The Triumph Mayflower.
-
Eddie Honda
- Rainman The Google Fu Master
- Posts: 21549
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 10:45 pm
- Location: 寄居町
- Has thanked: 13440 times
- Been thanked: 13262 times
-
angrydicky
- The TDW Ancient Crock Appreciation Club (official) Chairman
- Posts: 1003
- Joined: Wed May 13, 2020 9:14 am
- Location: Lincolnshire
- Has thanked: 760 times
- Been thanked: 1878 times
Re: The Triumph Mayflower.
When I bought the Mayflower it was advertised as having had £7k spent in 2022.
I assumed for that it would have had a full engine rebuild, but no. The bulk of that seems to have been fitting the new wiring loom, balancing the propshaft and rebuilding the distributor.
No idea what the labour rate is at the vintage Rolls and Bentley place the previous owner took it to, but it must be insane. The invoice is poorly laid out so doesn’t give a breakdown of hours for each job, just a whopping great labour figure at the end.
However, I could see a lot more work had been done recently that wasn’t on that invoice.
I emailed the company that did the work and they confirmed some of it they did. They sent over copies of two additional invoices for work they carried out, including the suspension and brake rebuild, new wheel bearings, shocks/springs and a fuel pump and carb rebuild with new fuel pipes.
The total spend is a shade over £14k.
Can you imagine the classics you could buy for £14k, in a different league to a Mayflower. It just seems unbelievable to me spending that sort of cash on a small and fairly undesirable old saloon car. Especially one that didn’t have any sentimental value, which it didn’t.
The saddest thing is that the chap who had all this work done got ill and died shortly after getting the car back, he never got to use it. His son sold it for £4.5k and the next chap only got back £1k PXing it for a Morris Minor because he couldn’t get on with the gearchange (the clutch was out of adjustment making second difficult to select on the road).
It then went through two dealers and I bought it for a shade over £3k. Still a good price I thought.
I assumed for that it would have had a full engine rebuild, but no. The bulk of that seems to have been fitting the new wiring loom, balancing the propshaft and rebuilding the distributor.
No idea what the labour rate is at the vintage Rolls and Bentley place the previous owner took it to, but it must be insane. The invoice is poorly laid out so doesn’t give a breakdown of hours for each job, just a whopping great labour figure at the end.
However, I could see a lot more work had been done recently that wasn’t on that invoice.
I emailed the company that did the work and they confirmed some of it they did. They sent over copies of two additional invoices for work they carried out, including the suspension and brake rebuild, new wheel bearings, shocks/springs and a fuel pump and carb rebuild with new fuel pipes.
The total spend is a shade over £14k.
Can you imagine the classics you could buy for £14k, in a different league to a Mayflower. It just seems unbelievable to me spending that sort of cash on a small and fairly undesirable old saloon car. Especially one that didn’t have any sentimental value, which it didn’t.
The saddest thing is that the chap who had all this work done got ill and died shortly after getting the car back, he never got to use it. His son sold it for £4.5k and the next chap only got back £1k PXing it for a Morris Minor because he couldn’t get on with the gearchange (the clutch was out of adjustment making second difficult to select on the road).
It then went through two dealers and I bought it for a shade over £3k. Still a good price I thought.
- 87411DB8-208C-4717-9A03-0EA4A1D22583.png (145.42 KiB) Viewed 617 times
- F6C87E64-2508-498A-9DD4-D50735F21859.png (110.6 KiB) Viewed 617 times
- 656F4900-1EF3-4D84-A8C6-4C98FFAC581F.png (220.77 KiB) Viewed 617 times
-
Drum
- Not Your Average Hoarder
- Posts: 4865
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 11:02 pm
- Has thanked: 3039 times
- Been thanked: 2175 times
-
angrydicky
- The TDW Ancient Crock Appreciation Club (official) Chairman
- Posts: 1003
- Joined: Wed May 13, 2020 9:14 am
- Location: Lincolnshire
- Has thanked: 760 times
- Been thanked: 1878 times
Re: The Triumph Mayflower.
