triumph...tristan

So not to long ago i went with a mate to a mates place and i spotted this old looking car under some sheets, i had a closer look and discovered it was a early b1600 ute, i immediately asked if he would sell it, to my surprise he was more then happy to sell it, he just wanted to free up shed space after it had been sitting in there for 10 years. lately i have been getting into motorbikes so i was actually in the market for a ute, so this was just perfect a oldschool ute, and i was super stocked that it had a well side. Usaully when i see these utes they are super beat up or full of rust, so to find one this mint was such a score, The bad bits: The front left guard indicator lens is broken, the rear half of the hand brake is cut, apparently the last owner said it got stuck on oneday, the rear brake line is rusted out, and the mirrors are broken. It came with some spare parts and wheels too. I attempted starting the ute up the day i got it and it fired right up into life and ran super smooth, The clutch and all the gears seemed good too. So i plan on using this as the daily driver or workhorse for a while, I dont plan on changing much, ill get on to sorting all those main issues then ill go in for a wof and reg, The cars on hold so thats also a bonus. Ill then like to lower it slightly and then get some whitewall tyres and just use the original mazda caps. Im sure that should look pretty sweet with all its patina.

@datlow Yeah it does have some metallic in it, the tank has a few imperfections, but its such a nice factory color and paint scheme.

@Lord Gruntfuttock Thanks for that! Awesome I also love the cb360s I always thought they would be a lot more fun and nimble, I look forward to seeing your build.

So mid last year i saw this bike pop up on trademe and i had to have it, i was originally trying to find myself a small bike but somehow i ended up with this! I purchased the bike sight unseen so there was a big risk of it turning out to be a dud, I took the gamble and i have not regretted it, the bike is such a thrill to ride it really makes me feel like im in the 70s haha! The bike wasent perfect, its missing the left hand side cover the mud guards are pretty dented up, the rear tail light and one of the indicator lens were broken the tyres were worn and it was deregistered but i guess thats to be expected with a old bike. It looks like someone has put some love into it once upon as it has some ducati mufflers fitted and it had been converted to twin disc. My original plan was to get the bike road worthy then turn it into a bit of a scrambler, So i ordered new light lenses and tyres and got the bike to a road worthy standard, i took it in for the re vin and to my surprise it passed, its so much dam cheaper then revinning a car also, which is a bonus. Now that the bikes on the road im trying decide if i keep it original or change it up, if i was to change it up i dont think i could bring myself to cut anything of permanently, so i was mabye just going to remove the dented guards, put a smaller rear light on and put some lower bars on. Its only been on the road for a few days but its been going awesome! the floats seem to keep getting stuck tho so it drips out fuel when i leave it sitting, so i assume some carb rebuild kits should sole that, and the engines pretty noisy at idle, would anyone know why? the bike seems to run really well, from researching i found out that they are a typically noisy motors because of something to do with the clutch basket and the timing chain, has anyone had any experience with these motors? The day i got the bike Old vs New, they are pretty full on! but they actually look really good on the bike They are Dunlop k70 Tyres Wheels and tyres on the bike, it looks so good with out its mud guard on. This is how she looks now, im really liking the factory look to be honest.

Thanks guys! Yeah I think I will have to change the wheels soon as I think this will be abit of a cop magnet, and yeah I recently revinned a sigma wagon, it luckily had the original black plates, so all I had to do was contact nzta with some pictures of them, and then I was aloud to use them, sadly the original black plates for this car were long gone, so my only option was to get neew plates! I think I will have to just paint them, or is there someone who can remake black plates? Thanks

What should i do to the wagon next?

I also couldn't resist, so i decided to try the saloons ssr starshark wheels and a bit of low to see what it would look like! And im so dam stocked with how this cars turning out! people seem to loose there minds when they see that its a wagon triumph! Im looking forward to plenty of road trips around New Zealand! The worst bit is the silly white plates!

A bit behind schedule but ive now gone through the shit expensive task of getting it revinned and now she has her first wof and reg since 1978!

Has any one had much to do with these gl145 engines? theres like no information about them anywhere, The carburetor has a accelerator pump on it, and i was just wondering if it would be fine to just chuck another carb on without one? the cg dosent have one, and that runs sweet! and i read somewhere that these are similar to xr motors, so would i be able to just bolt on a xr185 or xr200 barrel? any help would be appreciated. thanks

Im also wanting to find a cool looking tank, i recently saw one with a cb200 tank and it looked awesome, so i wouldn't mind finding one. Heres what it looks like with a cb550 tank, It dosent look as out of place as i thought it would off haha. looks pretty sweet.

