reliability I’ve always liked the lines of the Michelotti designed Stag, and the noise of that Triumph V8 is just wonderful – so when three cars came up for auction at Brightwells back in May I decided to take a look.

Examining the three offerings was like a scene out of Goldilocks and the Three Bears: one was a complete wreck and would obviously take years to restore, the next was low mileage and therefore likely to be expensive …… and the last, it seemed to me, was ‘just right’.  The rest, as they say, is history; six days later the car was sat on the drive at home with a brand new MOT and ready for some serious tinkering.

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Travel

Nuremberg with Richard and Colette

Slightly belated post to record our recent visit out to Nuremberg to spend a long weekend with Richard and Colette.  We like Germany (hardly surprising really considering the number of years we lived there and the fact that all of the children were born there) and we especially like Nuremberg, which seems to have everything going for it – great architecture, beer and bratwurst!

Once again we elected to fly from Stansted which, although not the most accessible airport from Gloucestershire, has the twin advantages of taking us direct to Nuremberg and offering the cheapest flights.

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On the Saturday Richard kindly drove us the 60+ miles to Rothenberg ob der Tauber, a well-preserved medieval walled town  which Denise (heavily pregnant) and I last visited in 1982 with my parents.  Unsurprisingly it hadn’t changed much; perhaps there was rather more of the ‘Disney’ feel about the place this time, but nevertheless we enjoyed a wander around the town soaking  up a bit of spring sunshine whilst Richard lived out one of his ‘Teddy’ fantasies – try dribbling all over that one mate!PENT7245-small

The next day we trooped off in the opposite direction towards the Czech border just north east of Bayreuth.  Lovely walk, more sunshine, good food and a cooling radler in a great little gaststätte way up in the forest.

On Monday Denise and I  explored the Nuremberg alt stadt whilst Colette and Richard got on with earning a living; this is what retirement is really all about!

Thanks both for making us so welcome.  As Arnie says …… we’ll be back!

At Home in Woodmancote, Triumph

How Much Can You Trust an MOT Inspection ?

There’s currently a bit of a debate about the future of the annual MOT inspection for older cars.  Apparently the UK testing regime exceeds EU requirements and as a result there’s a suggestion that cars older than 30 years (vehicles registered prior to 1960 are already exempt) should no longer be subject to the test.  Until very recently I was dead against the change and held firmly to the concept that the annual test is a ‘good thing’ in that it guarantees that our classic cars are safe and fit for the road on at least one day a year.

Yesterday’s experience has caused me to wonder whether all testers are as diligent or competent as they might be, and therefore whether the test is as useful an indication of good maintenance as it should be.  The story goes like this ……….

Having spent the last six months rebuilding the GT6 I finally arrived at a point this week where I thought it should be tested.  Not that I fully expected it to pass – but it seemed to me to be a good way of getting a fully qualified second opinion on whether it was fit for the road.  In point of fact there were a couple of points on which I expected it to fail:  despite several attempts at bleeding the brakes the travel on the pedal was longer that I liked, and I was convinced that the exhaust was blowing a bit.

I sat nervously during the 90 minutes of the test, reassured that they were doing a thorough job, and sure enough  ……….it failed.  But not on the points that I’d expected!  All that the tester could find to comment on was the security of the fuel line and the need for a brake hose to be moved slightly to avoid fouling a shock absorber.  Great, I thought, and booked the car in for a re-test two days hence.

On leaving the garage I’d travelled 150 yards when I noticed that the steering was behaving oddly; another 100 yards and I was convinced that something was seriously wrong and pulled over to the side to check out what might be amiss.  Shock, horror  – one of the track rod ends was extremely loose and the other had lost its securing nut and completely parted company with the steering arm on the near side vertical link.  Had I been travelling at speed or attempted to take a corner in this condition an accident would have been inevitable.  A phone call home brought Denise to the rescue with the socket set and some nuts and the problem was quickly solved, after which I was able to drive home thanking my lucky stars that disaster had been averted.

