Vitesse Virgin!

50 SHADES OF WHITE AND RUST – CONFESSIONS AND FRUSTRATIONS OF A VITESSE VIRGIN

MAY 2012

I can well remember from my teenage years , the lure of desire , desire for a Triumph Vitesse.  A fellow classmate at school on passing his test was able to pose in his mother’s brand new 1968 damson Mk11 saloon. We were all dead jealous. Any car let alone a Vitesse was just a dream to me as destined for university  it would be sometime before I had any money at all let alone  enough to buy a car. There was also the slight problem of not being able to drive either. So that dream faded to be replaced eventually by reality – in that I needed a car that was cheap to buy and run and easy to fix oneself when it went wrong – at university I was seduced by minis and that love affair continued until I got married and we had children and the minis were replaced with something more practical. I had qualified as a mechanical engineer and was working for Girling so fixing cars became second nature to me.

The original dream was rekindled more years ago than we can both remember when my brother in law bought a Vitesse convertible as a project. Having some years previously moved away to Wales I never actually got to see the beauty  but I knew it was doomed to failure from the start as knocking a nail in a wall  seemed to present an enormous challenge to him.  He did succeed however in taking it all apart and distributed the parts to various storage locations across the suburbs of Birmingham. Having retired over three years ago I now had the time, money and inclination for such a project. So I nagged him to sell me his collection of bits – but no, he would not entertain the idea. He was adamant that he was going to do it or get it done.

He finally seemed to be relenting but potentially selling it seemed to be a source of pending family strife for him so I gave up and thought right – I will get one of my own. So the search began – having got budget approval and permission to proceed from the appropriations committee (wife).

I wanted a mk11 convertible. There were a few about on e bay and various ads but miles away  and non runners – so costly to see ( wife – “You’re not buying something you have not seen – don’t be stupid “) and get home . I was not worried about getting a non runner but it had to be  at the right price and cost of transportation was a factor. Then late in May 2012  a white convertible appeared on E bay in Brecon – not too far away – so I had a look and like all girls she looked better in the photo than in the flesh , had  poor door gaps , seemed basically solid but pretty scruffy  in need of a some TLC and a bit of S & M no doubt, however with the added bonus of cosmic alloys , a year’s  Mot, a boot full of Courier magazines , workshop manual  ,original owners manual , assorted repair bills, vintage Fitchett’s parts catalogue , most of  a bottle of Valvemaster, a spare tyre of dubious quality / origins , can of instant puncture repair  but  no jack or wheel brace. It turned out the guy selling, being a doctor was known to an acquaintance of my daughter (also a doctor ) and was subsequently accredited as being an all round good egg. We went out for a drive and I was in love again – what a sound .The previous owner advised that the speedo cable was broken – in fact the second one to go so suspected something wrong with the head and also as reverse was next to first,  to be careful  selecting gears- I succeeded in bidding for her  at a price that was within budget ( good start ) but on reflection a bit on the heavy side  but what the heck – So fun time for all was guaranteed .

I joined the TSSC , arranged insurance through Lancaster , press ganged my son into driving me to Abergavenny  as the  agreed  mid way pick up point and handed over my hard earned.  .

