1948 Triumph Roadster Supercharged plus other stuff…

Little bits done today.

Painted what I hope is the last of the black pieces. Other than the whole underside, obvs.




Driveshaft plus a few other small parts.
That was before breakfast.
We needed to rob the beehive, and that was the job for straight after breakfast,as the temp was climbing steadily.

Once that was done I could get back to the workshop.
I finished the new plastic lining along the floor with some 4 inch conveyor belting laid along the edge.
But I didn’t have enough, so went for a short drive north.
All of 3 km, to a business that recycles rubber conveyor belts from the mines, into various other products.
They have a freebies section and I picked a nice thick piece to hold my sheet down.

I drilled and screwed the tab on the driver’s sides body to the underside of the repaired sill.
Then drilled and nailed it, through mostly original holes in the aluminium skin.





Scratched this part of underside of the body, from the front wheel arch to the rear body mount, with some 80# and gave it a skim of filler.
After a couple of goes it is just about ready for some spray polyester.
Then sanded and sealed with epoxy.





Thanks.

Cheers 75.
Will certainly get some pics. It’s on 3 weeks from today.

More filler work today, the other ( passenger) side this time.

Didn’t take any photos. Just imagine a mirror image of those last shots.

That didn’t take very long really.
I'd already screwed the undersill tab, that I made a few posts back, to the wood.
I did tap it down and nail it through the existing holes, but because this is the sill that I didn’t fix, it didn’t need to be predrilled. Because softwood.

Then I found that there was a high spot on the rear end. One that wouldn’t tap down.
About where one would be if the new wood was pressing on the aluminium skin…





I didn’t want this to push a lump into the body, if things moved at all.
So then I spent the best part of half a day creating a small gap between the piece of wood and the skin.
This particular bit of wood is pretty much in there permanently now that the rest of the boot has been assembled around it.
It would be a major job to get it out.
So I tried various things to make a gap, mostly without success.
Then I unscrewed the 14 (!) screws that hold it in and was able to wiggle it enough to get some serious sandpaper behind it.
Anyway it’s now ok, but I am concerned enough about things changing shape that I’ll take it off the rotisserie, put it back on the body and check boot / door gaps etc once the bodywork is done.
Then put it back on the rotisserie to paint it.

By the time that was done, I'd had enough, so I sealed it with a quick coat of epoxy, and went for a cleansing ale.


Thanks.

Did a bit more detail work on the body.
Nothing photo worthy - car looks much the same as yesterday.

Because I was mixing epoxy to seal the filler on the body, I prepared the air cleaner for paint.
It was pretty rough.





So it needed treating for rust ( phosphoric ) and some sandblasting.

Gave it a couple of coats of epoxy and once it was dry to touch, spread filler over the spot welds and rust pits.





Plan for the body is to go over it with 120 grit, mask it and then try out the Upol Reface.


Thanks.

Can recommend Upol Reface.
My (cheap) gun has a 2.5 fluid tip, and Upol advises 2 - 3.
I’m thinking a 3 might be better for a flatter finish off this gun, but the surface is like stonechip and acts like a guide coat.
And it sands easily. As advertised.

After sanding with 180 grit, there were a few low spots. Gave them a scratch and shot some more Reface, just where needed.

About an hour and a bit later it was hard, so I sanded them and removed all the masking.

Then went all over it, marked areas that needed attention, ie filling, with bits of masking tape.





Once they were sorted I blew all the dust off and started masking it again.
For what I hope is the last coat of epoxy before topcoats.

Only got about halfway through masking and it was time to pick up our Rosie from the vet.
She’s just had a tumour cut out of her chest. Very restless and presumably uncomfortable.
Just hope they got it all.

End of play.

Thanks.

Sixteen bolts and eighteen screws and it’s finally in position, hopefully forever.






I won't tap the ally over and nail it down just yet, though tbh, I’m not sure why.
That will have to be done before the epoxy on the bare ally.

Made a couple of reinforcement plates to bolt the firewall box to the chassis.
To go in here:





Cut a piece of paper and used the dirty finger technique.






Then duplicated that in 6mm ally.
The partial holes are to clear rivets in the original. As you can see they are in different side to side as you might expect with hand built.





