Winter Collection

The water is finally starting to drain out of the basement and with the weather warming up, I can start focusing on the Triumph again.

Over the winter, I've collected a few useful items for working on the Triumph. Off of craigslist, I purchased a 4-ton capacity engine hoist and engine stand for $200 and for $25 from Harbor Freight, a compression tester.

I had been holding off on purchasing an engine hoist and stand for a while, since the largest car I have access to is a 1999 Toyota Camry and did not think an engine hoist or stand would fit in a Camry. Apparently, I did not need to worry as the engine hoist I bought could easily be disassembled with a wrench and fit in the trunk and back seat of a Camry. I really only needed an engine hoist, but a friend had advised that trying to work on an engine while it's swinging from a hoist is not an easy task.

The compression tester is something that I probably could have rented from AutoZone, but sometimes it's just nice to have your own tools that you can use whenever you want. There are plenty of youtube videos on how to check the engine's compression, so the plan is to run a compression test on the engine and only work on the engine if the compression test indicates that it's necessary.

As for buying from Harbor Freight, I wouldn't recommend buying all of your tools from Harbor Freight, but for some things the cheaper version is all you need. I'm not too confident in the quality of their drills or other electric tools, but some of their basic tools seem to be good enough or as good as those found in major hardware stores. For example, Chris bought a tubing bender from a hardware store for almost $30 and Harbor Freight carries one of comparable quality for $6. (This tubing bender will be useful should we design to replace the fuel line.)

I'm still looking to buy a Miller MIG welder for reasonable price, but whenever a decently priced Miller MIG becomes available it gets sold almost immediately. There are other MIG brands out there, but from what I've read online, Miller tends to use better quality parts (Hobart and Miller are produced by the same company, but Hobart uses cheaper parts) and plus, that is what I learned on in welding class.

Maybe this is the year I finally get the Triumph disassembled. *Fingers crossed.