bought Terry the triumph

[cleverusername]

Ok I have bought Terry, the red 1500HL. Would show photos, but it has been under a snow drift this week (everytime I clear it off, more falls out of the bloody sky). If you want to scare yourself half to death, drive a misfiring dolomite up the M1 in a blizzard, not much fun, though I did make it back to Leeds.

Bodywork, all three front panels are shot, but have club fibre glass replacements. Plan to remove all three and replace. Any advice about best method appreciated, especially the front panel. As for the rest, all in good nick as far I can see (hoping for no nasty surprises when I take the wings off). Offside headlight mounting is going at edges, but I do have a plan to fix. Basically sheet metal, rivet gun, and cut to shape. It isn't structural, so it should be a good enough repair.

Mechanicals, well there is a misfire, which I am praying is electrical. I am switching to electrical ignition this weekend, so no point setting the timing till that is done. It also developed an oil leak on the way up here. Being a pessimist my first thought is head gasket, but I hope it is just the seal on the rocker cover. Still much to do, but I hope to get the old 1500 up to a reasonable standard by summer.

[xvivalve]

Self tappers, bulb-tite rivets or small nuts and bolts or a selection of all of the above. The GRP front panel is far easier to fit than a metal one!

The only tip I'd give is do not remove all three panels simultaneously as you'll then spend a long time trying to get all your panel gaps right; use existing adjacent panels as a register to get the lines right. It might even pay to do the front panel first as this can be lined up against the existing wings and the same applying to the wings there after.

[Purplebargeken]

What Alun said^^^^

[Jod Clark]

What Ken said ^^

[Oli_88]

What they all said. I've just fitted grp panels to mine. The club front panel is very good, the wings are from another supplier (I was skint and they were exceedingly cheap), I now wish I'd just got all club panels. The front wings aren't really the right shape, very thin and not particularly good quality at all. Managed to make it look ok, but I'm still not happy with it. It'll do for getting the car mobile again, but I'm now saving for a body shop to do it all properly as I've had enough
Bodywork is not my forte at all!
As for getting the old panels off, spotweld drill is highly recommended, though I just went at it with a skinny disc. Either way, it's not difficult getting them off... But good luck anyway!

[DoloWIGHTY]

That's the problem with "old Skool" GRP panels they were something that back road garages used to "whack on" to either get the car though an MoT or just so the rust wasn't to show, they were never intended as to unmistakable from the steel originals, back then a GRP wing would cost say £20 whereas the steel one from Unipart would be £90 each, so for an "old banger" on would go the GRP panel.

The club ones are in a total different league of course.

However bodyshops today still remember the days of the get-you-through-a-MoT GRP £20 wing, thus as soon as you mention the possibility of fitting one the alarm bells start going off.

I fitted GRP wings to my Dolomite 1300 in the 1990s, I think they cost me £35 each then - they were just as described by Oli, thin and didn't fit too well.

Oh...by the way...thanks for saving Terry!

[Carledo]

I fitted my club GRP panels with Tiger Seal (ask any body materials supplier) and tapping bolts which was very successful. Tiger seal is a sort of cross between seam sealer and extra strong glue, comes in a tube like bathroom silicone and is applied the same way. The tapping bolts I used are the sort that have a mini drill bit on the end so you dont have to pre-drill, just whack them in! (I made a driver from an old 1/4 drive extension and an 8mm socket to use in my electric drill)
The order for fitting the panels is not obvious. I was replacing the inner and outer front panels, both wings and a doorskin on my car and cut the lot off together. (BTW it is near vital to take the front doors off to get the wings off and the bonnet must come off to get the front panel off) On reassembly, get the doors try fitted first, this gives you something to align the back edge of the wings with. Then lay the front panel in place (after drilling for the bonnet bolts) and fit and align the bonnet and the rear edge of the front panel. Now try fit the wings with a couple of bolts in the top edge and get the wing to bonnet and wing to door gaps to your satisfaction (NO sealant yet!) they may have to go on and off several times to be fettled, likewise on the front panel where it meets the wings. This may not apply to your car but on mine I had to put considerable downward pull on the front panel to make it fit properly (by comparison the wings were near perfect,needing only minor adjustment)
Finally when you are happy with the fit and everything is in the right place, take it all off, run a good bead of Tiger seal over 1 side of all the joining flanges and reassemble, firing enough tapping bolts in to hold it completely, then walk away for a week to let the sealant set!
Thats about it really, some of the bolts behind the grille may have to be removed (or the heads ground off) to allow the grilles to fit snugly but this is ok as the sealant is doing most of the work anyhow.
The only other thing I MUST stress is these panels are GRP and WILL need fettling to fit nicely! No matter that my body man says they are the best he's ever dealt with, they will still need help to fit! Paitience is key and will be rewarded with a finish that looks like new, rush it and you will not be happy with the result.

Best of luck and well done for saving Terry!

Steve

[cleverusername]

Hi all thanks for the replies. Anyway I fitted electronic ignition today, and turned a misfiring engine into a dead one. Think I may have got one of the wires wrong. Well something to do tomorrow.

Also found a ton of water in both footwells (schoolboy error, always lift carpets when buying). Three pin holes in passenger side, and one rust hole behind dash drivers side. Oh well, we have a good garage, and will take it down to get welding done. I want to find all the rot, and get this car in decent condition. Can't promise concourse, but my budget is pretty good, so I should have the old guy to a decent solid running condition. Just give me a year or so (will be two years soon).

