Practically Classics Forum

Particularity enjoyed the Stag episode, you Phil were the star of this one, also proving (like just about all other old car owners) that you always hang onto something "just in case" it is needed in the future - in this instance being the Stag hard top.

I too thought they were bubbling sills, so I reversed, stopped the picture in freeze frame and thought it was some sort of adhesive that was there to hold the covers on - nice to have that confirmed.

The predicament over whether to return the body to standard spec was dealt with nicely I thought, I too didn't like the spoiler, the bonnet and the interior but most of all those gold wheels (). Amazing just to swap the wheels over and colour the interior made a such a difference, I think it achieved perfectly the balance needed between the "custom" look and the classic lines of the original design.

I was a bit mystified as to the Stag road tests though? Two cars were road tested to check out the difference between a manual and an auto, yet we (I am pretty sure) never found out what the test results were?

That pedal conversion is a brilliant piece of design, is it a British company?

Having visited Beaulieu myself on many occasions, I totally empathised with the owner when he said "I wasn't expecting to see one of those [Triumph Stag] here", I hope Beaulieu noted that comment as (in what I thought was only my own opinion) that they do not have enough (hardly any) 1970s cars in their collection. They have [1970s cars] today (I believe) the biggest following, I hope that point came home to the curators at the museum?

Anyway, off my soap box now, as I said before Car SOS is a great show, I do hope it continues for many years to come.

JPB wrote:hour and a half "warts and all" episodes!

Where have you found those? I have only seen the hour long ones in the schedule.

Good that the sills were OK, they looked decidedly ropey on telly.

Regardless that is a good looking car. I'm with Fuzz that I think the bonnet looks daft and spoiler is questionable. Replacing the REALLY daft wheels with factory ones was definitely a good move.

Thanks DoloMIGHTY. Yes it is a British company. I didn't get involved with that but I think it was He-Man Controls.

The bonnet louvres aren't my choice either but the Rover lump is a 'snug' fit under there and all the heat you can let out helps. The front apron under that spoiler to me lived up to it's name. It spoilt the front. Underneath it was a front panel that was full of wrinkles and dents not to mention holes from pop rivets and self tappers. It wasn't rotten though. It did hide the engine oil cooler and the transmission cooler. The transmission cooler could not be fitted in the standard position because of the modified oil filter position. That was mounted on the engine when it arrived and with only enough time to do the other jobs it had to stay and after all it worked. The power steering hoses were a bit of a 'bag of spagetti' to get them to miss everything. We had the gearbox in and out three times to sort the shift linkage. The torque converter fouled the bell housing something we only found when the engine was fired up. There was a cooling ring on the back of the torque converter that rubbed on a web inside the bell housing. DON'T ask!! We had to do quite a bit of adjustment to get the Rover engine to sit in the bay properly as when it came it sat with the manifolds resting on the chassis rails and wedged against the steering column. We got it to miss everything in the end....without Tims endascope or inuendos! Nathan did his magic on the scratches and bruises. The Vinyl colour change stuff was amazing.

The Stag auto that was road tested had a 4 speed Jaguar autobox in it. A good swap I understand as the Triumph V8 stays in a better power band rather than having to make do with that 'Victorian' Borg Warner 3 speed box. The other Stag had a manual gearbox.

The proper 5 spoke wheels really set off the Stag.

It has been fantastic working with Fuzz on this series because he is a brilliant mechanic and quick and a real nice guy.....even though he's into buses.

Only three cars left in the series, and it just gets better.

Phil

Phil P wrote: The torque converter fouled the bell housing something we only found when the engine was fired up. There was a cooling ring on the back of the torque converter that rubbed on a web inside the bell housing. DON'T ask!!

A common problem caused by a mismatch of parts.

No mismatch. Rover engine, Rover torque converter, Rover gearbox. All compatible parts for the same year of Rover SD1 that the engine was from. It only just touched. I think the cooling ring was slightly distorted. A gentle touch with the linisher and problem solved.

Quicker than a 4 hour round trip to change it!


Phil

Just watched the P6 episode,excellent as always. Can't believe Tim sniffed the seat sponge

TerryG wrote:....
Where have you found those? I have only seen the hour long ones in the schedule....

It's available from the app that I found and the hour and a half would be double the normal episode length as they have no commercials so each one is 45 minutes. Obviously I'd be breaking some copyright law if I put one on my Dropbox and sent you a link to it by PM but if that were to happen by accident I would find it quite hard to account for its being there.

Nearly 400MB though, and the weather has reduced my broadband signal to well under 3Mb up, so this may take some time......

Phil P wrote:No mismatch. Rover engine, Rover torque converter, Rover gearbox. All compatible parts for the same year of Rover SD1 that the engine was from. I think the cooling ring was slightly distorted.

That is a mismatch. The SD1's were never fitted with a cooling shroud on the converter.

Blame the supplier then!! They had the engine number etc. The shroud ended up in the skip because I cut it off VERY CAREFULLY. I suppose that was wrong. I think I'm divulging to much background imformation so I won't post anymore.

Phil

Phil P wrote:Blame the supplier then!! They had the engine number etc. The shroud ended up in the skip because I cut it off VERY CAREFULLY. I suppose that was wrong. I think I'm divulging to much background imformation so I won't post anymore.

Phil

What a shame. To be frank, this topic was the only recent to visit here.