Fellow SOL,
More and more frequently my thoughts are drifting towards cosmetic
improvements for my TR3A (despite fears of shipwright's disease). Let me
introduce her to you. She (I say she, but her name either is Jimmy - from
the license plate JMY104 - or "The Cinder Cone" - from the large flare of
carbon that coats my garage floor, beginning below the exhaust pipes and
extending out onto the driveway) has never been restored, but is in very
good condition, especially mechanically. She has been painted at least
twice, and is now "burnt sienna?" The original colour was powder blue, but
as that is not my favourite colour, I was thinking of a change. Is there
some way of finding out what the authentic Triumph colours actually look
like? What does "Olive Yellow" really look like, and how about "Pale
Yellow" (neither authentic for my model, but I think a pale yellow would
look nice).
A friend recently had his 71 BGT painted by inmates at the "Banning Road
Camp," a county rehabilitation center (i.e., jail). They stripped it back
to bare metal, pulled out the dents, removed any bondo that they found,
primed, painted and clear-coated (I think) it. Anyway, it looks stunning.
So, last Friday, I drove out to Banning to have them (the cons) have a look
at it. The suggestion was that I remove all the trim, and then the fenders,
hood, trunk and have them dipped. The inmates could then sand the rest of
the car down, and do the painting (plus the dipped bits). I would then take
it all back home and assemble it. The instructions in Haynes seem pretty
clear as to how to remove panels, but can anyone recommend a book that
might go into more detail? Also, are there any down sides to dipping body
panels (except for cost)? There is a small amount of rust between the hood
and the cross-member that runs along under the trailing edge of the hood,
and to which it is welded. How should that rust be removed and treated?
As I was leaving the jail, The Cinder Cone died (right by the main gate).
It felt like it was out of gas, but the tank was full, and there was fuel
in the bowl. A quick check showed spark. Being tool-less at the time, I had
it towed to a gas station. After a bit of poking about, we found that the
fuel pump (a "replacement type") wasn't working. We took it off to find
that the pin that the arm that is driven by the cam pivots on, had fallen
out (not completely, but enough to stop the pump from working). The
mechanic banged it back in, but there seems to be no way to make sure that
it won't fall out again. Surely it should have circlips or cotter pins or
something to hold it in place, but since both ends are flush with the pump
body, there is no way of attaching such fasteners. Is this a common
problem?
So, we put the pump back on, and I was mobile again. On Saturday, I decided
to try to resolve a wiring problem. Some time ago, I had the main harness
replaced. Not too long after that, some low life tried to steal Jimmy, and
messed up the under dash wiring (perhaps they were not familiar with a
starter button?). The light switch had melted, and apparently the ammeter
had been cooked, because after having the wiring repaired, it didn't work.
But the car ran, so it wasn't until recently that I took the ammeter in to
be repaired. Well, it turned out that it was OK. So, I began to look
carefully at the wiring, and found that it was quite different from the
wiring diagram. The mechanic who had repaired the under-dash mess (Q. why
didn't I repair it myself? A. My insurance wouldn't pay for the cooked
parts unless a professional did it) had rigged some extra wires to make
everything (except the ammeter) work. I rewired the dash according to the
diagram, but nothing would work. After hours of frustration, I got
everything to function, BUT, only with the wire from the ammeter to the
control box DISCONNECTED. So, what is going on? The ammeter shows charge
and discharge appropriately, and the red no-charge light does what is
supposed to. Everything electrical seems to work. Should I expect the car
to burst into flames one night, or just put it down to the mysterious
Prince?
David McK. BIRD TR3A TS32922
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