TR3 KST 277 update 14 MARCH 2022

[DavidBee]

4 minutes ago, RobH said:

I managed it OK but mine is a later car with screwed fixings, not Dzus.  It's probably safer for the paintwork with two pairs of hands though. 

Thanks Rob! I got as far as unscrewing the Dzus, and scratching the paintwork on one side. Next time, cardboard underneath, or my pal John suggested taping the danger area first. It's the only thing stopping me. (Plus I don't have the tax and insurance discs that screw in to the stanchion bases.). But I could maybe put the docs in the glove box, anyway.

Edited February 13, 2022 by DavidBee

[stuart]

Depends on how long ago the screen came off and how straight everything is and whether they were fitted dry, its do able on your own but some masking tape on the scuttle helps, even with two of you be careful as quite often one side starts to slide forward before the other, also be careful when the lower rubber meets the wiper stubs.

Stuart.

[DavidBee]

3 hours ago, stuart said:

Depends on how long ago the screen came off and how straight everything is and whether they were fitted dry, its do able on your own but some masking tape on the scuttle helps, even with two of you be careful as quite often one side starts to slide forward before the other, also be careful when the lower rubber meets the wiper stubs.

Stuart.

Thanks, Stuart!

I had already tried only once, slightly scratched the scuttle, by going too far forward, beyond the stanchion plate guide.

OUCH!

Very small speck of undercoat appeared, really careless. You describe so well exactly what happened, including the rubber bit. I seem to be a try it first, don't listen, mess it up, and don't look for who to blame because you already know, kind of person.

Yesterday, cold as it was, I took off the driver's side sidescreen too. Much nicer with both off. (Reminds me of what it felt like on a motorbike.).

Otherwise, I can report that everything turns out to be well aligned and there is no sign of rust under the stanchions. Judging from the 1980s restoration photographs, those areas were cut out completely from the scuttle. I woefully put a little grease there now. I guess I can "spot" the damage with a fine sabre brush, black first, then body colour over that to achieve the same tone of dark blue.

And YES to masking tape! Why didn't I think of that?

Ciao,

   David

[Lebro]

The way I take mine off, is to remove the wipers, undo the 4 Dzus fasteners, then from one side pull the base of the screen pillar outwards & when it clears the mounting plate lift up. Then lifting from the top center of the screen push it slightly away from you, to clear the mounting plate on the other side, then lift the whole thing away.

I can do this without slackening any of the stanchion to screen screws, you may have to if you cannot clear the 1st mounting plate.

Bob

[BlueTR3A-5EKT]

4 hours ago, stuart said:

Depends on how long ago the screen came off and how straight everything is and whether they were fitted dry, its do able on your own but some masking tape on the scuttle helps, even with two of you be careful as quite often one side starts to slide forward before the other, also be careful when the lower rubber meets the wiper stubs.

Stuart.

Same way as Bob.

Wiper arm s and blades Off.

Vent flap and bonnet closed.

 

Push a piece of card under the screen lower seal each side to protect the body and tape in place.

In addition I slack all 6 screws (3 each side) that attach the stanchion to the frame one full turn, then release the 4 stanchion to body Dzus fasteners.

That way I can unhook the screen from the tenon guide plate on one side and then lift the entire assembly off.

Plus - Lay a blanket on the bonnet to rest the screen on in case it gets too heavy.

[stuart]

1 hour ago, Lebro said:

The way I take mine off, is to remove the wipers, undo the 4 Dzus fasteners, then from one side pull the base of the screen pillar outwards & when it clears the mounting plate lift up. Then lifting from the top center of the screen push it slightly away from you, to clear the mounting plate on the other side, then lift the whole thing away.

I can do this without slackening any of the stanchion to screen screws, you may have to if you cannot clear the 1st mounting plate.

Bob

Unless its an NDM shell in which case you can almost just undo the DZUS fasteners and lift the screen straight up, their scuttles are too narrow and Ive had to shim the tenon plates out before now

Stuart.

