Triumph 2500TC Part 3

With the engine’s bottom end rebuilt, we turn our attention to the leaky screen and the many smaller jobs.

 

- Wakefield & Paul Wage

Last week saw the Triumph’s straight-six dismantled ‘live’ as a crowd ofNEC showgoers watched the bottom end being rebuilt and the result was an engine running as smoothly as its 60,000 miles would suggest.

One of the problems of using our project cars on a regular basis is that they have to live outdoors for most of the time and get wet. This isn’t an ideal situation for a 42-year old Triumph. When we took our Triumph 2500TC over a few months ago, the carpet in the passenger’s footwell felt damp and the ingress of water was eventually traced to leaking windscreen rubber. Finding where water is getting into an old car can be a bit like herding cats, as you need tons of patience, be prepared to get into all sorts of awkward positions and still somehow hold a torch. A closer inspection showed how rainwater was finding its way past the left-hand corner of the Triumph’s perished windscreen rubber and dripping onto the parcel shelf. From there, water was trickling down the kick panel and pooling on the rubber mat in the footwell.

As the rear screen and estate side window rubbers on our Triumph looked as ropey as the front one, we got in touch with parts specialist Chris Witor to see what seals were available. The only one Chris didn’t have in stock at the time was the left-hand rear estate window rubber and all the others were promptly couriered out and arrived the next day.

Not wanting to remove the screens ourselves to fit the new rubbers, we got in touch with Auto Windscreens to book a mobile fitter. However, rather than doing the job on the drive, Tony Green, the Senior Technical Development Officer at Auto Windscreens got in touch and suggested we bring our Triumph up to the company’s training centre at Chesterfield and get the job done there.