And the Body is Off!

Big thanks to Dave, Eric, Andrew, and Greg who helped out in the rain on Friday to lift the body off the chassis. The process went mostly smoothly except during the first two attempts to lift the body off, something was still attached to the rear of the car. After the first body lift attempt, we noticed that the hand brake cable was still attached to the inside of the car. Once this was removed, the second attempt was hindered by the hand brake cable pulley system under the car which anchored the cable to the body and rear brakes. Finally, after the hand brake was completely freed from the body, the body transition went fairly easily with four guys lifting and Greg and I sliding the body rig underneath.

The last snag of the day came when we tried to push the body rig and body all the way into the garage. The shifter got in the way and after a quick shifter cap removal and unscrewing of a bolt, the shifter came off without issue.

The body rig has provided us with a huge convenience factor. It is easily rolled out of the garage with two people and can be rolled by one person, but not as easily. We now have convenient access to the chassis and rear suspension and allows us to store the body in a one car garage. It feels good to have finally hit a major milestone in this project.

Evaluating What's Underneath
The condition of the chassis underneath the floor panels was as expected given the condition of the floor panels. There was a lot of surface rust on the chassis, but we cannot be sure if it's any worse without sand blasting. Despite my annoyance with grease and it getting all over my clothes, the grease has actually helped to protect the chassis from rust in some areas. Wherever there was grease residue, underneath the chassis was in fair condition with some original paint still present.

Things Left to Get to the Bare Chassis

• Finish removing front suspension
• Remove rear suspension
• Remove engine, transmission, drive train, differential

Final Cruise Day at Kimball's Farm (Westford, MA)

Kimball's Farm is an ice cream stand near where I live and throughout the summer they have Cruise Nights where people get to display their classics or modified cars. Cruise Day wrapped up the summer of Cruise Nights and there was a pretty impressive set of cars on display. Sadly, no Triumphs were there, but there was an Austin Healey Sprite.

Austin Healey Sprite

Corvette

1930s Mercedes-Benz Kit Car on VW Beetle Chassis


(Note the Tear Drop Camper)

Plymouth Car with its own mini-Plymouth trailer

Progress Worthy to Blog About

With rain and other weekend plans, I have only been working on the Triumph every few hours here and there with not much progress to actually blog about. I finally removed the last rusted bolt attaching the body to the chassis. Using a Dremel with a cutter bit, I cut a notch into the top of the bolt so that I could use a screwdriver to hold the bolt from spinning as I loosened the nut. With this last bolt removed, the body is FINALLY ready to come off.

Today, Chris and I finished drilling holes and fitting the crossbeams for the body rig. We decided to use bolts so that we could easily store the body rig in the garage until we could bribe some friends with pizza and have them help lift the body off the car. The finished cross beam consists of 3 bars across the top, one at the back bottom, and one diagonal beam on the back for stability. We have to leave the front of the body rig open to slide over the chassis when storing the body.

The plan is to leave the doors on the body when we remove it because we are afraid of the car bowing at the door frame. The floor panels around the concerned area have rusted through leaving the bottom door sills as the only support.

Hopefully we can get the body off this week or next and start looking into removing the engine.

A New Approach to Rusted Bolts?

This weekend I finished the side supports for the body rig. The side supports are rectangular structures about 2 ft high and 6ft long. I initially planned to only have a middle support beam but upon finishing the structure, the supports were a bit wobbly and so I added cross beams to make it structurally sound. I've seen shops balance car bodies on upside down 5 gallon buckets so this wooden body rig should definitely hold up the car body.

I didn't work on the car this weekend, but got a really good tip from a friend of a friend who used to work in an auto restoration shop. After telling him my issues with rusted bolts, he suggested that I either 1) just cut off the bolts or 2) use a MAPP gas torch. For the MAPP gas torch, what they would do in the shop was heat the rusted bolt with the torch and then take a thick wet towel and place it directly on the bolt to cool it off. They would repeat this extreme heating and cooling process twice and the stressing of the metal should break the rust.

