The drivers seat has become more comfortable and the high speed vibration has reduced to well within comfortable levels and the fuel ecomomy has improved and the car seems a little more powerful.
Ok it hasn't done all this on its own.
The drivers seat has never been great since I bought the car in 2008. At first there was no support and you collapsed into the seat. New straps and diaphragm sorted this problem but there was too much support in the lower back area making the seat uncomfortable, last year I stuck a bit of extra foam under the base which lifted me up and helped a little along with refitting the old tired horizontal strap. Tired of this I spent the last 2 weekends trying to get to the bottom [:I] of the problem.
Last weekend I removed the extra foam from the base and refitted the new strap, this did feel better but still too much back support, feels like a big cushion sticking into your back. Yesterday I studied the 2 seats, the passenger seat is very comfortable and seems to have less padding in the lower back area than the drivers. I took the drivers seat apart again, there are 2 layers of foam on the lower area, I cut the extra layer down to level with the cross strap and put it all back together. This has improved the seat considerably still leaving adequate lumbar support. I will run this next week, if still unhappy I will remove the rest of the foam.
I have had vibration issues at 70mph since I rebushed the suspension, a lot of time and money has improved things from undriveable to acceptable, then after the recent MOT it improved again. I find this strange and can only put this down to a change in front wheel alignment. The nearside steering rack gaiter had to be changed for the mot, I couldn't shift the track rod end so got the garage to do it, they informed me they couldn't redo the tracking but had refitted things back to the nut so it was pretty much ok. Since then the vibration from the front has gone [:)] I can see there is a small change to the alignment because the steering wheel angle has changed. This seems odd and I know the tracking was spot on before.
This just leaves the vibration from the rear which I am now even more convinced is wheels/tyres.
Becuase I haven't been using the car as regularly this year I have not been driving with economy in mind, the car usually gives me 32-33 mpg but the last tank has given 35mpg despite the way I have been driving. I can only put this down to weakening the mix for the mot and replacing the carb breather pipes one of which was leaking badly.
All in all I think the TR7 is listening to me, one slip though was one of the leads came off the electric fan control, I found this when I noticed the engine was getting warm in traffic and the fan did not come on (glad I fitted the lamp in the circuit) luckily it did not seem to over heat getting to just under 3/4 mark.
Pete
1981 Carmelian Red 2 litre DHC.
Polybush, KYB shocks, electric fan, electric windows and electronic ignition roller bearing struts and anti-dive kit - otherwise standard
1979 Pageant Blue Spitfire 1500 - some restoration in progress.
