Felly Fav and Trum. **New Carpets**

[Yoss]

8 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

That would look the part.  Rolls liked colour combos like that, with the carpets and seat piping matching the bodywork.

...It would probably really annoy the rivet counters as well.  Though the colour (which I'm pretty sure is a far later BL colour, it was originally a far darker shade of navy blue) probably will do a good job of that anyway.

I know it's impossible to tell from photos, especially electronic ones, but it looks quite close to one of my old Landcrabs. This was Teal blue. 

[Zelandeth]

Could well be, Tahiti Blue was another suggestion that I remember seeing floated.

[Yoss]

49 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Could well be, Tahiti Blue was another suggestion that I remember seeing floated.

Tahiti was a Triumph colour. This 8s a friends old 2000. The green mk1 was mine. 

A bit darker and very blue. Teal had just a hint of grey/green in it. 

[Zelandeth]

16 minutes ago, Yoss said:

Tahiti was a Triumph colour. This 8s a friends old 2000. The green mk1 was mine. 

A bit darker and very blue. Teal had just a hint of grey/green in it. 

To be honest that does look pretty close, especially how it looks in direct sun.  It is VERY blue.

Existing photo on here for reference - that is pretty accurate to how it appears to the eye.

I do think the idea of a deep blue for the carpets would look great though - the grey of the seats/door cards being cool toned helps as it won't clash.

Should probably stop detailing your thread now shouldn't I!

[Yoss]

3 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

To be honest that does look pretty close, especially how it looks in direct sun.  It is VERY blue.

Existing photo on here for reference - that is pretty accurate to how it appears to the eye.

I do think the idea of a deep blue for the carpets would look great though - the grey of the seats/door cards being cool toned helps as it won't clash.

Should probably stop detailing your thread now shouldn't I!

It gave me an excuse to show two of my old cars, so not entirely irrelevant. 

[Yoss]

So on to the main floor carpet. First of all the underlay. The underlay is very difficult to draw on even with marker pens, it just seems to soak up the ink so I came up with genius idea of laying the old underlay over the top and spraying aerosol around all the edges. 

The result wasn't as neat as hoped but gave me enough to work with. 

Which was then test fitted. 

The original underlay was shaped to go over the exhaust tunnel and the new stuff isn't, it just comes in a roll, so it didn't sit that well here. I decided to cut a section out around the tunnel. 

Then the section I removed was glued to the underside of the main carpet in the same position. I decided the main section didn't need glueing on, even though the original was, as the seats and seat belts will keep it all in place. 

Nice to see it came with the handbrake hole pre cut but I still had to do seat mounting and seat belt holes myself. Note it also has a panel stitched in for the tunnel. 

Test fit without underlay. It's a bit creased at the moment. It came folded in the bag for delivery and it arrived about two months ago and has been in the bag under the bed since then. 

Also the original carpet had poppers attached to these studs along the front edge. 

So I marked the underlay

And poked holes to latch on to these studs. 

I am then going to tuck the the leading edge of the main carpet under the footwell carpet which should keep it place. 

It's still a bit wrinkled and I'm hoping it will settle down with time. If it still bothering me I feel that if I were to glue the underlay to the underside of the carpet, as the original was, it would smoothen things out. But as most of it is under the seats anyway I don't think it will be a problem. 

Seeing as I had a bit of underlay left I cut a section out to go under the back seat. I'm sure that'll make it much* quieter. 

Originally Triumph had a black plastic bag full of mystery material under here for the same purpose but mine had long since dissolved/been eaten by mice and been thrown away. It really wouldn't bother me if it was there or not, there is so much mechanical noise I really don't think you're going to notice one less decibel coming from the back but as I had the stuff left over I thought I may as well use it. 

Back seat refitted. 

All I have to do now is the transmission cover at the front. It's all gone quicker than I was expecting with no real problems so far. 

[Yoss]

Next job. 

This is the first time I've used this stuff brand new and it's a lot more difficult and time consuming than I expected. Obviously I've removed and refitted old ones before but they've had years to mould themselves in to shape.

Being brand new it is a lot tighter and unwilling to bend around the tighter curves. I was using a blunt chisel to open up the gaps (I say blunt but I was still very much aware of the damage it could do if I slipped). 

It took two days in the end. Not two whole days but I decided after doing one side that that was enough for one day.

But it looks good I think and is a pretty good match for the carpet considering they are from two different companies. 

 

The old stuff was very faded and worn in places. I fitted this about thirty years ago and it was second hand from a friends Wolseley 6/99.

