It was the NOS inner and outer N/S sills from Chris Witor. So far, the panels I've collected for the saloon amount to:
Pair of front wings (Chic Doig)
Pair of front floor pans and outriggers (Earlparts)
NOS N/S inner sill and full outer sill (Chris Witor) ...
... and two second-hand rear floor sections in that lovely brown colour (Andy G, Register Forum).
This is way beyond the scope of the work I've done on cars before so at this stage it's a little daunting. Getting this stuff together well ahead of time is going to be a big help in figuring out how it all goes back together again. I spent an hour looking at the NOS sills and what's left of that side of the car on Sunday afternoon and a lot of things became a lot clearer!
I also fired up the car on Sunday and ran it for about half-an-hour in the garage to get the engine warmed up and check that it was still OK, and also to start getting it ready to swap places with the Spitfire over the winter. It's nearly a year since I last started the saloon but it fired up without any problems and ran beautifully.
The saloon came with a complete history, including the original BL/Triumph Passport, owners manual and what I reckon must be every MOT and receipt. Browsing through it a few things caught my eye:
The Passport shows that the 1000 mile service was carried out in May 1976 (at 1332 miles) - when the car was two months old. The 6000 mile service was carried out almost exactly a year later in March 1977 (at 5816 miles). The 3000 mile service isn't recorded!
By the April 1982 MOT the recorded mileage was 32,132.
By the December 1987 MOT the recorded mileage was 54,198. The mileage falls off dramatically after the 1987 MOT. I suspect that it became the previous owner's 'second car' at this time!
The labour charge for getting a replacement alternator fitted by an auto electrician in 1989 was the princely sum of £3.00!
By the November 1992 MOT the recorded mileage was 64,916.
By the June 1996 MOT the recorded mileage was 72,256. The MOTs and receipts stop in 1996 so I reckon it's safe to assume the car was taken out of use some time prior to the MOT due in June 1997. When I got the car in 2006 the mileage was 73,292.
I found a receipt that included N/S sill repairs in 1983 when the car was only seven years old. Presumably these are the repairs to the sill strengthener that I found when I cut the outer cover sill off. That these repairs are nearly thirty years old would probably explain why the inner sill has rusted away so badly behind the repairs. I couldn't imagine anyone repairing the sill strengthener and not fixing the inner sill corrosion. The inner sill was probably OK 30 years ago! The sill repairs are the third item on the second page of the receipt reproduce below. I wonder what this lot would cost now? Interestingly, Powdrake Servicentre are still open for business at the same location!
Anyway, enough history - back to the present! The priority for the next two/three weeks is to finish cleaning up the front lamp panel, front valence and rear lamp panel and get them painted so that the saloon can swap places in the garage with the Spitfire and go under cover for the winter.
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