Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Progress on Morgan

Fortunately "Morgan" the Triumph (named in honour of its saviour) had been loved once.

Inside the car and boot was virtually every part from its partial dismantling. All the bumpers still had their bolts in with greased captive nuts and rubber washers, all the doors fittings where in separate plastic bags, door cards and carpets were neatly stacked in the boot.

Most things needed no more than a good clean and they were ready for refitting.

Chris witor should have a enhanced pension fund after the last few weeks - that said its amazing how easily you can rebuild a basically rustfree but mechanically worn 53 year old car!

Bumpers on, badges fitted and starting to look a little more loved
I knew that the tyres all needed replacement and decent 13" tyres are not really available in Sweden -   
I took the plunge and ordered 7 x 15 Minilites and a set of 195/65 snow tyres - looks the part!
Note the rear old registration is the original - BD suffix means originally registered in Norrbotten - the furthest north Swedish county. I am missing one of the current plates AYF876 - assigned in 1972 - but fortunately the car is still legally in existence and I have the current Euro spec ownership papers. its tax free and next year MOT free too.
The door cappings were in a dreadful state but after stripping the flaked varnish with a razor blade - very time consuming -  I found the veneer was fine - so this is how they look with 4 coats of gloss polyurethane.

Amazing rustfree floorpans - just a bit of scaley stuff that I have rust treated and now primed
Swedish 2000 advert from mid 60's

Interior starting to come together - nice patina!

Monday, July 24, 2017

Swedish adventures

Recently the Thompson family have relocated to Northern Sweden to help manage an Australian companies interests in Sweden and Finland - we saw it as a chance to further the kids education and let them experience true seasonal variation, learn to ski, fish etc.

We are based in Mala, Vasterbotten - or West Bothnia as it was known in the UK historically. It is very close to the arctic circle, sees the Aurora Borealis in winter and the midnight sun through summer. It is remote - 800kms from Stockholm - which itself is level with the Orkney Islands. We are as far north as central Iceland.

We left our nice Perth house and garage of Triumphs in the care of Ken Bryant and the closest I expected to get to a Triumph was when I pop over to the UK to do events with Doug. What I was not expecting when driving through the neighbouring village was this.....


Seemingly abandoned outside a workhop in Norsjo - a 1964 Conifer mk1 looking very sorry for itself.

Trying to remain objective I had to have a closer look as although neglected it seemed amazingly solid

Looking underneath I expected the worst - but amazingly it seemed virtually unscathed - mild surface rust and oil or wax leaking from key areas of the sills
Most of the underside seemed covered in thin bitumen flaking off to reveal shiney factory paint

Early body number confirmed
I traced its owner, Morgan, to a nearby house where it became apparent he was a car saver with his own collection of barn finds
Morgan drives truck at the Kiruna Iron Ore deposit which is where he found the Triumph - virtually abandoned for the last 40 odd years. I crazily agreed to buy what I had sworn to Del I was going to avoid whilst on secondment - another project!
Over the next few weeks we got the Triumph back on four wheels and did a temporary fix on the rear subframe rubber that had failed - common 64 problem
And then 2 weeks ago - delivery - all part of the service!
In my shed and ready for revival