The fact that the track rod ends weren’t secure was obviously my fault – but my point is that the test failed to find the most simple, and potentially dangerous, of faults and was therefore completely worthless. and left me wondering what else they’d missed.  One of the arguments for abandoning the test for older vehicles is that most owners of classic cars are enthusiasts and quite possibly know more about how to keep their particular vehicle safe than the majority of MOT testers.  So, recognising that we all have a legal responsibility for ensuring that any vehicle we use on the public highway is safe, we should, perhaps, abandon the requirement for an annual MOT check, learn to cope without that particular safety net, and save ourselves £39 in the process!

At Home in Woodmancote

Nice Tits!

The recent warm weather has brought the garden along nicely and with it we’ve had a few opportunities to sit on the patio and  watch  the local wildlife coming and going.  We have several bird boxes, one of which this year has been occupied by a pair of Blue Tits who’ve been extremely busy in recent weeks preparing for new additions to the family.

I’m not entirely sure why Dad should have been taking nesting material out of the nest on this occasion ….. perhaps Mum decided that the colour or texture wasn’t quite right?

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At Home in Woodmancote, Triumph

Rebuilding the Triumph

February with its cold and wet weather and short days is probably my least favourite month of the year.  More particularly, getting out into our unheated garage to work on the GT6 over the past month has proven to be a bit of motivational challenge – on some days even dressing up in my ‘onesie’ (actually a set of coveralls) hasn’t entirely managed to keep the cold at bay and the desire to stay out there fiddling with the car has definitely been limited.  Emigrating to warmer climes or getting the use of a heated workshop in which to work would solve the problem, but as neither seems to be even a remote possibility I guess I’ll have to soldier on.  Note to self – make sure the next (?) project is timed to take advantage of all those long, hot summer days (some hope!).

That said, I’ve made quite a bit of progress since my last Triumph blog and I still seem to be on target for getting the car back on the road in early April.  The tub and bonnet came back from the body shop looking very shiny and, with the exception of one or two minor things that will need to be sorted by them once the car can be driven down to Gloucester, I’m very pleased with the quality of their work.  Reuniting the tub with the chassis was less of a hassle than I’d feared and once that was done I was able to start the pleasurable task of starting to re-fit all the mechanical and electrical parts that I’d refurbished or replaced whilst the body was being re-sprayed.

Monday of this week was a ‘red letter day’.  After a couple of minor glitches, which included managing to replace the plug leads in completely the wrong order, I started the engine for the first time since the rebuild got underway last September.  In fact it started remarkably easily and ran pretty smoothly considering that the timing was a bit adrift and the carbs will need to be adjusted.  No nasty knocks or grinding sounds and as far as I can tell the oil pressure seems to be okay; on the subject of which I’ve decided to fit an oil pressure gauge to keep an eye on things in the future – I can’t understand why on earth they didn’t fit one as standard when the car was built.     If the MGB could have one, why not the GT6?

On Sunday I’m off to the Triumph Spares day at Stoneleigh to collect the new carpet I’ve ordered (at huge expense) and pick up a host of bits and pieces that I still need in order to finish the car.  How much excitement can one man stand?

Travel

Off to the Dolomites

There was half an inch of snow on the ground when we left home and none at all to be seen when we arrived in Verona; however, by the time we’d made the two and a half hour coach journey up into the Dolomites and reached Canazei  there was a reasonable covering – much to our relief!  Apparently there was a good dump of snow yesterday and the forecast for the rest of the week is for light showers and cool temperatures, so with any luck we should have good skiing conditions for the rest of the holiday.

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Pretty as a picture! And the scenery’s not too bad either!

Not having been skiing for a couple of years we had the usual worries about getting back on the snow; fortunately the conditions on the mountain this morning were excellent and we managed to survive the first day without any significant tumbles.  In the premise that discretion is definitely the better part of valour, and recognising the early signs of ‘jelly legs’, we decided to call it a day at around 2.00pm and were back in the chalet in time for tea and lemon drizzle cake at 3.00.   Good decision!

At Home in Woodmancote, Triumph

I ain’t got no body (but I soon will have)

Well, the restoration of the GT6 body is almost finished and pretty soon it will be reunited with the chassis and I’ll be able to get on with the exciting business of working out how the whole thing fits together  again.  I reckon the reassembly will take me about three times longer than the dismantling – whether that puts me on course to have the car ready for the MOT in early April remains to be seen.  There’s still plenty of cleaning, painting and polishing still to be done, to say nothing of an every-growing list of parts to be bought and fitted.   The problem I have now is that having spent so much time and money on getting to this point I simply can’t afford not to do it properly.