With no speedo  the plan was to set off with  son ahead with strict instructions to keep to the speed limits and not get too far ahead  – despite his protestations of “Are you sure the brakes work and don’t crash into me.”  Departure was slightly delayed as reverse seemed to be just where first should be but I eventually found it and off we went. Second seemed just as difficult to find as first but I expected to get used to it by the time we would complete the 20 mile or so journey home .The next excitement was stopping – or trying to. Nothing wrong with the brakes just that I’d forgotten from all those years ago how hard you had to press on non servo brakes. This reminded me that lurking in the back of the garage was a Girling powerstop servo from all those years ago that I had got the service engineer to get for my brother in law – think we are going to need it . When I did manage to slow down there was an accompanying   squeal from the brakes (audible warning that brakes are working as we say in the trade).This was a bit annoying and embarrassing. The braking experience was also not helped by a tickover  in the region of 1500 rpm !!!!!Next observation was that the temperature gauge seemed very variable, one minute bumping up hot, next minute meandering to fully cold – but no sign of steam or seemingly excessive heat so I anxiously soldiered on. Driver’s seat squab foam also seemed to have collapsed as the metal bar in the frame was digging in my back but hell fire she is 42 years old and defied the adage that old ladies are build for comfort not speed. Despite all these worries it was great fun, a nice sunny evening with the hood down – I even got an enthusiastic wave from a BMW. As we progressed nearer to home my ability to find first and second was slowly improving but still disconcerting. Lack of overdrive was a bigger issue than I initially thought though – something to consider for the future. We managed to get home without incident arriving like the proud father of a new child. Wife just stood there mouth aghast –“My God what have you done” she said especially when I turned the engine off and it kept going.

Son was quite excited though – “ let’s go for a run “, he piled in the back ,  wife got in the front seat and after trussing her up in the static belt  we set off we set off  for my daughter’s a few miles down the road. She was even less impressed than the wife and that was on seeing the good side of the car .Her friend who was visiting though swooned and got quite flushed gibbering about choke handles and walnut dashboards. We headed home and put her in the garage for the night. I spent the evening perusing  the workshop manual  ,past bills that showed quite extensive replacement of components such as rad , callipers fuel tank , dynamo , control box and s/ steel exhaust in recent times  and decided to initially concentrate on those things that would  enhance the driving experience  , mechanical reliability and fix those things that would be cheap and easy ( hopefully ). As a running car I would use her through the summer (weather permitting) investigate more fully and then determine the best way forward based on findings.

The next morning as time was short a quick survey of the engine bay revealed  missing fuse box cover , missing breather  cover  – exposed diaphragm retained in place ( or rather prevented from falling off ) by tie wraps , damaged seal to the wheel arches  and front valence ,rocker cover held on by the regulation studs and nuts plus an odd ball bolt . Surprisingly no oil drips on the garage floor underneath the engine   and the (I believe) usual evidence of seepage from the rear sides of the rocker cover.

The body seemed not too bad despite being scruffy – rust bubbles in the usual areas fore of the rear arches, door bottoms, few dents here and there, poor door fits with evidence of tub spread. The worst bit was the driver side tread plate which will need replacing  driver side  and insecure window waist seal on the driver side , hood  was not too bad  no rips -but fit round the driver side window  was not good and hood sealing rubbers pretty well shot . These areas would be the biggest challenge to fix, but would not stop me using the car for the moment despite detracting somewhat from its appearance.

However the floors seemed solid. Interior carpets pretty mankey  ( technical term for worse than grotty ) , seat covers – no tears or rips, underdash millboard hanging down and broken passenger sun visor bracket. There was nothing too serious there. No doubt there are other issues lurking around but I’d worry about these when I came across them. So the first priorities were – fix speedo , sort out gear change , tick over , brake squeal and determine if water temperature was an issue .  These seemed like good jobs to cut my teeth on and gain confidence as I did not want to look too deep at things in case I found bigger issues and then got over whelmed and disheartened at such an early stage – ignorance is bliss at the moment.  Fix a few things then conquer the world.  So having eventually found first gear I put the car back in the garage stopping just short of the assorted crap that many of us store never to be used again and pulled the gear lever back to take it out of gear and took my foot off the clutch at which point the car shot forward into aforementioned crap with a loud bang –“ bugger” or something similar. I had not taken it fully out of gear. So I rolled backwards to survey the damage – nothing obvious apart from the ominous trickling sound of running water.  A strategically placed bicycle pedal (attached to bike) had gone through the valence aperature and penetrated my shiny not so old radiator. So already off the road already and its only day 1. This was the new priority therefore. As the rad was virtually brand new I was reluctant to buy either a new one at the prices  offered  or  a second hand one of dubious quality even if I could find one . Thus I set out to find a local radiator repair shop in the area of Newport.  A quick scan of tinternet  came up with Fastrads in Cwmcarn  15 mins down the road so  after a few days delay due to family commitments I  set about removing the rad. My first job on my pride and joy  went ok helped by liberal splashing  of release oil on bolts and that the fact that the rad had been taken out  just a few years back – 2 days later and £78.00 poorer  I had  the rad back and refitted without too much drama other than the realisation that the car has many nooks and crannies to catch and hide any dropped item.  Having achieved this first task and being mobile again put me in a good mood for our impending 2 week holiday in Greece armed with aforementioned vintage Fitchett’s catalogue and a Courier edition on Vitesse seat refurb  as reading material ( how sad ). I would then be suitably refreshed for the inevitable challenges ahead.

