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CAR HISTORY HELP

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habaneronut

Senior Member
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I don't really expect to get any help with this post, but I'll put it out there anyway - who knows, I may get lucky.

I just bought my 58 3A a few months ago, and have been trying everything to trace its history. The guy I got it from knew very little, and so far I have not found out much other than its original destination from the factory was Hawaii (didn't even ship with a heater!!). I bought the car from a guy in Dallas, who got it from a Dusseau and Cotter in Bigfork, MT in 2000. They told him the car came from California where it was restored. It has a sticker on it from the September, 93 rally at Flag Is Up Farms in Southern California.

The car, TS31073L,is heavily modified from the original, including having a 66 TR4A engine, CT51661E. It was originally signal red body and trim with a white hood and side curtains. It is now signal red with black everything else.

Anybody just happen to know anything about my little red baby?

Fred
 
sounds like you know alot already, but i guess a guru around here might know something more...gonna be hard to place a model of a color, although there aren't alot around.
 
Well, I do and I don't. I know what the Build Certificate tells me, and a little of the last six years, but zilch about the restoration. From what little I know about these cars, it's obvious that mine is certainly not very original, and I'd really like to know just how severely parted out it is. Also kind of intrigued by the fact that it shipped to Hawaii and ended up back in California. I've been told by a fellow that lived in Hawaii in the early 60's that TRs were a favorite of the rental companies, but that lots of them ended up rusting in the bay when the Mustangs came out.

Fred
 
I know that the TR4 was used as a rental with Hertz, and people had problems with the trannies. Or Hertz had problems with the trannies because of the people. But they didn't last long as rentals. I'm not aware of the TR3 having a rental history.
If you took pictures of the engine bay, interior, maybe suspension, etc., we could help you out a little.
For now, enjoy driving it as much as you can.
 
Doug, anyone else who wants to take a look, here are some pictures I took. I know you can't see the gauges clearly, but they are all Jaeger except the ammeter. Didn't TRs ship with all Lucas? And, you can probably see in the engine pic that my temp gauge is not the capillary tube type. This gauge probably off a 4?

https://new.photos.yahoo.com/habanero_nut

Fred
 
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