Now it lives in a garage it should easily last another thirty years and hopefully see me out. 

The kickplates are quite badly scuffed and scratched in places. 

So I thought I try rubbing them down with ever finer grades of wet and dry followed by a good polish. This did remove most of the scratches but it has come out a different colour. They obviously have some sort of coating on which I have removed, revealing the bare aluminum. 

More noticeable here. 

So I only did the one. The other three I just cleaned as best as I could. If you look close you can see the scratches but I figure most people aren't going to be looking as closely as I am. It looks okay from here. 

[Yoss]

That's the first stage complete anyway. As it needed to be on the drive for this work I put Škoda in the garage and have been using the Triumph for daily duties whilst I did all the above including the trip to the AS meeting at the Flower Farm in Godstone last weekend, a round trip of 200 miles. 

But now it is back in its garage. 

And Škoda is back on the drive. 

And I can just about get all three in the same shot. 

I have a new, actually very old, parcel shelf to go in but I can't see that being ready for a couple of weeks. And finally the seats need work. I would at least like them to match but I have my own ideas which will involve me having to go and talk to an upholsterer to see what's possible. But that can wait a few weeks. 

[Yoss]

So I've moved on to the parcel shelf but this was going to be a much bigger job than it sounds. Those of you familiar with Triumphs of this era will know that the parcel shelves were made of cardboard and after 50 odd years they start to disintegrate. 

Except they weren't all made of cardboard. For the first few months they had moulded plastic ones and about thirty years ago I found one in a D reg car in a scrap yard. The reasons for the switch to cardboard seem to be twofold as far as I can see. Firstly they must be cheaper to make but secondly the plastic ones are a right pig to fit (or remove) as they are utterly rigid, whilst the cardboard ones just fold up as you push them in. 

So plastic. 

And cardboard, or at least the remains of it. 

 

Close up of the bit that goes under the heater. The big oval hole wasn't there originally. I cut that so I can gain access to the input shaft for clutch changes without removing the shelf. 

As you can see this is in a sorry state. 

 

Now I did fit it to the car about thirty years ago but removed it again, partly for access but also being hard plastic everything used to rattle around on it so I took it out again but this plan has been in my head ever since and it has taken me all this time to actually get round to doing it. 

I got an off cut of felt like material from a friend who never throws anything away and piece by piece glued it on to the new (or old whichever way you look at it) shelf. 

I made card templates which had the dual purpose of being templates to cut around to get the right shape but also to mask bits off as I was using spray contact adhesive. 

How much better does that look? Attractive as well as practical. 

 

A general view of my quite chaotic wheelie bin workstation. 

This bit was too tight to make a template so I just pushed a rectangle of fabric in and trimmed it to shape once glued in. 

Perfect place to store tapes. 

 

Almost finished. The padded knee pad is just in front. It wasn't perfect but it is different to the later ones. It has threaded studs that go through the plastic and are then screwed on. The later ones are stapled to the cardboard. So the bits where the vinyl was damaged I just painted in with tar black modelling paint that I have for my railway. 

I think you'll agree it's world's apart from what came out. 

And finished. Like I say, this plan has been in my head for decades so to actually get round to doing it is really very pleasing. 

 

All I have to do now is fit it, which like I say is a lot trickier than it sounds. All the mounting brackets have to come out to get it in then refitted underneath afterwards. 

Halfway test fitting, but the stereo had to come out. 

 

The black rectangular panel reveals the back of the gearbox. If my calculations are correct, once removed the oval hole should be at just the right height to remove the input shaft but I'm not going to test the theory until I absolutely have to. 

 

And this is it. The piece of carpet around the gear stick was the last new piece to go in. Unfortunately there's very little natural light in the garage so I'm using torches here. 

There is a padded vinyl panel that sits in the middle and covers the oval hole up but I can't currently find it. But that will be the finishing touch. 

[captain_70s]

That looks great! 

The parcel shelf in the Dolly is going very saggy. I had no idea fwds started with a plastic one!

[mercedade]

Looks very good!

[Yoss]

10 hours ago, captain_70s said:

That looks great! 

The parcel shelf in the Dolly is going very saggy. I had no idea fwds started with a plastic one!

I'm not sure when they changed over but it seems to be very early on. As I say this came out of a D reg (I've only ever seen C reg ones in publicity photos, never in real life) and I've owned two E regs and they were both cardboard. 

I thought the parts book might tell me as it usually gives commission numbers where changes took place but alas not. 

The diagram does indeed show a plastic shelf. 