I did a little more research online and a MAPP gas torch (versus propane) is used because it burns at a higher temperature. MAPP gas torches are apparently available in any Lowe's and Home Depot, and while I'm at it, I should probably pick up a fire extinguisher.

Almost there... (in removing the body)

I'm always anxiously anticipating the next rusted or stubborn that takes a month to resolve. So I was super grateful when we made some decent progress this weekend. Chris was able to loosen the rusted bottom bolts on the shock absorber unit (shock absorber plus compressed coil spring) and I managed to get all but one of the bolts connecting the body to the chassis removed.

Realization #5346: Almost all the bolts on the Triumph will need to be replaced.
While removing the four bolts that held the shock absorber unit in place, three of the bolts broke off from the rust and a few other bolts were bent. I think only 25% of the shock absorber bolts survived unscathed, but then they too had rust.

The problem with the last body bolt is that rust has adhered the nut to the bolt and just spins the bolt in place as I try to loosen it. There isn't really a spot to hold the bolt still, with the top of the bolt rounded off and not much space on the opposite end. I did find an online video that suggested using a die cutter to notch a line on the top of the bolt so that a flathead screwdriver could be used on the notch to hold the bolt still, but to do this, I will need to invest in a Dremel or cutter tool of some sort - more tools to buy...

Also started this weekend was the body rig for storing the body when we finally get the last bolt off. It's really nice working with wood instead of rusted metal for a change as efforts were instantly gratified. Most of the pieces for the body frame are cut out and just need to be screwed in place. Then I can attach the free wheels I had picked up at the dump so that the body rig can roll in and out of the garage.

A bit on a tanget, I started watching MuscleCar on Spike TV and find the show to be really informative. They have a segment called "Budget Build" where they demonstrate how you can achieve comparable results but with cheaper, DIY methods for the average non-mechanic. Spike TV online has full episodes with limited commercials. It's a good thing.

Day of Triumph (Brookline, MA)

Below are some pictures from New England Triumphs' Day of Triumph car show in Brookline, MA. Sadly, there was only one Spitfire MKIII at the show, but other Triumph models were well represented.

Spitfire MKIII


Spitfire GT6


Racing-modified Spitfire

TR3

TR6

2009 pictures added

I finally got around to posting pictures of the Triumph in 2009. The sad thing is, after flipping through the pictures, it does not look like much has changed with the Triumph. If you look closely, you can see the slight differences, but taking off the bonnet looks like more of an achievement than taking out the steering column...oh well.

Small tasks.. but progress

Updating on progress from two weekends ago...(I've been getting lazy about keeping track of my progress on this site)

Only spending about an hour on the car, we removed the brake caliper and anti-roll bar. (The picture shows the mounting of the anti-roll bar.) Both parts came off fairly easily as the bolts were in better condition than most bolts on the car. Even though we tried to drain all of the brake fluid before unscrewing the brake lines, brake fluid still leaked out on to the garage floor.

Apparently kitty litter works well to absorb spilled fluids on garage floors, but I didn't bother since there's already a decent amount of fluid already on the floor from the engine oil and radiator fluid. (An engine oil bin can only cover and collect so much of the fluids that may come from somewhere under the engine.) Instead, I just lay these playset foam panel pieces that someone was throwing out at the dump and place them over whatever spot I'm working on to work through it.

Also, I have finally drawn out plans for the body rig. It took a lot of measuring and re-measuring to create the dimensions of the body rig, but since it's mostly a box shape with a higher cross beam to compensate the rear suspension of the spitfire, it should be pretty easy to readjust and add cross beams wherever support is needed.

Triumph Links:
Restoration of a 1974 Triumph TR6: http://74tr6.com/
This site has lots of great pictures from restoring a 1974 Triumph TR6 and links to local New England businesses that may be useful for restoration.