JUN 2012

Ok finally back off holiday chance now to get into those little jobs  , first one being the speedo further motivated by a donation of funds from my daughter in lieu of a father’s day present , that I spent on a new cable from Rimmers and a  ( allegedly ) working –speedo from ebay . I risked catching an incurable disease when removing the front carpets. However they revealed a solid floor that actually had white paint on it the only problem being a missing rubber bung which was replaced by a suitable online free sample. What was also revealed in the process was that the driver’s seat was only held on by 3 of the 4 mounting screws, the inboard rear was loose, cutting away the carpet in this area showed that the floor area and the mounting clip for the captive nut had pulled out – I found the offending parts in the resulting hole and fished them out.  This was another job to add to the list. In tackling one job I had found another, at least I had not made another one yet. This was to become a recurring theme. In preparation for the eventual removal of the seats for refurb and new carpets I started spraying the mountings with release oil to ease the ensuing job. Tunnel cover come off ok and releasing the speedo drive from the box revealed a broken cable. Fortunately sufficient cable was sticking out to remove it with pliers. Investigation of the gearchange mechanism showed the reverse baulk pin missing- so a new pin and nut was ordered from Canleys together with odds and ends of tunnel  fixing screws and plates  to make up a full complement of bits and a spare ignition key ( no stock of boot key unfortunately ) as I only had one set of keys. Attention now turned to the speedo head and progressed better once I had mastered the upside down  hari kari position to be able to see up behind the dash and get my fingers in.All a bit fiddly but after a while and finally releasing the odometer cable the speedo was removed .  Examination showed the drive was tight. A previous internet search found some repair articles so I thought I would have a go at repairing it. I managed to free up the drive and using the broken piece of cable a drive in my drill  running backwards of course ) all seemed ok. Speedo cable arrived from Rimmers who listed a common part GSD XXX with the Herald. My ancient Fichett’s bible quoted two different parts, but i was not unduly concerned as the previous replacement part was this self same part number. However this new part despite being identified as 48“ long struggled to make 47”. E bay speedo duly arrived to be in worse condition than the one I already had –a waste of money. So I decided to stick with my original speedo . To check things out I fixed cable to gearbox and speedo and went for a short test drive. All seemed fine with speed indication until suddenly the speedo started whirling round and lost speed indication. This new cable had broken and the speedo head was seized again. Back to beyond square one as this time the cable had broke just inside the drive pinion. I was not confident of getting this out at such an early stage of my restoration career without doing additional damage so I priced up a replacement pinion drive and would have a go at the old one a bit later and keep it as spare or sell it on. So now having had the car for just over a month progress was hardly startling on these little quick jobs hampered by weather and setbacks. Such are the frustrations of classic car ownership.

