Anything and everything Vitesse.

Just returned home after not buying a vitesse (now back on ebay (2l Mk 1, pale yellow with black stripe Â£1500 Â‘binÂ’ and wondered if I was correct not to buy.
Bottom of passenger door (which was very hard to close) could not be persuaded to line up with bodywork but stuck out maybe half an inch! The sill underneath looked straight, but the Â‘nÂ’ section chassis rail which comes out from middle had a folded in bit in the middle of one side. Sorry about my description, IÂ’m clearly not an expert! There were other not so good bits, but the engine was really smooth and quiet. Oddly, the air filter was in the boot. Is this some well known trick to get a bad engine to run smooth, or had perhaps some nicer air filters been removed?
Finally, if you have a MOTed vitesse, a bit tatty so not too expensive, not too far from Gloucester and looking for a new home please get in touch!
Comments appreciated.
Paul.

This one?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ca...

As most cars do, it looks OK in the pictures apart from that engine bay, what a mess! The engine bay is the first place I look on a car - tidy bay usually equals caring owner - doesn't have to be particularly clean just looking like someone cares about it! This one doesn't. Still appearances can be deceptive as you say it runs well. Removing old air filters that are choked with crap will get the engine running but if tuned like that it will needre-tuning with new filters on - I wouldn't advise running it like that for long if at all.
Ill fitting panel are a feature of Heralds and Vitesses so I would not be unduly put off by less than perfect panel gaps but there are degrees of this - if the doors don't fit or are "thick" at the bottom get your magnet out! Likely to be some filler in there and you don't want that - Vitesse doors rot at the bottom.

I'm always careful with faults described as trivial or costing pennies to fix - if they are so inconsequential, why doesn't the seller fix them? Could it be that perhaps the faults are actually hiding more? I once had such a car, the trivial faults were poorly fitting overriders on the rear and missing rubber trims. The over riders were only fitted using one bolt each. It turned out that the valences were actually welded not bolted on - all very strange until I started measuring against an unmolested car and found that the whole of the valance structure had been pushed forward and under the car - it looked OK but to make it look great would have taken a load of new parts and loads of time/money - I left it as it was and enjoyed the car.

With the description on eBay and your account, I think you've done the right thing and walked away. There will be others, like this one http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ca... no financial interest on my part and I don't know the car or seller but it looks to be a much more complete description, warts an all - if you are in doubt why not get your prospective purchase inspected? Any one of the Triumph Traders in the area would do you a visual inspection and verbal report for an hours labour cost if you could getthe car to them OR take it to an MOT station and put it through a test, that'll give you a goo cheap inspection. For both of these you'll have to bet the owner on side.

I agree with Jason on the first link,the engine bay looks bloody awful,i don't care about originality or polish 'n'stuff,but that just looks uncared for and neglected.Wonder why the rev counter is at 2000 rpm???????......and no filters.......hmmmmm?.........Â£1500 seems a lot for that one,footwell cards and PROPER door seals cost a lot of pounds not pennies( I will get some off you Bill!)The shutline on my passenger door is pretty good,however the drivers door sticks out at the bottom,both have a thin skim of filler over new door bottoms,i would'nt bother too much about the doors unlesss they are really knackered and your really bothered about looks .Take a magnet with you as Jason suggests,could save you a lot of bother.

The second link looks better,though i have no knowledge of the 1600/6 engine.Seems like a pretty honest descrition though.

In addition to the good advice given by Jason and Adrian the subject of doors and panel gaps has had extensive coverage on both Vitesse and Herald messageboards. However, having just removed the body from my Vitesse I can see the reason for the bad door gaps in my case; the outriggers had only been welded properly at the bottom edges allowing considerable movement in the bodywork. When looking at a car to buy I would certainly be wary of bad panel gaps since they might imply poor welding even though the outriggers and chassis in general appear superficially sound. I am now about to replace the entire chassis so be warned!

Good luck,

Andy.

descrition..........wahts taht tehn????????