The only thing that let the Mayflower down was the juddery clutch. Most old cars are a bit juddery but there was something definitely wrong with this one as it was a) getting worse and b) all the rubber mountings have been recently replaced.
I ordered a clutch from Mark at the highly-recommended MEV Spares. He is very good for parts for postwar British stuff and the prices are very reasonable.
Went to drain the oil out of the gearbox and found the first problem, the sump plug was completely rounded off and also seized. It’s a steel plug screwed into an aluminium casing so not really surprising. I heated the casing around the plug and tried my new big molegrips (being new they actually have some teeth left) but I just couldn’t get enough heat into it with my blowlamp.
Plan B. I got a suitably big nut and with the welder on max power, welded it over the remains of what I think was originally a male square drive fitting.
With a big bar on that it cracked off nicely. Lovely.
The oil that came out was gear oil, EP90 or similar. A very common mistake, most of these old cars including the Mayflower originally specified SAE 30 in the engine and gearbox. Whoever owned the A30 made the same mistake. I use 20w50 in all of them. A much lighter oil than EP90 which gives a better gearchange. They tend to be quite sticky with the wrong oil in.
It isn’t too difficult to drop the gearbox on these. Couple of bolts on the gearbox crossmember, clutch rod (mechanical) the column gear linkage, starter motor and all the bellhousing bolts; the three at the top are studs.
I used my birthday present from my GF, a transmission jack, for the first time. It worked very well.
With the clutch out the fault was obvious. The drive plate was loose and coming apart. The springs had been rattling around so much they’d almost worn their way out of the retaining plate. There were several holes. The splined centre section was loose too. Shame really as the linings had plenty of life left in them and it was a genuine Borg and Beck plate.
The cover and bearing didn’t look too bad.
Got all that put back together again and I’m pleased to say it’s a lot better. Yes there is still a small amount of judder but it’s really not that bad and it’s easily avoided.
The gears, especially second are improved for having the correct oil too. Second would never engage from low revs before, now it happily does which is a relief.
Sorry, I didn’t take many pictures because I forgot. I might see if I can take a picture of the drive plate damage tomorrow.
I ordered a clutch from Mark at the highly-recommended MEV Spares. He is very good for parts for postwar British stuff and the prices are very reasonable.
Went to drain the oil out of the gearbox and found the first problem, the sump plug was completely rounded off and also seized. It’s a steel plug screwed into an aluminium casing so not really surprising. I heated the casing around the plug and tried my new big molegrips (being new they actually have some teeth left) but I just couldn’t get enough heat into it with my blowlamp.
Plan B. I got a suitably big nut and with the welder on max power, welded it over the remains of what I think was originally a male square drive fitting.
With a big bar on that it cracked off nicely. Lovely.
The oil that came out was gear oil, EP90 or similar. A very common mistake, most of these old cars including the Mayflower originally specified SAE 30 in the engine and gearbox. Whoever owned the A30 made the same mistake. I use 20w50 in all of them. A much lighter oil than EP90 which gives a better gearchange. They tend to be quite sticky with the wrong oil in.
It isn’t too difficult to drop the gearbox on these. Couple of bolts on the gearbox crossmember, clutch rod (mechanical) the column gear linkage, starter motor and all the bellhousing bolts; the three at the top are studs.
I used my birthday present from my GF, a transmission jack, for the first time. It worked very well.
With the clutch out the fault was obvious. The drive plate was loose and coming apart. The springs had been rattling around so much they’d almost worn their way out of the retaining plate. There were several holes. The splined centre section was loose too. Shame really as the linings had plenty of life left in them and it was a genuine Borg and Beck plate.
The cover and bearing didn’t look too bad.
Got all that put back together again and I’m pleased to say it’s a lot better. Yes there is still a small amount of judder but it’s really not that bad and it’s easily avoided.
The gears, especially second are improved for having the correct oil too. Second would never engage from low revs before, now it happily does which is a relief.
Sorry, I didn’t take many pictures because I forgot. I might see if I can take a picture of the drive plate damage tomorrow.