JULY 2012 –

Canley’s came up trumps with a pinion drive for a reasonable cost and their speedo cable when I did eventually find it hidden in the murk of their website was a different part number and cheaper than Rimmers.  I decided to have my original speedo repaired and calibrated at Speedograph – Richfield so once the pinion and cable arrive they were fitted and my beautiful female assistant counted the drive revolutions  whilst I pushed and counted road wheel revolutions and I duly sent my speedo off. They gave a good service keeping me advised off progress and returned the speedo in just over a week. Whilst I was waiting for the speedo to be returned I decided that I would do some other jobs whilst the tunnel cover was off. Fresh oil in the gearbox seemed like a good idea so after making sure that I could undo the filler plug before undoing the drain plug I placed my vintage oil drain tray (old empty Duckhmans Q20-50 can with an aperature in the side) under the gearbox- I should not have bothered as worryingly the amount that came out would have barely filled a tea cup despite no previous evidence of a leak!!!! ! Anyway gearbox was suitably replenished and will be monitored closely. This made a diff oil check more relevant as there were some slight drips on the garage floor in this area, yet another job for the list. Not sure how it happened but somewhere along the line the brake light switch decided to self destruct and fall apart. One of the tangs holding the upper and lower halves together had broken. Another was ordered and promptly fitted. Also a breather valve appeared on e bay and as I was lacking a cap and clip and not sure of their availability, together with an excessive price for a new complete unit I successfully bid for it. This arrived promptly and the clip and top were removed and fitted onto the car. The diaphragm on the car and the one purchased were not particularly good and would need replacing. The next day still waiting for speedo to arrive and not feeling like mechanical work I decided to do some light house work and spruce up the interior and bodywork with a bit of spit and polish.  Body work scrubbed up well with a rub of T cut and I even managed to free up the electric aerial with judicious application of Duraglit and WD 40 so much so that on pressing the aerial switch the aerial rode majestically to its fully extended height of XXXX and also now retracted gracefully. Cleaning out the driver door pocket revealed a OS map of Sussex and BREATHER VALVE CAP but no clip. Ce La vie or so they say. The dash and dials rubbed up a treat. Speedo arrived from Speedo graph and was all back together after a bit of fiddly work with the odometer cable again. So with tunnel fitted back on with a full set of plates and bolts and remains of freshly vacuumed carpets back in we were back in business.  A short run confirmed a fully functioning speedo and having got the car warmed up a first unsuccessful attempt was made to slow the tick over down.  I had put out a request via club website for fuse box cover one kind member advised of a complete unit on e bay at a reasonable price so I took the plunge. Although advised against a Lucas part number it was not a Lucas part but remanufactured one – cover did not fit my fusebox so had to replace whole unit. This was straightforward except that locations for spare fuses are too big and do not retain fuses , anyway not to worry at least the working fuses are better protected than before. The weekend gave an opportunity for our first run out and more investigations with tick over. Previous owner advised that he used std. unleaded and Valvemaster so filled up for the first time with standard Tesco go juice and headed off on a liitle 15 mile or so circular tour of the locality. As I am sure you all know compared to modern cars being open , lower to the ground and more noisy does give more of an impression of speed so speeds above 50 ish met with squeals  of slow down from the wife . Her squeals were on a par with those from the brakes. However she confessed to enjoying it all and we arrived safely back without misshap, only to be greeted by the unmistakeable smell of petrol. Opened up the bonnet and was greeted by the sight of petrol pouring out the rear carb on to the starter motor below !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Float  chamber was flooding so off with the lot .Removal was straightforward and split the offending carb to reveal  a mass of red powdery deposits in  the float chamber which was all cleaned out so whilst I was at it I cleaned out the front carb also. I wondered where this was coming from as the car was fitted with an inline filter – also need to check fuel pump filter also next time tank is low / empty. Anyway on starting up after putting it all back together again I had cured the flooding ok only to have replaced it with a leak from the float chamber / body joint. I must have damaged the gasket on refitting.  Further investigation also showed a slight seep from the fuel pump outlet pipe nut which I managed to tweak a bit tighter but the nut was very rounded so a newer prettier one would be required. So fresh supplies were needed so this time I used James Paddock as their prices were very competitive and offered free postage. I had decided also following  gearbox refill debacle to essentially service the car so ordered a service kit , carb gasket set , sump plug ( existing one was very rounded ) ,and  fuel pump nut  and olive and breather diaphragm whilst I was at it. Carb leak was fixed without drama and when new sparkplugs were fitted I noticed that back three cylinders were running richer. So would adopt trial and error of weakening back carb to get mixture correct. I also now had a nice new shiny diaphragm in the breather and managed to get a spare boot key online courtesy of Keytrader. A month of some progress at last.

