A Mostly British Obsession

Category: Current Liabilities (Page 13 of 18)

The current lineup of mouldering hulks

2006 Triumph Sprint ST ABS

In one of the odder deals I’ve been involved in, I traded the 2002 Daytona for some explosion-proof lights. In turn, I sold those not more than three minutes later to my friend Mark, who will be using them in his restoration shop’s remodeled paint booth this winter. An hour after that, I concluded negotiations on this 2006 Triumph Sprint ST with ABS. It has just shy of 15,000 miles and will be the perfect (?) mount for my upcoming road trip to Crater Lake with my pal Jack. I was a bit sorry to see the Daytona go, but this new machine will hopefully prove to be more practical and just as invigorating.

BSA Victory…and Defeat, Of Course

I finally have sussed what was wrong with the Amal 276 on the BSA: The float was set too high (mind you, straight from the maker, but that’s not much of an excuse). Imagine my excitement when I kicked the machine to life and it idled, stone cold–which it has never done. The carb was absolutely full of crud, too, which I suspect is the remains of the old cork fuel taps. (I’ll check it again in a couple hundred miles, but the tank itself was sealed when it was restored.)

Alas. Back from a short “victory” ride, I discovered I was leaving a trail of oil. The photo above shows why: the return line from the cylinder head decided enough was enough.
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XJ6 Secondary Throttle Removal

Carburetor-equipped XJ6s have a somewhat oddball throttle setup–a light push on the gas opens the butterfly in the carb, but the charge is routed through a convoluted path in a secondary manifold (as seen above) in order to heat it up. In the photo, the port on the left has had the throttle shaft and plate removed, but you can see the opening for this pre-heat passage on the inner wall.
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Family Snapshot

This may be the dorkiest thing I’ve done for awhile, but my life is essentially a string of dorky endeavors. I washed my wife’s car, which made me think I should wash the XJ6, which led to me washing a seagull bomb off the MG, which had me thinking the truck hadn’t been washed since last year…so everything got hosed down. (The bikes were out because I was moving stuff around in the shop.) Why not roll out the E-Type? Somewhere in that sequence it passed from “understandable” to “dorky”; in any case, this was the result.

Just the XJ6

1973 Jaguar XJ6

A shot after the last time I washed it, a couple of weeks back. It is much grimier now. I think I got a fantastic deal on this machine, it had some issues (and still has a few things to sort out) but it’s a fun, pleasant machine to drive…and look at.

New Year’s MGB

[flickr id=”6616863057″ thumbnail=”original” overlay=”false” size=”original” group=”” align=”none”]Happy 2012 from all of us (well, OK, me) at Rusty Heaps! I had to run to the store and as it wasn’t raining, I got out Reg the MGB today. The MG hadn’t been out in a few months and it was a blast to drive it again. It feels faster than the XJ6 (it’s almost certainly not) and is a lot more involving to drive.
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Seven Inch Headlights

[flickr id=”6459187143″ thumbnail=”original” overlay=”false” size=”original” group=”” align=”none”]Finally got a set of used 7″ headlight trims from the UK. The trim pieces aren’t great, but a lot better than the first set I received. The swap was pretty easy to do, though the generic plastic headlight buckets I sourced might get swapped for a Lucas set if I ever get ambitious.
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In the Shop, November 2011

Here’s the inside of the shop, as you can see I haven’t done a whole lot with the organization of the space. (You can click for a larger image.)
Shop interior
I hope to build in some cabinets and what-not this winter, mainly on the wall where I have a couple of ancient Ferrari posters tacked up (I found a stash from ages ago…anyone for a 1980’s Testarossa poster? I managed to put that one back in the tube). I did get casters onto the metal work tables, they’re now handy for moving close to the action or allowing access to all sides of an unwieldy project.
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Fall XJ6

1973 Jaguar XJ6 Series 1

Took a few photos of the XJ6 after giving all of the cars baths today. My 7″ headlamp conversion pieces are on the way, so this may be the last set of photos with the standard US lights. Some additional, very similar, photos after the jump.
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