Triumph Page 2

August 1997. The new rag top is on, the hydraulics for the clutch and brakes have been completely renovated, there are new vacuum hoses everywhere. A new fuel pump is installed, the carbs are rebuilt and its on to the electrical system. The turn signals are now repaired, so now I am somewhat "legal". Its back from a major engine overhaul and on the streets. Soon I will be onto the cosmetics: new carpets and door vinyls, maybe a new dashboard. I am going to redo the front end in the next couple weeks. New shocks and springs, bearings and maybe the ball joints. I'll wait and see how the old ones look. New parts in the last few weeks: alternator, starter motor, heater valve, brake light switch.

While the interior might look a bit rough, all it really needs is some cosmetics. Notice how the floor panels are intact and rust free. The tranny hump is back in place and the radio and console are installed. The original radio works, but for some reason all I can get '60s music from all the stations. Went through the vinyl with ArmorAll and that stuff is darn near amazing. Really cleaned up the look of things.

Well, as long as I am making this kind of a diary of the restoration I might as well make it organized like one.

12/27/97 The left door vinyl has not been in very good shape. I note that they are not cheap and come in pairs. I was in the local parts house and asked if singles were available. He said no. Then he thought for a minute and said "wait". He walked over to a pile and pulled out a left door vinyl. $15.00. Replaced the door and window cranks and it all looks great.

1/2/98 I had developed a noise, a bad noise, periodically coming from the front end. It would only last a fraction of a second, but it was a bad noise. I could feel it in the steering. I stopped driving it. Today I took the front wheel bearings off and replaced them. The left outside were destroyed. The bearings completely disintegrated on removal. Even some of the rollers fell apart. The track was broken. The inner left weren't too bad. The right side looked good. Lots of good gooey lube and all the parts were in good shape. I replaced it all. Put in the new shocks. The steering feels a lot better now, more stable. No noise. Temp was 54 and sunny, nice drive to the video rental but the top was up. I'll get some new pictures up to show my progress.

1/11/98 The left front hub had a some play on the outside bearing track when I put it in and I didn't like that, so I have picked up a replacement hub and am going to put it in today. I also found a license plate lamp holder in a junk box at the local parts outlet that was in better shape than mine. So I brought it home and now the last of the lights is installed and fully functional. The 69 is the only year to use the bumper mounted license plate lights, so the fixture is both rare and expensive. The big three want $192.00 for one, but have none in stock, so....

My new radio from Custom Autosound in California arrived last week and is now installed. While I liked the originality of the BL radio, it was AM only. Got the new AM-FM in and went for a ride and the local oldies station was playing a British Invasion weekend. The effect was complete. The radio is very nice and fits in the hole without cutting. They even put "Triumph" on the cassette flap. Looks real good.

1/17/98 Replaced the bypass diaphragms on the Carbs and fixed a damaged float hinge on the front one. I'd like to replace that carb body, anyone got one to spare? The fuel line had a small drip at the T on the way to the carbs, after the steel tube going over the water pump. Got a new T and some fuel line from Autozone and replaced everything from the steel tube to the carbs. There was a noted improvement in the smoothness of the running of the engine and its return to idle. Before it would fall below the proper idle speed and rebound back up. Now it seems to fall just right.

1/29/98 I have found a carb body and cleaned it up today. Looks nice, we'll see how it works. Discovered I had the wrong wiper arms and blades and replaced them with some new ones. I still have a persistent odor of gas. Pulled the panel off the gas tank and visually inspected the rear of the gas tank. It looked real good. The hose up to the filler cap looked ok too. Guess I'll keep looking.

2/19/98 Well, I guess its been a while. Gasoline smell found. Replaced the rubber tube from the top of the tank to the filler cap. Inspection of the old one did not reveal any damage. All I can figure is that the interior must of had hairline cracks and gas was splashing around eventually making it to the fibrous reinforcements and "wicking" out the ends. I replaced some of the fuel line, the pieces on either side of the filter looked pretty bad, so I replaced from the metal hose going into the pump down to the metal hose from the frame near the oil filter.

I also stabilized the idle considerably by taking off the temperature compensators and discovering them to be stuck open. Before summer I'll have to take them back off and calibrate them, but the car runs a lot better with them stuck closed rather than open.