AUGUST 2012 –

Sump plug was very rounded but managed to get it off with a pair of stilsons. Oil filter element change was a real fiddle. Due to proximity of inline fuel filter and fuel pipes I could not completely remove filter bowl from the car. With a lot of fiddling and cursing I just about managed to orientate the bowl so I could get the element out of the bowl and just about manoeuvre it past the filter. Getting the new element in and it all back together was just as bad. Plan is therefore to reroute fuel pipes and relocate inline filter to permit fitment of spin on filter conversion .Rocker clearances were all checked and reset as appropriate (they were actually pretty good). The rockers cover fixing hardware was all replaced with new including a new stud to replace odd ball bolt. Rocker cover itself was cleaned out, all loose paint removed and refitted with new gasket and a shiny new filler cap. Front brakes squeal was eliminated with a light smear of grease to pad backplates and anti squeal shims. Sunday dawned a lovely sunny day so we ventured further afield with a run to the seaside at Penarth with no misshaps , slow running seemed better but although can ran fine seemed to be misfiring slightly. One thing to note was that although handbrake held ok on one hill start, there was not much in reserve so will check rear brakes and handbrake adjustment.  Temperature indication again inconsistent .A visit to family in the Midlands coincided (intentionally) with the international weekend at Stafford. So went along there with the wife. A really good  day , met some nice people saw some  fabulous cars (  unfortunately reinforcing  the sorry appearance of my pride and joy but nevertheless encouraging me by seeing what can be achieved ). I duly treated myself to a (postage free) workshop manual as although the Haynes one is very useful for most things it is somewhat limited.

I sent off for an oiler from Frosts to lubricate the sacred front trunnions and bought an el cheapo grease gun from Halfords whilst I was there buying a new bulb for the now fully functioning courtesy switch operated dashboard light. Horror of horrors discovered trunnions  filled with grease. Frost oiler was not too successful, depositing more oil on the floor than down the nipples but this may have been due to the grease creating a high back pressure. In fact I filled the Halfords gun with oil and it worked fine pushing the grease out till oil flowed. I will reserve judgement on the oiler till next time. I had previously bought a new set of 5/16 UNF bolts as advised in Rimmer catalogue to replace   the bolts holding the air box to the carbs as they were an odd ball collection of black and shiny but when I came to fit the new one they would not screw up. On examining the existing bolts one was different to the others and all four of them were different to the newly purchased ones. A bit of judicial measurement and thread counting led me to believe that three were 5/16 UNC and one was M8. I was sure I would face this problem again so I invested some of this month’s allowance in a set of thread gauges together with a pair of ramp extenders and trolley jack from Machine Mart. When the thread gauges eventually arrived my suspicions were confirmed. At some time in her past the car had been fitted with a tow hitch and most of the towbar and fittings were pretty rusty so since having the car I had regularly been spraying these in readiness for removal as it was unsightly covering the rear valence, in fact my first instinct on seeing the car was that there was no rear valence fitted, but this was not the case. Now was the time to get rid of this eyesore. Both the rear cross piece and the bracing pieces fixed to the wheel well and the chassis cross member near the diff came off surprisingly easy. All that remained were the two rear pieces that look to be fixed between the rear chassis extension and boot floor and poke out through the rear valence. I had not plucked up the courage yet to try and remove these. I will revisit this when I decide ultimately if I will do a body off restoration. So a good month again – needed it as in September I would not have the opportunity to do anything with time allocated to 40 year university band reunion in Salisbury, family wedding at the Belfry and 10 day holiday in Turkey.

