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Rocky road to Lizzy

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Halekini

Halekini

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First fell in lust with a TR3 when my cousin bought one. I was about twelve. Tried to buy one for 1500 bucks when I was 17, but Dad said nope. Something about no job, no insurance, blah blah blah. When I got a job and insurance, I bought a 1957 Hillman Minx convertible with which I joined the Riverside Foreign Car club and ran a lot of rallies. Rebuilt the engine, but got the transmission apart and couldn't figure out how to get it back together. Big brother to the rescue.

Older, but apparently no wiser, I bought a 1960 bugeye Sprite as a newlywed Navy man. In Rhode Island in winter. 4 inches of ground clearance. Ran that sucker out of oil the night before a long cruise, and my buddy had to tow it home with a TR4 and a rope. Apparently in 1966, there was no place to buy oil after 9 p.m. in Rhode Island.

First midlife crisis: amazingly, had a little money left over after my second daughter's wedding, so I bought a 1980 MGB. The car had been stored in a hangar for 5 years, and I had to replace pretty much every piece of rubber in the vehicle. Missed one though, a little piece of rubber hose that connected the fuel tank to the metal fuel line. That makes you run out of gas on a busy street and get to come home on the back of a tow truck.

I'm now 76, and finally got my TR3. It's a 1959 unrestored original, in great shape. I asked my family for naming suggestions, and my granddaughter said I should name it after the Queen. So... Lizzy.

Happy to be here.
Gary
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Gary - welcome to BCF. When I first read the title, I thought you meant a Tin Lizzy!

Great looking TR you have - and a very happy man standing at the side. What work needs to be done on the car?
Good to have you with us.
Tom M.
 
I have no expertise or experience with suspension parts, aside from popping the shackles on the 54 Mercury that preceded the Hillman, so I'm trying to find a place in San Diego that I can trailer the TR to and have them do kind of a safety check- front end, brakes, etc. Before I drive it very much. I live way out in the boonies, 30 miles from the nearest supermarket, so I don't want wheels falling off on a lonely two-lane country road.

It was also overheating, so I flushed the radiator and cleaned up and tested the thermostat with a pot of water and a thermometer, and that seems to be working as designed, but she still runs a little warm, so my radiator flush-in-a-can may not have been enough.
 
Glen - give a shout to the Triumph Club of San Diego.

You can email them at

sdtriumphclub at gmail.com

If your TR is an "unrestored original" it could certainly have some blocked coolant passages in the radiator and engine.
Tom M.
 
Thanks Tom. Yeah there was a chunk of some pretty solid stuff in the thermostat housing, so I'm sure there's more in other places. I'll check out the Triumph club.
-Gary
 
Hello Gary

That is a great looking TR3 you have there.

You will find the Triumph section is very active so you will get plenty of tips and advice for your TR3 journey.

David
 
DavidApp said:
Hello Gary

That is a great looking TR3 you have there.

You will find the Triumph section is very active so you will get plenty of tips and advice for your TR3 journey.

David
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Thanks David. As I said in my introduction, I'm happy to be here!
 
Halekini said:
amazingly, had a little money left over after my second daughter's wedding,
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That IS amazing! o_O That is beautiful! Looks like it belongs in a museum! Glad to have you aboard!
By the way, I took the liberty of editing your post so as to put the full sized image in the post rather than just having the thumb nail attached.
 
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