[Deggers]

1 hour ago, BlueTR3A-5EKT said:

Lay a blanket on the bonnet to rest the screen . . .

Top tip!

Unless of course, you're French  . . .  in a 3A  . . .  in 1963.   

(at 0:50 in the clip below)

Deggers

[stuart]

They even left the wipers on! Must have used double sided tape to stop it sliding off.

Stuart.

[DavidBee]

Lads, at 1:39 can you see a little rod, securing screen to scuttle x2?

[DavidBee]

On 2/14/2022 at 3:48 PM, stuart said:

Unless its an NDM shell in which case you can almost just undo the DZUS fasteners and lift the screen straight up, their scuttles are too narrow and Ive had to shim the tenon plates out before now

Stuart.

Stuart, please excuse my IGNORAMUSness, but what's a "NDM shell", when it's at home?

Ciao,

David

[John Morrison]

Shell built by North Devon Metalcraft

John.

[DavidBee]

1 minute ago, John Morrison said:

Shell built by North Devon Metalcraft

John.

 so, irony? Meaning they are flimsy, or just a fact?

CiO

David

[stuart]

12 hours ago, DavidBee said:

 so, irony? Meaning they are flimsy, or just a fact?

CiO

David

Not flimsy just not 100% accurate in one or two areas. But the only place where you can buy a complete shell.

Stuart.

[Charlie D]

Hello David,

Don't get too bothered about a few scratches when taking the screen off.
No car is immortal, one day the whole thing will rot away to dust, but the feeling you get driving without a screen on is priceless.

Just remember what happened to Lucy Jordan.
You will no doubt recall that, according to Doctor Hook, she was the lady who was afraid to remove her TR windscreen in case she scratched the paintwork.

---
"At the age of 37 she realised that she'd never drive
through Paris,
without a windscreen,
with the warm wind in her hair."
---

The song goes on to explain that she ended up going mad and was sent to an institution, never to drive her TR again.

 

Hope that helps.

Charlie.

[DavidBee]

11 hours ago, stuart said:

Not flimsy just not 100% accurate in one or two areas. But the only place where you can buy a complete shell.

Stuart.

I see, so handy, but then requiring handiwork and adjusting, like the fiddling with repro panels.

[DavidBee]

2 hours ago, Charlie D said:

Hello David,

Don't get too bothered about a few scratches when taking the screen off.
No car is immortal, one day the whole thing will rot away to dust, but the feeling you get driving without a screen on is priceless.

Just remember what happened to Lucy Jordan.
You will no doubt recall that, according to Doctor Hook, she was the lady who was afraid to remove her TR windscreen in case she scratched the paintwork.

---
"At the age of 37 she realised that she'd never drive
through Paris,
without a windscreen,
with the warm wind in her hair."
---

The song goes on to explain that she ended up going mad and was sent to an institution, never to drive her TR again.

 

Hope that helps.

Charlie.

It does! Because KST 277 has been promoted to daily driver status, I am resigned to the scratches, though the perfectionist part of my nature gets irritated by them. Especially when they're my fault. It rarely lashes down here when it rains, and the other night driving with the top down and no sidescreens was quite lovely. These days, weather predictions are usually reliable, so, I'm inclined to do it. Though I most probably will only have just the top down, when coming to Stafford for the Triumph Weekend. I remember that years ago my TR2 was more reliable for being a daily driver and, as now, my only car.

Ciao for now,

David

[DavidBee]

Well, only yesterday, encouraged by the end of Storm Eustace bad weather, devastating more for you in Great Britain than in Ireland, I followed your advice and fitted the aeroscreens that I bargained for with TR Bitz, on the grounds that the car had had them and here was my internet proof in a photo from the 1990s. I was right!

The Welsh owner's widow offered them for sale after the sale, having found them in his garage. She really missed him, a Welsh Register member told me.

As for Peter Wigglesworth's anodized plinths which I had mounted ages ago, only now could I really appreciate what a snug fit they are into the Brookland aeros. Unlike chrome, they seem to put up with me not polishing them all the time.