Triumph TR3A with a Toyota transmission: http://triumph.daveola.com/Album/
Great pictures and includes How-To instructions for various projects including installing a Toyota transmission.

Rusted bolts are my worst enemies

It's been hard to work on the Triumph with the rainy weather that has been hitting the northeast. Plus, being away on weekends for vacation has not helped make progress on the Triumph.

Since I last updated, I have been working on removing the front suspension units. With seven bolts for each front wheel, this should have been a straightforward task, but exactly one bolt on each wheel refuses to budge. It looks like the bolts are solidly rusted to the extent where the mounting area around each bolt has warped and the bolts appear to be fused on. I'm hoping a couple more soakings of B'laster will do the trick, but I'm not fairly confident given the look of things.

Focusing my efforts elsewhere to try and make some progress, I unbolted the heater unit from the inside of the car. This was fairly simple to do, only four bolts (not rusted, thank goodness) held the unit in place. The awful part came next.

After Chris had physically removed the heater unit, the hole left in the car body revealed that a few furry creatures has once made home there. The hole was filled with seeds, droppings, and nesting materials and the fans blades in the heater unit were jammed with acorn shells. I guess I should be used to this now, but just the thought of rodents will creep me out.

I've been working on removing the front suspension to prolong starting the task of taking the body off and building a body rig, but while it's nice out, I should probably get moving on the task. A lot of measuring and planning (to build the body rig) will be required for this next task, which is something I'm not quite wanting to do.

Thank you B'laster

Today was a good, productive day working on the Triumph, something that I hadn't had in a while. We finished labeling and removing the wiring from the engine area AND the windshield and its mount finally came off the body!

A few months ago I picked up a can of B'laster (rust buster, lubricant, etc.) from Lowe's to try and remove the stubborn, rusted nuts that are throughout the car. We had been walking through the aisles of Lowe's when the packaging of the can caught my attention. I had never seen more product information placed on an item than this can of B'laster. The can claimed that when sprayed into a styrofoam cup, it will melt away the cup - sounds good for the Triumph bolts.

I had doused the windshield mount time and time again with B'laster but with no luck. So today, I used a bag to catch the B'laster lubricant and attached the bag around the windshield mount to give the bolts a good soak. (After a while, B'laster ate through the bag and was getting everywhere.) I also tried prying the windshield mount with a mini-crowbar, but it was still stuck. After taking a break for lunch, Chris came out to help me and on his first try he got the mount moving and one good pull got the mount off. This B'laster stuff really worked.

Now that these two tasks are finally completed we can start taking the body off and building a body rig. Finally making some progress again.

This weekend, I bought the Complete Guide to Auto Repair (published in the 1980s) at Salvation Army for $4. On the cover of the book, it notes "Including the New Front-Wheel-Drive Cars." I'm hoping the book will be a good reference for Triumph maintenance. So far I've spent about $60 in books (plus one free book on 1970/1980 do-it-yourself car diagnosis and repair from the local dump/swap area) and the best books are the ones that I've picked up from bargain book places. The books I bought for full price on Amazon are interesting, but most rely on purchasing new car panels to fix a rust spot and assume unlimited funds.

Lessons learned so far:
- Don't skimp buying the cheap masking tape - you'll have to re-do all the labeling again if you use cheap masking tape
- Buy a good can of rust eater
- Buy a big bottle of good grease removing soap (the kind with the sand-like bits mixed in) - I use to have the hardest time getting grease off my hands until I bought an industrial-sized, orange bottle of soap

Finally...

Victory!...the steering wheel has come off. So I finally gave in to the fact that maybe the steering wheel doesn't feel like coming off the steering column and have taken the approach of removing the steering wheel with the steering column together. (I need to post a picture of my steering wheel triumph.)

To remove the steering wheel column I had to disconnect the wires for the turn signal and horn, which turned out to be a considerable number of wires. Then I unscrewed the bolts attaching the column to the axle (the Haynes manual was very useful on instructing how to do this) and then unscrewed the bolts holding the steering column mount under the dash. This was way easier than trying to pull off the steering wheel.

