Re: 1953 TD Update
Around 2000, a friend told me about a little TD he had heard was languishing in a garage in a nearby town. Apparently, the car had been the object of an "on again-off again" restoration over the last 20 or so years since its original owner had retired & stopped driving it to work every day. But, when I drove over & met the owner, he politely refused my interest in buying it or in even letting me to look at it.
Then one day several months later--out of the blue--he left a message on my answering machine. I had almost forgotten about the little car but talking with him refreshed my memory. So, we set up an appointment for me to go over & see it.
When I got to his house, I found a car that had its drive train & suspension completely rebuilt (0 miles on them) - I mean the tires still have their little whiskers on them!! It has a new leather interior, the dash, instruments & steering wheel reworked, & all wood in the body professionally replaced during the "body off" restoration that left the original black lacquer paint practically undamaged but ready for a new spray (he even had buckets of OE black lacquer paint - as if I could find anybody to spray it). The doors, fenders & running boards were off the car & ready for paint, & the new windshield, new top & top bows were ready for installation. There was also a complete set of Whitworth tools & manuals, boxes & boxes of pieces & parts, & a guy who had checked me out with his friends & acquaintenances to see if I was a "proper caretaker" for the little car.
The only problem was - the car was in the attic over his garage!! In pieces!! It took me & 4 brawny football players all day to build a ramp & pulley system to get the car down to the concrete...then we had to retrieve all the body panels & interior pieces plus boxes & boxes of parts. I mean, the interior panels are still in the plastic bag that Moss used to ship them in the 80's!
Over the years since I bought it, I've inventoried the boxes & found NOS Lucas mirrors, wiper motor, heater, bumpers & overriders, driving lights, tail light plinths, front parking lights, & more miscellaneous NOS parts than I can list; plus, I probably have almost another TD in used & new parts that he'd acquired (i.e., 5 extra wheels, extra gas tank - the one on the car is new - extra heater, wiper motor, small body panels, etc). The guy was like Jack Laird: he replaced everything!
Over the years, I've also rounded up every nut, bolt, washer, etc to put it back together - new - thanks to my friends at Moss....they went through the catalog & made me a kit of every piece of hardware I think I'll need. All I needed was to find a body man in whom I could entrust it. After I saw the work my guy did, I let him redo the clear coat on my 380SL....then, he redid Jerri's VW & Jack's Bugeye & I was ready to give it to him &, man, am I happy!
We researched original paint codes until we found a color Jerri liked...I mean, we painted all these little pieces of metal with different OE TD colors until she said "that's it!"....then, we're having the color mixed in modern base coat/clear coat...the individual body panels were striped, metal etched & then primed in white epoxy paint - this thing will NEVER rust - before even thinking about spraying the final color!! & every panel has been lovingly gone over to ensure they are perfectly straight & smooth...she's probably better than she was when she left Abingdon!
It'll look like the one in the photo below when its finished in a few weeks (hopefully by the end of the summer) except no luggage rack or mirrors on the front fenders (even though I have NOS Lucas ones) & the radiator slats will match the beige interior...we even have the badge bar & driving lights (& the little rectangle mirror for the windshield post - all NOS Lucas!!
...you guys know me, I don't rush a restoration job...every little car of mine has to go through its gestation process in its own fashion; this one has just been going a little longer than most.......however, when I die in 30 or so years, my grandson will become the 3rd owner of a brand new 1953 MG TD!:
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