Mick and the guys have been busy getting some more Stag restorations finished for Spring collection.  There has been a gorgeous ‘Flash’ Red Stag (see pic) that we have restored, destined for Sheffield, and an early Mallard Green Stag destined for Bedfordshire. 

I mentioned a couple of months ago about a Triumph White Stag that we were getting ready for emigration to Münster in Germany.  The new owners collected it from us just before Easter and had a short, wet, tour to North Wales before bringing it back to us for its 500 mile head torque down and final check over.   We have heard that it made the journey home and they are now having to go through what sounds like a very strict Historical vehicle check that are the regulations for importing a classic to Germany.  Apparently no upgrades are permitted.  For this day and age it’s hard to find a Stag that hasn’t had any mods.  How far do you go?  Interesting information (courtesy of Wikipedia) that Münster transport consists of more bikes than vehicles on the road.  The statistics show that Vehicle traffic (36.4%) bikes used in traffic (37.6%).  What I’d really like to know is – what kind of traffic is the other 28%?   

We’ve had manual gearbox overhauls in a stacking system waiting for a new batch of RHP bearings to come in, as we won’t use the cheaper, unmarked bearings in the workshop.  With RHP we can be assured of quality manufacture.   Years ago we found with the imported bearings that the front input shaft bearing fails after about 3000 miles and you get an annoying, grumbly, chatty noise whilst the engine and gearbox are idling and quite often a constant whine whilst the engine is driving.   Whilst in human terms we can put up with these ‘qualities’, but it’s certainly something you shouldn’t tolerate with your gearbox.  And due to amount of effort involved in overhauling a gearbox, it works out more cost effective to fit RHP bearings than to do the same job twice in  5 years.

Having accumulated 30 years of Triumph Stag bits it’s time to sort out what we have.  To this end we have installed another storage container.  We are currently racking it out trying to make some sense of the volume of stuff we have.  With a bit of luck we’ll have this done for next month and we can start to sell some of the items we have on our website.  Which by the way, is going to have a tiny revamp soon as I think it would be all the better for a bit of tweaking.

Did you go to Stoneleigh?  How was it?  I hear on the grapevine that we were much missed.  That’s nice.  Don’t take this the wrong way, but when I got up at ‘civilized O’Clock’ on that Sunday morning, and it was cold and persisting down I was mightily relieved.   Mind you, I’d never have lived it down, had been a beautiful warm spring day.  It must have been miserable though.   I’m guessing that Stags weren’t that well represented as Richard has been extra busy in the spare parts department.  It might also have had something to do with the free March delivery offer that we had running.

Forgot to mention last month - another migratory Stag that has just left us for Italy, after full engine rebuild, leather trim, stainless bumpers, re-veneered and recovered dash, and so on.  It is bound for a life spent in the very classy company of Mark Bolland.  I can just imagine it – the Stag - purring along, hugging the winding Italian coast, the scent of lemon and salty sea in the air.  Ahhh.

Staying on the continent, we have engine rebuilds in the pipeline for a Stag in France – near the border with Switzerland, and one for Spain.  As I’m sure you know, our reconditioned engines come with a full warranty, but also from now on they will also have been bench tested on Mick’s new toy – I mean test bed.   Although we like to fit and test the engines her in the workshop, when it comes to supplying an engine for abroad this is just not possible, so the test rig is the next best thing.  This way the carburettors, distributor, front pulley and flywheel can all be fitted to the block and run up, tested and balanced before shipping. 

You may have noticed, but there has been no further mention of our apprentice.  This is because for some reason he got it into his head that you don’t actually need to turn up for work every day in order to keep a job.   Is it me?!  So after another couple of attempts at employing the ‘youff’ of today we have decided, for the time being, to stick with us oldies.   The whole process has left me feeling rather haggard.  For the first time in my life I am old enough to be the Mother of our young candidates.  That can’t be right!  I guess I’ve turned that corner that says ‘THIS WAY – MIDDLE AGE’.

The diff’s with our own new crown wheel and pinions have been a huge success.   We thought that there would be a demand for this product, but like everything, there is always an element of risk.  Looks to have paid off this time.  The cost of the unit £940.00 plus VAT exchange.

DON’T FORGET.  IF YOU HAVE A STAG FOR SALE YOU CAN NOW ADVERTISE IT FOR FREE ON OUR WEBSITE.  JUST EMAIL THE DETAILS TO US WITH CONTACT INFO AND A PICTURE OR TWO.