Resto Hero: Triumph 2.5PI
Son learns to weld on a scrapper, then moves onto dad’s 2.5PI. This is a tale of two Triumph-obsessed Taylors
A father-son tale of two Triumphs, a welder and a lot of determination.
Father and son team Paul and Ross Taylor have a thing about Triumphs. Their present outbreak of Triumph mania began four years ago when Paul bought an original (but rusty) Triumph 2.5PI to restore. However, the family’s affection for Triumphs goes back much further, to when Paul was in his twenties and enjoyed running a 2000 saloon as his daily driver.
Then, in 1976, his wife wanted to replace her Anglia runabout with a sports car, so Paul bought her a TR5. Son Ross used to ride in a carry cot behind the TR’S seats and says: ‘I grew up with the whirring of a Lucas PI pump in my ears’. This goes some way to explaining why the family now own a grand total of five Lucasinjected Triumphs, including the aforementioned TR5, which was bought over 40 years ago.
Having been convinced of the virtues of Lucas PI by his experience of the TR5, and having previously owned a Triumph saloon, it’s natural that Paul was drawn to the daddy of big Triumphs, the 2.5PI. His idea was to restore one as a retirement project, but things soon got out of hand. The 1973 French Blue car he bought looked like a good starting point, but when he asked for a quote for body repairs the response was ‘at least £3000, but it could be more, depending on what we find’. At this stage, son Ross stepped in and offered to restore the Triumph’s body at home.
Paul’s reply was: ‘If you’re going to do my car, you’d better buy a scrapper and learn to weld on that first’. Ross heeded his father’s wise words and soon found a 1971 2.5PI in Valencia Blue, slowly decomposing in an Essex barn.
With 48,000 miles and only one owner from new, it had potential but had been laid up since 1984. It also came with the dubious advantage of lots of rust, arguably a bonus when it was destined for welding practice! Ross bought the car, trailered it home and signed up for a bodywork restoration course at Colchester College. He recalls being the only student who came back to class each week with photos of his work and requests for advice. Around this time Ross decided he needed more space for body restoration, persuading his motherin-law to fund a new workshop in her garden!
Bodywork by baptism of fire
He found the Triumph 2000 Register forum was a great source of encouragement. Once the forum members got over the fact that a novice was restoring a car that really belonged in a skip, the many positive comments and tips Ross received kept him going when the rotten panelwork became too daunting. Starting in April 2015, he dived straight in, tackling the offside sill first, followed by the inner and outer rear wheelarches. Ready-made repair panels weren’t available for the big Triumph cars, so Ross learned to cut, fold and shape his own repair sections. His work was so precise, only the smallest skims of filler were needed. Ross adds: ‘I learned to lead load, so all the joints on the sills and splash
panels are leaded. In fact, anywhere that’s vulnerable to damp, I used lead. There’s very little filler on the car’.
After working through the offside, he did the same on the nearside, finally moving on to repair the boot floor and floorpans. Ross’s ‘practice car’ had become a no-compromise restoration, as he stormed through the body repairs in a single year of unstinting labour. He found that setting small goals helped him keep going, drawing motivation from how much he’d already achieved. Ross says: ‘One of the best moments was to see all the body repairs finished, then get the shell phosphate dipped and ready for paint. All the old underseal was stripped from the floors and once back to bare metal, Ross sealed literally every seam under the floor and inside the car. By July 2016, the shell was despatched to his friend Danny Comer for paint.
Meanwhile, Paul and Ross were working through all the mechanicals. The engine was stripped, but with such low mileage, wear was minimal.
It was reassembled with new bearing shells and gaskets, then put to one side for later. Brakes, steering and suspension parts were cleaned, overhauled and painted ready for assembly. Ross says: ‘A few people have given me stick over the red painted trailing arms, but I like it that way’. While the body was away being painted, he had to find a lot of missing parts, as the car had previously been used as a spares donor.
All of the interior was missing, though trawling online eventually resulted in two complete interiors being purchased. The hardest part to track down was the correct PI fuel tank, which contains a swirl pot to keep the high-pressure Lucas pump properly fed.
It was April 2017 when the body eventually returned with fresh paint. This was another high point for Ross, as he explains: ‘There were moments
when I really had to dig deep to carry on with the body repairs. Seeing it painted proved all the hard work had paid off’. Through the summer our dynamic duo set about building up the car with their characteristic enthusiasm – and by September, Ross was able to drive his Triumph to its first MOT in well over 30 years. His handiwork attracted praise and a brand new ticket from the tester.
Back on the road again
The first long run in the car was from their North London home to the Triumph 2000 Register National Weekend in Devon. Ross says of the trip: ‘Even though my car doesn’t have overdrive, it coped just fine on the motorway’. Club members already knew the car from its forum thread, and there were many admiring comments from seasoned restorers at the show. It’s clear that through his skill and perseverance, Ross has saved a car that would otherwise have been broken for parts.
What’s even more remarkable is this was Ross’s very first restoration – and, while working on his car, he has also found time to work on three more of the family’s Triumphs. He’s repaired the body of Paul’s French Blue 1973 2.5PI, carried out a rebuild on their Carmine Red 1973 2.5PI – and also stripped their very early 1969 PI. We mere mortals can only marvel at the scale of these heroic deeds!