t h e m a g a z i n e o f t h e t o r o n t o t r i u m p

Spring Fling Review • Wire Wheel Fix • Miata Seats

BBQ BASH

T h e M a g a z i n e O f T h e T O r O n T O T r i u M p h C l u b S u M M e r 2 0 1 6

Ragtop I SummeR I 2016 www.TorontoTriumph.com 3

contentsSummer 2016

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On the CoverIn my eight years as Ragtop‘s editor, I’ve resisted the temp-

tation to flaunt Rosie on the cover. But this is my last issue, so

I decided at the last minute to waive my self imposed restriction

and put Rosie in the spotlight as a tribute to her & the extra time I

will now have to enjoy her! Photo by David Fidler

Member PagesFrom the Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5From the President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7Club Hub. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8Owner’s Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Features Events:Spring Fling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Victoria Weekend. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

TRiumph Tales:Life as a Car Nut’s Wife . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Restoration:Generation Next – TR-6 on a budget . . 30

Tech & Resto:TR-250 Restoration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Bits and Pieces:Wire Wheel Fix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Mazda Seat Swap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Tail Lites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Spring Fling Review • Wire Wheel Fix • Miata Seats

BBQ BASH

T H E M A G A Z I N E O F T H E T O R O N T O T R I U M P H C L U B S U M M E R 2 0 1 6

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Many of you have ties to Great Britain. Whether it’s as an ex-pat like me or just that you own a Triumph, we have a common in-terest with the comings and goings of our friends across the pond. Or should that be ‘Remainings and Leavings? Whatever your thoughts about the recent referendum and it’s resulting BRexit vote, it could have a very positive effect for fans of British vehicles.

The European Union and free trade had a lot to do with the demise of the British automotive industry since 1983 and, with only a handful or exceptions, the wholesale sell off of house-hold names like Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, Mini, Triumph, MG etc. began. It should be said that the nationalisation of companies such as BMC, which later became British Leyland, didn’t help the cause and dubious labour practices, production qual-ity woes and strikes put them on the auction block. But the EU and its easier access to the UK market for the likes of BMW, Mercedes, Audi (of Germany) and Peugeot, Renault and Citroen from France, was the main reason the UK lost its automotive industry dominance.

So why might the leave vote help? Well the way I see it, with greater control of its domestic affairs and markets, a weaker Sterling and probable import tariffs, the UK should get a jump start to claw back its manufacturing base and along with that, maybe some of those marques will return to their homeland? Triumph, which is owned by BMW, might TR-exit the EU too!

Oh, and parts from UK suppliers like Rimmer Bros are now cheaper, yay!After eight years as Editor of Ragtop, I’ve held my own BR-Exit “Leave/Remain” referen-

dum and the result was unanimous for the “Leave” camp. It was with a heavy heart that I recently tendered my resignation to the Executive Board of the Club to be relieved of my duties as Vice President & Director of Communications. Along with my job as Editor, I sold and managed the advertising in Ragtop and sat on the British Car Day committee, I have reluctantly also stepped down from these duties. I have been finding it increasingly dif-ficult to juggle my volunteer work for the Club with my business and as a consequence my business has suffered. With thoughts of retirement, hopefully in a couple of years time, I need to concentrate on my real work and family commitments. We’re also well along with plans to move out of the GTA into the countryside, maybe north, maybe west, haven’t really decided, but attending the monthly Executive & BCD meetings will prove quite difficult for me in the future.

I am pleased to announce that Assistant Editor, Terence McKillen, will be taking over as Editor from the next issue onwards. I’m happy that Ragtop will be in good hands and I congratulate Terence on his promotion! Please continue to support him with lots of stories and photographs. I will retain my role as Publisher and continue to print Ragtop through my business contacts in the industry.

Although I’ve left the Board, I am not leaving the Club and I very much look forward to seeing you all at the monthly club meetings and at many more events in the future. Now I’ll be able to spend more time chatting with you and looking at the cars, instead of running around doing Club stuff and hogging the microphone!

Thank you for your past support and encouragement everyone... Fid over & out.

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Program

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SUBMISSIONSFormat: MS Word files are preferred. Send via email or on CD, 20Mb limit on email files. Send photos separately, do NOT embed in the text file. Hard copy submissions are acceptable, but not preferred. Graphics must be in major graphics for-mats, jpeg, tiff or Photoshop files. In Person: To the editor at the monthly meetings or mail:

2421 Poplar Crescent, Mississauga, Ontario L5J 4H2

E-mail: [email protected]

ADVERTISINGContact the Club’s advertising representative for details of dates and submissions. Submit ads as high resolution (min 300 ppi) PDF files, saved for print in CMYK format, fonts embedded, by E-mail to [email protected] advertising year is from Mar. 1 to Feb. 28. A copy of Ragtop is sent to all paid advertisers.

ADVERTISING RATES per year

Rear Cover (full colour) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$500 Inside Front Cover (full colour) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$475Inside Back Cover (full colour). . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$450 Full Page Inside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$305 Half Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$185 Quarter Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$115 Business Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $70 Full colour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $115 extraSecond colour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $75 extra Flyer Inserts . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$190/issue (max 4 pgs)

(All rates are for 4 issues, except flyers) [email protected]

2016 SCHEDULEIssue Editorial Deadline Mailed Spring. . . . . . . . . . . . . .February 22 . . . . . . March 29 Summer . . . . . . . . . . . .May 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 30Fall/ BCD Program. . .July 25 . . . . . . .September 20 Winter. . . . . . . . . . . . . .November 7 . . December 30

General [email protected]

Ragtop is published quarterly by the Toronto Tri-umph Club Inc. (“TTC”) and is distributed to its members as part of their annual dues. The TTC or the Editors cannot accept responsibility for the safe return of any submitted material. We will do our best, but accidents do occur.

We accept no responsibility for errors or omis-sions. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the TTC Ex-ecutive or Membership.

Non-profit groups may reprint articles from this pub-lication, where the author has not reserved rights, provided we get credited and both the author and TTC receive a copy of the publication in its entirety. Distribution by Pillar Direct.Printed by Printwell Offset for the Toronto Triumph Club.

Copyright © 2016 by the TTC.

Canada Post Publications # 40022175


When you get this edition of Ragtop we will be well into summer and I do hope that you’ve had a chance to get your Triumph out as often as possible. Recently we had the premiere for Warren Beech and Mike Pearse as hosts for the club BBQ which attracted an excellent turnout of club members with an eclectic collection of cars. The food was great as was the company and the weather was spectacular. Well done Warren and Mike!

You’ll see elsewhere in this edition a write-up of Spring Fling which was hosted by the MG Car Club of Toronto. Captioned “Bounty in the County” the event was centred at the Isaiah Tubbs resort located close to Picton in Prince Edward County. A good weekend was enjoyed by all in a beautiful part of Ontario.

What else have we been up to so far this year? Ancaster was a very good day out with more LBCs in the parking lot than I’ve ever seen before... sunshine really works! Our club night at WEGZ was a success as Larry works hard to vary our venues across the GTA. Terence McKillen organized the Victoria Day Long Weekend drive which attracted 16 Triumphs. Su-per roads, great company, good weather, wonderful destination and about 100 miles door-to-door. This is what long weekends are all about!

The second annual Taste of British Car Day was held at the end of June and you can read all about it on page 10.

July brings two of my favourite venues, Lindsay for Brits in the Park and Peterborough for the Canadian Classic. Alex and Sharon McLeod have a spectacular Classic weekend planned which I’m really looking forward to. See you there!

To keep updated on other events planned for 2016 please check out our Calendar of Events, which we try hard to keep up-to-date.

By the time you receive this Ragtop the British Car Day committee will be flat out mak-ing sure we have all of our ducks in a row for the 33rd running of this fabulous event. Ron Etty will be searching for volunteers, so if you have a few hours to spare for set-up on Satur-day and/or helping out on Sunday, please drop him a line at [email protected]

We already have volunteers for two events next year. As you know Robin Searle will be leading the circumnavigation of Lake Superior in June/July 2017and he is building a list of those interested in this adventure. It’s TTC’s turn to organize Spring Fling in 2017 and I’m delighted to report that Keith and Chris Stewart have volunteered to take this on. Centred in London, Ontario this will be an event not to miss and details will be provided as they become available.

The enthusiasm of our club members in volunteering to take on any number of activi-ties is mind boggling. The effort taken to hold a full slate of events, produce Ragtop, keep up with memberships, keep the web site fresh, write articles for Ragtop, monitor the Fo-rum, keep the finances in order and many, many other things is huge and so I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you all for your contribution to our club.

So, sit down in your favourite chair and enjoy the summer edition of Ragtop!

Dave SimsPresident – [email protected]

Crazy Days of Summer

from the president

Executives President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dave Sims 905.331.1496Vice President. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .David Fidler 905.829.9340Secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alastair Wallace 905.627.2941Treasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Clive Huizinga 905.884.2091Director of Communications . . . .David Fidler 905.829.9340Membership Chair. . . . . . . . . . . . Wayne McGill 905.847.5532Director at Large . . . . . . . . . . Terence McKillen 647.202.8243Director at Large . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Patrick Caria 416.562.1642Past President . . . . . . . . . . . David Tushingham 416.419.2201

Ragtop Magazine Ragtop Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .David Fidler 905.829.9340Assistant Editor . . . . . . . . . . . Terence McKillen 647.202.8243Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . Rod Jones – Pillar Direct 416.755.9494Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michael Cleland 905.873.7704Advertising Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Fidler 905.829.9340 WebsiteWeb Manager/Classifieds . . . . . Keith Stewart 519.660.1916

Club CoordinatorsMeeting Coordinator . . . . . . . . Larry Llewellyn 416.245.9217Interclub Coordinator. . . . . . . . . . . Tony Fox Sr. 905.632.0479Ambassador-at-Large. . . . . . . . . .Wayne McGill 905.847.5532 Regalia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dion Widrich 416.464.6057Historian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frank Manning 905.643.2359 Volunteer Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ron Etty 905.547.2419 BCD Sponsors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frank Manning 905.643.2359 David Fidler 905.829.9340 Dave Sims 905.331.1496Motorsports . . . . . . . . . . . . . Simon Rasmussen 905.853.2514

Model CoordinatorsTR-2, 3, 3A & 3B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Keith Stewart 519.660.1916 Alistair Wallace 905.627.2941TR-4, 4A, 5 & 250 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .John Lille 416.231.3092

