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