This was my maiden voyage using aeros. I had never driven a sidescreen TR with aeros before. It never occurred to me, when I was the rightful or wrongful owner of Phil Brown's TR2 (and yes, let's face it, it went to a really good home). 

Aeros really are something else. A sense of completion came over me. I realized that this is how motoring should be.

And off we went for a drive down to the coast. There are some nice long stretches where you can open up as well as a healthy mixture of bends, and when the sign says so, you better believe it. The roads were empty and traces of the storm few.

The exhilaration of driving without the windscreen hits you immediately. I was reminded of what it felt like riding my one and only motorbike years ago; a Benelli 125cc. This feels more like, I imagine, sitting in a First World War Sopwith Camel cockpit. The wind is just everywhere. The sky closer, the road too. And the sea! "Thalassa, Thalassa!" — as Homer gets someone to say in the Odyssey, or was it the whole crew? Can't remember.

Fact is, you are immediately enveloped in the scenery. And you notice more of what is going on around you. I didn't bother with the heater. One of those little electric devices. Waste of time. We did turn it on (you connect it to the cigarette lighter socket, you see) on the way back. What a joke it is. I'll flog it at Stafford or chuck it.

Where did we go? Kinsale again, but this time to the rugged landscape, a few miles outside the harbour. The sea was more grey than blue, and I struggled with the light on my small camera, the Sony RX100 with the zoom lens. The Sony Alpha III would have been better, but the colours too "correct".

Ireland can be very dramatic, rather like parts of Wales. It's not the height of hills, but the cut of them, and how they break away into the sea, that is so striking. That, and the change from one kind of landscape to a completely different one, just like that.

I had this silly grin on my face most of the time. Good job wet suits exist, which is why this guy with his sail could survive the cold. They call that "fun".

The couple coming up the slope towards KST are Polish and I let them take photos. "It's like a tractor!" The wife remarked, but only after she was well established in the driver's seat. "No, it's not! It's a sportscar", I replied, almost regretting my earlier kindness. But they weren't listening. Their respective Facebooks were more urgent.

A tractor? Did you hear that, KST? Perish the thought. Was it our much missed Graham Robson who reminded us not so long ago that the TR engine is NOT a Massey Furgoson tractor lump? 

And this, my dear friends, is The Old Head of Kinsale, at least it was, yesterday. There's a new golf course on it, since the land was sold off. Caused a big fuss, and rightly so. The good news is that there's a restaurant or something like that, open to anyone. Obviously, it was closed.

A closer shot. A lighthouse just visible. And an ancient tower. Lots of those around, but my ignorance and laziness is such that I know nothing about any of them, and this sordid state of affairs may never change.

"You'll love the Bulman, everyone loves it!"

Which we soon discovered was quite true. So much so that there was a forty-five minute wait to even get a seat. "People are not moving when they've finished their meal", the waiter explained.

Plan B? There's always a Plan B.

King prawn and chips with baby spinach salad, not a posh place, but plenty of parking and only the odd local, playing snooker or sat at the bar. They stared. We said hello. This really was their local and the Bulman for tourists. No one was wearing a mask, except the bar maids who have to for a few more days. Now they were very nice and asked us several times if the food was nice. I began saying it was, but she was already out of earshot.

Seems Covid-19 is finally over this time.

Edited February 20, 2022 by DavidBee
Typos, as usual

[DavidBee]

Only TR on the Johnny Hickey Memorial Run

You will recall my ecstatic reactions to driving a sidescreen TR3 on aeros. Well, yesterday I tested the upper limits of my enthusiasm. "Occasional showers" was the weather forecast, not "downpours" or "heavy rain". So I said to Martin "we'll chance it". His response was "I thought you'd put the windshield back?"

The Millstreet Vintage Club beckoned. Forty minutes to get there, the venue. Sounds like a street, but it's actually a town in Munster County Cork, on the County Bounds. I'd only heard of Millstreet because a rally car shop sold me the wrong fuel pressure gauge and the owner, a former rally driver, declined to sort the Webers last year.