The windshield still will not budge from it's passenger side mount. I picked up a bolt loosening product at Lowe's, that claims to be able to eat through a styrofoam cup, and applied it the windshield mount but it still refuses to budge. With the steering column, this is the major roadblock to removing the body.

The wiring that remains to be removed are the wiring that goes to parts of the engine. I want to make sure I get this right, so I'll need to take some time documenting and taking pictures, which I haven't felt like doing just yet. I'm still worn out from all the wiring labeling/documenting I have done so far. Maybe I'll work on this this weekend.

To do before attempting to remove the body:
- remove windshield
- remove remaining wiring
- doors (?)
- build body rig to store body

Three to go...

The body is almost ready to come off the car but there's three more tasks remaining. As usual, the steering wheel refuses to come off. Then there is the mount holding the windshield in place, and lastly, wiring, a tiresome process.

At the hardware store last week, I found a faucet puller that looks like a steering wheel puller, but the clamps that grip underneath the metal are thinner. Good news is that the clamps slip in to the spot where previous pullers failed. Bad news is that the clamps were too weak from the force of pulling and started to bend. Back to the drawing board for what feels like to be the fiftieth time.

Even with the amount of WD-40, liquid wrench, and this ultra liquid wrench that can only be ordered online, the windshield mount refuses to come off. The driver-side windshield came off without a hitch after a few bolts were unscrewed, but the passenger-side windshield is proving to be as stubborn as the steering wheel. One possible explanation for this is that located above the passenger windshield mount is the antenna mount. So it is possible that rain water has gotten into the windshield mount and rusted the bracket to the mount.

The wiring is not as much a riddle as the other two remaining items, but it's painfully boring and tedious work. Label each wire, affix label, take a picture, draw a diagram, repeat over and over again. The last amount of wiring to disconnect and document go to the steering wheel and different areas on the engine. One day I just need to sit down and grind through this process to be done with it. I can only imagine the pain of putting the wires back on the car.

So minus these three items which don't sound like much but are actually pretty time consuming, the body should be ready to come off after unbolting a few body bolts. Also, there is the side project of making a body rig to store the body in the one-car garage and give us an easy way to roll the body out into the driveway when we want to work on the chassis. The car restoration books and television shows definitely make this whole disassembly process seem way easier than it actually is.

It's tricky

Last weekend, we drained the brake fluid, took out the brake line, and removed the pedal. In addition, we removed the starter solenoid, voltage current regulator and what I believe is the horn relay, so the body is looking quite bare now. I spent a decent amount of time labeling all the wires with masking tape, now the trick is pulling the wires out of the body without tearing off the tape labels.

A few months ago, we abandoned efforts of taking off the windshield finding that simply unscrewing the nut at the bottom of the base was not enough. Chris looked up how to remove the windshield online (thank goodness for the internet) and figured out that we need to also remove the clamps that held the base stakes to the body of the car. We were able to remove the driver side clamp completely, but the passenger side clamp would not budge. The windshield does lift off of the body now, enough to the point where we noticed some cancerous rust on the driver side (holes through the body right underneath the windshield). Add this to the rust list, and the rust list has gotten pretty sizeable. The $350 I'm spending on welding classes at a local high school is looking more and more worth it.

On a side note, I learned that running shoes are not the best welding shoes. On Monday, we started practicing Arc welding. Arc welding sprays sparks everywhere and everywhere also included the tops of my running shoes. Every now and then a spark would melt completely through my shoe and give me a pinpoint burn on the top of my foot. This left a few freckles on my running shoe and more noticeably on my sock. I should probably invest in a pair of steel toe boots, that may be a good idea.

If this weekend stays warm, I'm hoping to take off the windshield fully and be ready to FINALLY take the body off. I spent $20 at Home Depot this past weekend buying 2x4's so I can build a rolling body rig for when the body comes off. Instructions on how to build a body rig yourself can be found on Andre's 1968 Triumph GT6 MK1's site. This definitely solves the issue of where to put the body in a one car garage.

