Royal, spot facing is a machining term that for example when a hole is drilled into a rough cast or uneven material a counterbore tool or endmill larger than the  bolt head diameter for the drilled hole is machined to smooth down the surface where the bolt head makes contact. Another example, but more extreme is when the counterbore goes deeper…[Read more]

Just a test to see if my upload feature is working.

Royal if I had one of my old drums I would drill and tap it at work . I could see what the drum thickness was and at the same time do some improvised stress test (aka whacking a screwed in stud with a big hammer). Cast iron is brittle by its nature and cant handle shock well, but has great wear resistance in a scrubbing motion. It takes extreme…[Read more]

Royal I just read , but not confirmed the triumph stag wheels were on a 4 x 4.5 ” bolt circle. If that is true you may be able to get VW wheels for that pattern someplace like cip1 where Paul found the 4 x 100mm wheels in his post above.

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Royal I read that one guy does this by drilling and using press in studs pressed from the backside and lug nuts instead of tapping and using lug bolts. I dont know if this is a good idea without knowing the thickness of the area in the drum where the stud would press . If there is enough meat I dont see why it wouldnt work. As for tapping …[Read more]

Royal in no way do I think you are being overly cautious when we are talking about a car doing 55mph and losing a wheel. Please dont think I am slamming your project in any way here as I like what you are attempting and am pulling for your success. I do think this is very doable, but may not be within the dollar range you are looking for. Project…[Read more]

  I agree with Paul on using new blank drums here. The old drums would be to thin to drill and tap without building up a welded boss on the backside. Due to the nature of the drum material (cast iron/cast steel?)…[Read more]

Montie those wheels look pretty nice. The price would be hard to beat for those that have an interest in going with wire wheels. Thanks for the information.

Ed it is probably worth checking if you have any handling problems. I would bet this was manufacturing defect as I can only find different wheel spacings on different width steel wheels yet all my wheels were 4-1/2. A fellow I worked with was the one that discovered the offset difference when I had all the tires off and was sanblasting them at…[Read more]

Day was very cloudy, not the best photo taking day.

Novus  works great on the finish of our cars too. I had excellent results removing the haze on my engine cover and rear fenders. It really brought the shine back to them. Newkitman also had great results with Novus on a badly scratched fender.

Congrats Greg! I became a Grandpa 11/16/2011. I cant wait for the 1st time I get to pick him up from school in the TD.

Took Scarlett out today. 1st ride in 2012. It is in the low 60s here in the Ozarks with lots of sunshine. She sure was glad to get  that winter dust blown off. I sure hope all the other members here get a chance for a ride even if it is a short one.

Done via Pay-Pal Paul. I want to take a moment to thank you for all of your hard work and time spent keeping this site up and running. Also a big thanks to you Frankie D for the new software. It gets an A+ for my vote. I look forward to the chat section as it may give members an instant answer to a question or problem and a more personal…[Read more]

I am 53 till June. I bought Scarlett in Oct.  2004. I have always thought the TD body style was the epitome of what a British sports car should look like. In over seven years of ownership she has never left me on the side of the road.

Thanks for the link Roy. What a great site. That 67 SS Camero with optional 396 made me drool some. Good site to spend a winter afternoon on.

I started using Brad Penn racing oil last year. It is a partial synthetic. I noticed a slight oil temperature drop over the castrol. I will stick with the Brad Penn even though I have to buy it online.

Hey this make sense Roy. The warm oil runs through a defroster coil where a fan blows air over the coil to defrost the glass, but with all the oil in the defroster coil it cause oil pressure to drop in the engine! The only thing that puzzles me is the 3 gallons of gas it takes to run the defroster motor. Terrible milage indeed.
Just kidding with…[Read more]

I bought my VW based TD about 500 miles from home. Without thinking I rented a tow dolly to bring her home. Talk about not using my noggin here, the tow dolly rental was more than the cost of a VW tow bar. One of the 1st things I bought for my car was a tow bar and think its the easy way to go on these light VW based cars.