Our cars: work begins on Alex’s Triumph TR7

[ OUR CARS ] 1980 Triumph TR7 dhc

My good friend Chris – who had amazingly agreed to recommission the TR7 free of charge – rang to say it had arrived in one piece and he’d managed to free the seized clutch. But he discovered that all eight bushes in the shift mechanism had disintegrated, so a new set was the first item on the list of additional expenses.

The list got longer. He sent me a photograph of the tank looking rather secondhand with the words, ‘The petrol tank is seeping in three places.’ I’d previously had problems with rust particles in the fuel tank blocking the fuel pump filter, and at one stage one of the carburettors no longer delivered fuel and air, leaving me running on just two cylinders. I’d had the fuel system flushed and also fitted an inline filter, but seven years in the garage had clearly made matters worse.

The TR7’s tank is safely tucked away between the cabin and spare-wheel well which means to get to it you need to detach the springs, dampers and diagonal suspension links then drop the axle on its trailing arms. The new tank cost a hefty £474 – including the two metal retaining straps and rubber gaskets – but given I wasn’t paying for labour I told myself it was still a bargain.

Chris also discovered the exhaust pipe was broken just after the middle silencer. Luckily, he’d bought a job lot of spares only a couple of days before, which happened to include a stainless steel backbox with the pipe attached, so he and Alan fitted that, too.

Standard TR7 brakes are no more than adequate, and I’ve wanted an upgrade since I first got the car. It came with a set of Austin Princess four-piston calipers and thicker TR8 discs, but I’d had them on and off twice and they’d never worked properly, even with an uprated master cylinder and servo. Chris recommended brand new Princess calipers remade in aluminium and modified to need only a single brake pipe, available from the MG Owners’ Club. They cost just £100 each and weigh a featherweight 2kg.

The matching Capri 2.8i vented discs were only £36.69 and to get everything to fit, I ordered aluminium hub adapters made by Guy Brinton. These, along with the A caliper bolt needed to be drilled out, and I’d been sent the wrong pad fitting kit, but again, Chris had the right one in his stock of spares.

Chris and Alan also removed the entire dash and fitted the new heater, another job that would’ve cost a fortune in labour. The last upgrade was a set of anti-roll bar clamps from Hamilton Classic (hamiltonclassic.co.uk). These pull the front anti-roll-bar forwards by 15mm, increasing castor by 1.5°, improving steering feel, stability and turn-in. These, along with the clamps, calipers and discs were sent up to Chris with the car, and were included in the first £1000 spend.

Finally, Chris got the car MoT’d and I booked a train to Sheffield, excited at driving the TR7 again after all these years.

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