Dave Sims 905.331.1496 Keith Stewart 519.660.1916TR-6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Colin Pillar 905.271.5869

Wayne McGill 905.847.5532 Lyal Moffatt [email protected], GT6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .J.P. Gauthier 416.631.8287 Ron Pincoe 519.941.0976TR-7 & 8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ron Etty 905.547.2419 Larry Llewellyn 416.245.9217 Brad Reynolds 905.332.3245Stag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tony Fox Sr. 905.632.0479 Terence McKillen 905.855.2463 Robin Searle 705.484.0071Herald, Standard Vanguard, Roadster . . . . . . . . . Kem Jones kemjones [email protected]

Event CoordinatorsBritish Car Day Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dave Sims 905.331.1496 Canadian Classic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alex & Sharon McLeod [email protected] Fling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MGCCTAnnual BBQ . . . Warren Beech [email protected] Mike Pearse [email protected] Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (Vacant)1/2 Day Drives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (Volunteers wanted)

Club Photographers . . . . . . . . . Larry Llewellyn 416.245.9217 Chris Lindsay 416.233.7360

Membership Mail74 West River Street Oakville Ontario L6L 3B5

Ragtop Mail & E-mail2421 Poplar Crescent, Mississauga, ON, L5J 4H2

[email protected]

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8 www.TorontoTriumph.com Ragtop I SummeR I 2016 Ragtop I SummeR I 2016 www.TorontoTriumph.com 9

Meeting Reports

club hub

Tuesday, May 17Club Night Meeting | Drive YourTriumph15-20 members braved a somewhat chilly spring evening and atrocious rush-hour traffic to drive their Triumph’s to the May Club Night held at the WEGZ Stadium and Bar on Ruther-ford Rd., Vaughan – special parking was set aside for the Triumphs.The usual light refreshments were served.

JuneThis year’s BBQ at Coronation Park in Oakville involved a changing of the guard as Warren Beech and Mike Pearse hosted the event for the first time, taking over from long time hosts Brian Clark and Jack Willekes. The weather was perfect, the food was delicious, the company was excellent and the cars in the parking lot (as you can see from the accompanying pictures) were outstanding. All in all a very good evening for which Warren and Mike are to be con-gratulated. Thanks guys!

Please go to www.TorontoTriumph.com and renew today!

Membership Renewal Reminder(Thank you if you have renewed since press time)

Name Member# Date m / d / yShane Abbott 5569 07/28/16

Jerry Abrams 5578 09/02/16

Sandra and Mario Boetto 1899 08/01/16

Mark Brown 5568 07/24/16

Barry Burnside 5571 08/12/16

William Copeland 2759 07/14/16

Scot DeYoung 5575 08/16/16

Sean Doherty 5052 08/28/16

Paul Greig 5564 07/13/16

Phil & Mary Anne Harris 2342 09/01/16

Jack L Manock 5565 07/23/16

Chuck & Carmie McCormack 5146 08/25/16

Peter McNair 5570 07/31/16

Wayne Mullins 5574 08/11/16

Alex Needleman 5566 07/22/16

Morrie Nudelman 5576 08/19/16

Charles & Bertha Parish 1291 07/29/16

Stefan Schwarz 5450 08/29/16

Charles Scott 5573 08/11/16

Kieren Smyth 2734 09/01/16

Archie Thomas 1069 09/01/16

Jeanette Voortman 5444 08/11/16

Helmuth & Brigitte Vorkoetter 2265 08/06/16

Andrew Wasson 5567 07/23/16

Dion Widrich 3215 08/30/16

Valid as of July 5, 2016

AprilSunday, April 17Ancaster British Car Flea Market and Car ShowWhat a fantastic sunny day, probably the nicest day for the season’s opening event in many years. Attendance was also up - there must have been at least 300 cars in the LBC compound. Clive and Wayne re-ported that there were 34 membership renewals some of which were lapsed and we also sold calendars, bags and back is-sues of Ragtop magazines. The TTC table at Ancaster importantly provides a chance for the Club’s Executive team to chat with many TTC members. A new flag, table cloth and backdrop recently acquired by Dave Sims for BCD also looked great. All in all a pretty good day for the club and hopefully a very good day for the Hamilton British Car Club and Austin Healey Club.

Monday, April 18Club Meeting / Quiz NightTerence McKillen assembled 50 illustrated questions to really test our knowledge of Brit-ish cars of the 1960s and early 1970s. Wayne McGill and David Fidler achieved the highest score of 39 and won fabulous prizes. It was a lovely evening and there was a good show-ing of Triumphs in the Legion parking lot at Port Credit. Thanks to Terence for organizing the quiz and to Larry for organizing the loca-tion and usual refreshments and food.

MayTuesday, May 10MG Car Club MeetingThe MG Club extended an invitation to TTC members to attend their May meeting to support a presentation on “The Electric Spitfire” by TTC member, Paul Martin.By all accounts, the presentation was well re-ceived and Paul feels that there will be a few electric MGs on the road before too long!

club hub

Welcome New Members! Name Location VehicleDoug Adolph Pontypool GT6 Mk3 1973David Barrows Latham TR-6 1974 & 1972Rod Belaire Pickering TR-6 1975Joe Bogdan Toronto Brian Burgess Toronto TR6 1975Colin Campbell Innisfil Stephen Cohen Toronto TR-6 1976Ellys MacKenzie Mississauga Tim Martins Mississauga Barry & Dianne O’Rourke Acton Alan Porszt Toronto Scott Richardson Mississauga Kevin Storey Locust Hill Richard Tisdale Waterloo GT6+ 1969Tom Wright Bracebridge GT6 1972

New Members from March 17, 2016 to July 5, 2016

Jocelyn LovellJocelyn Lovell, the husband of one of our long term members, died on 3rd June at the young age of 65. You may recall that Neil Annie Lovell, Jocelyn’s wife, showed her 1963 Black Spitfire 4 at the Canadian Interna-tional Auto Show in 2012.

Jocelyn won more than 35 national titles, on road and track, at every distance. He represented Canada at three Olympic Games (1968, 1972 and 1976), and won six Commonwealth Games medals, in-cluding four golds, as well as a world champion-ship silver medal in 1978 and gold medals at two Pan American Games (1971, 1975).

His career was cut short when he was hit by a dump truck in 1983 while training near his Mil-ton home. The accident resulted in spinal cord

injuries, leaving Lovell a quadriplegic. He was an advocate for spinal cord re-search for the rest of his life and was a real inspiration to many people.

Cycling Canada president John Tolkamp said of Jocelyn “He just was such a world-class athlete on the track at a time when track cycling wasn’t well understood in North America and he was also very strong on the road. He was one of my cycling heroes.” He will be missed.


AUGUST 2016Brits on the Lake, Port Perry Sunday, 7, 9amwww.britsonthelake.com

UK Car Day – Rochester NY Sunday, 7, 10amThe Greater Rochester Triumph Touring Club and the Webster Lions Club present the 8th UK Car Day at Genesee Valley Park, Rochester, NY. Please check out the website for details. uk-carday.com 1000 Islands International Rally and TourSaturday, 27This new event will highlight the beauty of the Thousand Islands paradise found in the midst of the St. Lawrence Seaway at the Canada/US border. It is designed to emulate the classic European rallies and particularly the world famous Monte Carlo Rallye, with cars being flagged off from multiple “Start Points” and converging on the Thousand Islands. Please check out the URL for details.www.mowoguniversity.com/burlwood-mo-torsport-group-services--events.html

Club Meeting – Presentation by Rupert Lloyd Thomas Tuesday, 18, 7pmRupert has been busy researching histori-cal records around classic car racing / hill climbs and he’s coming to talk to us again. For those of you who missed last year’s presentation, don’t miss this – it will be a fascinating discussion! More details will be available closer to the time.

NOVEMBER 2016Annual General Meeting Tuesday, 15, 7pmLocation TBD

SEPTEMBER 2016Labour Day Long Weekend Drive Sunday, 4, 9amA leisurely drive along the highways and byways of Southern Ontario. Stay tuned for further details.

British Car Day Sunday, 18, 8amThe 33rd annual running of British Car Day. Join over 1,100 car owners in the presenta-tion of the largest British car show in North America.www.torontotriumph.com/BCD

OCTOBER 2016British Car Council Toy Drive Sunday, 2, 9amThis will be BCCI’s fifth annual toy drive and it will be held at Country Heritage Park in Milton.www.britishcarcouncil.ca

club hub

Events Calendar

club hub

Last year, board executive mem-ber Patrick Caria presented an idea to help the Club achieve its goal to become more philanthropic and pay it forward to deserv-ing charities. None are more deserving of our support than the SickKids Founda-tion. Children not only take our families forward, they are the future of our hobby. Sadly, all too many fall victim to life threat-ening illnesses and don’t make it to realize their potential in life. SickKids Hospital is probably one of the best known charities in Toronto and yet, maybe because of its fame, it struggles to get funding for vital research and equipment. For this reason, your board thought Patrick’s suggestion to hold a summer event that supports this worthy cause, would be a great thing to do.

British Car Day is well known among Ontario and upstate US British car clubs, and yet we are constantly amazed at how many individual British classic car owners, and members of the public, have never heard of BCD. So it was decided that any fund raising event we agreed to, must also promote British Car Day, both to the media and general public alike, to raise awareness of BCD and money for SickKids at the same time. A true “win, win.”

Last year we launched (quite literally) Taste of British Car Day at Black Creek Pio-neer Village in Toronto. The weather was terrible and only a handful of cars out of the 70 that registered turned out. Fortu-nately, the ones who didn’t venture out in the rain decided to let us keep their dona-tions to SickKids and, with some other pri-vate donations, we raised just over $4,000!

On Sunday, June 26th, the weather was fantastic for the 2nd annual Taste of Brit-ish Car Day and 58 of the 67 cars that pre-registered, plus some who registered on the day, enjoyed the scenic Village venue and sunshine. Mr. Beep the talking car and star of the late 50s/early 60s children’s road safety films and recent Discovery Channel TV show ‘Restoration Garage’, was there

too, entertaining the youngsters and help-ing with our fundraising efforts.

Car owners and visitors were able to vote on their favourites out of the huge va-riety of beautiful cars (and a motorcycle!) on display. Congratulations to the worthy award winners!