OCTOBER  2012  –

All of September’s events went off really well assisted by good weather so now autumn loomed.

The Vitesse had been standing unseen for a month now. She started after a few cranks and as it was a dry day I went for a short spin to blow off the cobwebs – jolly good fun. It was time now to crack on with some more little jobs. I had decided to replace the temperature sensor to try to sort out temperature indication problems and finally get round to greasing steering box having bought the required ¼ BSP grease nipple previously. Sent off for temperature sensor and added few other bits off shopping list to get free postage from James Paddock (window seal outer seal clips and tool hood side seals). Also got some 5/16 UNC bolts off e bay for airbox fixing. Temperature sensor fitted ok but it started raining before I could go for a test drive. The curse of the wrong thread struck again, steering rack grease nipple thread was much smaller than ¼ BSP, suspected that it was 1/8 BSP so ordered another nipple. In future where possible I will check threads for actual size before ordering new parts not just relying on catalogues / forum advice etc. The driver door window waist seal was a source of much irritation, only secured under the quarterlight , the rest flapping in the breeze . I had read horror stories of fitting the clips and wanting to do it in situ with the glass in place. I was not looking forward to it. I bought 5 clips and the requisite fitting tool and had read in a forum about tying cotton round the clips to retrieve them when they fall in the door. What a good idea I thought. Sure enough the first few attempts all ended with fishing the clip out the door as the clip fell out the tool – So then I thought why not use the cotton to also tie the clip to the tool – it worked a treat and 5 clips fitted in no time and seal was securely fixed – result. The weekend bought surprisingly sunny weather so this provided an opportunity following completion of domestic duties to check out the temperature indication once more so we went off for a short run taking in a local hostelry passing the landmark of 100 miles completed since speed fitted. Temperature indication was more consistent but indicated running very cool.  As winter is looming I will drain and flush and check over complete cooling system and fill with antifreeze. Carburation is not right though, occasional stalling and misfire as previously mentioned. Previous owner had said he used bog standard unleaded with valvemaster addition so I had used standard Tesco unleaded. I will try higher octane fuel to see if that improves matters. There is no hint of pinking at all so not sure if the timing is optimised – something else to look at. Its most likely that the weather is getting even worse now so future jobs will need to be done in the garage although only a single garage the relative narrowness of the car helps- besides it also means that I do not need to finish a job in one go as I did when working outside in order to get the car back in the garage. Next nice day provided opportunity to grease steering rack and check / flush cooling system and fill with anti freeze.  Newly purchased nipple fitted ok but could not get grease gun access without removing rad overflow bottle bracket, retaining screws came out ok after putting up a bit of resistance – access to inboard Philip heads was a little tricky. I will devise a remote greasing method for next time possibly using a tube with nipples each end.  Attempted to drain block –  drain tap unscrewed  easily by hand and after  very few turns  came out of connector  but no flow – so started pocking and prodding about but to no avail.  I then attempted to remove the tap connector from the block – would not budge so sprayed in release oil and left it to soak to have a go another day. Whilst I was at it I replaced the thermostat and gasket. Purchased a new butterfly tap but when it arrived I had ordered incorrect part so after further research, I ordered a sealing plug instead as this would be easier to remove in future. Succeeded in removing tap connector from block which confirmed that the tap was merely jammed in the hole and the drain hole was only sealed with crud. After further digging and poking and removal of crud I had still not struck water. Running the engine up to temperature with drain plug removed still did not shift anything. However temperature gauge steadily moved up to the dizzy heights of approx three quarters before thermostat opened. So perhaps temperature indication is now ok and a least I have a temperature reference on the gauge. I have not been able to test drive to confirm this yet. I replaced drain plug so at least the block was now properly sealed.  Whilst I was doing this I noticed that one of the manifold clamps and nuts was missing so I ordered replacement parts which duly arrived and were easily fitted after cleaning up the exposed thread.  Further attempts to drain block proved futile so I threw in the towel (I will revisit this if / when head is removed to provide hopefully better access to water jacket). I then turned my attention to the heater valve, after removal this was well and truly blocked beyond recovery so a new part was ordered and duly fitted without drama. A test drive confirmed a working heater and good temperature indication. Rear brakes and handbrake adjustment are still on the agenda but need to purchase axle stands before I this job can be tackled.

