MY DIARY

15th of october 2006: Today i saw a Triumph Vitesse that i liked the look of on ebay. Having had a Vitesse back in my teens in the 70's i decided i wanted another one. Having shut my limo company down to spend more time with my kids i decided that i was fed up driving luxury cars and i wanted to drive something different.

17th of october : Phoned Duncan who owned the Vitesse and asked a few questions. Decided when i put the phone down that i would bid for the car on sunday the 22nd of October

22nd of October : Bid £1500 1 minute from the end of the auction and then straight away increased my bid to £1800 just in case anyone else put a late bid on. Mine was the only bid at £1500

23rd of October ;I phoned Duncan to make arrangements to pick the car up the next weekend on the saturday.

28th of october Went to play football in the morning and then left Portsmouth at 11.oo am driven by my brother and with my two kids arrived in Oxford at 1.30 after stopping for breakfast on the way. Drove the car into Oxford to visit the goldfish bowl and then drove back to Portsmouth with the hood down all the way. Damon and Josh (my two sons ) managed about 5 miles before they got too cold and opted to go with my brother who was following behind. The drive went well but i did think that the car should be a bit more nippy so will look at the timing and the carburetor diaphrams when i get home. Had a good look around the car and found that it was really solid with no visible rust on the body at all. Someone has obviously spent a lot of money on the car but spoilt it by giving it a real duff coat of paint. The car appears to have some real history as it is the 504th Vitesse built and is possibly one of the oldest surviving Vitesses. I had a good look around the car and decided i needed to get the following replacements. Bonnet (don't like the fibre glass one) carpets (seen a lovely set of white with red piping) set of ally bumper trims and the chrome trims down the side of the car. Would also like set of whitewall tyres on minilite rims.

29th of October what a lovely day, the sun shines on the righteous and it shone on me as i took the boys out for some topless motoring. Got back in the afternoon and as i got into doing some work on my limo i decided to orbital the paint down on the nearside rear wing . Ended up taking it back to the metal and priming both the door and the back wing. I then removed the boot lid and started to orbital that and finished and primed that too. On ebay i bought a vitesse chrome badge for the boot and Triumph 6 letters. Searched the internet for a bonnet but could only find a rusty one in Chelmsford for £25.

30th October finished work and went straight out to the garage and orbitaled the osr rear wing back to metal and half the rear panel.

3rd of november dinner time i purchased a set of bumper trims from ebay orbitalled door back to bare metal late afternoon.

4th november pm went into the garage and carried on with the door removed both the doors the rear seat complete and and all interior door panels and rubbers. found some rear seat belts behind the door panels .Removed the rear lights and the over riders . bid for a bonnet on embay and won for £25. Now have a quote of £89 for carpets £249 for some minilite wheels and £42 each for some whitewall tyres.The whole of the rear of the car is now virtually ready to be primed. tomorrow i intend to rub down the small bits of filler that i put in some dents and then the whole of the car will be ready for primer. The inside of the doors and boot lid to be flatted off and prime ready to spray, also remove door trims and door handles and the rest of the paint and the petrol filler cap rubber.

5th november

Remove seats and all carpet and inner trim panels to discover that this car is really sound ,no i mean really sound. as a car dealer for 20 years i have had some really clean cars but this one takes the biscuit its 44 years old (nearly as old as me ) and it is in really good condition through out.

8th of nov

Carried on with the minute pieces of bodywork like the small dents in the rear panel behind the hood and the bottom ofd the drivers door. managed then to put both the doors back on and get the whole car primed. flattened the primer

9th of nov

Re-primed the whole car and guide coated then flattened the car off

11th of nov

Took the car round my brothers house and he sprayed the car 3 coats of base colour and then three coats of laquer, bought carpets on ebay they are a set of claret carpets and so should go really well with the inside havnt picked up the bonnet yet.

12th of november

Went round to see the car and decided it needed rubbing down and repainting again.

16th november

Rubbed it down and prepared it for sparaying again,

17th of november

Resprayed it agian this time in my own garage.

18th november

Checked the car over and still not happy with it but will drive it like it is until the bonnet comes and will repaint the whole thing.

19th november - 2nd of december

Put the bits back on the car put the new carpets in. They look lovely out of the car but when i put them in im quite disapointed with them. They dont really fit like i think they should but every one keeps telling me that its an old car and not a rolls royce or a new limo, which i was used to driving before i bought this.

December

Manage to put the collection of the bonnet off and didnt really do much to the car for the rest of the month. im going away on holiday for xmas and ive forgoten about the work that needs doing.

January 2007.