1. 1947 MG TC - Mike Rosen2. 2013 McLaren - Raymond Smith3. 1961 Ford Zephyr ‘Mr. Beep’ - Ross Bonn

On behalf of Patrick and I, our thanks go to Terence McKillen for looking after regis-

trations and window card distribution, plus for his generous personal donation. Erika Wilson and her staff at Black Creek Pioneer Village for their hard work promoting and preparing for the show. We also thank the following volunteers who helped tremen-dously on the day – Jean-Paul Gauthier, Larry Llewellyn, Alexis Kelly, Michael Caria & friend, Johann Aaltink and Clive Huizinga.

And last, but not least, a big thank you to everyone who brought their British cars to Black Creek Pioneer Village and gave so generously of their time and money – we raised $5,000 for SickKids!

A Taste of British Car Day by DavID FIDleR

12 www.TorontoTriumph.com Ragtop I SummeR I 2016

Paul Martin

owner’s manual

Getting to know our members

Name/Owner: Paul MartinBorn [year/place]: 1966 WaterlooResidence: TorontoMember Since: 2013Triumph: 1975 Spitfire 1500- “E-Fire” electric conversionOccupation: senior project manager at Zeton Inc. in BurlingtonTTC involvement: one Ragtop article and a few club eventsPets: 2 indoor catsChildren: 2 regrettably too-often indoor children, Clara (10) and Jacob (13)Significant other: Jennifer, a theatrical costumer, who is (slowly) warming to the car-after 20 yrsFavourite place: Ha Ling’s Peak, Canmore AlbertaFavourite reading: Tolkien’s The SilmarillionFavourite movie: Coen brothers: “O Brother Where Art Thou?”Favourite food: apple crisp made from Northern SpysThree people I would invite to dinner: my late father and mother, and the uncle I never metHobbies: woodworking, sand casting bronzes, energyFavourite music: Danny Michel- KW songwriterOther vehicles currently owned: a Prius touring and a Prius CPast restorations: my brother had a TR-3, a Fiat Spyder and a 1966 Volvo wagon- all amazing cars. Me? Other than the E-Fire it’s all been just transport

Background: Raised by a diesel me-chanic and jack of all trades, and grew up with a large lathe and mill in my basement. My father could basically look at a machine and come home and build one- all from scrap, with no plans. Educated as a chemi-cal engineer at UW. Worked in the water treatment and environmental industry, and now I design and build pilot plants to test new chemical and energy technology. Married the girl who never liked the car- we’re about as different as it’s allowed to be, I think, which keeps it interesting! Two sweet kids, a home we built ourselves, but too little room for any more cars!

Ragtop I WInteR I 2013/2014 www.TorontoTriumph.com 17

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Each year, the Toronto Triumph Club and the MG Car Club of Toronto alter-nate hosting duties for the annual “Spring Fling” event. This has become a tradition in both Clubs and is one of the first driving events of the season where we get to share our love of LBCs and have some friendly rivalry with the “other marque”. It is a fine time to rekindle the spirit of camaraderie with fellow LBC enthusiasts.

This year it was MGCCT’s turn to host the fun and the Isaiah Tubbs Resort and Con-ference Centre in beautiful Prince Edward County was our base for the weekend.

Two hundred years before the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States of America, Isaiah Tubbs married Rhoda Shepard in Greenville, New York, in 1795. Five years later in 1800, along with his wife Rhoda, Isaiah arrived in Prince Edward County, Ontario. They were not considered to be United Empire Loyalists, but members of the Tubbs family had been squatters for a number of years in Hallowell Township. Isaiah and Rhoda settled on Lot 8, Concession 1, south side of West Lake. Isaiah gradually purchased over 200 acres, and over the next 40 years he expanded his

farm to include cultivated acreage on Lots 5, 7, 8 and 12. Isaiah Tubbs served as a Pri-vate in the Prince Edward Corps of Militia in the War of 1812, he subscribed to the Quaker Meeting House, and in 1833 was a founding member of the Prince Edward County Agricultural Society. Establishing a history in hospitality, Isaiah and Rhoda of-ten played host and hostess to weddings.

Isaiah died at an undetermined age in 1844, and no grave has ever been found. His youngest son, Isaiah (II), died in 1844 as

by Dave SImSFLINGSPRING

May 27th – 29th 2016

events


well, at 11 years old (perhaps of cholera). Isaiah left behind his wife and 7 children: Phoebe, Joseph, William, Hiram, Mindwall, Mary and Matury.

Hiram followed in his father’s footsteps and acquired an additional 100 acres on West Lake. He was married to Mahala Mas-tin, and they had five children, the oldest being Isaiah (III). The 1½ storey brick home they lived in has been carefully restored and still stands as Isaiah Tubbs Resort and Conference Centre.

Isaiah (III), the eldest of the eighteen grandchildren who have been traced, car-ried on the farming tradition of the fam-ily on West Lake, but he was also a well-known cheese maker. There was a small cheese factory at the north end of his farm. He became one of the first Directors of the Bloomfield Cheese Manufacturing Com-pany Limited in 1894. He lived in the 1½ storey home until his death in 1923. He is buried with his wife, daughter, parents and grandmother, Rhoda, in Glenwood Cem-etery in Picton.

The land on West Lake on which Isaiah and Rhoda settled, and upon which the Tubbs family grew and prospered, is now Isaiah Tubbs Resort and Conference Cen-tre, a beautiful and tranquil place.

(source: Isaiah Tubbs Resort web site)To get to the resort a mixed group of

Triumphs and MGs set off in convoy from Mississauga and drove over the top of To-ronto on back roads which ended up being quite a long drive in unseasonably hot con-ditions. Maggie and I left a little later as we had another obligation and it took us 5½ hours (with a couple of stops) to complete the 201 miles from Burlington.

Check-in was at 4pm after which regis-tration packages could be picked-up. From 6pm to 10pm the MG folks hosted a “Meet and Greet” so we could get reacquainted after the long winter and exchange war sto-ries. One TR-4 was notable by its absence… John Lille was waiting on new tires so had to resort to alternative transportation.

After breakfast on Saturday morning the 63 cars left the parking lot every 5 minutes in packets of 10 LBCs and drove 2 lovely routes to the Waupoos Estate and

Winery. Located on the shores of Prince Edward Bay. In 1993 a small vineyard was pioneered to prove that the “terroir” was ideal for growing well balanced quality wine grapes, thus starting Prince Edward County’s Wine Industry. On 15th June 2001 it was time for Waupoos Estates Grand Opening and they haven’t looked back since. Full steam ahead with the 13th anni-versary this year, the winery features wines for all tastes, from crisp dry and semi dry

whites to fuller bodied lightly oaked reds, leading to the famous Baco Noir.

We set up for the car show in amongst the vines and very close to the lake, thank goodness, as the temperature was very hot and the effect of the lake was magical in keeping the temperatures down. As is customary at Spring Fling Triumphs were evaluated by the MG guys and gals and MGs by TTC folk. Following that there was

time for wine tasting before heading into a buffet lunch under the marquee.

The afternoon drive was a choice of ei-ther returning to the hotel on a set route or else one could explore the area on one’s own. We decided on the latter and got a better feel for the area before landing in Picton for a much-deserved ice cream. Did you know that Picton used to be the centre of the canning industry? Anything


WINNERS • JamieBroad(TR8)forBestWheels. • FrankDeCarlo(TR3)forBestEngineBay. • PaulBoyd(TR6)forBestInterior. • ChrisStewart(TR6)forBestGreenCar. • RobinSearle(Stag)forBestRedCar. • PeterMay(TR6)forBestWhiteCar. • SteveWilkie(TR7)forBestBlueCar. • MerleCole(TR3)forBest“Other”ColourCar. • DaveSims(TR250)forBestTriumphinShow

Congratulations to all our winners!

and everything was canned in Pict... even pineapple was imported! The railroad ran through the centre of town... but not any-more. The major industry now is tourism. I think everyone enjoyed the opportunity to see a little more of this lovely coun-tryside and Bob and Dot Corbin had the chance to also appreciate the helpful lo-cal community when their TR7 experi-enced a puncture. Before they even had time to think about it, several passing cars

stopped and provided the necessary as-sistance to get the wheel changed out in short order. Bob and Dot didn’t even have to get their hands dirty!

After a leg stretch and snooze it was time to freshen up for the banquet which was held at the resort’s Restaurant on the Knoll. Following a very satisfying meal and an ex-cellent Sandbanks Reisling produced by a local winery, it was time for the awards cer-emony and here are the Triumph winners:

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I then had the opportunity to thank our hosts from the MGCCT for organizing a splendid event in a lovely area of our Province. The roads are smooth, the win-

eries are wonderful and there are lots of activities to keep you busy. Great coun-try! I was also able to share the destina-tion for next year’s Spring Fling. Keith and

Chris Stewart have stepped up and will be hosting the event in London, Ontario – we look forward to it!

After the banquet we went back to the O’Neill Pavillion to enjoy some more hospi-tality and a bonfire in the adjacent firepit.

All too soon it was time to return home, but this time Maggie and I decided to get a very early start to avoid the traffic and went home on the 401 and 407. This time the journey was about 4 hours with stops to cover 180 miles.

The TR-250 got us there and back in style and we covered more than 500 miles over the weekend. 31mpg, no oil used and the roof stayed in the boot for the entire trip. I did a spot of night driving and the LED lights I put in the speedometer and ta-chometer earlier this year makes an amaz-ing difference. I could actually see what was going on. A simple fix which was very worthwhile and not expensive.

See you in London next year for Spring Fling 2017. ragtop


This year we chose to hold what has now become an annual event, organized by the author and the photographer of this review, on Saturday, May 21 and ex-perienced four glorious hours of top down driving in late spring weather along the byways of Halton, Wellington and Guelph counties. Our goal on these ½-day out-ings is to try and accommodate a leisurely drive on some of the narrower, twisty and/or hilly by-roads, avoiding interaction with regular traffic where possible and trying not to repeat the route from one outing to the next – not an easy task these days with

the spread of urban development and con-sequent conversion of many rural roads to multi-lane arteries.

A collection of 16 Triumphs assem-bled at Tim Horton’s on Postridge Drive in Oakville between 9:45 and 10:25am for a prompt 10:30am departure, in two groups of eight. The complete posse com-prised 2 Stags, a TR-250, a TR-3, 2 GT-6s, 3 Spitfires and 7 TR-6s, in a variety of hues and colours, and perhaps one or two still bearing original paint trim. As usual, the cars provided a talking point for the regu-lar Timmy’s customers. The weather was

somewhat overcast in the morning, but with full sunshine through the afternoon and temperatures in the low 20s.

