I used to work in the print industry when MEK and Toluene were regularly used as thinners. I well remember my boss in the design studio keeling over during an air brushing session using print inks thinned with MEK. Such fun.
Do your cam followers have a drilling in the side to allow oil out?
I had a very bad experience (well with a Peerless to be onest I had more than a few!) with cam followers from a well known supplier. They were so badly machined they wouldn't even go down the bore in the block, one got stuck!
I complained and he said "I dont use those, there crap...use these" they were coated black, came in from the states and they had a very thin line down the side. He said that was where each one had been tested for size.
He also let slip they were standard issue for MGC engines, so off the shelf item.
they fitted a treat and I kind of get the idea about allowing the oil out as they dont need to be full to the top all the time.
While waiting for engine parts, I started work on the Stromberg carbs that came with the car.
Throttle shafts and their bores were badly worn so I Reworked the carb bodies to have new Teflon lined bearing bushes and shaft seals that came with the overhaul set.
Then I had them waterblasted and test fitted all parts.
Yesterday i had an appointment with the RDW (Dutch DVLA) to have the P2 registered. As you all might know i bought this car back in January this year without any paperwork, it didn't even have license plates. But the price was right, so i took the chance.
June last year i got a phone call from the previous registrar of the Dutch Triumph Club, asking me if i still owned a Peerless. The answer was yes, my P1 and he asked me if i knew of any more Peerless cars in the Netherlands because someone (Rob) contacted him saying he still had some Peerless stuff lying around. I remembered this and contacted Rob and made an appointment for a visit. He was the person who bought my P2 back in 1985 and took it from the UK to the Netherlands. He didn't keep the car very long but told me it was still a runner then as he did drive it up some country lanes. He remembered that it was a really fast car.
He sold the car in 1987 and it appeared that he still had the original licence plates, the invoice and some original pictures of loading up the car in the UK and some of the car at his house. This was a great find as now some numbers of the car appeared to match!
In February, Nigel found a page in the club archives of my P2, with again all matching numbers, date of first admission and the names of some previous owners. You can all imagine how amazed and happy i was with this great find.
At the start of September i made an appointment for the 30th of October, yesterday with the RDW.
Only two weeks ago Nigel let me know that he had found one of the previous UK owners Nick and that he still had some Peerless stuff. Hmm, heard that before. It appeared that Nick still had the original logbooks of my car!! He also had some MOT certificates, original folder, Peerless owners manual and some other stuff. Again all numbers matching, the original colour of the car was red, previous owners etc etc.
I cannot explain how chuffed i was with this, again thanks to our great registrar!!
Nick was so kind to take some photos of this paperwork which i took with me yesterday.
I put the engine together and back in the car (not running), put some mirrors on and put some LHD headlights in. I gave it a very good clean and of i went yesterday, with a borrowed van and trailer.
All went very well at the RDW, no problems at all. The car is now in my name and registered in the Netherlands.
Needless to say that this is a great relief to me, as i was quite nervous.
Please give Nigel a very big applause for helping me out so much. Also Nick did a great job providing me the needed pictures.
Without this, the registration would have been more troublesome, no doubt!
Nigel, Nick thank you sooo much!!!!
-- Edited by Erik V on Saturday 31st of October 2020 01:49:42 PM
In preparation for taking off the body I found that the rear panels next to the rear seat have rubbed through and cracked on both left and right sides. Also the GRP floor had broken loose from these panels. I think this has all been caused by the chassis flex and the minimal amount of bodywork fixings.
The chassis members that support the floor section need replacement because of moisture and mud getting trapped between. The right side door had to be lifted an inch to be able to shut it. And the front of the right side sill had been damaged and badly repaired.
So change of plan.
Ive decided Im going to finish the complete bodywork and doors before taking it off the chassis. Going through the left-over bodywork parts of my Ph1 I found a piece of right side sill that I could use to repair the damaged sill. (last year I was about to throw all of this away, not knowing Id ever own a second Peerless)
The rear panel was easy to repair.
Then I cut the vertical inner sill flange off leaving some 38mm to pop rivet to the lower chassis rail. (now temporary screwed in place). Only this makes the body feel soo much more solid.
Removing the door made me feel nervous, will I ever get it back in place? On the other hand, the fitment now is so bad, it can only get better.
I took out the hinge plate finding the lower part badly rusted as suspected, but the top was still like new after almost 60 years. So i replaced the rusted piece.
Originally the hinge is fixed to the hinge plate by four bolts going through adjusting slots. These slotted holes had been badly deformed by the bolts pulling almost through. (in the picture i had already flattened these holes but i think it's clear)
I replaced these bolts by a 6mm plate with tapped holes, this way the hinge plate gets sandwiched between this plate and the hinge base and makes it much more ridged.
The hinge is in like new condition, it looks a bit over-engineered for only hinging a door. Must have come from some agricultural or public transport parts bin? Or is this another Rolls-Royce part used on the Peerless?
These hinges look like they came off railway carriage, and have very little adjustment, so the bonding of the hinge plate is critical to get a good door fit.
I know because I got it wrong, and spent weeks trying to compensate for the misalignment. If I was to do it again I'd leave bonding these, and the ones in the front face of the door until I had the whole door assembly in place. I understand that phase 1 hinges are even worse, Warwicks are a walk in the park by comparison.
You are assuming that the plate was in the right place to start with. When it was first bonded in, there are no points of reference or straight edges to register to. By all accounts the door fit was never good, even when new. The eventual solution (aka Warwick) is a bonded in 3mm plate that bolts direct to the chassis upright.
These hinges, and even Warwick hinges have no radial adjustment. In both my Ph2 and the Warwick I ended up taking some material off the back of the hinge, and using tapered spacers to get an acceptable fit.
The welded floor, and the plate on the outside of the footwell will help, but any twist or flex in the chassis will undo all the good work you do here.
The hinge plate is back into position, thanks Frank for your remarks.
It made think and decide to make a support frame that has exactly the same holes as the D plate.
This way the hinge plate is in exactly the same position as before the re-bonding.
I also made a wooden template of the curvature from the left side wing, that i clamped to the bodywork.
The curvature of the right side was quite a bit off, so now corrected.
Then i started work at the door by taking out the metal plate in the front face of the door.
This face is built up from the outer layer of 2mm GRP, then the 1mm thin metal plate followed by the bondnig layer of GRP which was at most 1.5mm thick.
After 60 years the metal plate has rusted and the bonding let go, resulting in a very flexible and deformed front face of the door.
I thickened the front face with GRP to about 6mm which is already a world of difference.
The new reinforcement plates for the hinges inside the door are made of 1,5mm stainless, with 15 mm bent edges, these will be glued in with Sikaflex.
The outer door panel also had a wrong curvature at the front of the door so i cut it loose and glassed it back together with the door back in the car.
To get it all into the correct shape i used a couple of strings to see if the lines where all ok.
The front of the door now nicely alignes with the rest, but due to the torsional weakness in the door the back didn't.
Therefore i made an aluminum construction to eliminate this.
The tube is fixed to the rear face and can pivot at the front face.
With the front reaction arm i can now adjust the rear of the door to the bodywork.
This door is now very stiff compared to before, even if i place some weight in the door to simulate the windowframe and glass.
-- Edited by Erik V on Sunday 31st of January 2021 08:29:34 PM