Archive for November, 2006
November 28, 2006 at 1:10 am · Filed under The 2000, Triumphs
Well, the plan to head down to James’s and get the HS6′s on went well insofar as I drove down to London – slowly thanks to a brisk wind trying to push me and the 2000 back up North – but faltered a little from there on in. That’s not to say that the intention wasn’t there to get the 2000 into full grunt spec, but as the week progressed parts hadn’t turned up, the weather was all over the place and it was easier to give up and do something else instead…
We did manage to get a few bits and pieces done though; as well as sorting out what turned out to be a well overdue service we also did a bit of measuring and ascertained that the car must already have the later 2500S crossmember which cants the engine over and gives the extra room needed for the HS6s, making the conversion a lot easier! In actual fact the main thing now stopping me getting on with the conversion is a lack of money; I need to grab a new pedal arrangement off Chris Witor but I thought might as well wait until I have a bit more money and get a few other things posted at the same time. In the meantime I’m going to grab some decent paint and get some protection on the sills where the repairs weren’t painted over…
November 18, 2006 at 1:24 am · Filed under Photography
Lately, and I’m not sure whether this is all linked with learning to shoot in these dull wintery days, I’ve been more and more interested in lighting and flash photography. For some reason I don’t actually remember I started searching the internet for instructions to make your own ring flash – you know, the flash that casts a fantastic even light and puts lovely circles in your subjects eyes – for next to nothing. I did find these instructions on the Strobist blog (a blog I shall definitely be keeping track of when I get a decent flash) but it did require you have some sort of semi-decent flash gun, something I didn’t have…
In the end, I went quite mad and decided to buy a few LED Christmas lights and a skylight filter off eBay… can you see where this is going yet?!
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November 16, 2006 at 7:01 pm · Filed under The 2000, Triumphs
Today Jason from Club Triumph popped round on the way up to Newcastle to drop off a pair of HS6s I’ve bought off him for the 2000. Apparently the carbs were just lying around since he changed to PI (mmmm PI) on his Vitesse in the summer, so it was great to be able to drop on them – as usual via James – so soon after picking the car up.
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November 15, 2006 at 11:00 pm · Filed under Photography
It’s at this time of year that I usually sit scowling out at the dull, short days grumbling to myself that it just isn’t “photography weather”. How wrong I was.
Going digital does have some plus sides, and one of those is that experimentation is free. I found myself a few days ago drawing the car out of the garage in an on-off drizzle and going out to find a suitable place to take a few photos of it. I must admit I usually wouldn’t even bother, but it’s a new car and you know what it’s like; you go into a zone where all you can think about is the next “cool” location to go and photograph your car from. Well ok, at least I do.
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November 13, 2006 at 10:10 pm · Filed under The 2000, Triumphs
And now onto my 2000, though at the time of writing there really isn’t that much to say.
I bought DWL 983D in November ’06 from a guy in Oxford who was (tenuous link alert!) a friend of a friend of my best friend James, who had been using his “contacts” to scour the country for a suitable 2000 after the Spitfire was officially labelled “off the road”. I had started off a great fan of the MkII 2000 but as time wore on the 60′s styling of the MkI really pulled me in and I thought would be a nice separation from the 70′s look of the Spitfire. Before long my budget had increased to compensate and I was on the lookout solely for a MkI (it had nothing to do with them being guaranteed tax exempt… honest!).
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November 13, 2006 at 9:54 pm · Filed under The Spitfire, Triumphs
I suppose to start things off I should write a wee bit about my Spitfire, just to get you acquainted!
I bought VDB 109K from a woman in Stockport in November of 2003 for more than I should have. £1500 got me a car with a knackered engine, knackered gearbox, knackered suspension and tired body, which looking back on it now was far far too much money to pay! Still, I fell in love with it the moment I saw it, so my dad and I managed to make light of all these rather large problems for a car bought as a daily driver, and drove it home anyway.
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