Bid on a set of 5 minilite wheels for the vitesse and win them make arrangements to pick them up and collect the bonnet at the same time. I have to hire a van to pick the bonnet up from Chelmsford and pick up the wheels form horsham. Make an evening of it with my son Damon and take him back into central London for a burger at bruger king in Leicester square and nearly bump into Clive James on the corner of Regent st and Jermyn st.

Cant resist the temptation to fit the wheels and tyres to see what they look like.

Feb

Drop the bonnet off at my brothers garage hoping to go round in the evenings and do the repairs on it. Turn up the following weekend to repair the bonnet and he's already done it. Cut out all the rust and put new panels in. All i have to do is take the fibreglass bonnet off and put the metal bonnet on. What an easy weekend. Easy weekend my arse! Never have i had so much trouble taking one bonnet off and putting on another and getting it lined up. Now im used to replacing wings and doors on more upmarket cars like Jags and Daimlers where the doors line up and look great when their done. Not so with Triumph Vitesses. Everone tells me that they wont line up exactly cause they wernt built like that. Well i cant accept that and spend the whole weekend just fixing on and lining up. What a waste of time it still doesnt look perfect but everyone tells me im not going to get it perfect. I will prove them wrong but not just yet, this weekend has really tried my patience and im not giving up anymore of my weekends just to align the bonnet.

Feb 4th

Sell the fibreglass bonnet on ebay for £128.51 cant beleive that anyone would pay that for the bonnet. Its paid for my steel bonnet and for me to hire a van petrol it up and go and collect it and still leave enough for a pint of beer

feb 6th

I then see a Vitesse on ebay that looks like it has the bumper trims. Mine were missing. Id tried to buy a set from ebay but after becoming the winning bidder i am unable to make contact with the seller. Ibid on the Vitesse at the last minute and win it for £57.99. I must remember to go back and pick up my penny change. Luckily the car is 10 minutes drive from me so i arrange to pick it up the following weekend. I turm up with my brother my Nissan and a static towing pole. The guy opens up his garage door and says where is your trailer? I aint Got one im going to tow it. He looks at me as if ive just arrived form outer space. Any way we drag it out and i mean drag it. Its so rusty wqe leave more of the car behind on the floor than we take with us. We rigid tow it to my brothers garage and strip it of whats any good within an hour. Later in the week its towed to the scrapyard and i get £29.75 back. So i get a set of all right trims and a few other bits and pieces for £28 bargain!!!

Feb 11th.

Off i go to the Triumph show at Stoneleigh with my brother who has now fallen in love with my Vitesse and decided to buy a Herald. (thats another story) We leave at 7.00 am and get traders passes cos were early and want to get some breky. I decide that im del boy and hes rodney(plonker) very wittily he says " ill get the sandwiches cos you got the rolls " Wander round bemused by these boxes of metal that look like they need to go to the scrap yard. I buy some stuff for my Vitesse a brand new clutch as the old one is slipping a bit and i have an almighty judder which feels like the back end of the car thinks its a kangaroo rather than a Vitesse. That cost me £45 Bargain!!! Then i take the plunge and buy a hood from prestige hoods. They had a special offer on for the show 10 % off and free delivery. I order a white roof but specify red piping with red stitching. Ooooh!!! Never done one like that before says the guy who takes the order. Hes gonna be the one that does the hood. &- 10 days he tells me. Better say !0-14 says the other guy expecting to be over run with orders. He also keeps repeating that because it's a one off i cant return it this worries me a bit. I also buy a litre of old english white for the side stripe. I decided that the white that was on there would look better in cream. Also buy some hood trim clips.

15th feb

Next week is half term so i decide that im going to spray the Vitesse and do the clutch. My plan is to sparay it on the sunday do the clutch on the monday and then leave the paint to harden off for a week and get on with getting one of my limos ready for sale. Today i get home from work and flatten off the fromt of the car.

16th feb

Klatten off the back of the car ready to take to my brothers garage to spary.

17th of feb

Mask up and finnish flattening all of the tiny blemishes and by saturday night the car is masked up ready to spray.

18 th of feb

On sunday i go to the garage and start spraying at about 9.30 am the car is given three coats of Triumph signal red inside and out. The white is unmasked and the whole car ahs 4 coats of laquer inside and out click here to see a video

19th of feb

straight round the garage in the morning and i rip the gear box out. Its out within three quarters of an hour but i can get the clutch opff because no one is there to holfd the flywheel. So i check the paintwork and its hard enough for me to flatten off. I start with the drivers door which flattens off really nice because the paints flowed really well. Then the bonnet and then the passenger door. Now im getting a bit bored so i get the polisher out and start to mop the car with copmound. That fisished i change the polishing head and do the car with finishing polish the car looks lovely. My brother arrives back form the auction and gives me a hand so that i can unbolt the clutch. The clutch ahs been slipping badly luckily i caught it when i did as the plate was down to the rivets. I replace the clutch and call it a day.