Sweet the i picked up the Honda Gl145 today, it runs sweet, has a bit more go then the Cg125 sounds cooler too haha! both bikes share the same engine mounts so thats handy. The Gl has all the good stuff, a 5 speed gearbox with a normal gear configuration, better front end with a disc brake, a longer swing arm with a bigger drum brake, plus 18 inch wheels all round, im sure theres other good bits too! but it should spice up the Cg nicely, The only thing i need is cheaper rego, so if any body knows of any 1970s cbs or cgs around or even just some plates so i can get them revinned, let me know.

@Flauski Sweet, I picked up the bike today, I'm wanted to get cheap Rego would you know of any old honda bikes for sale with some 1970s plates? Or even just plates? Thanks yeah I can sell it.

@Adoom I got them through a business called Kyusha garage. Theres also moonlight racing, You give the guy your max bid and then he sorts out all the shipping and stuff. They cost me $900 shipped to my door the wheels sold for about $500 then it was about $400 of all the other costs, its expensive but i wasent having any luck finding them in New Zealand.

I have my mind set on two wheels at the moment but im really unsure of what ones ill use yet! I originally got the star sharks re lipped for the car but then i really liked the look of some focus racing fin wheels so i scored my self some of those, they just recently arrived from japan, ill be getting those re lipped soon.

So the first job is to strip the car back and to start finding the rust, i went around to all the bubbled bits and grinded them back with a flappy disc. It really amazes me that so much much rust can can be hidden so easily! So i am now confirming that i will go through will my originally plan and ill be stripping this right back to a shell! I have plenty of spare bodys for rust cuts, so now i best get on to repairing it all. Here is some pictures of most of the rust i assume.

@Tumeke yes I love the pi,s I've enjoyed following your build. Yeah I'll be keeping the original interior for sure! I'll get it all tidied up! Yeah I'll let you know! The pi,s I've had all seemed to have a different type of material carpet to the tc ones, it's much nicer tho.

I am able to get a complete gl145 does any body know if the engine will fit in this and will be a good engine? Thanks

@nustad Thanks! yeah it does from a far, ill go around and take pictures of all the rust. yeah thats true! It really does make sense doing one bit at a time tho. Its a big decision haha! id really have to be committed!

@Beaver yeah thats true! i havent looked to much into that yet, i know you can get those camber adjustment brackets for them, so they might be the go, im just needing enough camber to fit the wheels, but with out it being stupid haha.

Heres the Project.

Discussion

So after wanting one for so long i finally found myself a genuine petrol injected Triumph! From first glance the car looked really tidy and straight, but sadly it had white plates because the owner got personalized plates put on at some stage in its life! But the interior is in really good condition the leather seats is a nice feature. It was manual overdrive, and the car even ran well, It has thousands of dollars worth of receipts with the car so i would have been stupid not to by this one! The car started its life in Palmerston North as a business car for Delta plastics in 1973 then after that the car was sold to gentleman in 1977 who keeped it for his whole until he passed away. The car then went to his son, who then decided to sell it. Now i am the new happy owner of this glorious pi I have been driving the car for a while and has not let me down! the only thing that how really bothered me about this car is rust! it really annoys me knowing how rusty it actually is haha! my original plans were to keep this a all original car, but ideally the car needs to be stripped down and redone. So i have decided to build this into my Dream Triumph! i know its not every ones type of car, but for me a boned Triumph on nice wheels making glorious sounds from the original injection gear ticks all the boxes for me! So the plans are: Strip the car down, remove all the paint, fix the rust, Tidy up all the horrible factory welds/general clean up on the body, remove, then primer the whole car. Put new bushings throughout the car, rebuild all the brakes, remake all the brake lines, modify the sub frame bolts and gearbox cross member to sit higher, fit a Subaru r160 LSD diff, fit Datsun 180b Halfshafts, Get some fortune auto coils overs made up for the front and rear, Get some focus racing fin wheels re lipped to 14x8-14 then paint all the the chassis components. Get the whole body resprayed professionally/ at this stage id like to keep it the factory color. Get all the interior redone so it looks like it did in the 1970s Then it will be building a fast road motor! the main thing is that it will have to be the running the original lucas injection. Theres alot im going to learn from this build, its really one of those builds were for the last few years i have literally zoned out everyday and imagined every little detail about the way i want it to be haha! Im gonna have heaps of questions like Id love to have some tips on welding, whats the best way to remove paint too steel? whats the best way to remove under seal? Heres some pictures.

@yoeddynz Yeah once its on the road ill have to find some suitable wheels for it. Ive been considering the idea of getting some of those chrome smoothie wheels for a while. i feel they could look pretty sweet on it. Just nice and cruisy!