Slow go

Today it was 60 degrees in New England! So I got a chance to work on the car some more. Before we did that, Chris got free shelves from a co-worker, which we set up in the garage. We finally organized the Triumph parts that have accumulated in numerous boxes and laid across the garage floor.

As for the car, Chris drained the clutch fluid and removed the clutch pedal from the car. He also took off the master cylinder, but left the slave clutch cylinder on the transmission, since it wouldn't be in our way when we tried to remove the body. Meanwhile, I removed the windshield wiper motor and WD-40-ed the heck out of the convertible top hinges and finally got the thing to collapse and open properly.

What's left to remove before the body can come off:
- brake line, fluid, pedal, etc.
- gas pedal
- some sort of air block under the dash
- steering wheel, shaft, mount
- wiring mounts attached to the body

...slowly getting there.

How to remove the headlights off a 1968 triumph

I could not find how to remove the headlight rims from the Triumph - neither in the Haynes Trumph Spitfire auto repair manual nor online - so I've decided to post my lesson learned here.

The headlight rims are snapped into place with a ledge behind it at 12:00. Using a flat head screw driver, carefully pry off the headlight rim from the thin, rubber ring, starting at the bottom-most part of rim. Be careful not to scratch the chrome headlight. The bottom part of the headlight should pop off and you should be able to lift the headlight over the ledge at 12:00 and the headlight should come off.

Sounds easy when you know how to do it, but i had tried screwing off the lid, prying but stopped because I thought I would scratch the rim, and checking the underside of the hood to see if I there were screws holding the limbs on.

After removing the headlight, be careful not to remove the screws that adjust direction of the light. These should be left on and the headlights can be removed without taking out these screws off. Luckily, Chris read the Haynes page with this helpful hint.

Caulk, cabinet plywood, and screws.

Answer: Caulk, cabinet plywood, and screws...

Question: ...what are things this Triumph's battery box has in common with the bathroom aisle at Home depot...

While taking off the steering wheel, I noticed foam hanging out underneath where the battery box would sit under the hood. After looking closer at it, it looks that the previous owner had cut out a rectangular piece of cabinet plywood and used caulk and screws to hold it in place over the badly rusted battery box. The foam was used to fill the gap between the plywood and original battery box bottom.

After using utility knife to cut out as much caulk as possible (there was a ton of caulk), I ended up using a crowbar to pry the plywood off. The original battery box is in super bad shape. It is rusted on 40% of its edges and some of the metal easily broke off. Good thing I just signed up for an introductory course to welding at a local vocational high school, looks like I'll definitely be putting that to use.

MA winters are frigid.....

Massachusetts winters are absolutely frigid. For health and sanity purposes, I set my outside temperature threshold to 45 degrees. 45 degrees and above is an appropriate temperature to work on the car. Anything below, I'm staying indoors, which is why I have not updated this blog since November.

Today was the first day in months that I worked on the car. A high of 48 degrees satisfied my requirement in being outside. We started working on where we had left off - removing the steering wheel.

Chris had borrowed a different type of steering wheel puller from a friend that appeared it would do the trick. The puller clamped is suppose to clamp right behind the steering wheel with ends shaped like metal hooks. However, the metal hooks were too wide to squeeze underneath the Triumphs steering wheel. There was not a large enough gap to fit the clamps.

So, we decide to fashion clamp extenders out of scrap metal Chris had around the house. The idea was to jam these metal pieces behind the steering wheel and clamp the steering wheel puller to the metal pieces. We even grinded the metal pieces so that they would have better contact with the steering wheel puller. Though every time we tried to tighten the puller and pull the steering wheel out, the metal pieces would eventually fly off from the amount of pressure applied.

Taking off the steering wheel with the shaft is looking to be more and more tempting...