In January 2013 with winter lingering on, my three day working week in a warm office seemed quite attractive and continued until the end of March. Finally with project design almost complete and the job moving on to site, I was glad to celebrate my second retirement with a visit to Devon and my 67th birthday.
Back at home work resumed on the Trojan and with the help of John Hancock the engine and gearbox were installed in May. After enlisting the services of Shaun, a carpenter and joiner who had previous experience of constructing an ash frame for a Morgan, work on the rear body commenced. The remains of the original bodywork were dismantled for use as templates and a quantity of seasoned ash ordered from a local sawmill. After what seemed an age, but in fact was only three weeks, the sawn and planed ash sections were collected and work began on recreating the rear body.
While Trojan progress took a back seat and missing the original completion date for a working Trojan by a mile, I decided that PK 2613 had to attend our Centenary celebrations on 18th August. Borrowing a trailer from my neighbour and fitting a winch, my Trojan was hauled aboard and with insurance provided by Hagerty we set out for Croydon. The photograph below shows us in the centre of the group who attended in the Toys R Us car park off Purley Way, Croydon (site of the Trojan factory) with ten Trojans in attendance.
A detailed inspection of the original frame revealed that while the base sections were straight from front to back, the doors and door frames were constructed as compound curves and also had to match the shape of the front scuttle. Ash timber has the surprising property that it can be bent to form curved sections with the use of a steam kettle and clamps. The rear corner posts were also curved and had painted exposed wood corner sections between the side and rear panels. By the end of August the body frame was largely complete and awaiting a metal skin and painting, however a visit from the panel beater exposed a number of deficiencies with the door fit including worn hinge pins and variations in the clearances between doors and frames which would be magnified by fitting skin panels.
While contemplating the next move on resolving these problems I turned my attention to the engine ancillaries. The carburettor did not appear to fit or only when fouling the punt floor and almost coming into contact with the flywheel. The throttle linkage consisted of multiple threaded rods and bell cranks and I could not identify the mounting point for the support bracket. Finally the replacement starting primer acquired from TOC stores had no fixings or petrol pipes and these could not be determined without fitting the carburettor. Further head scratching followed by a word with the TOC gurus who advised that a short induction pipe was generally fitted and that my throttle linkage was the original Trojan product and should be fixed to the aluminium pedal support beam.
I sketched a double flanged stepped 90 degree bend and approached various firms who showed little enthusiasm to manufacture a “one–off” or lacked the bending equipment for such a tight bend. At this point Franklin Silencers in Northampton came to the rescue with the wry comment from their MD “we’ve got stacks of pipe and modern benders so I am sure we can make you something”. A week after supplying the sketch I received a phone call to say my induction pipe was ready for collection.
Hopefully progress will be smoother in 2014 and we may even get close to having a working Trojan.
Christopher Tordoff
Steeple Morden, Royston, Herts. SG8 0NA.
January 2014.