Blog

WHAT we’re doing, and HOW we’re doing it!

April 29, 2024

Cars can and will rust in some strange places, often places where you would never think to look. Not until you notice water on your carpet after a car wash or a drive in the rain would you start an investigation leading to this spot. This is the lower outer corner of the scuttle plenum, or in other words the chamber under the cowl vent that feeds fresh air to the heater and vent system of a TR4-TR6. You can see the little hose nipple in the corner. This is supposed to collect any water that enters the plenum from above, then drain it out at the rear edge of the front fenders. Inside the plenum is an area which never received any paint from the factory, all bare steel so it’s going to rust. Rust flakes and any other dirt and debris which enters through an open vent (or TR6 plastic grille) will clog the tube and hold the water inside, accelerating the rust until it breaks through like this (or more). We’ve had cars with this whole corner missing. Debris can also clog the drain hole at the bottom of the fender, and when that hole clogs, it’s a major contributor to the front fenders rusting along the lower edge.

April 22, 2024

It’s always fun to find obvious problems that others have missed. We have a TR3A here that was sent to us after two previous attempts to rebuild the engine had yeilded poor results. The engine had a serious shake and vibration which the locals couldn’t find, and the owner fully expected that we would have to rebuild the engine once more to get to the bottom of the problem. Rather than dive right in with an expensive overhaul and balancing operation, we opted to perform a little diagnosis first, and see if there wasn’t a more simple fix. While confirming that the plug wires were in the correct firing order and checking the ignition timing (simple problems we’ve seen far too many times), we did hear a loud hiss originating on the right side of the engine. From there, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to notice that a couple of the intake and exhaust manifold studs were too long and the nuts had bottomed out before securing the manifolds tightly to the head. The next logical step was to pull the manifolds and look at the gaskets, which were indeed the source of a major vacuum leak and the cause of all the shaking. After new gaskets and a couple of correct length studs, the engine now runs as smooth as silk, without the time and expense of another engine rebuild!

April 15, 2024

Thrust washers in the 6-cyl Triumph engines have been known to be problematic. Allow the wear to get bad enough and they will drop out into the oil pan. When that happens, the crankshaft is pushed forward to a point where it wears against the engine block and main bearing cap, making an awful racket and ruining those components. If you watch the crankshaft end float (annually) and don’t sit at traffic lights with the clutch pedal depressed (or other driving habits that accelerate the thrust bearing wear) you’ll probably never have a problem. We removed the oil pan on this TR6 just to replace the gasket, and owing to our Triumph experience we decided to check the crank end float while we were there. The spec is .006”-.008”, and this one measured .030”, approaching the danger zone. After patting ourselves on the back for being proactive and saving the owner some money by changing thrust bearings while the pan was already off only felt good until we dropped the main cap. The current owner just bought this car, so we assume that the prior owner did this “repair” just long enough to get the car sold. The crankshaft is ruined, and the current owner does not want to fix it. The owner’s wife says SELL, and hopefully the sellers will let potential buyers know that it needs a major engine overhaul.

April 8, 2024

Here we have the finished update of the TR6 interior from last week. New carpet and wheelarch padding, but all of the rest are the same old components shown in last week’s photo. Just the wheelarches alone would have been a huge improvement, getting the seams straight and removing the wrinkles, but a slight color change to the carpet was a big help as well. Minor tweaks to the side and rear panels helped too, although too minor to show up in the pics. The hard backing on the side panels means that they will always wrinkle where they curve to meet the rear gas tank panel, but it’s not a big deal as they are hidden when the soft top is folded down, and way back in a dark shadow that makes them less visible when the top is up. Front carpets should be considered a “normal wear” item, and are usually the first interior component to show their age. The crisp lines of carpet will wear away gradually so it usually doesn’t get noticed until it looks really bad. Keep a careful watch on it, you’ll see the signs much earlier than you might expect. If you drive your car frequently, especially when your drives are short and you get in & out repeatedly without adding many miles, you will probably see a big improvement if you plan on replacing the carpet every 5-10 years.

April 1, 2024

Sometimes, just a little detail work is all that’s needed to improve the “cosmetics” of your Triumph. Take this TR6 for example. The interior was actually in pretty good shape, but a sloppy installation left it looking a little bit “rough”. While the car was here for an engine rebuild and a moderate sized list of smaller items to address, it was decided that we should tidy-up the interior and make the car more appealing. The biggest mistake here is with the wheel arch covers, and a lot of folks struggle to get these right. It doesn’t help that some of the interior suppliers send the wrong type of padding in their kits, and poor looking covers were so common that we posted a page on our website about them many many years ago: https://macysgarage.com/wheelarch%20cvr.htm Check back with us next week and see how new wheel arch padding and several fitting adjustments (plus a new carpet set) brought this TR6 interior up to something the owner and his family will be proud to sit in.