Well that's the news, except that I have been driving it too much and decided I'd better add it to my regular insurance instead of the antique limited insurance.

3/7/98 Well, it has been a long time. I was out of town for a week and decided to let the "pro" do my u-joints, so I got 6 brand new u-joints in all the right places. That clunk is gone! I have also obtained, but not yet installed, a carpet kit and new diaphragms for the seats. Its going to be nice to get some of the interior work done. Also, the brakes had gotten pretty spongy so I put in a new master cylinder. There was still some sponginess one time out of several so I replaced the booster hose and used some clamps on each end and now they are consistently perfect. Still no new pics, but I promise to take some soon. Thanks for following my renovation project, drop me a note.

3/14/98 Lovely day, put my new muffler and seat diaphragms in. Much quieter, and wow, I am 3 inches higher. Since I am only 5'5" to begin with the additional height is not uncalled for.

4/5/98 Whew! Been a while. Got the new front springs in, new ball joint on the left front, new bushing on that left trunion as well. But the banger is the carpet kit, got about half of it in today, drivers side and the hump. Boy what a difference already. SOOOO much quieter, and the psychological lift is great. I know, I know, I promised pictures, I'll get 'em.

4/24/98 Well, Spring is here, it must be time to calibrate the temperature compensators on the carbs. I followed the directions on the VTR web site. Its in the maintenance section. Seems to have improved warm running, but the test will be later today when I have some running around to do on the freeway. Its going to be a beautiful day, temps in the upper 70's. The rest of the carpets are in and it is quite an improvement.

5/9/98 Did a full tune up last weekend, points, plugs, condenser, carb adjustment, timing etc. Running fine except for the first few minutes off the freeway after a long run. I can't seem to find that one. Rough low idle and/or just dies. No problem driving, but ya gotta hold the idle up to keep it from dying. After a couple minutes to cool off its fine. There has been some warm weather, sufficiently hot, while sitting in stop and go traffic that I am sure its getting hot enough under there to open the temp compensators, so I don't think that's the problem. I also replaced the waist seals on the doors. I have got some new pictures, but haven't got em scanned in yet.

5/16/98 Finally got around to replacing the clutch master cylinder. The old one worked, but the bore was somewhat scored and would leak a trifle into the dust cover. The new one is much easier to operate. Its a Girling, but I think its one for a different car, fits fine with an adapter on the hydraulic output. Also picked up new door pulls, the 69 uses the whole top of the door as pull piece. It'll be a couple weeks before I can put them, but this car is really coming along.

6/7/98 Got ahold of new crash pads for the bottom of the dash so I yanked out the dashboard to be refinished and installed the new crash pads. I used a heat gun to remove the old varnish, worked great. Got all the old stuff off in about 30 minutes. Put about 5 coats of new Urethane on. It and the new crash pads look fantastic. Got the new door pulls on too! This car is really coming along. While I had the dash out I fixed the 4-way and the dash dimmer switches. Both were nonfunctional due to excessive corrosion and crap inside inside them. Both came right apart and cleaned right up. I just can't imagine how these two parts can cost so much given their utter simplicity. Other "bits": new top seal between the windshield and the roof, new rubber pieces between the hood and fenders. (Let me rephrase that for the English brethern: new top seal between the hood and the windscreen, and new rubber pieces between bonnet and the wings.)

6/16/98 A major storm came through and removed a 24 inch diameter tree limb from the tree above the Triumph's parking spot. Smashed the windshield and dented the driver's side fender and hood. It could have been much worse as a fence held up the passenger side of the tree and prevented much more destruction. At least its all covered by insurance. Got the new windshield in and I must confess its so clear! The old one was the original and the you could see where the glue between the panes was seperating in a couple places. There were also a number of scratches et cetra.

7/11/98 Someone entered my vehicle and stole the speakers for the radio, which were just sitting on the back shelf. Today I was in Radio Shack to get some diodes for my other hobby (Ham Radio) and saw a clearance car alarm for $29.00. It detects the use of any electricity with only a connection to the battery and ground. Installation was a piece of cake. Bolted the siren to the shelf under the hood in front of the passenger side. It fires off when either door is opened or trunk is opened. I'm impressed.