Who says the camera never lies? While I've seen neither car, I'd rather bid on the 2l than the 1600, although I really do have a soft spot for the Vitesse 6. I've seen (and lived with!) much worse door gap problems and at least the 2l does seem far more original than the poor 1600. I note that both have overdrive (at least the correct switch is there!) but the 1600 has no overdrive badge, and the one on the 2l is in the wrong place!
The dashboard of the 1600 is dreadful to my mind, never mind the seats! If someone has gone to the trouble of adding overdrive (which the 1600 needs even more than the 2l) and the extra gauges, have they also done the next most sensible thing to a 1600 and added Stromberg carbs? With the 2l at least everything, while messy under the bonnet, does appear original and unmolested, even if uncared for!
It probably all comes down to what the metalwork is like under the car, both chassis wise and body structure, mounting points, floor pans etc.

The 1600 engine is probably the sweetest running 6 of them all. However it was really let down for the first 3 years by the Solex carbs and associated manifolds. While they do give a very sweet running engine, there is muchy less power than the stromberg version (both quoted as 70bhp, but the stromberg version gives allegedly 12bhp more! Triumph never advertised it, god only knows why as having driven both there IS more power there) AND it guzzles fuel! There were also reported hot starting issues with some of the solex carbs, but I've never experienced them.
There are some parts issues with the 1600, but only of any significance if you are wanting to rebuild the engine. (Pistons hard to find, and crank bearings not currently available, although that also affects the early 2 litres).
Happy hunting. When you've found the right Vitesse, you'll never look back!!

We'll agree to differ on this then Chris.

Does original,unmolested and uncared for equal not looked after at all?If the engine has not been looked after what else has been neglected.I was trying to emphasize that i thought the buy it now figure seemed high for the vehicle in question.

PS...if the engine is knackered i have a good spare MK1 complete engine.Happy hunting and good luck with whichever model you buy Paul.

Thank you for the detailed replies and helpful comments. I had not really wanted to identify the car as I did not want to moan about a particular case - I was sad not to have come home with a vitesse though! The car looks much better in the photos than in the metal!
Thanks again for your help, I will keep on looking.

Paul

I've just NOT bought a Vitesse too. Found it on the interweb using that superb gingell adfinder. http://www.gingell.com/adfinder/
Anyway, what frightened me off was that when I opened the door and lifted, the whole front bulkhead moved too. At least an inch for and aft at the top of the windscreen. Of course the doors don't close too well either. It had been converted to convertible but I reckon there must be a bolt or two missing. I know my Herald convertible didn't do that. Engine sounded goog though and the chassis appeared in good order, fresh MOT too.
It's still for sale so if any-one is interested, it's here- http://www.findit.co.uk/cars/classic/cars/74868.ph...

And I'm still looking for a decent Mk2 convertible!

Jason,
I suspect you were quite right to reject this car.
A design fault of the Herald range is the rain gutter on the windscreen surround above the A-post. It is spotwelded onto the surround in three or four places. Wet creeps under it, rots and perforates the surround. Thereafter, water trickles down inside the A-post and out, at first, under the carpet below. You can imagine that the eventual result is a rotten A-post and its base where it joins the floor.

The symptoms of this would include a rocky bulkhead, that has virtually no foundations to bolt it to the chassis.

John

Hi Jason, am thinking about selling my vitesse ( House move(bigger Mortgage ahhh) picture under my profile..

Huw

Thanks Huw,
I can't find the PM button but if you could mail more pics and some info, that would be great.
You can use this address- jason@airaffair.dk
Regards,
Jason.

click "Huw Harrison" -
http://www.tssc.org.uk/profile.asp?profile=01/6492...

then click "Send a Private Message" to PM Huw -
http://www.tssc.org.uk/profile_sendmessage.asp?pro...

or click "Triumph Vitesse MkII Convertible (VTT 3J)" to view details of Huw's Vitesse -
http://www.tssc.org.uk/profile.asp?profile=01/6492...

Thanks Craig, it was only staring me in the face.
Retreats, tail between legs.

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