Our morning journey took us on a 45 mile odyssey, initially northward on Trafal-gar and then westwards across the Oakville moraine and the headwaters of 16 Mile and Bronte Creeks, along Lower Baseline Road to Bell School Line, northwards around the east side of the Burlington airpark and on to Britannia Road westward past Lowville GC to Cedar Springs and northwards over the Escarpment through Kilbride onto Twiss Road, continuing almost to Campbellville

Of Kettle Holes, Escarpments and Moraines

by teRence mcKIllen – photogRaphS by Dave SImS

club events

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including an aviator performing touch and go landings in a float plane.

Our destination of Puslinch Lake has the distinction of being the largest kettle lake in North America. Kettle lakes are shallow, sed-iment-filled bodies of water, usually circular in shape, formed by retreating glaciers. The “kettles” are formed as a result of blocks of ice calving from glaciers and becoming sub-merged in the sediment on the outwash plain prior to melting and the creation of a lake or pond. Puslinch Lake has no perma-nent inflow streams, being normally fed by surface runoff and underwater springs. At

Road. Coming off the western edge of the Escarpment, we turned west onto Side Road 3 which, further along the way, be-comes Mountsberg Road and followed that over to and then across Highway 6.

This is a lovely route; narrow, some-times twisty but invariably tree-lined with many hills and dales and the odd level crossing; some of the hills have quite a sharp apex which makes a nice distraction from driving on the main road which runs parallel to the north where the hills and dips have been essentially eliminated by the highway engineers.

times of high water, the lake outflows into Puslinch Lake Creek which forms part of the Grand River drainage basin.

After lunch, our route took us north of Highway 401, through Aberfoyle, along Highway 34 eastwards to the Nassagaw-eya–Esquesing Townline, in Halton Hills, where we turned northwards to connect with 22 Side Road eastwards to Limehouse and then south over the Escarpment on 5th Line (with a detour over to 6th Line due to construction works at Steeles Avenue) and reconnected with Trafalgar Road at Burn-hamthorpe and then on to the finish point

With apologies to the musings of an early nineteenth century English poet, we enjoyed the noon time sun bursting vic-toriously through newly emergent spring foliage that was tentatively overreaching across our path; our senses also taking in the smell of newly mowed grass and other bucolic aromas, both pleasant and pun-gent, while also enjoying auditory inputs from a well-tuned Triumph engine and classical music broadcasting from 96.3 FM.

Across Highway 6, we followed Gore Road westwards to our luncheon desti-nation at the Old Marina Restaurant on

at Tim Horton’s, a distance of about 42 miles.For most, the outing comprised 100

miles or so in total, with Dorien and Anne Berteletti probably doubling, or even tri-pling, that distance to participate in their TR-3. Speaking of Dorien, I’m really glad the TR-3’s brakes were working well – I did hear the squeal of rubber coming pretty close to the rear end of my Stag at one point!

Thanks to all who turned out to par-ticipate and hope you enjoyed the outing. We look forward to seeing you at future events planned for the driving season. ragtop

Puslinch Lake near Morriston where the cars were once again an added attraction in the parking lot for other folks, both local and visitors, to enjoy.

Although they didn’t accept reserva-tions, the staff at the restaurant coped very well with the influx of 26 hungry and thirsty guests and an enjoyable hour or so was spent digesting burgers, chicken, sal-ads, sandwiches or whatever else caught our fancy. Some of our group were amused by the working model railway that circum-navigated the dining room while others watched the goings on out on the lake,

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I became a “car-nut wife” even before I became a wife. Until I met Dave, I gave cars little thought, considering them simply as transport and nothing more. When we first met (on a 42-mile, 24-hour-long hike across the desolate, hilly and difficult ter-rain of the North York Moors whilst tack-ling the Lyke Wake Walk, but that’s another story!) I had no idea how obsessed he was with cars – driving them, fixing them when they broke down, rebuilding them, rallying them, watching cars racing, see-ing cars being shown off... you name it. On our first date, the evening after the afore-mentioned 24-hour hike, he was obviously trying to impress as he came in his Dad’s classy Ford Escort. I was reassured. We had a nice time, sitting in a pub chatting for a few minutes then falling asleep on our bar stools! However, a future date was ar-ranged for when we had recovered from the hike and this time he arrived in his own car – a Morris 1000 convertible.

I quickly learned that top-down mo-toring was considered the only way to go unless it was actually pouring or freezing. I soon figured out that I should dress warm-ly if going out in the winter and to keep a rainhat handy for the summer. Fashion had to be a secondary consideration! The Mor-ris did have a heater... of sorts, but warm boots were a necessity most of the time. I must admit I quite liked that car, but it did have a few quirks. The original convert-ible roof was rather past its best, but not generally too much of a problem provided you didn’t mind the scratched and opaque rear window – until the day we were driv-ing along a three-lane highway with two large transport trucks in the oncoming two lanes side by side. The weather was quite windy anyway and that plus the additional slipstream of the two large trucks was just too much for the roof – off it came and barrelled along behind us before finally sliding off into the ditch. Upon retrieval we discovered the frame was a bit bent and the fabric torn to shreds so a new one was required. We acquired that and fit-ted it ourselves, with a lot of grunting and groaning, broken finger nails (mine) and perhaps just a few swear words as these things never seem to be the correct size for the job. Still, it was a revelation to be able to actually see out of the plastic back win-dow! Some months later Dave came into a little extra cash and immediately decided

that the Morris needed a bigger engine (big in size as well as power) plus fancy big wide wheels to go with all that extra pow-er, and so on. With the help of his mechanic friend, Graham, all was accomplished. Only small problem was that the bigger engine simply did not fit completely into the en-gine compartment, so the bonnet (hood) would not close. This was quickly solved by the addition of buckle-down straps at-tached at both front corners. This worked well provided, of course, that someone remembered to actually buckle down the straps! Failure to do so gave us a nasty surprise one day when travelling, fairly speedily, along the main road and the bonnet suddenly lifted right up and over us, blocking the windshield and scaring the @%$** out of me. Another challenge with the new engine was that Dave had to rig an alternative exhaust system as the original exhaust pipe would no longer fit. A length of bendy, slightly flexible pipe was installed and worked well, provided one always had several tins of Gun Gum in the trunk to reattach the thing whenever it fell off, usually when travelling some-where at speed. I grew used to the idea that no trip was possible without several stops for on-the-go repairs! “Morry-Thou” also had an endearing habit of just dying at unexpected moments, because the fuel pump was flaky. A few good whacks would generally fix this and, conveniently, the

pump was located immediately behind the passenger-side glove compartment. So my role was to bang like mad on the glove compartment as soon as the engine faltered and that would almost always kick things back into gear. Did nothing for the rather nice, hollow silver bracelet I used to wear all the time and which I still have somewhere complete with all the dents and scratches. That fuel pump finally gave up the ghost when we were on a camping trip to France. My initiation into camping was not quite the experience I expected. It consisted of loading up the back seat and the boot (trunk) with a little bit of food, a pre-war tent, two old sleeping bags and every spare car part known to man. There was little space left for clothes or personal items but these were not considered es-sentials. The car did well until we were on our way home and the pump finally refused to be beaten back to life so Dave decided to rebuild it from some other old ones he had with him. Just our luck it was a blazing hot day with no shade for miles. At least it was a relatively quiet road where we had stopped, and the dead cat in the ditch right beside us certainly added to the atmosphere of the place. But we did get home in one piece.

Eventually, Morry Thou went to that great scrapheap in the sky and was re-placed by a Wolseley 1500 which we pur-

chased from a friend. The Wolseley was certainly a step up in the luxury depart-ment with its leather and wood interior – much more what I felt to be appropriate transport – and we experienced far fewer mechanical issues than previously. This be-ing England, it goes without saying that we often started our day by drying out the distributor cap and fixing the plugs and points on those damp mornings when most British cars simply refuse to start. I be-came quite the expert on plugs and points. But “Wally” ran well, right up until the time when we were just leaving the parking lot after having been spectating at the RAC Rally (i.e. leaving the house before dawn to drive to a viewing spot where we stood in the cold, and often the rain, waiting for a bunch of rally cars to whiz past at high speed – apparently loads of fun!). Some idiot, driving on the wrong side and not paying attention ran straight into us and smashed the front end and radiator, put-ting us out of commission. Fortunately, this was a Sunday and my parents’ farm was only about an hour away. I was able to per-suade my farmer father to agree to come and tow us home. My parents eventually arrived, we hooked up the car and set off. For those who have never had the pleasure of being towed anywhere by a farmer let me explain what happens. As the farmer drives along past various fields he drives more and more slowly while critiquing the state of the owner’s crops. However, when driving through a more urban set-ting he will speed up as there is nothing of interest to view. As more fields appear he again slows, but speeds up unexpectedly as the fields once again give way to bor-ing streets. All consideration of a vehicle under tow behind seemed to disappear and the experience in the towed vehicle is quite... exhilarating. Having got back more or less safely Dave made a quick visit to his local “scrappy’, a home-from-home for all the guys I knew with cars, where one could find anything if one was prepared to dare the rickety piles of wrecks and the vicious, unrestrained German Shepherd guard dogs which seemed to roam every

triumph tales

Life as aCar-Nut’s Wifeby maggIe SImS

scrapyard in the world. Once the fixes were in place we were left with a mechanically sound vehicle but with different coloured body panels. Having no spare cash for a paint shop I offered to paint the car my-self, which I did, with a 1” brush and a can of cheap green paint. Surprisingly, it didn’t

The Morris Minor

Fashionhadtobeasecondaryconsideration

look bad at all.One of the educational experiences I

faced with the Wolseley was the fact that it did not have syncromesh on all the gears, so changing down into 2nd required the driver to double-declutch. No problem for Dave who, having driven old cars all his driving life so far, was an expert with this and other driving shortcuts like heel-and-toe braking etc. For this neophyte it was a skill I needed to acquire. I knew the prin-ciple – brake, clutch, change into neutral, off the clutch, quick press on the accelera-tor, off that and back to clutch, change into 2nd gear... sounds easy, doesn’t it? How-ever, I’m rather a visual person so found it easier to learn this process whilst watching my feet... an approach best not undertaken in traffic! I never did hit anyone while doing this but came close on one occasion while Dave, as passenger/tutor, valiantly said nary a word as I barrelled closer and closer to the braking car in front. Fortunately, I looked up with moments to spare.

