Monday 13 October 2008

Sunday's progress



Right well we started work on the old lady yesterday. Removing the plugs and cleaning them all which was definitely needed because they were all jet black with carbon...this turned out to be a great idea on phils part because the moment she fired up i noticed the misfire had gone completely!! I may have got a little too excited and hugged phil.


I also removed the bonnet and cleaned out the rubbish and dirt from the front panel.













I only really did that because all the other progress we made was actually mechanical and therefore couldn't be seen so this actually makes it look like we've made progress.

Also i did some research and with the help of NickB on the club Triumph forum i learn't that Skooby's engine originated from a 1973 Rover P6 this will now help with parts etc.

So until next time i bid you adieur.


Sunday 12 October 2008

"Skooby" The beginning.


I’m probably not the only one out of the Club Triumph community but this past year has been very busy and unfortunately the car has suffered for it. After she failed the Pre MoT check and I was told she needed over £900’s worth of welding I got a bit disheartened and laid her up until I had the money to repair the rotten areas and do a bit of a spruce up. Anyway the best way to describe the past year would be “out of site out of mind” until that is I went to the Goodwood Revival with a friend of mine and she mentioned on the way down that it would have been nice if we could of taken the Stag (She doesn’t know a great deal about cars but she knows what she likes and personally I can’t fault her taste).
So a plan began to form in my head (and yes it did hurt ha-ha), I wanted to get her on the road for next summer but I’d need a goal to look forward to, something I can aim for…then it struck me I had a copy of the original Triumph Stag brochure and on it was a white MK1 Stag not completely unlike mine sitting outside a hotel in what looks like the south of France. Since I’d always wanted to drive down to the south of France it made perfect sense to drive the Stag.
Now I have something to aim for I had to decide on how I was to tackle the restoration in today’s turbulent financial climate, this was easier than I thought. Firstly I decided that I needed to list down everything that needs doing from rebuilding the carburettors to fixing the little bracket that stops the door opening too far. Then I took photographs of each little task that needed doing and then I had to break down the list so that I could focus on jobs that would get the car through it’s MoT all this was done with the help of a friend of mine named Phil who is by no means a stranger to cars as he’s rebuilding a Volkswagen Type 25 van which you will more than likely hear of due to the deal with him helping me with the Stag is I help him with the van. I should also mention another friend of mine John as he is allowing me the use of his garage and all his tools even though they are “Snap Off”, in return for this huge favour I have to help him occasionally with the restoration of his Mazda RX3 so all in all im going to be kept very busy well into next year.

I decided to create this blog so that it may serve partially as a helpful guide and so that my dad can keep up with the restoration.