Adoom's 1972 Triumph 2000

[Adoom]

Scooped the engine back out the hole. Then put the gearbox back in so I can do the clutch and brake lines. I'll also be redoing the engine mounts as cert man wanted them thicker. And I can weld in the relocated steering column lower mount.

I'll also be clearancing the chassis rails a bit more for the passenger side exhaust cause I put it in the wrong place the first time. And some clearance for the steering intermediate shaft. 

Epotec goes a bit toasted marshmallow if you use a MAP gas torch to soften underseal for scraping it off... 

[Adoom]

Been working on the clutch plumbing.

And welded in the lower steering column mount.

And made the reliefs in the chassis rail for exhaust and steering shaft.

I need to find/make some bracket type thing to hold three 3/16th brake pipes that need to run across the top of the firewall. As close together as possible...

[Adoom]

Could not find anything for three lines that was available...

Left front caliper, clutch, line to rear.

So... yeh? Or nah?

They are a loose fit. 5mm drill for 3/16th pipe(4.6mm?)

[Adoom]

A clutch line. Bent by hand so not robot straight. I made it a little longer than required just in case I need to redo the flares. Hopefully having it go higher than the reservoir do not cause issues bleeding. The reservoir is just on a hose and bracket, so I could make it higher if I needed to.

And the hose bracket I made. With the hose like this it keeps out of the way of the wheel and it doesn't get tight from lock to lock.

The hardline originally went under the chassis rail, but it will be way too close to the exhaust, I'll run it through the inner wing.

[Adoom]

Discovered that the caliper paint I've used is rubbish. Blasted half off half of it with compressed air. They are aluminium so won't rust. Does anyone recommend something that actually sticks and comes in a spray can?

[Adoom]

Engine mounts redone in thicker material as advised by the man. 8mm should do it.

I machined up a spacer and did half at a time so I could use the original half to keep the alignment. But I also added a 4mm spacer when welding on the first new half to shift the engine back a tiny bit and give me just a little more clearance between the cross member and the sump. I hope that doesn't come back to bit me in the arse later. 

When welding in the second half of each mount I replaced the 4mm spacer with a fibre washer as a shim so it's not such an uber tight fit to get the bush/sleeve in there.

 

[Adoom]

This make some things easier....

I bolted the don't-fall-on-me props on so they can't accidentally be knocked out. It's a bit bottom heavy with all the suspension still attached so it does want to come back down.

[Adoom]

Was each side of the floorpan designed by people in different rooms who refused to talk to each other?

The raised sections of floor are not visible inside, there is a second 'floor' that the seat bolts to. Those are pretty much identical.

WHY the different shapes?! Is the floorpan also used in the Stag? Is there something there in the Stag?

[Adoom]

While I've got the underside of the car right in my face, I've been using the hammer to close up any gappy seams and straightening edges. Because I can.

The seam at the front end of the sills were a bit squashed from jacking so I knocked and pried them back into shape. While doing that I noticed some pinholes in the flat panel that joins the bottom of the front wing to the seam on the bottom of the sill. I decided to remove that panel. It's basically an 'L' shape so real easy to make a new one.(I've made the new ones using slightly thicker metal) The drivers side sill end was quite pitted under that flat panel because debris gets stuck between them. I cut that out too, it's also flat. It was in AMAZINGLY rust free condition in there. It seemed to be evenly coated with a dark grey primer, this shell must have been dunked in a vat of this primer at the factory for it to be in there.

Just for good measure I flooded it with Zinc primer.

I did the passenger side too, just to check it was in even better condition. A little pitting, but no pinholes.

I tried to take a photo inside but my phone didn't want to use the flash.

[Adoom]

I lifted the rear subframe off. Feels like one of those photos showing off the big fish I caught...

With the car like this it made it really easy to measure between the front and rear lower ball joints to find the wheelbase on the drivers side was longer than the passenger side. I suspect it's because I built the alignment jig for the two front mounts on the yellow car, not this one.
I had oversized the holes that the studs come through to allow some wiggle room, but I need to take a further 4mm off both sides. Once I can get it on a wheel alignment machine to make sure it's straight the studs will get welded in solid.

I've started cleaning off the last of the underseal.
I've got to also remove the remains of the original spring seat reinforcement.

[Adoom]

Fuck, I must have spent at least 4 hours grinding the remains of those spring mounts off. There were so many spot welds, I basically has to turn 90% of it into dust on the floor.

[Adoom]

I made the handbrake cable bracket. I can make the cable outer touch the propshaft flange, so I'll make some brackets to hold them away. I'm fairly confident they wouldn't touch by themselves anyway...
I must decide how I want to marry the Triumph handbrake lever to the toyota cable so it's still adjustable.

The handbrake is offset to the drivers side, so the cable 'just' misses the propshaft.