Wedge it's true, you cant own just 1 LBC... buying a TR7

[justin_mercier]

Well, in planning the 'last driving day' for my TR6 before i dismantle it for a frame off, I thought about how it'd be nice to have another car to be driving while i restore the 6 so that i can take the time and do it right without rushing just so i have something to drive in the summer.

Well, last thursday I saw a great condition TR7 for sale in a parking lot, so i used my phone snapped a pic and snapped a photo of the phone number. I called and took a look at it and it's in immaculate condition, I couldn't find any rust in any of the usual rust spots. In fact, look as much as i could and i couldn't find any rust anywhere! It was the nicest TR7 that i've looked at. It's got 27k original miles, and that's it... so... I'm buying it. The price is right, and it needs no restoration work at all with only one exception, the AC doesn't currently work. So i can just drive it, and take my time working on the TR6...

Oh, and it's exactly the same colors as my TR6, british racing green with a tan interior =D That's one of the things that caught my eye in the first place, I hadn't seen any other BRG TR7 in the area.

Here's the photo i snapped with my cellphone when I saw it in the parking lot last week.

 

[DNK]

Who was the prev owner?

 

[justin_mercier]

A fellow of the name Rich Hubert, I don't know if he posts on any forums. He's selling his 1970 TR6 as well, and just sold his lotus europa

 

[DNK]

Name is familiar

 

[Deleted member 8987]

Rhode Island and no rust?

What, is that one of those rare stainless-bodied 7's?

I've lived up in that neck of the woods, and 8-9 years they're GONE.

THAT one must have spend every September to May in a heated garage!

 

[justin_mercier]

It spent it's life up to 2003 in florida and north carolina, and the guy I'm buying it from who moved it up north in 03 kept it garaged. I looked in all the usual rust places, under the doors, the sills, floor pans under the carpets at the inside corner under the doors, where the trailing arms attach, around the top of the window where it can rust if there's a bad seal on the chrome, etc... and there just wasn't any that I could find. It's got all the original paperwork as well, including the window sticker, prior registrations, original sales form from some dealership in florida, etc.

 

[AngliaGT]

Justin,

I'm jealous!I know that I'm sick,but if I came across that
for a reasonable price,I'd buy it in a second (& borrow the money!).

- Doug

 

[Brosky]

Welcome to the club. This is all Don's fault......

 

[3798j]

Neat purchase - and yes, it is true.

 

[tr8todd]

There are tons of clean TR7s and TR8s around here, just not one's that were daily drivers. I just looked at a TR7 convertible that was converted to a V8. It has always been garaged and is rock solid. Owner was asking $3500. Most of the wedges that are left in the Northeast only spent 6 months of the year on the road and were only used as toys. Biggest issue in these cars isn't rust, it's neglect. They like to be driven and serviced. After restoring 2 very low mileage TR8s, and dealing with rebuilding just about every moving part, I'd rather buy a high mileage driver than a low mileage barn find.

 

[tdskip]

Right on! I think you'll find her to be highly useful and a very difference driving experience than your TR6.

 

[justin_mercier]

Well, it's now in my driveway =D I need to clean out the other half of my garage so i can drive it in and park tonight =)

 

[justin_mercier]

Right on! I think you'll find her to be highly useful and a very difference driving experience than your TR6.

The gas pedal is akwardly close to the transmission tunnel, it's an automatic, and the steering is much harder at low speeds than the TR6. It's definately a different sort of beast, but being the hardtop coupe, it's also more weather friendly than the TR6 too =)

 

[justin_mercier]

The level of documentation included with this wedge is incredible. All the original booklets, the original window stickers, the registration cards from 9 different years including the initial sale, the detailed state inspection reports for every year from 1978 till 1999, receipts for work done on the car, etc.

I went through all the documents and constructed a driving history. There are several gaps, but you can see how the car is in such good condition, it spent most of its whole life in a garage in north carolina hardly ever being driven, and was only moved up north in 2003, where again it was garaged and hardly driven.

Date Miles at time of inspection
05/23/78 568
05/30/79 7137
05/19/80 10788
05/11/81 13370
06/02/82 14512
06/??/83 15432
06/28/84 16200
06/14/85 16840
06/16/86 17014
06/??/87 17204
06/04/88 17286
06/26/89 17743
06/04/90 18121
06/01/91 18645
06/18/92 19101
06/09/93 19500
07/01/94 20006
06/30/95 20811
07/01/96 21200
07/31/97 21352
08/??/98 21641
09/24/03 23073
10/29/04 23803
09/29/10 26955 <-- When i purchased it yesterday

 

[UmmYeahOk]

I wonder what happened in 1999-2002 and 2005-2009. I guess for the later, the PO felt no need to pay to register it for a 3rd year if he wasnt going to drive it.

Still a nice car though.

I predict what will happen though is that you'll find yourself wanting to fix up this one as well. Not necessarily a bad thing, its just a path Ive seen way too many times before. Get a car whose sole purpose is to either be a beater to put miles on, or to drive when you are working on your other car, then sooner or later that becomes the new project.

 

[justin_mercier]

I found some more documents, and some receipts for work done on the vehicle that included more dates and mileage, so I have a much better idea of what was done and happened in those time spans.

1999 it appears that the original owner sold it to his son, a new title was issued, and he was listed as co-owner until 2001. The car was then sold to someone in the same town who drove it for two years very lightly. Then in 2003 it was sold again to a person who owned it for all of 3 weeks, he put it on ebay where it was purchased and brought up to Mass from North Carolina. It was then well maintained by the previous owner who I bought it from, from 2003 to last week, but he didn't include his inspection or registration papers, so I don't have the data from those years.

I went through the piles of documentation and put together an even more detailed history, including every title number the car has ever had in the past, and every license plate number it had.

Eventually I'll do some work on it, but it's in such pristine condition other than the paint right now, that I'm just going to drive it while I dismantle my TR6 and do a serious frame up restoration on the TR6.

The only known issue with the TR7 currently is that the AC is not working.