But whilst it lists two different part numbers they are just listed as alternatives (part 63 on the diagram). 

 

Incidentally this parts catalogue is my Bible. It shows expanded diagrams of every single part of the car, right down to the nuts and bolts and rivets. In this respect it is more useful than the workshop manual as you can see how everything fits together. 

My copy is well worn and very well used by me but it lives indoors now so it shouldn't get any worse. It is also useful as in the numerical index it lists if any parts are used in other models which is handy when you have just about the least catered for Triumph model out there.

Plus differences for export models and a list of optional extras I don't think anybody ever ticked the box for. It is fascinating for me but of no interest at all to almost everybody else. 

[LightBulbFun]

57 minutes ago, Yoss said:

I thought the parts book might tell me as it usually gives commission numbers where changes took place but alas not. 

@High Jetter has a whole bunch of parts catalogs like that, perhaps one of his might help figure out whats what regarding the plastic shelf?  

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

of no interest at all to almost everybody else. 

Shame on you, where do you think you are? 😀

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

@High Jetter has a whole bunch of parts catalogs like that, perhaps one of his might help figure out whats what regarding the plastic shelf?  

Maybe, I'll try to remember to have a look when I'm with them next. Ta for remembering.

[Yoss]

17 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Shame on you, where do you think you are? 😀

 

I did say almost everyone else. Which is true from the population as a whole. I'll try and do some excerpts later. 

[Yoss]

Okay, here's some stuff from my parts catalogue. 

To start with it lists all the colours and their codes which is handy 

This is for both paint and trim colours and also this is an earlier book so has some colours missing. My own car is Damson which I'd have thought was red but it's listed as 17 which makes it purple, though I can see that too. Also the only brown listed is light tan which is a trim colour but I once had a J reg, so a very late one, in Sienna brown. 

Here's a random page from the numerical index. It gives a description and what page you can find it on and the number on that page. But the last column shows codes for other models that use that part. 

It's obvious that E is a Vitesse because of the 2 litre suffix but the rest are here. 

Don't know quite how much my car has in common with a Leyland 2 Tonner, some nuts and bolts perhaps. 

Then of course their are just dozens of great drawings that show how it all fits together. 

Front suspension and driveshafts. 

 

These helped when I had to rebuild the gearbox. 

 

And you can even see how the body is put together. 

 

And this shows what I've been doing for the last few weeks.

 

There are lots of hand scribbled revisions and taped repairs showing it was used in anger back in the day, not just an enthusiasts novelty. And also shows how often things were revised. For a car that looked almost identical throughout its six year production run it's amazing how much was changed. 

 

Here's the lighting page. If you look closely you'll see variations for the US and Canada. I don't think they ever sold any in America but they managed to shift a few in Canada. What it means is white front indicators and red rear so the rear lens is all red with no amber. 

I have a set of north American front lenses. Which I can use now that you can get orange bulbs. I'd love a, set of all red rears but I doubt it will happen now. A friend had all red lenses on the back of his Landcrab but had to swap them back at MOT time. 

 

There's a lot more in a door than you'd imagine. Who'd have thought there were three different types of quarter light (no draught ventilator assembly in Triumph speak)? I've never noticed. 

 

But this is an odd one. Look at the bottom of the page there is a rear door pull for the Swedish market only. I've no idea what this looks like, I mean they already have armrests that double up as door pulls. It must have been for Swedish legislation, they wouldn't have put it in for fun. 

 

Even the seats, whilst available as whole units still have part numbers for every single individual part. But what's interesting here (to me anyway) is that they are available in leathercloth or yer actual leather. I have never seen any 1300 with leather seats and yet here are the part numbers. 

 

And then we come to the accessories. Front skid plate anyone? And what is a Rochelle seat cover? 

And I like the Continental touring kit. They fully expect you to have to rebuild the head if your planning a long journey. 

This is just a brief glimpse of what's in here. The more you look the more you find. 

Printed locally too. 

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Yoss said:

. Front skid plate anyone? And what is a Rochelle seat cover? 

Skid plate was to protect sump. Ground clearance was pretty good, needed more protection for rallying etc.

IIRC Rochelle was a soft synthetic material used for OEM seat covers. Like a not very fluffy fleece.

[Yoss]

11 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Skid plate was to protect sump. Ground clearance was pretty good, needed more protection for rallying etc.

IIRC Rochelle was a soft synthetic material used for OEM seat covers. Like a not very fluffy fleece.

Oh yeah, I know what they are for I just didn't expect you to be able to buy one from your main dealer.