Then, later I was looking through photos to see if there was anything I might have missed before tightening up all those bolts and screws. I found this.





That looks like Triumph's version.
Oh well, I probably won’t be able to find it anyway…


There’s a bit to do with door and boot gaps.

The passenger door needs a bit of weld to close the gap on the hinge side.
Drivers door gaps are ok, but the whole door needs to be twisted about half an inch.
At the moment I have a strap pulling the lower front corner in towards the body, while the epoxy that I’ve injected into the wooden corner joints goes off.
Hopefully it will stay that shape when the epoxy has hardened, but I’m not confident.

The boot needs a little bit of weld on each side to get the gaps right, or at least to where I can live with it…
Across the bottom is lovely. Very happy with that.


I was bemoaning that wood screws were no longer available, it’s all tek screws now, whinge, whinge.
Then I had the bright idea of typing in ‘slot head wood screws’ and pretty much the first ad that came up was for exactly the size I needed for the doors and boot lid.
In stainless, no less. Perfect.
And they arrived the next day.




Thanks.

I’m looking for some advice.
The Triumph needs several small rubber parts. Things like door and bonnet bump rubbers, windscreen wiper shaft grommets, fuel filler neck grommet etc. are just the ones that come to mind.
I know they can be printed with a filament called TPU. At least I’ve read that tyres for RC cars can be made from TPU and I think that’s the sort of toughness and flexibility I’m after.
In order to print something, it needs to be designed first.
So I would need software like Fusion 360 on a computer and then get the instructions to the printer on a stick or connect the computer to the printer.
I only have an old desktop, which I’m sure is too old to run software like that. And an iPad.
So I would need a computer, software and the printer.
The printer would live in my workshop, which doesn’t have full time internet and is too far from the wifi in the house. But I could use my phone, if needed. And ideally the computer would be at my house.
That’s just what I’ve learned, putting all that into action is a big step further…
Or I could just make silicone moulds and cast them. That sounds like a much easier proposition.
But I like the idea of being able to print other stuff.
So, if you have any suggestions, ideas or advice, I’d be pleased to hear it.

I too am very interested in 3d printing and have had great fun with Onshape, a free, fully parametric 3D drawing package that rivals Fusion 360 and Solidworks. I'm not sure that I will ever master surface modelling but for the features I have needed to design badges for the project I have found it very easy to learn and use thanks to the plethora of instructional YouTube videos. STP and STL files can be downloaded which I have uploaded to a firm in Southampton who carry out 3D printing and provide instant online quotes. Here are a couple of examples of prototype badges.

RetroPower  have a Bambu and in one of the episodes Callum mentions the exact model that they have. I believe from memory that it wasn't hugely expensive in the scheme of things, perhaps about £1500 and that does everything they need. 

Whenever I buy tools, I go for the very best that I cannot afford, always professional grade and never diy because of the quality, product support and good supply of spare parts that comes with the price.  Agreed, you can pay a lot of money for rubbish which is why it is always good to be guided by recommendations based on length of service and durability.

Thanks for the discussion gents.

I’m pretty keen on a printer, one of the reasons being that I’m also keen on building a CNC plasma table and I’ve bought some plans that include instructions for some 3D printed parts.

I can buy the parts (or get someone to print them) but the cost of that would go a way toward buying a printer.
Can get a refurbed desktop for $300 and a Bambu P1S for under $1100.
Just have to get my head around having more computers in my life. I’m much more an analogue person.

Anyway, back to the Triumph…

First up I drilled all the holes in the doors, B pillars and boot lid to take the lovely stainless screws that I mentioned a few days ago.
Eleven in each door hinge and eight in each of the boot lid ones.
So now I have a blister on my palm…


Drilled the holes and put new bolts through the firewall box and the wooden sill that I’d replaced.





On the other side of that is a small angle bracket that’s held on by the top bolt.
It is the support for the front part of the floor.
The spirit level is there to make sure it’s in line with the main floor support.






I had removed the boot and doors to repair the filler and primer that was burnt when I added some weld to them.
The stuff above was squeezed in while waiting for filler to harden.





Sealed them with a coat of epoxy and called it a day.

Cheers.