I'd never been to a Classic Car Run in Ireland and neither had Martin, a friend and part of my wife's Irish side of family. A pub with a narrow bar feeding into a very large hall with people trickling in. We were early. Two facing tables one for sign up and the other for joining their Motor Club.

Meantime, a few retired 1970s rally Fords were arriving, including Escorts Mk 1, an RS, as well as a Vauxhall Cresta, I think, two Wolsey saloons (remember the badge lighting up?), and various what we used to call "euroboxes", now old enough to be classic cars, a couple of later Beetles with the embarassingly big rear side lights, and a Renault 4, same as the one my kid sister had in Rome.

We became the "TR3 Boys". After coffee and the locals having their natter, we set off out of town and a carefully planned route — all forty of us — would have been closer to one hundred, but the weather put off a lot of people. Even I could figure out where we were and when to turn off, thanks to their map, big numbers at the junctions, even Guarda with flashing blue lights, and marshals galore. All for an innocent run! Apparently, it's all or nothing here. Off road rallies or runs, and nothing in between. Someone told us his brother was into autotests and we could talk to him.

When we got to the highest pub in Ireland — The Top of Coom — near the Ring of Kerry, a famous pub that has recently reopened after Covid-19 closure, a flat capped gentleman told us he had three TRs, two TR3s and a TR4. "Not for sale", but someone else said he has stashes of spares stored in boxed on tiered shelving. And another thirty-seven classics, not far from here. "You go up that hill and turn left at the junction (which one?) Then I'm a little futher on and you can't miss it". He also had a TR2 which he sold recently and is being restored in Kerry (I actually know the one he is referring to, but have been sworn to silence).

But by this time hunger was more attractive than his steering boxes, twin H6s, and other stuff. "I'm interested in your Webers", he added. But I have not given up on the Webers quite yet. I agree with Peter. 34mm venturis and correct jets would be better than 36mm. Anyway, we exchanged numbers and I hope he lets me take some photographs when we eventually go. Forty classics!

The area is beautiful, even now, before budding Spring and a temperature of 8C. Narrow tracks with the ground falling away on both sides and all the debris from recent storms, the shades of luscious green in the trees. Sudden dramatic vistas. "It's a hill". "No it's not! It's a MOUNTAIN!" "Looks like a hill to me".

It felt colder, but wearing waterproof trousers was a good idea. Martin connected the joke electric heater, but our main problem was driving rain and hail stones.

We had to stop twice. Even with wraparound sun glasses on, you're struggling in heavy rain, you can barely see. And if you take them off, it's worse because pelting hailstones get into your eyes. Now I know how far you can push your luck with aeros. Lots of gentle leg pulling, but I don't care. And worse in Cork, one driver in his black 1980s Ford rolled down his window to mock us. One of those moments when you regret not being quick-witted. Later, you think up all sorts of insults. But Martin showed his wisdom; "no point".

But most of the time, it wasn't raining and after we passed the groups of locals watching the old cars go by, we had a couple of stretches behind slow commercial vehicles and could open up. My guess is KST 277 has a fast road cam. When you can see the edges of the steel head gasket, and think oh yes, the Webers, and the difference over 3,500 rpm, and up to 4,500, and this engine doesn't feel stretched at all at 85 mph (which we did while overtaking safely) you get to that conclusion. It's not lumpy at the bottom end, but, from distant memory, there should be a lot more torque than there is low down.

(My guess is that Mark Mason, some time after restoring KST 277, had a notion he'd get involved in competition. But some people enjoy restoring more than driving. So in the end KST was just for the local pub run. Which is good in one sense, because neither he nor the Welsh last owner hardly put any miles on it.).

Hence the Webers, the, to me, ugly, Minilites and even, I suspect, straight cut gears. All great, if you're living in the UK and can do what Hamish does, but not here, where it's a distant memory. "Could be the cam", one of the marshals told me at lunch. His brother would know and you can get new Weber parts in Dublin. "Here's the number".

Edited March 14, 2022 by DavidBee