Dave enjoyed rallying at this time, and he was the navigator for his friend Derek

“Wally”theWolseley1500


who owned and rallied a Ford Escort Twin Cam with Cibie “Big Bertha” spotlights. Back in those days, overnight road rallies were quite common and the guys entered a number of them, winning their class in several and having a lot of fun along the way. I usually ended up as the “support party” with another friend, which meant we lugged all the spare parts, tires, coffee, sandwiches and tools from place to place, waiting in the cold and dark to meet up with the boys after each stage then help-ing to refit whatever was broken and offer-ing sustenance as required.

A few months after we got married,

few months we replaced what seemed to me to be just about every part of the thing. In reality the key problems Dave fixed, with me acting as mechanic’s assistant, includ-ed the indicators, hood (roof ), tachometer, battery, windscreen wiper motor, washer motor, a couple of tires, the clutch and a whole bunch of other minor things which were retrieved from a scrap early-model TR6 which we bought for the princely sum of £30... initially just for the half-shafts. That proved to be a great investment as we later sold many of the parts separately for a good profit – the engine alone recouped the cost of the entire car! But those half-shafts... now there was a challenge. On first hearing about these mysterious “UJs” I was not alarmed. We’d fixed so many other things by now I figured how hard could it be? Then I learned the reality. If you got ev-erything lined up perfectly, the ends slot-ted into the ball bearings like silk. But if you missed it the first time, then what a dread-ful job it always seemed to be... rather like threading a needle with your eyes shut. And I think there must have been about twenty UJs on that car! But we did even-tually get good at replacing them. On top of these issues, we had some interesting times with the frame. One day, whilst navi-gating a roundabout in town there was a loud cracking noise and the front end sud-denly sagged at one side. The front suspen-sion had parted company with the frame, requiring some generous assistance from my brother-in-law and my father’s welding gear. Not to be outdone, the other side did exactly the same thing a short time later! By now I was no longer particularly embar-rassed to be the cause of yet another hold-up of traffic in our local area which was just as well, because another “feature” of the TR5 was its inclination to stop as soon as we slowed down after any fairly long or high-ish speed drive. This was due to a faulty electronic fuel pump, which was housed in the trunk. It would over-heat and the temporary fix was to apply a cool, damp cloth for a few minutes to cool it down sufficiently to restart. We could not afford a new one at the time

so meanwhile we kept a damp chamois cloth in a plastic bag in the trunk and every time the pump faltered (usually at some traffic lights) I leaped out of the car, opened the boot and applied the cloth while ignoring any sounds of frustrated drivers stuck behind us. Fortunately, it wasn’t too long before we were able to install a working replacement.

Now this meant we needed a second car so that we had a way to get home again, but we didn’t want to spend much on some-thing we only needed for about 3 weeks un-til leaving the country. We acquired an old Ford Escort estate car from an acquaintance. On the day, we set off for Scotland in both cars. It was a cold, dreary, wet winter morn-ing and I was suffering from a bout of bron-chitis but we couldn’t afford to miss this appointment. All went well, we met up with our buyer and he was happy to complete the deal. Now we had about a 3-hour drive to get home. The Escort went well initially, but after a while Dave figured it was burn-ing some oil. We stopped at a service sta-tion, added some oil and pressed on. Things got worse. Adding oil became almost a full-time occupation... and we still had a good hour’s drive ahead of us. Eventually, our goal changed – we knew we’d never make it home but instead hoped to get close enough that our friend Graham, who had a tow truck, would come and collect us. As the inside of the car gradually filled with blue smoke, and our trail was marked by a billowing cloud of thick smoke behind us my coughing got worse and worse. But we just kept going, although by now the poor old car was struggling to even keep moving. Just a few more miles we begged, then Gra-ham will meet us.

The last little bit to our meeting point was a long slow incline and the Escort was dying. As we got halfway up the hill a police cruiser suddenly appeared behind us. Please don’t stop us, we thought, knowing we’d never get going again. However, the flash-ing lights came on and we were signalled to stop. The police officer approached on the driver’s side and Dave wound down his win-dow. A thick pall of smoke wafted out and we waved our hands to disperse it so we could see the policeman. “Sorry to stop you, sir” he said politely, although we could barely hear him over my coughing bout. “Did you know that you seem to have a bit of a problem with your car?”. After this helpful advice he left us to our own devices and fortunately we were close enough to a service station that we could walk there and call for help

(this, of course, was in the days before cell phones). Graham arrived in due course and towed us home. Over the next few days Dave sourced a replace-ment, slightly less old engine and in-stalled it. Then I was initiated into the obscure and cryptic world of firing or-der. Now was that 1-3-2-4, or perhaps 1-4-3-2 or maybe we should try 1-2-4-3... ? (Note to self: write down the correct order for future reference.).

With all our worldly goods finally ei-ther sold or on their way to Canada by container ship we departed the UK and landed in Edmonton (in the middle of win-ter!). We were met at the airport by a rep-resentative of the Bank who was driving a Hillman Minx! And one of the first cars we saw on the road was a TR6. Dave was immediately reassured – this new country was going to be fine if they had cars like that! Once settled, we looked around for a vehicle and eventually settled on a used Datsun 240Z. This served us well for a year or so and then, with the need for reliable transport for commuting becoming more important, we spent the next 30 years driv-ing an assortment of new Nissans (240Z, 300Z, 300ZX Twin Turbo) and then moved into Porsches with several new 911s. Little need for anything beyond regular wash-ing which was just as well, given that our careers and busy lifestyle left little time for car hobbies... well, watching F1 racing on TV was still a must, but fortunately I didn’t have to participate in that!

More recently, retirement beckoned and with that came the time to reconsider preferred pastimes. In 2010 Dave attended BCD for the first time and was immediately smitten all over again with LBCs. Shortly after that we purchased our TR-250 from Drake’s Motors in Kelowna and GerTRude arrived on a big truck in Spring of 2011. In short order we set off for a pleasant jaunt to check out our new baby. We managed about 5 miles before the thing died. Oh great, I thought privately... here we go again! Dave assured me it would be noth-ing serious – it had, after all, been sitting idle for years before its rebuild so a few hic-

cups were to be expected. A few minutes later the engine started easily and off we went again, until once more it cut out af-ter a mile or two. This pattern continued for several more miles until we gave up in defeat. We staggered towards home but eventually had to give in and call the CAA to get us the last few miles. Dave then spent several frustrating days attempting to diagnose and fix the problem. Consulta-tions with various new friends in the TTC and with Len Drake offered lots of ideas but no solution. Eventually, as a last resort, Dave took off the entire fuel line from the gas tank to the engine and had it blown out with a compressed air pump. At first, there was virtually no air flow through the pipe and then suddenly – poof... out flew a big wad of compressed material and ev-erything suddenly seemed fine. Reinstall-ing the pipe proved that this was indeed the case and so, with mystery solved, we have been enjoying various drives and Club events ever since.

So – am I still a car-nut wife? Absolutely. Is it still necessary for me to act as mechan-ic’s mate? Absolutely not! New friends in the TTC, plus much more free time in retirement has meant that maintenance and problem-solving is now a hobby rather than a crisis. With the luxury of other, more traditional (I was going to say more reliable but that would seem disloyal to GerTRude!) vehicles available for essential transport the expect-ed effort of LBC upkeep has become much more enjoyable... and I still like to keep my hand in with odd bits of assistance as well as primping and polishing before the various events. Did I find those early experiences frustrating and exasperating (not to men-tion deadly to nice fingernails)? Absolutely. Would I have missed out on them if I could? Absolutely not! ragtop

Havingnosparecash,Maggie offered to paint the Wolseley using a 1”brush

Dave’s hankering for a sports car finally bore fruit as we had the opportunity to pur-chase a 1968 TR5 PI. We had to drive down to a small town called Bedford a couple of hours away to view it. In hindsight, I’m sure it was not a particularly good buy but Dave was so keen to have the thing and I must say it looked far more dashing than the Wolseley. So we made the deal and the seller agreed to drive it up to our home a few days later. On cue, the guy arrived and the TR was behaving perfectly, right up until it reached our driveway at which point it died and refused to start again. This didn’t instil a lot of confidence in me but I was assured that it would be just a minor problem, easily fixed, and we completed the transaction. Of course we had sold the Wolseley by now as we could not afford to have 2 cars, so the TR was our only trans-port. I’m not sure what that original prob-lem was, and Dave did get it working again in fairly short order, but boy, oh, boy, had we got ourselves a project. Over the next

TheFordEscortRallyCar

After about 18 months, when we finally had the TR in almost perfect condition, we decided to emigrate to Canada so the TR had to be sold. We advertised it in lo-cal auto magazines and eventually made a good deal with a guy from Scotland. He was willing to buy it “sight unseen” provided we would drive it up to a half-way point be-tween his home in Northern Scotland and ours in Yorkshire, We settled on Edinburgh.

The1968PITR5

EverytimethefuelpumpfalteredMaggieleapedoutofthe car, opened the boot and applied a damp cloth

The first LHD Car – Datsun 240Z


There is always something special about attending the Canadian Internation-al Auto Show so in the past I have always found the time to go, be it with friends, by myself or in the more recent past with my son Addy. It was at the 2012 CIAS that Addy (then 16) and I came across the Triumph exhibit put on by the TTC where I was gen-tly convinced to become a member, even though I have never owned a Triumph we were assured that this was typical of many TTC members so out came the wallet and the most amazing journey began. Follow-ing the advice of most experienced clas-sic car owners I searched for the best TR-6 that my money could afford (which wasn’t much!), but as the old saying goes “the best laid plans of mice and men...”

I was consumed with finding a TR-6 and every opportunity to speak with someone who owned, drove, or even uttered the words “classic car” was taken advantage of. Oddly enough the circumstances were actually reversed when a a classic Ameri-can car buff overheard me talking to a colleague about my TR-6 search. Just so happened that he had a ’72 in his garage which he had been storing for his brother-in-law for the past 4 years and he wanted it gone, asking price he said would prob-ably go as-is for $3,000. With the TR Reg-ister checklist in hand Addy and I drove to Grimsby to have a look at the car only to find it in a miserable state of disrepair, not far from a typical barn find. Exciting for most, but intimidating your first time around the block. The car had no battery so we couldn’t see/hear it run, flat tires so we couldn’t even roll it, window seal was shot, water damaged dash and numerous other concerns. When we posted on the TTC forum for advice I believe it was Tush who commented that the best part was the steering wheel! We offered $1,000 due to the numerous “unknowns” and much to

our surprise they took it. Our new father/son project was loaded onto a flatbed and dropped onto our driveway where we threw in some fresh gas along and a new battery and, with the TR Gods smiling down upon us, it fired right up!

