VA969 Mike's Early Sprint Restoration.

[triple tango]

wow, this is going to be stunning

[sprint95m]

A common problem is splitting of the bulkhead where the throttle pedal is mounted.
As you have the car stripped to its shell, in an effort to avoid this problem, it could be worthwhile to plate this area on the inside?

[Mad Mart]

Never seen that before on any of my Sprints, but looks like it will stop the rocking motion which, as you said, causes the metal to crack, eventually.

[Autonet7]

No rod, but there is a large hole in the bracket in the right place, though no idea is this is common throughout. Will check VGX tomorrow

[xvivalve]

Never seen one of those in 61 cars...or is it 62 now?

Doesn't look like standard Triumph engineering to me, more like home made preventative medicine; compare it to the other braces etc in close locale (ie those which support the brake pedal). You will notice that the Auto is (should be) reinforced with an extra spreader plate though Mike

[MalcGE]

Never seen one of those before and with no listing in the parts book I would say it is probably a 'home grown mod' but a very useful one

[Howard81]

Quite possibly it could be a factory modification that was introduced but never thought worthwhile to continue.

[xvivalve]

Clearly to me it is 'something else' that has been codged to fit. No reason for it to be chrome plated, everything else under there is of sharp black pressing, and the shape of the bends is inelegant and therefore likely to have been unengineered. A castle nut and split pin seems to be an odd choice when 'nylock' would do nicely.

Beings as auto's were already strengthened with a wider ribbed reinforcing plate behind the pedal bracket I would have thought anything experimental would have gone along similar lines?

[JPB]

.....Forum Opinion What do you all think about Leyland "Panel Gaps". Are they lovable trait of the car or would you in my position also work on getting them right?

I think that, when you have such an obviously gifted panel man doing this job, it would be a shame not to make the panel gaps as good as they should always have been. The fact that BL couldn't be bothered to put the bodies together with this same amount of care, back in the day, is no reason not to do the job properly now.

[sprint95m]

Mighty impressive work indeed.
Your shell is pretty good really Mike, confirmed by not needing to replace the lower section of the inner sill apart from the ends.

[JPB]

Extremely impressive fabrication work going on there! I'm especially in awe of the standard to which the bases of the pillars have been restored, that lot should look totally original once the final preparation before paint has been done and, more importantly, the car will be as strong as it should be.

Top metalworking.

[SprintMWU773V]

I've often wondered where the inner reinforcers are joined to. The inner sills have some supports at either end, do these provide the support for the reinforcer piece?

I totally agree with everyone who says the fabrication is excellent. Looks like you've found a good workshop there.

[straylight]

seems like panel beaters/welders are camera shy. Must be a by product of their genius

stu

[mbellinger]

That work on the rear wheel arch/door shut is art.

You have definitely chosen the right guy Mike.

[hutch76]

Mike. Think 'The MIG' is creating a lot of work for himself here, all at your expense. It would have saved you a fortune of he'd just got busy with filler, rather than all this welding nonsense!

Seriously, I think the guy is doing a fantastic job. He certainly has mastered his craft, and it doesn't half show.

Calum