More Tub

Tues.12.12.06. Just when I thought that we had seen the last of the tete dust we are now in our second day of glassing, filling and sanding. The body tub has been inverted onto its other side to enable and facilitate the clean mending of the hidden areas that could not be accessed the previous day. 

Proud nuts, rough glass and general lumps and bumps were removed followed by a generous rubbing down with 40’s. Breathing in the dusty fumes from the old and new glass brought back the endless days in summer when the mammoth task of fixing the windscreen occupied all of our working hours. By early evening most of the preparation had been accomplished leaving only small areas to be filled then rubbed down delicately. The underside of the tub has been transformed from a careless, forgotten ignored element of the car into a precious, polished constituent equal to any other aspect of the vehicle. It has retained its unique combination of remarkably strong, healthy marine ply, rudimentary angle iron and resin based fibre glass, but fabricated, fashioned and honed into a smooth, level plane underpinning the central robust foundation of the body. 

I have spent most of the morning chasing pre-ordered components. Andrew Turner has received the worn out SUs, courtesy of ‘Parcel Force’, so, with any luck he is at present assembling their replacements, Danny will continue priming the front offside wing and bonnet tomorrow, John is tolerantly still accepting the many ‘bolt ons’ that I regularly add to the Paddocks requisition. I have at last located a compatible ‘tacho’ to complete the assembly of instruments that will form the staples of the dashboard. Europa spares have, what seems to be, an 80mm, black faced, silver needled clock with the correct ‘Smith’s’ fonts and appearance (£95.00). Fingers crossed. Regrettably, the proposed electronic ignition system, from ‘SC parts’, that was intended to replace the ‘old fashioned’ distributor mechanism cannot be used as this unit has not been designed for a Triumph 13/60, as such an alternative will need to be sourced. Bummer.

Nonetheless, I feel that the project is slowly yet painfully steadily rolling along once more. Considering the many distractions at this time of year (fuckin’ Christmas) this is an achievement in itself.