Addy was always a mechanically mind-ed kid from an insane addiction to lego as

a child up to building and racing RC cars in his early teens, most kids his age were hanging out at the mall, but Addy was hanging out at the RC track or building computers in our basement, the TR-6 was just the next step in his evolution of hob-bies. Although mechanically inclined my-self and having rebuilt a few motorcycles

in the past, this was a new journey for both of us. We were able to get our new found passion running and cleaned up with new rubber, hoses, bullet mirrors, wiper motor, O-rings on the leaky carbs (thanks Fred), and Addy even taught himself how to read the TR wiring diagram to trace/repair the malfunctioning lights, signals, horn... well virtually the whole system. With the help of Howie at R&B Automotive to do the brakes and check the car out (we didn’t complete-ly trust our mechanical capabilities at that point) we were able to get the car certified and on the road that summer which meant Addy’s first time driving a standard around a local commercial parking lot, smiling from ear to ear the whole time.

The next steps were mostly cosmetic, fortunately outside of a small tear on the driver’s seat the interior was in pretty good shape so we bought some upholstery paint and basically painted the seats, door pan-els, and whatever else needed touching up. Also sent the bumpers and gas cap out to be re-chromed, was like Christmas for Addy when I brought them home, he had them installed within the week. Cleaning up the engine bay was a labour of love, I believe that it was close to this point where my role was slowly relegated to the “voice of reason” and “the bank.” Having said that Addy always (and still does) came to me for

advice, or simply to trouble shoot or talk through a problem, and then we would each head off to our respective computers to research and share our findings.

Addy’s first standout project was to replace the water damaged dash as the original was beyond repair, clearly this “barn find” had not been kept inside the barn the entire time! Simply buying a new dash and replacing was not enough of a challenge, Addy decided to design & fabricate his own using the original as a template and a CNC machine at his high school. The wood came from an old oak that had been felled from my mother-in-law’s property in Mississauga. We had played around with a laminate, but it just wasn’t the same. We know that being solid wood (it was kiln dried) it will crack at some point, but 4 years later it still looks great and I suppose when that time comes he’ll just make another one!

Over the following winter, much to his mothers chagrin Addy converted his RC car workbench in his bedroom to his own TR-6 workbench so that he could tear apart, clean and re-build the carbs... ”too cold in the garage” which I whole heart-edly endorsed! When he mounted the re-built and fully cleaned up carbs back onto the engine and it fired right up I was ad-mittedly quite blown away.

The following spring, knowing that our TR was going to be an ongoing proj-ect and always looking for fresh parts or simply an opportunity, I stumbled across a fellow in Whitby who was converting his ’75 TR-6 into an electric Six. Accord-ing to him he had a freshly rebuilt engine to get rid of along with all of the other components that he didn’t need such as fuel lines, rad, gas tank, Petronix ignition and a spin on oil adapter which we des-perately wanted, so we took everything for $500. Considering that Addy, now 18, was making noise about doing an engine swap, as the existing six engine was a little tired and could use a re-build, buy-ing this engine we felt was a no brainer although I never really thought he would take it to that level. The words “patience is a virtue” is not well received or even comprehended by the youth of today. Not long after the engine was sitting in our garage, and while my wife and I were out of town, Addy decided to strip off the original head to have it rebuilt by How-ie and while the work was being done swapped in the head that came with the new ‘75 engine so that he could still drive the car. This also included cleaning and rebuilding the carbs from the ’75 as well.

The next large project on Addy’s “to-do” list was to attend to the rear end. At

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this point I’m questioning whether the 6-PACK forums are my best friend or worst enemy as the wizened six veterans have lots of advice for things to watch out for and things to do in order to keep your car healthy and safe (all good of course!). After careful trolling of the forum Addy decided that he would tackle the very undesirable chore of dropping the diff to reinforce the mounts, of course as everyone knows you can’t “just” pull the diff and then throw it back on without completing some other very important maintenance items while we have the chance. So Addy also decided to pull the trailing arms (had them sand

blasted) replaced all of our rear bushings and replaced all of the U-joints, and while he was at it he did the rear brakes. One of the best presents I bought for Addy was a counter top sandblasting unit, which is great for cleaning all of those niggly little parts. Anyhow as the days crept into weeks I (the bank) was summoned to the garage to discuss the rear hubs and the need to have them rebuilt. So after a little more research off they went to Phil in the US who, as touted on 6-PACK, did an amazing job. In the meantime we were fortunate enough to have our very own Ragtop editor Fid loan us his spare hubs

to use while we were waiting for ours to be returned, so on they went, but not be-fore the dreaded stripping of the trailing arm threads on re-assembly, Fid to the rescue again by lending Addy his TA repair jig and he was back in business.

Fast track to the fall of 2015/16, Addy now 20, still had concerns about the bot-tom end of the engine, he wanted to re-place the thrust washers, but also had con-cerns with smoke and poor compression. So out came the engine, disassembled and then the whole bottom end was off to R&B to have Howie check it out. Verdict was pretty straightforward, required re-

boring, new pistons and ring set plus, plus. Total estimated cost was about $1,500 and that’s with Addy doing the complete re-assembly. After lots of discussion and research it became clear to me that Addy had a whole new path on his mind... a full non-TR engine swap.

An engine swap is something we bantered around quite often over the

last couple of years and I knew it was a job Addy really wanted to tackle, but never in my wildest dreams did I think it would actually happen. When look-ing for advice on 6-PACK (you can still read the thread) there were some harsh critics who claimed that a non TR swap of any kind couldn’t be done for the $1,500 budget proposed by Addy and the gauntlet was quietly thrown. As cir-cumstance would have it a fellow in Lon-

don who we had purchased some parts from in the past had been on the path to swap in a ‘94 BMW M50 engine/Ger-trag 5 speed tranny (bonus) into his six, but ended up selling his TR and was left with the BMW engine, transmission and a bevy of parts. No challenge to large for Addy, we bought the package for $1,000 and the 2nd part of this amazing journey had begun, stay tuned... or read about it on 6-PACK! ragtop


tech & resto

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?by Ron etty

British Car Day in 2012 was clear and bright (as usual) and I was helping to park the thousand or so cars in some sort of order. I was overwhelmed with the task, an-swering a million questions, doing my best to bring order to the chaos.

I did, however, take time to look over the line of beautiful TR-4s. One in par-ticular caught my eye, a beautifully re-stored black TR-4 owned by Doug Barclay. I managed a small chat with the owner, remarking what a beauty he owned and how proud he must be and how jealous I was. A few hours later, Doug and I crossed paths again and he mentioned that he had a TR-250 at his shop in Milton and maybe I might be interested?

The next day found me in Milton where I learned that the car was being stored there for the owner, Mike Roberts, who had found the car in Virginia. I fell in love with the car despite its many issues. So now to the part I hate... haggling, negotiating, call it what you will. A phone call to Mike and a no haggle deal was arranged in under a minute... must be some sort of record. Wow, I owned a TR-250, just like that!

But now to get it home to Hamilton. I asked Doug if he could recommend a tow truck. Doug replied that I should just bor-row his car carrier. I was stunned that he would make this offer to someone other

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than a close friend. But that is what car guys do... help out other car guys. Thank you, Doug. So now, all I have to do is change the ownership. I quickly found out that the “Service Ontario” sign over the vehicle transfer office is a misnomer. These people are definitely not car guys.. not helpful at all. It is like they didn’t want to take my tax money until they have me completely frustrated. There is even a sign in the office warning of dire consequences for yelling or screaming profanity towards staff. Must happen a lot!

So now it is time for the frame off res-toration. The major problem is my lack of space. I have only a single car garage and it is presently occupied with a TR-8. Winter is fast approaching and the TR-8 needs a new home. I don’t like the idea of renting space, so I decided to construct a lean-to in the driveway. A thing of beauty this lean-to, constructed of the finest scrap two by fours, walls of thick plastic wrap and a tarp, topped off with thin paneling and rolled roofing. So far, the neighbours are quiet and the building department hasn’t paid me a visit.

Both cars now have a home, but the project needs an apprentice, someone to help me get up after crawling around un-derneath a car, someone who tries not to laugh at my arthritic bones. My grandson Ben is perfect. I love to spend time with Ben and this gives me an opportunity to teach him new skills in exchange for a help-ing hand up from the concrete. He seems a willing participant so off we go!

We started by taking lots of pictures. Did I mention dementia and arthritis are somehow related? Without pictures, I just know this jigsaw puzzle will never get back together correctly. Boxes of headlights, tail lights, upholstery, dashboard gauges, hood, trunk, doors, are all catalogued and hauled off to the basement.

After completely stripping the car down to its “bones”, Ben and I removed the trans-mission and the motor. The transmission was easy, but the motor removal proved too much for my inadequate equipment. I was using a “come along” chained around a

naked, we checked it out for correctness using the blueprint in the Bentley “bible”. (This book is worth about seventy dollars, but like the ad on TV says... it is priceless!) This car had been in a pretty good accident at some point in its lifetime and so some frame straightening was required. The trunk area was about an inch out along the centerline so out came my state of the art frame straightener. This consisted mostly of a bottle jack, some two by fours and an acetylene torch. Heat the metal where it needs to bend and use the bottle jack and the two by fours to gently ease the frame back to its original condition. Almost as good as the professional frame straighten-ing shops!

Sandblasting is next for the frame and a few other parts. I spent a couple of weeks learning about the huge compressor that sandblasting requires and the mess that my neighbours will endure. I’m wonder-

ing about covering the frame with a tent to control the mess from sandblasting. Surely this is too complicated! Then a chance conversation with Fred at British Auto Sports sent me on the right track. He told me about a company near Jerseyville that does sandblasting. Talk to Gord, he said. So, long story short, Gord gives me a price I cannot refuse (about a fifth of the price of a compressor and a tent).

