THE BIG RESTORATION
Meticulous restorer Mick Clark turns a Coventry rust bucket into a showroom fresh Triumph…
Mick Clark may be a Ford man through and through, he’s owned countless blue oval badged motors and worked for the global giant, but a few years ago he decided to restore this Triumph. In his words: ‘I was looking for a cheap classic that my student son could enjoy during the holidays, and that I could improve while he was away at university,’
He found the car locally on the Isle of Sheppey ten years ago; the fact it was a convertible was simply a bonus. He thought it wasn’t too bad and would serve through the coming summer before needing work. In a moment of revelation familiar to many restorers, Mick found it to be ‘a lot more rotten than I’d hoped’. Never a man to do half a job, the decision was quickly taken that the body would need to be removed from the chassis to do a ‘proper job’.
It took another five years for Mick to gradually start on the restoration in 2017, repairing the chassis after stripping the car down. Front outriggers were replaced along with several welded repairs to other areas of the chassis, notably around the diff mounting points. Care was taken never to cut away too much metal at once, hoping that the chassis would retain its original shape and allow the body to fit back as accurately as it had before. Once the chassis was solid again, Mick cleaned, refurbished and painted the running gear then assembled the rolling chassis. Those unusual alloy wheels came with the car and are period Avon Safety rims, which supposedly allow tyres to run flat without peeling off. Mick painted and polished them himself following an eye-watering quote from a wheel refurbisher.
MAY 2012,
Unexpected opportunities
Retirement closely followed by the global pandemic suddenly gave Mick more time spend on restoration and from 2019, the pace picked up, with the focus now firmly on the rusty body sections. On to front half of the tub, both footwells needed extensive repairs, with more new metal being grafted into the heater well, windscreen frame and lower bulkhead. The doors had been re-skinned poorly at some point in the past, and the passenger door had a deep dent disguised with filler. He repaired th
