Hands-on restoration

UNSEEN DELIGHT

were fitted with hardened valve seats. The original heads were sitting inside the car. I took the heads out to Rod and we replaced the valve seats anyway even though they had been done. Most of the valves were pretty good but we changed a few them. All new valve springs were fitted and Rod line-bored the camshaft bushes and put new bushes in.”

Everything was then balanced, including a new clutch, and Glynn started the task of reassembling the engine and gearbox. A Lumenition electronic ignition kit was added to the distributor along with an external ballast resistor to improve starting and keep everything reliable. A new alternator was fitted, as was a new reduction gear starter motor, water pump, and oil pump. Both carburettors were reconditioned and powder-coated, along with many new linkages and pipes.

The gearbox was dismantled and all synchros, bearings, and seals were replaced. Glynn’s car was originally fitted with a standard four-speed manual gearbox. He purchased, cleaned, and reconditioned an overdrive unit, which meant changing and upgrading a few parts in his gearbox to fit it. Unable to find a replacement rear gearbox/overdrive mount, he made one and fitted new rubber bushes.

To cure the Stag’s reputation for overheating, a new modern radiator was fitted along with a Toyota water header tank, which has a low-water-level warning light fitted in the dashboard. A Kenlowe electric fan, an auto thermos switch, and a cabin-bypass switch also help prevent any sign of the Stag’s Achilles heel.

By September 2014, Glynn was able to see his very detailed restoration nearing completion. It was only a matter of giving everything a final clean, adding all fluids, and a few pats for luck. Would it start?

“She went first pop,” says a delighted and relieved Glynn. “I balanced the carburettors and adjusted the mixture. I was told those Strombergs don’t keep their tune but that’s not true. Mine are still good after 10,000km, which is all the car has done since it was finished.”

A quick run out to Taieri Airport confirmed that Glynn made the right call when he decided that if he was going to restore the Stag then it had to be done right.

“I think my Stag is now putting out a lot more than the 140bhp [104kw] they were supposed to when new. It was quite a quick run out the back of the airport and it ran beautifully. There was an amazing difference in the ride quality, too. It is very much better,” he says.

It was just a few days before the annual hospice charity car run in 2015 and Ali had entered the Stag.

“It wasn’t finished, so I had to really put in an effort but we made it,” Glynn tells us.

Well worthwhile, too, as the Stag wowed the hospice rally judges, who hailed it as the Best British Car. In 2017, the Gastons took the Stag to the Roxburgh Classic Car Show, where it won Best Overall Classic. Later that year, the Stag won the Best Triumph award at the Best of British Car Show in Dunedin. In 2018, I had to judge the Best British Classic category at the Dunedin Autospectacular where Ross Osborne’s newly restored MGC GT just pipped the Stag for the top spot.

“We haven’t been on many long runs with the Stag — just a few local ones. I intend to fix that next Easter when we will take it up to the car and air show at Omaka,” Glynn mentions.

Glynn enjoyed great support from Alison and his sons during the restoration, although Alison did get concerned for his health. “I remember he spent a whole winter working under that car on the ground,” she says.

There’s no doubt that Glynn’s Stag is an eye-opener. I first saw it at the Dunedin Autospectacular a couple of years ago; its bright red paint, set off with sparkling chrome, beamed under a sunny Dunedin winter sky. And

I was delighted to see that it felt as good as it looked.

It’s time for a drive — with the soft-top down of course. It’s a nice place to sit, especially with Glynn’s upgrades to the interior. It’s an easy starter, and once warmed up this willing little V8 provides plenty of poke accompanied by a healthy V8 burble. It’s just noisy enough to be fun. The list of improvements comprises almost all the things that Leyland should have done for this car to achieve its full potential. It rides beautifully on its tautened suspension, and even six years after being restored it is as tight as a drum.

Glynn says fitting the T-bar into the body was quite a difficult job and admits that he needed some extra mechanical assistance. However, it stiffens the car enormously, and that togetherness makes it noticeably better than other roadsters of the era. The result is nary a rattle or squeak over some of Dunedin’s less forgiving bitumen. The Stag offers a very enjoyable ride, somewhere between executive express and sports car.

Glynn has constructed a classic that has risen far above the reputation it earned in the 1970s, when it succumbed to Leyland’s lack of development. Glynn sums up what he learned during the restoration he was determined to get right: “It takes time, it really does. If you want to do it properly then you have got to do the work on it. Check with the experts and people who know the car to do it right.”