Now, the next problem is how to get the frame from downtown Hamilton to Jerseyville. More high tech solutions on the way. Why not strap the frame into the back of my old Explorer, put a flag on the back and just drive it out to Jerseyville? I tried to appear confident and look like I knew what I was doing just to ease the nerves of my wife who was driving with me. We got there fine and the next day Gord called to come and get it... I wasn’t expecting such quick service, but I loaded the frame back into the trusty old “Explod-er” and drove it home. Must have been a sight... an old Exploder with a frame hang-ing six feet out the back hurtling down the highway! Can you believe people were still silly enough to tailgate this Ford and Triumph strapped together?

The frame went out to the sandblaster with a few minor holes, but came back with a few more minor ones and a few new major ones. As the snow was now a foot deep, Ben and I decided to weld the frame in the basement. So, after a slight reorganization, we wiggled the frame

into the basement for welding and paint-ing. My wife is a real saint... can’t think of another woman who would allow this in her home. Ben was fun to watch in his first attempt at welding... stand way back with arms outstretched to their limit and try not to jump with the striking of the arc. But, pretty soon he was getting the hang of it and we no longer needed to grind all of the big globs of weld off. And right before my eyes, Ben learned to be a very good welder, probably because his hand doesn’t shake like his welding in-structor. We devised a pretty good fume extractor... a big box fan running at high speed blowing all the fumes (as well as most of the hot air in the house) out the basement back door.

couple of the rafters in my garage. Problem was the rafters began to protest with snap-ping and cracking sounds. My grandson, not used to my methods, ran for the door. So, to get my helper back, I had to brace my rafters with house jacks that I had kick-ing around. While I worked the come along lifting the motor, I was giggling at Ben still hanging around the door. What a wimp! Surely he could see the beautiful engineer-ing. What could possibly go wrong?

Removing the body from the chassis was easy using much the same wonderful engineering. Two by fours were bolted to the body front and rear and come alongs were attached to the wood. While my grandson stood watch at the door, I alter-nated lifting the body front and rear until the body cleared the chassis. Then I rolled the chassis out of the garage and lowered the body back down onto a workmate and a sawhorse. Finally my helper at the door started to breathe! He could see that a mir-acle had just happened... the garage was still standing and grandpa hadn’t been flat-tened by some falling hunk of steel. Best of all, the car was still in one piece.

Next, we put the rolling chassis on the patio and proceeded to strip it completely. By now, Ben had figured out the “righty, tighty, lefty, loosey” rule so things pro-ceeded really quickly. More stuff carried off to the basement... getting really crowded down there! When the frame was stripped

Painting was next on the agenda and we chose POR-15, a special epoxy paint, supposedly the end to rust. There are many “dos and don’ts” with this paint, one of which is to wear gloves while painting be-cause the paint will not come off your skin. Right they were about that one... why can’t men follow instructions? I’m still wearing black POR-15 on my hands weeks later!

In an earlier life I was a machinist for a large factory and rebuilt many gearboxes. So the gearbox and differential were no trouble... I had the equipment, or most of it and what I didn’t have, I could improvise. So, when the factory manual called for a specialized tool, I could “make do” with something I had. Sort of like my other red-neck treatments mentioned earlier.

But the rear wheel bearings proved the error of my ways. The manual called for special tool number 318 I believe. But I knew better... I could just use my wheel puller... same thing right? Wrong! After I bent the right rear wheel flange, I still could not believe these could be so difficult so I proceeded to try my method on the left rear wheel bearings. Yes, they are that dif-ficult to remove and yes, I have learned a very expensive lesson. Twice.

More bad news was to come my way, my trusty grandson and partner decided that grease, rust and dirt were not in his future. Gosh, how I miss him and his ever present smile! But, when one door closes, often an-other opens. My wife Linda jumped in to help, she is invaluable at finding all of the parts that I have stored and completely forgotten where they were. A one woman inventory specialist is Linda!

She can also tell when I am making things way too complicated and suggest a much simpler and equally effective alter-native. Silently, I mutter “Why didn’t I think of that?” followed by a well deserved head slap. So we have an excellent new team in place, ready to take on the next phase of restoration.

This story will be continued with news of our successes and mistakes, trips to the paint shop, the upholsterer, and the reas-sembly process. ragtop


In November 1985, liking the look, I bought a set of 72-spoke 15x5.5” Dunlop chrome wire wheels for my 1967 Triumph TR-4A. At 85 Quid (£85) per wheel, thanks to a friend, I could not pass up the deal. Some thirty year later, having gone through sev-eral sets of Michelin XAS’s (185x15), it was definitely time for new rubber.

Once the tires were removed, I discov-ered that the inside surfaces of the wheel rims had corroded quite badly, even though the exteriors were still relatively pristine. Over the years I had broken some 36 spokes, all on the rear wheels. These, I replaced as required with stainless steel spokes. Interestingly, none of the longer spokes gave out. Since the nipples of the short ones were all located close to the outside rim of the wheels, I developed a system for replacing these spokes without the need to disturb the tires or the inner tubes. Hence, I never noticed the corrosion. Also the tire store people who mounted new tires never mentioned that the inner surfaces were becoming compromised.

After several days of using phosphoric acid, it looked like most of the rust was gone. I followed this by a couple of coats of good anti-rust paint and two of coats

I Learned About Cars From That

by John lIlle

of clear finish. The rims sat for several weeks to harden the paint. Before tap-ing the spoke holes on the rims, I coated the repaired surface with a sealant. Upon careful inspection, a pair of the rims showed a slight wobble and one of them had a high spot.

After all that work, enticed by a 15% dis-count for Canadian customers by Rimmer

Bros. in the UK, I took the bait and ordered two new wheels for the rear axles. These rims require no tubes with “modern tires” and all the spokes and nipples are stainless steel. Hopefully there will be no further need to deal with spoke breakage.

Since Michelin XASs now go for $450 per tyre (plus tax and the cost of tubes), I decided to put in an order for a set of Vre-

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Exotic Motorworks 05.indd 1 16-04-07 10:19 AM


TOYOTA TO TRIUMPH 5–Speed Transmission

ConversionsTR-2 through TR-6

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TOYOTA TO TRIUMPH 5–Speed Transmission

ConversionsTR-2 through TR-6

Herman van den AkkerHerman van den AkkerP.O. Box 6812, Pine Mountain Club, CA 93222-6812P.O. Box 6812, Pine Mountain Club, CA 93222-6812

Phone: (661) 242-1253 • E-mail: [email protected]: (661) 242-1253 • E-mail: [email protected]

Herman van den AkkerHerman van den Akker

destein Classic tires (from Holland) at $295 per tyre (plus tax and the cost of the tubes). After a four week wait, I was assured that it would only take another four weeks! After yet another similar promise, I had enough of the waiting.

Guided by an article by Terence McKil-len in Ragtop a few years ago on Tire Sizing and after checking out the various types of

tires used by other TR owners at a recent British Car event, the decision was made to go with modern tires. A local tire shop in Burlington, ON mounted a set of Michelin Defenders (205/70 R15) on the rims. Once back on the Triumph, I returned to the shop to have the wheels and tires balanced on the car (there aren’t too many places left that can still do this).

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The lesson learned: “Every time you have your tires replaced, inspect the wheels personally for any damage or dete-rioration.” ragtop

[John Lille has owned his TR-4A since new in 1967. He has done all of the main-tenance on the car over the past 49 years himself, shunning both dealership and third-party service shops. Although his comments relate to a Triumph TR-4A road-ster, the implications have a direct bearing on any car with wire rims. Interestingly, I replaced the original wire wheels on my Stag this spring with period Triumph alloys (GKN 5-spoke). Other than the inner “rub-ber band” covering the spoke heads be-ing somewhat dozed, the interior surfaces were almost pristine. Perhaps John’s car was used more consistently in wetter con-ditions and/or exposed to more road salt than my car? – Assistant Ed.]

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SEATSWAPI purchased my ’75 TR-6 back

in 2002, it was in rough shape to say the least. Over the course of its time with me I have taken it from rough to a nice car. One of the first upgrades was to repair the origi-nal seats. If I was to drive the car, I needed to be comfortable, so I had the original seats recov-ered and fixed the foam. When I decided to upgrade the seats I looked at and tried the earlier model seats, but I was not really satisfied.

I had read articles on the 6-PACK forum and saw the ar-ticles from Bob Danielson (www.tr6.danielsonfamily.org) and Paul Rego‘s (www.74tr6.com) sites on using Mazda Miata seats and after a lot of hand wringing I decided to bite the bullet and find a pair of seats. If I was expecting my wife to join me on a trip or two, I needed to make sure she was comfortable. What the hell, I’m retired and this was as much therapeutic as it was anything else and besides I needed a winter project.

Searches through the local auto wreck-ers, Kijiji and eBay proved fruitless, then one afternoon I tried searching Kijiji again and an ad had just been placed less than

30 minutes previously. I contacted the person, made sure they were the correct year and bought them. ( Photo1)

I arranged to meet the seller at a Home Depot parking lot in Hamilton, kinda like making a drug purchase“ I’ll be in a black Torrent, you bring the stuff and I’ll bring the cash.”

We made the cash for seat exchange and I was now the owner of a pair of 1991 Miata seats. Now for the plan-

ning to do the restoration. First order of business was to determine and

source where the seats could be recovered. Local pricing was too much. So I contacted Mr. Mike’s Interiors in Florida (www.mrmikes.com). He has a small business and he has a wide variety of seat covers with loads of add ons if you like.

I chose the leather seats with a multi pleat and a logo on the head rest. The cost to have the covers made + shipping to a U.S. mailbox was still cheap-

er than having them done here.Mr. Mike is one of the easiest people to deal with and I highly recommend him

to any of you should you ever need seat covers like I did.

He actually asked for a picture of my car so he could match the thread colour of the emblem I chose to the colour of my car.

Next I had to look at the mounting of the seats. The Miata

seats will not bolt on to the TR-6 seat mounts, but they will after you purchase

the mazda seat brackets from Rick Patton of Patton Industries www.pattonmachine.com.

IN THE BEGINNINGBefore you start, tag everything either ‘driver’ or ‘passenger’ and bag the bolts ac-cordingly. Home Depot does carry bolts to replace the originals if yours are really rusty and you can’t clean them up.

Back to the process. The seat pans were badly rusted so the first order of business was to grind the rust off. (Photo 2).

An angle grinder or a drill with the wire brush attachment works great and be-fore too long after you knock off the rust you’ll start getting closer. This is the most tedious part even though no one will see the seat pan you’ll know that they are done properly.

