TRIUMPH 2000 MK1
The workshop sees the arrival of a Triumph 2000 for restoration.
We see the arrival of a very cool Triumph 2000 MK1 Estate. We are to carry out a restoration with work of some level being carried out to all areas of the car.
We are to give the car a full bare metal respray. The first job is to carry out a strip down of the car removing all lights and trim. Next we remove the headliner & interior of the car. Strip down of the doors is left as we will be replacing these with some better secondhand items. Glass is left in the car at the moment to keep dust down inside as we start to bare metal the shell. Although we knew some filler would exist when we start to bare metal the full story starts to unfold. As glass is removed further corrosion is revealed. The wings are heavily pitted and so we use a rust converter and then give the areas another going over to remove rust from the pits.
Once happy with the bare metal finish the first stage is to put the shell into epoxy anti-corrosive primer, an important stage that seals back the car and eats into the metal giving the best possible base to work from. Second-hand doors have been purchased as they are in a better condition than the originals and these are now bare metaled and anti-corrosive primer applied along with the tailgate and the bonnet.
Areas of the rear valance are now cut out, repair sections fabricated and welded in. Next we move our attention to the near side inner flitch panel where we weld in a complete new panel, and repair the inner arch. While the welding takes place we prep the other repair panels for the inner sills, outriggers and rear arch, painting them in a direct to metal paint for protection as when welded in we will be unable to access them. The nearside front valance now has repair work completed & we weld in a repair panel. The front passenger side now sees repair work and a new outrigger welded in. Removal of the passenger sill reveals why new panels have been ordered. We now start putting the sill sections together painting the inner cavity before welding the panels on. The near side sill has now had its inner, centre and outer sill sections fitted and we move to trial fit of the doors. Getting rear doors for a MK1 estate being nigh on impossible, the replacements we have are from a saloon, and so we have to graft on the old door frame to the second hand doors. While we take a small break on the welding we take the opportunity to remove the engine for some work required later and also to enable us to paint the engine bay.
We return to welding by finishing off fitting the near side outer sill, a coat of anti-corrosive primer is then applied. Looking into the sill shows the internal section protection where the individual sections were painted before being fitted. Attention then moves to repairs around the tailgate area, rusted areas being removed, new sections fabricated and welded in.
The tailgate aperture now complete the next stage is to work around the windscreen area, cutting out sections, fabricating repair panels and welding them in. Moving onto the drivers side we now work on the sill replacing the inner and centre sections before the outer sill can be welded on. The inner areas are painted before welding on the outer sill. Once the outer sill is welded on we then coat in epoxy anti-corrosive primer.
The next area on the car we move onto is the rear arches. We start with the off side, firstly welding in a complete inner wheel arch panel. Once welded on we then coat the area with epoxy primer before welding on the outer quarter panel. Offside completed we move on to the nearside welding in an inner arch and outer quarter.
Doors are then trial fitted back on to the car and adjustments made. We then remove the bottom of a door to address rust issues and make up a new door bottom panel. Areas that are revealed are painted for rust prevention and the rear of the panel is also painted before it is welded in place.
The brief on the underside of the vehicle is to keep costs down, just to tidy up any historical repairs, leave any strong repairs alone and just weld in new sections to any very bad areas, then to apply an underbody treatment. All weld repair areas that we have completed are given a primer coat, seam sealed and then the undercoating applied.
Click below to take a closer look at this project.