20th of feb

start off first thing putting the gearbox back in the car . Then i realise that there is a broken gerabox mountinmg on the back, no wonder the car thought it was a kangaroo. I switch to the rubbing down again , this time its the back wings and the bootlid. I have enough time to finish polishing the rear wings but notthe bootlid. In the afternoon i get a call saying that the hood has arrived and rush round to pick it up . i get it out of the box and am really impressed with it.

21st of feb.

Ordered the gearbox mount and finally found a place for some vinyl paint for the seats so i order some cherry red to be delivered next day.Round the garage for 9.30 . Forgot to say i have my two boys in tow with me and they have been helping with the car they love it. finish of polishing the boot and start the hood never fixed a hood before but had some help from a friend. Had a few problems and thought that it wasnt going to fit at first but it did here you can see some pics of the hood being fitted PRESTIGE CAR HOODS

22nd of feb.

get the gearbox mounting and fit that and button up the gearbox. Fit the tunnel and the carpet and then fit all the carpets back in the car this time i have all of the metal finishing strips that hold the carpet down. Then i remove the throttle pedal and fit the carpet around the pedal mount. The carpet now looks a whole lt better. The paint for the interior has arrived. I clean the seats and all the trim parts ready to be sprayed and spray them click here to see the video i eventaully leave the garage at around 8.00 pm.

23 rd of feb

now its too late to start the limo so im concentrating on getting the Vitesse totally finished. I start the day fitting the interior which looks lovely. There are no kick plates so i buy some thin ply from b and q and use a template i took from the vitesse that i scrapped. My brother has some leather lying around in his garage so i cover them and spray them red. I am really impressed with the vinyl sparay paint ive used lots of different interior paints in my time but i have to say this was the best i have used the interior came out lovely. By the end of the day the car is back together bar a few things so i leave it in the garage to finish off on saturday morning.

24th of feb

finnish off most of the bits and take the car out for the fisrst time since its been done. Get it home and finish wiring up the lights. Im knackered after this week of relaly hard work. I have been working late nearly every night and looking after the kids i have worked twice as many hours as i normally work at the school where i work but the car is finally finished now i can get some pics of the car. Today i took the car down to old portsmouth and photographed it with the spinnaker tower in the background. (this was supposed to be the millenium tower and shopuld have been ready for the millenium,it wasnt completed till last year 6 years late and 30 million over budget) see the pics here Then i went and took some near our marine barracks see the pics here

feb 25th - 3rd of march

Used the car nearly everyday this week only for local journies though. This is how i intend to use the car as i dont see the point of locking away. Already the car has given enjoyment to me , my kids, my brother (now doing up his Herald) pics arriving soon and loads of peple who have seen the car on the road and make a point of stopping me and telling me how lovely my car looks. My car will continue to give people enjoyment as i intend to visit as many shows as i can get to. My favourite being Goodwood revival as now i have a car from the right era. Check out my where i'll be page if you want to see the car sometime.

July 5th

Seems like ages since i updated my diary but have been really busy that doesnt mean i havnt done anything on the car. I now have my restored dash in plaxe curtesy of an ebayer who saw my wanted add. I have my wood door cappings which have also been restored and my wood rimmed steering wheel. All of the wood bits save the dash i managed to get for nothing thanks to some good buys on ebay which resulted in the parts being thrown in. "The steering wheel wasnt in the lot" said the guy i bought a load of bits "Is it any good to you?"

"Yeh bung it in" i said" i'll do something with it" id been looking for one on ebay for a month and the cheapest was £50 so i had a result there. The car went in for mot in june had problems because they couldnt find it on the computer. Sorted in the end and the car went through with just a tightening of the seats topping up the window wasers and wiring the horn onto the dash as i'd replaced the steering wheel by now. I

I also took of the engine breather which was clogged up and now the engine doesnt smoke like it used to. I have tuned the carbs altered the timing a little and adjusted the tappets and the car now runs really sweet. Not that it didnt before but it is nearly perfect now. Also ive done the carpet in the boot and now my boot looks ever nicer and ive put the chrome strips on the side of the car and have the two triumph flags badges on the rear wings.

Ive been to the south hants vehicle preservation society, of which i am a member, annual barbeque, that was great and so was the autojumble anyone wish to join the club can click here

Jobs still on my wish list adjust the doors so they close better and fix the boot stay. Touch up a few little chips in the paint. Fit a car ariel nad a bag for my tonneaux and hood cover. And a wooden gearknob.