I even enlisted the help of my 6-year old grandson Jackson to help out. I will cau-tion you however to wear eyeglasses and a mask. The mess that comes off of the pans is significant so do it safely. (Photo 3)

Once the rust has been removed, rub them down with some degreaser, dry them off and prime them with a rust primer and finally paint them. This is how they turned out. (Photo 4 and 5)

Now came the covers. The seat cov-ers came with the hog rings which you

use to tighten the covers to the seat pans, the hog ring pliers, a large roll of cotton padding in the event you need to bol-ster the seat foams and a can of spray adhesive to keep the pad-ding in place, plus very detailed instructions on how to do it yourself. What an easy business to deal with. Plus on his site he also has instructions on how to do it yourself.

I admit that I lack some con-fidence when it comes to doing something like this so I sourced out a local company near me,

by alan FInDlay

bits & pieces

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2

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2338 Wyecroft Rd., Unit K5-7, Oakville, Ontario L6L 6L4Tel: 905-825-2045 Fax: 905-825-0208

Your source for all your repairs

9 Forster Park DriveOakville, Ontario Canada L6K [email protected] www.winslowdelaney.com

Winslow Delaney | Creative Solutions 416.871.2358

• Parts Store• Complete Engine Machine Shop• Gasoline Injector Service• Engine Balancing & Blue Printing• Cylinder Head Porting & Flow Testing

• Diesel Engines• Gasoline Engines• Marine Engines• Race Engines• Vehicle Services

Maplecrest Upholstery on Racine Road in Etobicoke. Small family run business and easy to work with. This is how they turned out. (Photo 6)

You’ll also have some difficulty getting the back rest ad-juster off. I tried inserting a wooden dowel and hit it with a hammer with no luck. I was forced to cut them off and I fig-ured well if I can’t re-install them I could always use a glue to hold them in place. But as luck would have it I stopped into my local Mazda dealer and asked the parts employee if they have these in-stock somewhere (showing him the cut-off plastic adjuster). Within a couple of minutes he found what I needed, ordered them and they were sent overnight and I picked them up for $12!

Next were the seat rails. Parts of the rails were rusted as badly as the seat pans. Caution... there are ball bearings in the rails to aid in sliding back and forth. To get them out you need to drill out the rivets and then you will have access to the ball bearings. For a variety of reason I chose to pass on this process.

After separating, I placed them in a wallpaper trough and filled it with degreaser and left them for a few days.

Bring them out and rinse them.Now the part of the seat rail that is bent needs to be straightened

so that it will sit flat on the Patton seat brackets. Use a vice, gently push them in the direction they need to go and you should be ready for prim-er and paint.

After painting, re-assemble them. You may need to put a little grease in them to make them slide easier.

The seat mounts are so easy to use. Four mounts per seat plus all of the required mounting bolts. The brackets use the same holes as the original seat track. You may want to re-tap the holes before you start in the event that there is a different thread than what you have with Rick Patton’s package, but check first to see if there is an issue with the old holes.

Rick Patton makes a great product that is idiot proof. I am proof of that.

I can’t stress enough to use the businesses that I have mentioned in this article. They are there to support us and our hobby. I would be re-miss if I didn’t thank Fred McEachern for his help in all of this. The web-sites are invaluable and very detailed and offer more than I have put in here, but then again I was under the editorial hammer of our friend David Fidler! ragtop

London Trading PostClassic British Countrywearwww.londontradingpost.caSpencefield House189 County Rd 49Bobcaygeon, ON K0M 1A0Tel/Fax: (705) 738-1956Open most weekendsSat. 10am-3pm Sun. 11am-3pm or by appointment

Phone: 416-822-0096 or 905-616-0421Toll Free: 1-866-532-3630

Email: [email protected]: http://www.a-professional-appraisal.ca

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46 www.TorontoTriumph.com Ragtop I SummeR I 2016

Not a classic car in sight – on a two week visit to London, England earlier this winter, I couldn’t help but notice the sorry state of British car ownership as I walked around the City of London. Not only were there absolutely no classic cars in sight, I didn’t see any exotic supercars or other-wise expensive hardware in sight, even in the Tony areas of Mayfair, Kensington and Chelsea. Perhaps, I would have needed to travel further out of the City to the emerg-ing upmarket districts of South Acton and Peckham Rye where the ‘in-crowd’ now ap-parently reside, in order to see an examples of a Mulsanne or Continental (Bentley), or a Ghost, Phantom or Dawn convertible (Rolls Royce), let alone a DB10 or DB11 (Aston Martin). Unfortunately, I just missed the op-portunity of visiting the London Classic Car Show in mid-February which looked like it would have been a great event to attend. A friend of mine in London who has owned a Mark 5 Spitfire since new in 1974 recently sold it for £2,500 ($6,000), even though it was a basket case having been left sitting at the family farm in Kent for more than 25 years. Good examples of Spitfires are cur-rently selling in the UK for £12,000 and up-wards (that’s $27,000 folks!).

The Complete Guide to the Triumph Stag – with a sub-title of ‘all you need to know about buying, fixing and enjoying the sporting British V8 Legend,’ this is a 100-page book (in magazine format) recently published by Practical Classics magazine in the UK. “The Triumph Stag combines clas-sic car style with on the road fun. The noise, the looks, and the effortlessness – it’s an intoxicating driver’s car and has been un-derrated for years.” Lavishly-illustrated, this volume collects a wealth of historical, tech-nical and personal insight from the pages of Practical Classics magazine, including the full Stag story: from drawing board to production, an exclusive foreword by ex-Standard-Triumph Development Engi-

by teRence mcKIllentail lites

neer, Dennis Barbet and rally legend Rus-sell Brookes’ personal take on the Stag at its limits. At £6.99, this publication should be on every Stag aficionado’s book shelf. There is also a ‘Collector’s Edition” available at £20.00.

V – not a flood but sufficiently to cause me concern that either the head gasket might be leaking or the intake manifold might not be snugged up sufficiently to the heads or that the water pump cover might not be sealing properly. I dealt with each of these issues in turn by torque-ing down the head bolts and studs and torqueing down the manifold bolts and applying some Permatex Right Stuff to each of the 12 bolt threads as the machin-ist had, when tapping the heads for heli-coil inserts, carelessly drilled through into the waterjacket in a few of the bolt holes. I also removed the water pump cover and inserted helicoils, to be sure that the three bolts were tightening properly. At the same time, I decided to replace the Stromberg carburettors with a 4-barrel Holley 390 carburettor. Not long after-wards, I noticed fluid still accumulating on the V after an outing – again, not much in terms of volume, but still disconcerting. I would mop it up with a rag until the next time. Interestingly, the coolant level in the radiator did not appear to be significantly lowering. When mopping up the V, I was using long, needle-nosed pliers to move the cloth around and then lift it up to throw in the trash can. On one occasion, I happened to sniff the cloth and noticed it had a gasoline smell whereas the Evans coolant has no odour. It now turns out that the coolant leak had been more or less fixed by one or more of the remedies earlier described, but it turned out that the accelerator pump rubber diaphragm on the H o l l e y was com-promised (a $9 item) and had started to let gasoline slowly drip out instead. It pays not to assume what you think is happen-ing is actually happening. Consider more than one possible cause. ragtop

if you don’t mind paying too much

for your parts, there is no need to

read any further. if you would like

to buy your parts at the best prices

in Canada, read on. Drakes’ British

Motors can supply any part from

the Moss catalogs at the most

reasonable cost to you. But, don’t

take our word for this. the next

time you need something, send us

an email for a quote. We will get

right back to you with a price.

Many ttC members are already

believers. Get in touch for a quote –

[email protected]

We are also a Canadian distributor for Dayton Wire Wheels.

1976 Triumph TR-6 This is a really nice TR-6 we bought from a long term owner. It has been restored in stages and while not perfect it is very nice. Late 1976 model that is 149 cars from the end of production. It had a quality repaint several years ago in the original ‘1 year only’ Tahiti Blue, which still looks great.New seats & interior and the engine was fully rebuilt 10,000 miles ago with raised 9.5:1 compression, a mild performance cam, lightened flywheel, a spin on oil filter conversion, high torque gear drive starter & electronic ignition. Fac-tory overdrive has been serviced, new clutch and rebuilt rear hubs. Recently rebuilt suspension with tube shock rear conversion, uprated springs and sway-bar kit. All in all this is a really nice, sharp looking TR-6. C$18,900

Drakes’ British Motors Inc. (250)763-0883 Ph., (250)861-8051 Fax, email [email protected]

2286 K.L.O. Road, Kelowna, B.C., V1W 3Z7WWW.DRAKESBRITISHMOTORS.COM

You pAiD hoW MuCh?

1975 TR-6 We purchased this car from one of our customers who had owned it almost since new. All service records come with it. The previous owner took very good care of the car and it is about as nice as you could hope to find. Ev-erything is in order and works & looks as it should. The paint is about 10 years old and shows very well with no rust and no accidents. Notice the wire wheels which were originally fitted by the dealer when the car was new. The interior was redone correctly with Moss Motors components about six years ago and is very nice. The engine was also recently rebuilt, along with the carbs. We have just fitted a new Borg & Beck clutch as well as new gearbox seals to the overdrive transmission. The car looks and drives great and needs nothing. Priced at C$21,800

Triumph Prices – for the week ending January 29 of this year, the UK publica-tion Classic Car Weekly, had 63 Triumph Stags listed for sale ranging from a low of £6,500 ($14,000) to a high of £20,000 ($44,000). These prices appear to be very significantly ahead of Canadian or U.S. prices which still languish in the $7,000 to $16,000 range, probably as a result of the model not being so well appreciated in North America. At the same time there were 89 TR-6s on sale from a low of £7,000 ($12,000) to a high of £30,000 ($52,000) for a 1972 PI model described as being in original, unrestored and immaculate condition. When it comes time to sell your precious Triumph, perhaps shipping it back home to England for sale might be worth consideration!

Never assume anything – it is interest-ing how one issue can easily morph into another. After rebuilding the engine in my Stag, I have previously related how I chose to change over the cooling system to Ev-ans waterless coolant and the issues I ex-perienced with what I called ‘pseudo over-heating’. Around the same time, I began to notice what I thought to be some of the coolant collecting towards the rear of the

BUILDING CHARACTER SINCE 1948.Want to prepare a young person for life in the real world? Get an old sports car that needs some work.

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