New Member

[Rob B]

Just though i'd introduce myself. I've only recently joined the club as a member in my own right but im sure a lot of you will know my parents, Jeff and Julie Baker who have been members since the year dot and former committee members, so i have them to blame for my Triumph addiction.

It has been a few years now since a lack of storage space forced me into selling my Herald 1200, but the long wait for quality motoring is finally over as i have purchased the 2500 Mk2 that previously belonged to our late editor, John Cottrell. I hope to keep the car in its current tidy condition and improve upon it where i can but still keep it in regular use as i believe John did.

Immediate jobs that need doing are the fitment of a tow bar as i will be using the car to tow my 1965 prototype folding caravan. It will be interesting to see which gets more attention, the car or the caravan! The rear bumper is in desperate need of replacement so i aim to do this at the same time as fitting the towbar (if anyone has an early pre-facelift mk2 saloon rear bumper, or even just the centre section, for sale then i would be very interested to hear from you). I am not sure what has happened to the bumper but on the underside of the centre section there is a hole about the size of a tennis ball! the LH corner has also been damaged and then filled in at some point.

The bootlid and passenger side door are showing slight signs of corrosion and will need looking at over the winter but i think both are saveable. I have a couple of spare boot lids which may or may not be better than that one thats on so we will see which one the bodyshop think is the best bet. I am lucky that their is a good bodyshop near my mum and dads who are very reasonably priced. They recently did a great job of touching up my Dad's Mk1 PI.

The worst part of the car (and trickiest to fix) is the dashboard. I am not sure what happened to it during John's ownership but there are 2 very severe (yet perfectly parrallel) splits in the vinyl on the drivers side and the section under the glovebox looks like it has been chewed on by something. The undershelf is also completely jiggered but happily a good spare was included with the sale and will be fitted shortly. My dad and I have another 2000 spares car rotting away in my Grandma's garage which will be donating its dashboard to the 2500, and may also provide the gearbox to convert my car to manual at some point.

Anyway, i will be making regular updates on here as work on the car progresses and i hope to get along to a good number of shows with the register in 2010.

Cheers, Rob Baker

p.s. is there anyone on here from the Manchester or Derbyshire areas? We hope to pop along to a meeting in the near future but it would be nice to make contact with someone first.

[Allen Walker]

Hi Rob,
Welcome to the Register and the Forum. Glad John's car went to a good home.
I would imagine Lee Godfrey (englishbull on this Forum) would get quite excited about your caravan, plus he is in Derbyshire!
Cheers,

[Charles H]

Welcome
I am pleased Johns car has gone to an appreciating owner.

[Umquat]

I can imagine Lee is salivating already - horrible pictures conjured up there - at the sight of your caravan. And very nice little unit it looks too.

[Rob B]

I can imagine Lee is salivating already - horrible pictures conjured up there - at the sight of your caravan. And very nice little unit it looks too.

Cheers, we like it

It was a one-off prototype made for the Everyman company but they deemed it to expensive to produce and so no more were ever built. I think it will look tidy behind the 2500.

Those pictures are out of date now, the van has been restored gradually over the last year and is now a rather fetching 2-tone blue and cream.

[Umquat]

I knew I'd seen your car somewhere before. It made the front cover of the club magazine - Dec 2008 Issue 164 - not that I went looking, I just happened to notice it as I was tidying up

[englishbull]

Welcome Rob (you have pm).................yes I do love your caravan spot on chap!!!!!!!!! and I also love your mum and dads mk1 pi.................

[Rob B]

Many thanks for all the welcoming messages and comments about the car.

She has stayed down in Gloucestershire with my parents longer than i would have liked but my Dad's Renault is off the road and so the 2000 has been drafted in as everyday transport in the meantime. She is responding well to being used and is averaging a respectable 30 MPG.

I have to thank my Dad who has been working hard on the car whilst its in his care.

Job's done so far:

Replaced centre console which was badly cracked.

Sorted out the underdash shelf so that its a little better, still not great but i have a new one waiting to go in.

Replaced Choke assembly, it now stays out on its own without the help of a clothes peg!

Changed oil and filters, it had been running on a thinner grade of oil, much happier now.

Replaced Oil Pressure relief valve and spring. The oil light was flickering just slightly when coming to a stop from high speed, the better oil and new valve seem to have greatly improved this but i will fit a Chris Witor oil pump at some stage.

Replaced worn check strap on drivers side door and adjusted the hinge, still need to do passenger side which is also opening too wide.

Cleaned out the air box as the inside had been painted at some stage and was now flaking off and clogging the filter. Also cleaned out all the ducts, vents and heater matrix which was full of leaves and associated gunk.

Removed radiator, cleaned and painted and put back as this was a bit of a mess.

Plus lots of other little bits and a thorough clean and polish.

Urgent jobs still to do include fitting the towbar, hopefully replacing the knackered rear bumper at the same time, if i can get one and sorting out the passenger door.

In the medium-term the bootlid will need attention. I have a couple of spare ones and the one thats on is saveable so will let the bodyshop decide which one is the best bet. hopefully get a couple of other blemishes and stone chips touched up at the same time.

We have another 2000 which will shortly be broken for spares, if all goes to plan that car will be donating its dashboard and steering column fairing, both of which are in a bad way on my car. I'll also be keeping the manual gearbox and engine back plate from the scrap car, although i havent 100% decided to convert to manual yet. Nice to have the option tho.

Ultimately i would like to fit some sort of alloys to the car, and a semi-sport stainless exhaust but thats for way down the line.

[Steve G]

Hello
I haven't posted on here before but spotted your comment about swapping to a manual gearbox.
I have done the same on my car and thought it worth mentioning that it might be worth keeping a few other parts as well, just in case you haven't already got a list that is !

Parts I had to get were, pedal box and clutch master cylinder, hydraulic pipe and slave cylinder. Obviously the flywheel will be needed as will the pilot bearing for the imput shaft (I think). Along with these you will need the mountings and crossmember, propshaft and possibly the differential. There are a few other parts I think like speedo cable and the trim round the gearlever but it's been more than a few years since I did it now.

[David Withers]

Hello Cap'n.

Some good reminders there, however the differential ratio is the same (3.45:1) for the manual and automatic on the 2500, so no need to change. Only the Mk1 2000 had a different ratio between manual and auto.