Tuesday
So today I did a reasonable amount of work on the car.
I finalised the stainless trim for the drivers door and bolted it on.
I was well pleased with the result. Each little thing that I do now, makes the car look tantalisingly more like it is supposed to, yet so far from being finished!!
I have found from reading Paul's thread, that he has similar experiences to me.
He says that sometimes when you do work on your build, it often has a "knock-on" effect on other things.
Tell me about it!
When I cut out the inspection hatch on the rear of the bonnet area, I had no idea that later in the build when I came to fit the windscreen wipers, I would have to raise the motor by 4 inches.
I just found out that the knock-on effect this had was to render the inspection hatch fixing system totally useless.
The room that I needed to fix the hatch from under the bonnet had evaporated, and I would have needed lessons from Houdini on how to wriggle the hatch into place and fix it in securely without tearing all the flesh off my fingers and hands. (I'm good at that)
So it was back to the drawing board.
I fitted 4 locating lugs and held it in place with an elastic bungee.
It is really quick and easy to get the hatch on and off now, so its an improvement over the original system.
I still will use the safety line to prevent hatch loss if the system fails.
Just before I drove the car back into its tent for the night. I noticed a weepy water leak from the heater valve under the bonnet, so I attempted to undo the tiny bolts so I could get the valve off and fix it.
Of course, having been on the car since the battle of Hastings, they both sheared off.
I had a real job getting the bloody thing off, and when I did I had to drill out the sheared bolts which is always lots of fun.
Somehow I managed it without any damage to the valve, and replaced the rubber "O" ring thingy to fix the leak.
I drilled the holes out to about 5mm, much bigger than they were, so I could fit some stainless bolts and nuts.
It is a better job now than Triumph's original effort, and does not leak any more.
Just about all the nuts and bolts I have had to put on the car have been stainless steel. As I said before, I am totally, pissed off with rusty seized up sheared bolts in awkward places, and the long fight to get them off.
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