- FDDDA767-226A-4565-B606-23385827844A.jpeg (1.03 MiB) Viewed 553 times
- 5170E662-690B-4F90-960B-FDBF512BD3DF.jpeg (1.48 MiB) Viewed 553 times
- 6327E3B6-3613-47C3-81A0-0313E9236CA1.jpeg (1.35 MiB) Viewed 553 times
-
angrydicky
- The TDW Ancient Crock Appreciation Club (official) Chairman
- Posts: 1003
- Joined: Wed May 13, 2020 9:14 am
- Location: Lincolnshire
- Has thanked: 760 times
- Been thanked: 1878 times
Re: The Triumph Mayflower.
I bloody love this little car. So charming. I took it for a run today as the forecast rain didn’t really appear (apart from early in the morning) and we had warm temperatures and blue skies. The Hampshire got a run out too.
- FE437474-E643-4B89-BAA0-CE76130B59A3.jpeg (790.15 KiB) Viewed 519 times
- B71945F3-1A1A-4098-B2CD-C8570ED03257.jpeg (1.15 MiB) Viewed 519 times
- F460A912-7A96-43BE-8233-6CAC785CF971.jpeg (922.63 KiB) Viewed 519 times
- 9BBEA79F-6C07-4DAB-8865-BD365BB3BC67.jpeg (1.72 MiB) Viewed 519 times
-
Hooli
- Self Appointed Internet God
- Posts: 33535
- Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2019 9:25 pm
- Has thanked: 14335 times
- Been thanked: 11127 times
Re: The Triumph Mayflower.
It does sound like you bought the right car for you, it's great to see how right it looks on roads like that.
Private signature, do not read
-
mercrocker
- Numb3rP14t3Fun
- Posts: 17057
- Joined: Fri May 17, 2019 2:53 pm
- Has thanked: 12281 times
- Been thanked: 8700 times
Re: The Triumph Mayflower.
They both look happy in the Fens. Marvellous.....
There's a great long bar in Rock & Roll heaven.......
-
JimH
- Posts: 864
- Joined: Fri Dec 09, 2022 10:57 am
- Location: Under some hills
- Has thanked: 133 times
- Been thanked: 853 times
Re: The Triumph Mayflower.
As much as I would cheerfully see every Mayflower rendered down for cat food that is looking impressively clean and tidy down down below. You can see where some of the expense detailed in those invoices went.
Well bought.
Re: The Triumph Mayflower.
That is a great looking thing………as you say the styling is subjective but it just looks ‘right’ in terms of condition.
I was given the job of getting one of these running so it could be sent for auction. It had been fitted with a spitfire engine and box. Would have been about 1974/5 (I would have been about 13)….wasnt in bad order but no one wanted them then so they either got scrapped or went the to night time auction at Biggleswade.
Around same time dad took a mk6 Bentley in part exchange against a Hillman Minx
I was given the job of getting one of these running so it could be sent for auction. It had been fitted with a spitfire engine and box. Would have been about 1974/5 (I would have been about 13)….wasnt in bad order but no one wanted them then so they either got scrapped or went the to night time auction at Biggleswade.
Around same time dad took a mk6 Bentley in part exchange against a Hillman Minx
-
angrydicky
- The TDW Ancient Crock Appreciation Club (official) Chairman
- Posts: 1003
- Joined: Wed May 13, 2020 9:14 am
- Location: Lincolnshire
- Has thanked: 760 times
- Been thanked: 1878 times
Re: The Triumph Mayflower.
Haha thanks Jim. Praise indeed from TDW’s No.1 Mayflower fan*!
It is quite staggering how minty it is underneath. The paint lets it down a bit though. It looks great in pictures but has a lot of crazing and blistering up close. It would justify a respray but it’s still by far the tidiest of any classic on my fleet so I’m quite happy with it for now.
It is quite staggering how minty it is underneath. The paint lets it down a bit though. It looks great in pictures but has a lot of crazing and blistering up close. It would justify a respray but it’s still by far the tidiest of any classic on my fleet so I’m quite happy with it for now.