NOV 2012

Bonfire day dawned in glorious sunshine so took the opportunity to get some work done. I drained and flushed the coolant again, added flushing agent to the refill and went for a run to get the little girl hot. Needed petrol so decided to try Tesco momentum high octane fuel as this seemed more akin to the petrol our cars are supposed to run on. Only a short run but did seem to run smoother and a bit more responsive but perhaps too early for definite conclusion besides carburation not full sorted. Allowed engine to cool and drained and flushed out the flushing agent from radiator, heater and head and flushed thoroughly through, some sediment came out but generally quite good. As block would still not drain I filled with water and ran for a few days and drained and flushed again to ensure flushing agent has been purged and then finally added anti freeze. I purchased brake fluid and engine oil to add to onboard spares and provisions in preparation for great adventures to come. Perhaps Father Christmas will bring me a fire extinguisher- I will ask. Also I finally purchased a that pair of axle stands I’d promised myself. This enabled me to check rear brakes at an opportune time.

DEC 2012

   I decided that it was now just too cold for tinkering about but I did manage a short run out. One of Barbara’s friends had a 70th birthday and she had been enthralled by the car when I first showed it her as it bought back many previously forgotten memories.  Barbara had arranged  a birthday surprise for her and together with other ladies that do to have afternoon tea at a local hotel and I suggested to her  that it would be nice to chauffer her there provided of course that it was not raining.  Of course just as I got the car out of the garage annoyingly it started raining but I decided to use it as a test bed for the effectivity of the windscreen wipers. Barbara’s friend was so excited by this so perhaps I have discovered a babe magnet, the car certainly has more pulling power than me. A jolly good day was had by all the ladies. I decided whilst I was taking a month or so sabbatical I would take stock of my first six months of ownership. I had been keeping monthly tracking of all expenditure and analysis showed that since buying the car I had spent an additional £900 approximately comprising £460 on parts and repairs, £190 on running costs and consumables, £210 on tools and equipment and last but not least £41 on TSSC subscription – worth every penny . Alarmingly included within all this was a figure of £65 for postage costs!!!!!!! Santa came up trumps again this year with a parts catalogue and a fire extinguisher. He must be a classic car enthusiast in disguise.  At the end of the month went on first area run, back ‘home‘ to Brecon for the old girl. Unfortunately the other old girl – Barbara was still suffering with the ‘lurgy ‘so I was flying solo on this one.  She ran faultlessly on her maiden voyage coping with some heavy rain on the way back and a good day was had by all. The only thing that became apparent on this first long run was difficulty seeing in the blindspot as the wing mirror was set incorrect and tight fitting static seatbelt did not allow much movement so over the shoulder visibility was even more restricted than normal on a soft top.  Time for some quarterlight mirrors me thinks…