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The good news is that every time I trawl the internet I find really grotty examples of the GT6 for sale at increasingly ridiculous prices – bring it on!

In the meantime Christmas has come and gone and we’re well past the shortest day and hopefully moving steadily back towards Spring.  I’ve spent a few hours over the past week pulling together a website advertising Bertie’s qualities as  a wedding car – something we always planned but I’ve been a bit slow in putting into action.  Hopefully attendance at a couple of wedding fairs in the coming months will produce a handful of bookings and a few pennies to help pay for  this expensive hobby!

At Home in Woodmancote, Triumph

A Triumph in the Making

The problem with taking a car to bits is remembering exactly how it all fits together and ensuring that vital pieces aren’t missed out when it comes to the rebuild – not helped in my case by doing the whole thing in a domestic garage and therefore being pressed for space.  That said, progress is being made and, having shipped off the body to the ‘Polite Bodyshop’ (yes, they are!) in Gloucester for a complete bare metal re-spray, I’ve spent the past month stripping, cleaning and re-painting the chassis and the remaining mechanicals.

Re-assembly has unquestionably been made much easier by having access to a couple of Triumph/BMC parts catalogues which list every single component down to the last nut, bolt and washer, and illustrate in most cases how they all fit together.   Although I’m re-using most of the serviceable parts, I’ve decided to replace most of the nuts, bolts and washers, which I feel  lifts the whole restoration and will certainly make the next rebuild that much easier – if that ever comes to pass.

With most of the running gear now re-fitted, and the engine and gearbox once again mounted on the chassis, I’m starting to convince myself that real progress is  being made and we may even be on track to have the car back on the road in the early Spring.

Triumph, Visits to People and Places

Poppies at the Tower and Turner at the Tate

We realised last week that the display of 890,000 ceramic poppies currently filling the moat of the Tower of London will be removed after Armistice Day , so rather belatedly we decided to ‘pop’ up to town to take in the spectacle.  Having met up with Jennie at Victoria we trooped off down to Monument tube and then walked the last few hundred meters to the Tower in a vain attempt to avoid the worst of the crowds.  Some hope!  The crowds were ten deep most of the way around the moat and moving around was a bit of a nightmare, but at least everyone was good natured and eventually we found a decent viewpoint.  Definitely a worthwhile expedition. Poppies-by-Tower-Bridge

After a brief excursion to Hatton Garden and lunch with Jennie and Nathan we filled a couple of hours before our return journey with a trip to the Tate to take in the Turner Gallery – not entirely unconnected with having seen ‘Mr Turner’ (great film!) at the cinema the evening before.  Fabulous seascapes and wonderful light but I have to admit to thinking that his figure painting was a bit rough!

Meanwhile work on the Triumph continues apace.  Yesterday afternoon we roped in friends and neighbours to help lift the body off the chassis in anticipation of taking it down to the bodyshop in Gloucester later this week.  The chassis itself looks to be in really good condition and I can now get on with the task of sorting out the suspension and steering before I get the re-sprayed body back sometime before Christmas.

So - are all Triumphs powered by Dysons then?
So – are all Triumphs powered by Dysons then?
Triumph

Oh dear! What have I started?

The strip-out of the GT6 is going well but I have to admit that seeing the complete wiring loom sitting there on the garage floor left me wondering whether I’ll ever be able to get the whole thing back together without the headlights dipping every time I switch on the windscreen wipers!  What is absolutely certain is that when the time comes its going to take me rather longer to put it all back together than it’s taken to pull the poor car apart.

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now, where exactly did that red wire go…………..?

In the meantime I’ve sent the engine block, head and some other bits and pieces down to Malmesbury to be chemically cleaned and for the water passages to be ‘de-furred’ – the removal of forty odd years of calcification will hopefully help it to keep the engine running nice and cool in the future.  The next step will be to get the bearings and bores checked/sorted before ordering the first tranche of new parts and starting the process of reassembling the engine.

Over the weekend I spent a little time getting Bertie ready for his winter quarters.  Having four cars and only two garage bays means that he’s being sent off to spend the next few months in a local barn along with a dozen or so Reliant Scimitars and Sabres.!