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Do all LBC's......smell?

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GTP1960

GTP1960

Jedi Knight
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My TR3 & Garage has a not unpleasant, kind of stale, sweet, pungent odor of old leather ( or something).
can't really smell it on the car itself, but the garage odor, caused by the car is distinctive.
furthermore I've noticed similar LBC's eaux de parfum odors, in other LBC's garages.

i replaced my original seats several months ago ( threw out the horsehair etc.)

Anyone else notice this? what do you make of it?

Don't get me wrong though, I kind of like it.

 
My TR4A has a definite smell... a combination of fuel / oil and the black undercoating (I even noticed the instruments, the seal behind the bezel has the same smell!)

I like it as well.
 
This is what I call "Eau de Olde British Car." It's a fine mix of well-used leather, damp horsehair and jute, wet masonite, dripping Castrol, leaking fuel, rotting rubber, Castrol LMA seeping past perishing seals and a hint of 90 weight gear oil. If the car's old enough, it may even have a whiff of Latakia. It's a heavenly smell you'll never forget.
 
Back when I had a garage ... I noticed the same thing. Regardless of what car was in it!

I think the wood construction (2x4's, etc.) absorbs the odors of the contents. Just never could afford to put a barrel of Chanel #5 in there ...
 
I agree - same smell here - and the smell of the engine itself - both running as I drive in and out and cooling off. It is a very evocative smell for many - I love the smell and will occasionally stick my head in the garage just to inhale for a sec (get my fix as it were) :grin: More to the point, my daughter LOVES the smell as it connects her with her childhood and helping daddy in the garage. I have had more than one friend (not even remotely car people) be transported just by walking into the garage - sometimes just to the smell of a car their parents or grandparents owned - or to the memory of a parent. It is an unbelievably evocative smell.

(And VWs also have a distinctive and every bit as evocative smell - but completely different)
 
Mine only has a mild new leather smell. Actually the Lexal I use on it could promote the leather fragrance. Notice I said "Fragrance"!! :highly_amused:
 
PAUL161 said:
Mine only has a mild new leather smell. Actually the Lexal I use on it could promote the leather fragrance. Notice I said "Fragrance"!! :highly_amused:
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I'm glad you corrected us with "fragrance".
It's a much better word for this job.

(& marketing at it's finest.)
 
I have noticed this in pretty much all old cars. I have even noticed that most old cars tend to smell similarly across manufacturers, i.e. GMs all smell similar.
 
Imagine it harnessed and in fused in women's perfume.
move over Chanel.
 
I'm hoping that the Healey will retain that odour once I finish the restoration. Or may its something that they develop with time like the nose on a good wine.
 
catfood said:
I'm hoping that the Healey will retain that odour once I finish the restoration. Or may its something that they develop with time like the nose on a good wine.
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It will, carb engines and um marking its spot guarantee it.
 
When I started to work on my TR3 motor the oil smell took me back to the late 1960 and my old TR2. motor overhaul.

The body on this car has been apart too long to have retained any of it's vintage smell.

David
 
jsneddon said:
If you visit the Queen Mary there is a spot where you can stick your head in a ventilation shaft or something and look down several stories to the engine room. It smells exactly like a British Car.
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Bunker C Oil!
 
I love the smell, not just gas and oil, but the slightly musty smell of the interior of a roadster that has gotten wet a couple times. Unfortunately, while I still get the gas and oil smells, the distinctive interior smell is gone in my restored tr250 interior. Love the smell of British car and fall on a cool, crisp October evening.
 
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I still love the smell of an auto repair shop. Takes me back to my 6 months working at Allied Foreign Cars in Boston back in the Spring of 1957 - aged 23. Many memories including Billy setting Doc Knight's XK 120 on fire. Bobby forgetting to put oil back in a Delahaye before taking it on a test drive and Bob (the boss) spinning out on Route 128 in Hayden Shepley's 300 SL coupe (with me lying on the package shelf) going to Howard Johnson's one spring day. Made $55/week - same salary as I was making when I quit working as a brokerage backroom clerk on Wall St. Also made a $50 commission for selling a Saab 93 - we were probably the first Saab dealer in the US. Learned how to work on LBCs, VWs, Porsches, how to paint and weld, etc. I wrote a book if I can ever get around to getting it published.
 
pdplot said:
I still love the smell of an auto repair shop. Takes me back to my 6 months working at Allied Foreign Cars in Boston back in the Spring of 1957 - aged 23. Many memories including Billy setting Doc Knight's XK 120 on fire. Bobby forgetting to put oil back in a Delahaye before taking it on a test drive and Bob (the boss) spinning out on Route 128 in Hayden Shepley's 300 SL coupe (with me lying on the package shelf) going to Howard Johnson's one spring day. Made $55/week - same salary as I was making when I quit working as a brokerage backroom clerk on Wall St. Also made a $50 commission for selling a Saab 93 - we were probably the first Saab dealer in the US. Learned how to work on LBCs, VWs, Porsches, how to paint and weld, etc. I wrote a book if I can ever get around to getting it published.
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I was thinking, when I read your first sentences, that this has the makings of a good story or sitcom.

I wrote a book if I can ever get around to getting it published.
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