Jan 2013

   Club shop seemed best bet for a pair of mirrors so I ordered some and they arrived within a day or so – very good service.  I fitted the driver‘s side one onto the rear of the quarterlight  glass  and fortunately was still able to get the quarterlight to close when the mirror was fitted on the lower section.  Just about managed to get mirror adjusted to see as required but was unable to fit passenger side one as I could not get the quarterlight catch undone – so sprayed it with some loose juice. I was concerned that I would not be able to set the passenger side mirror at such an acute angle required so considered the possibility of fitting the mirrors on the rain channel alongside the front screen. I sought advice from fellow members on the website forum on this. Garth from the shop advised that they should be fitted onto the window frame not the quarterlight glass but I have not yet tried to remount it. However mounted on the quarterlight it was a godsend on our recent run out I was able to see clearly behind. This run out to the Mumbles near Swansea saw us break through 400 very enjoyable miles to date. We are looking forward to many more. I met up with my (other )brother  in law at a family funeral  , he used to run his own part time car repair business and had scoured his garage for bits and gave me a genuine Lucas fuse box ( wish he’d found this 6 months ago ) and a new 6 way blade fuse box together with an assorted bag of blade fuses and good old fashioned ones.

FEB 2013

   Tried To follow Garth’s advice and fitted drivers mirror onto door frame and succeeded in losing the fitting shim DOWN INSIDE THE DOOR. So carefully refitted with the one remaining one (intended for passenger side) I had, but the mirror was just not secure so I refitted it back onto the quarterlight glass as it was perfectly secure. Still not been able to undo the passenger quarterlight – did not want to force it too much in case I do further irreparable damage. So the passenger side mirror is still a job pending.  Something had been bugging me about the cosmic alloys fitted to car and it was not because I’m a minilite fan. Anyway , I suddenly noticed the obvious ( sometimes difficult ) that the spokes had been painted black , so decided to see if  they would clean up ok . Managed to carefully scrape the excess paint off , rubbed down with wet n dry and a quick polish with Silvio and they looked much better  ( see photos for the before and after ) – I almost like them . Might see if I can get them shiny sparkly.

My bother in law is hopefully going to pick up 2 new centres for me to replace the missing ones from Midland wheels who want to charge a fortune for postage .Had another great day on  club run along the coast to Porthcawl  only hiccup was non functioning brake light but that just turned out to be a disconnected bullet.

MAR 2013

Not much happened this month – Had a brief discussion with Bern our Area Rep regarding welding up driver seat mounting in the floor and o/s treadplate in readiness for the mot . Need to get some metal and make up a patch for this and generally prepare for this by liberal spraying of release oil on seat and sill mountings .  Anticipating doing the job late April / early May. Had a good run to Weston Super Mare for their Pageant of Transport . Longest run on a motorway so far, but all ok as lead car maintained a steady 50 mph .  

APR 2013

Mot window opened on Apr 24 so this was the main focus for the immediate future depending on the purchase of another classic in which case the car would be taken off the road and a full nut and bolt restoration undertaken.  Had a good run to the Bristol Classic Car Show on Drive it Day managed to get the top down for the first time in ages on the way there. Finally found and purchased  another car a yellow TR6 so the decision was taken  use and enjoy the Vitesse on the local runs till the mot runs out late in May  then take her off the road and undertake a full restoration whilst running  the TR6 and continuing to enjoy the runs and days out with the local TSSC crew.

MAY 2013

This month was spent  planning the vehicle stripdown and preparing a scheme of work and assessing tools and facilities required. Domestic pressures prevented much progress on tidying and preparing garage  space – also hindered by the parking of the TR6 with the Vitesse relegated to under a cover on the drive for the moment and the seemingly permanently inclement and unreliable weather. We took her on a trip to a very rainy Pencoed classic car show which despite the bad weather was another great day out with the good company of local TSSC members.  For her final club run we went on the  chip shop run to Porthcawl on a sunny but windy night – another great night out and her first and final ( for the moment anyway ) run in darkness . The headlights were a lot better than I imagined them to be – also the dash was positively illuminating!!!!!! Now the hard work begins – daunting but exciting  – but I am determined to do it once and do it right. No hard time targets yet set – let see how things go once she is stripped of her glory. Miles to date 935. Oh yes I forgot to tell you we christened her VERA. So here’s Vera in all her splendour before the commencement of the makeover.  Watch out for further exiting updates of the adventures of Vera and the Vitesse Virgin and our sister publication soon to hit the headlines – Tales of the TR Tart.