Still it does make me appreciated the old Xantia a bit more. The thing doesn't rust, and the XUD engine is pretty much bullet proof. What I learn't.

Compression ignition > spark ignition.

[cleverusername]

I fitted my club GRP panels with Tiger Seal (ask any body materials supplier) and tapping bolts which was very successful. Tiger seal is a sort of cross between seam sealer and extra strong glue, comes in a tube like bathroom silicone and is applied the same way. The tapping bolts I used are the sort that have a mini drill bit on the end so you dont have to pre-drill, just whack them in! (I made a driver from an old 1/4 drive extension and an 8mm socket to use in my electric drill)
The order for fitting the panels is not obvious. I was replacing the inner and outer front panels, both wings and a doorskin on my car and cut the lot off together. (BTW it is near vital to take the front doors off to get the wings off and the bonnet must come off to get the front panel off) On reassembly, get the doors try fitted first, this gives you something to align the back edge of the wings with. Then lay the front panel in place (after drilling for the bonnet bolts) and fit and align the bonnet and the rear edge of the front panel. Now try fit the wings with a couple of bolts in the top edge and get the wing to bonnet and wing to door gaps to your satisfaction (NO sealant yet!) they may have to go on and off several times to be fettled, likewise on the front panel where it meets the wings. This may not apply to your car but on mine I had to put considerable downward pull on the front panel to make it fit properly (by comparison the wings were near perfect,needing only minor adjustment)
Finally when you are happy with the fit and everything is in the right place, take it all off, run a good bead of Tiger seal over 1 side of all the joining flanges and reassemble, firing enough tapping bolts in to hold it completely, then walk away for a week to let the sealant set!
Thats about it really, some of the bolts behind the grille may have to be removed (or the heads ground off) to allow the grilles to fit snugly but this is ok as the sealant is doing most of the work anyhow.
The only other thing I MUST stress is these panels are GRP and WILL need fettling to fit nicely! No matter that my body man says they are the best he's ever dealt with, they will still need help to fit! Paitience is key and will be rewarded with a finish that looks like new, rush it and you will not be happy with the result.

Best of luck and well done for saving Terry!

Steve

Thanks Steve, I am rather taken with your way of fitting panels. Sounds a bit more sophisticated that my drill hole rivet plan. What sort of self tapping bolts did you use? I did consider bolts but I wasn't sure if I could reach both sides at every point to position a nut. What would be really nice is the ability to take off the panels for maintenance, but I am a bit worried about security of panels and possibility of water ingress.

[xvivalve]

The reason for the necessity to pull the front panel down is mainly due to the material differences between steel and GRP. The steel panel has a bit more spring to it but is less 'strong' in its desire to return to its original form; this is manifest in the top part of the panel where it has to spring over the inner front panel. Whereas the metal panel sits happily in its new form, the GRP fights back and therefore lifts its skirts a bit. This has been fed back into production and the top part is now laid up less thickly than it was, but there are limits as to how thin we can go.

Ideally, the mould should have been made on a pre-stressed panel to over come this, but the amount of pre stressing off the car would have been guess work. Given the mould for the front panel is a three part mould that cost £500, sadly we aren't talking sufficient quantity of demand to pay for trial and error moulds.

[Carledo]

Alun, I'm not complaining about the front panel! Having only done the one, I wasn't even sure it wasn't just me! Whatever, it wasn't difficult to overcome and the car looks great!

Steve

[Carledo]

Thanks Steve, I am rather taken with your way of fitting panels. Sounds a bit more sophisticated that my drill hole rivet plan. What sort of self tapping bolts did you use? I did consider bolts but I wasn't sure if I could reach both sides at every point to position a nut. What would be really nice is the ability to take off the panels for maintenance, but I am a bit worried about security of panels and possibility of water ingress.

The method is rather like the old chippies "screwed and glued" and is not really meant to be easily removed! I guess the panels would stay on without the Tigerseal but the idea was to spread the load evenly around all the panel joints rather than having loads of stress points from just bolting.
As far as water ingress goes, none of the joins will let water into the passenger compartment though some might find its way into the engine bay, the GRP panels won't rot but I took some care to ensure the panels they are fixed to were sound and well protected.
The tapping bolts came from (I think) Travis Perkins, £6odd for a bag of 1oo, of which I used about 40 so I still have some left. I'll photograph one and post it sometime this week!

Steve

[Tims Triumph]

What's the Mileage?
Might be worth re shelling bearings to keep the bottom end in good condition along with oil and filter change - an essential thing on the triumph 1500's.
We just did mine, new shells cost £99 but it is well worth it, otherwise you might have to start messing about regrinding the crank and all of that hassle! According to the book "to ensure millages of 100k plus main bearings should be replaced at intervals of 30k miles"

[Oli_88]

I'm fairly confident the bolts Steve refers to are also known as Tec(h) screws or bolts. Very good fixings, used them on a variety of things. It is possible to get a sealant that doesn't set to also help mount panels and keep them moisture proof. I forget what it's called though. This Is what I attempted to do, but I bought the wrong product, require a heat gun to remove mine now.

[cleverusername]

What's the Mileage?
Might be worth re shelling bearings to keep the bottom end in good condition along with oil and filter change - an essential thing on the triumph 1500's.
We just did mine, new shells cost £99 but it is well worth it, otherwise you might have to start messing about regrinding the crank and all of that hassle! According to the book "to ensure millages of 100k plus main bearings should be replaced at intervals of 30k miles"

75K, though the engine has had a recent rebuild. To be honest the bodywork worries me more.