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TR2/3/3A Crossroads with TR3 restoration

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mcguijo

mcguijo

Jedi Hopeful
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Have spent thousands and thousands on trying to restore my 1959 Triumph TR3A. I think car is close to being done but not done. There is several things I've had done recently that need to be redone. Could cost anywhere from $3k to $10k to redo. Car as is now may not be concours quality but could be a nice driver sometime soon. Can see pictures at following (shows mostly the flaws):

https://plus.google.com/photos/100429048735417074401/albums/5899821755312126769

If I can get the money I may try to bring this car to the finish line, but literally am out of funding at present and have some medical bills looming. If I had to throw my hands up in the air right now and quit, how much would this car be worth? Note, I have about 90% new parts to finish car.
 
It all looks pretty good to me, especially the rear wheel "spats"! Still, it's an unassembled pile of parts, as nice as all those parts are, and that generally will work against you in terms of value. You're arguably much better off "mothballing" the project until such time as you can finish it, IMO.
 
If it can be a nice driver sometime soon why not do that and forget the redo.
 
If that link doesn't work try this one: https://plus.google.com/photos/1004...ms/5899821755312126769?authkey=CJGXir7mgtHGBA

Google used to be easy to use.The redo list: 1) fix brakes lines as routing is wrong 2) replace crappy fuel tank bought from some guy on ebay and reroute fuel line (too close to exhaust heat and will probably lead to vapor lock) 3) spend several hours/days fixing gaps in body panels esp. doors 4) lots of problems with front apron as it is a replacement. May be cheaper to find an old front apron that would only take about a day to fix and get rid of this repro. 5) put in starter shim (forgot) 6) fix leak coming out of drain coming off side of engine. To do list with unknown costs 1) hook up new steering wheel and wire 2) wire in general 3) get seats reupholstered (cost?) 4) hook up rest of instruments 5) rechrome windshielf 6) put in carpet, upholstery 6) buy battery 7) paint rims and get new wheels 8) put on street trim 9) touch up paint from various manhandling. Again, here's the problem. I haven't a cent more to spend of the car. I may be able to find some money but not much. With some medical bills, my wife would rather see it gone. I can revive the project if 1) I can find out how much it costs to fix redos and see if I can get the guy who is responsible to fund redo 2) I can find some local help whom I can pay with brats and beer to help finish hooking up car and 3) I can raise about $2000 to fund things such as seat reupholstery, rechrome, etc. But my plan B is to throw my hands up and sell the whole darn shooting match if I can get any reasonable sum of money out of it. Easily $35k spent on it over the years. I wouldn't expect that back but was curious how much I might get back if sold.
 
You are far from the first to find yourself in this position. The smartest decision would be to sit on it...even indefinitely. If you later decide to sell, the parts will have appreciated.
 
I agree. Keep this one. I purchased a very similar stalled project which I am working on now. Very similar issues too. And I don't want to quote a figure but unfortunately as a car in pieces I don't think you'll get more than a small fraction of the investment you have in it if you sell now.

My guess based on what you show is the frustration on the paint/body side mostly? If it helps, I think your door gap issue is solveable with some work - by adding/removing pads at the frame mounting points you can get door gaps lined up - yours don't look that bad. When I bought my project, I couldn't even get the doors to fit to the body as they seemed too wide. Adding pads opened the gaps up and the doors now fit. Front door gaps if too wide don't necessarily require welding - you can move the door forward slightly by shimming the hinges too.
 
John --

I agree with the comments regarding the difficulty of selling mid-project, you would be better off dollar-wise if you could see this through as either a nice driver or concours.

I see you're in the Montgomery club -- I've heard of them because the former president of our Tucson club was also a former president of your club -- now he's in Florida and probably the president of a club there (he's not on the run from creditors or ex-wives, just in the USAF).

I wonder if there are club members who might help you out with the work to be done?

Here is Tucson one of our club members had a stalled project that some of the club members are helping move ahead. About 4 or 5 of us show up at his garage every Monday morning for about 4 hours and keep moving. This doesn't help with your money question of course unless some of the things you might have paid to have done can be accomplished this way.

Were it my car I would shoot for a 'nice driver' just because I do drive them and if I ever had a concours car I would immediately begin the process of turning it into driver condition.

Best of luck whichever way you go.
 
Can you all help me get my head around some costs?

1) Inserting shims and what not to adjust the door gap. I'm presuming the tub doesn't have to come off. Am I looking at a day's work, two days or a week?

2) Due to the issues with the front apron, as mentioned, I may just buy a used one. How much would one of these go for?

3) What is an average price to have an outside shop redo my front seats?

Otherwise, I've reached out to the MGM Brt Car Club as you mentioned. I used to be a membership but faded away after having an inop for so long. I would have the parts to get it all hooked back up so if I could find the people power I might could get it to work.

I'd like to think this is more then "mid project". Thoughts on that?
 
Ballpark thoughts:

1) Adding/removing pads does not require the body off the frame. So say 1 day to fiddle with alignment there. If you can't get to where you are happy with the fit, then bodywork would likely come into play and then you will be dealing with higher costs (1 week?)

2) If you are patient, a workable one may show up in the $500 or less range. If you want something dent free, primed etc with minimal fuss I would guess over $1000. Just based on what I think I've seen on places like ebay. I would look carefully at what you have and see if it is workable - the pictures don't look bad - what is the issue? If you can find a painter you trust, what you have already may yield well to some bodywork and a repaint if needed.

3) Wild guess - around $500 to upholster seats. That was about what I paid to have my TR4 seats done and I supplied the kit.

ps. yes I think you are beyond the mid-way point. You should be close to the fun part here once you get the body sorted out the way you want it.
 
I took a look at the pix as well. You are in a very tough spot. The value of a car in this state is almost similar to one that is complete and relatively rust free but the resto hasn't been started - I'm going to wag ballpark it at $4-8k. Too many people are scared to death to take on a partially finished project (they are far harder than a regular resto in my opinion), and the pricing gets heavily discounted accordingly. A quick and inexpensive way to see the real world value of your car is to post a selection of your photos onto ebay along with a link to the pix - the market will tell you what it's worth - but don't be surprised if it's not what you want or need out of it.

How about reversing the question: what would you want for it as it sits?

My sense is like the previous posters - your best direction is to put it way and get back to it at a later date. As noted, you are not unlike countless backyard restorers - it's a very big job to take a car from start to finish - unless you are a pro at it, almost everyone underestimates the time and $$ involved. And discouragement sets in. I know how you feel. My car sat 6 months last winter, but I'm back at it now, albeit at a slower pace than I expected.

Good luck with it. As noted, there are some neat features on the car and I like the unusual color.
 
I'm ready for the fun part. Frustration part has gone on too long.

Regarding front apron; here are the following issues 1) grill has not yet been fit 2) drill holes for the front bumper mounts, headlight bucket mounts, and the TR3 badge and TRIUMPH letters 3) the upper rear flange of the front apron is supposed to be bolted to the tie bar all the way across. It appears that the flange on the reproduction apron might not be long enough, and no holes are present (need to fix to align hood) 4) metal filler pieces at the outer ends of the grille opening need to be added (not on repro) 5) horizontal filler plate is a little bit short. Will have to slice them and re-weld to make up the difference. The front apron on was installed and sucked in with the bolts which pulled the outer corners in and distorted the grille opening. This will also mean that the grille would have to be bent to conform to this unusual shape. That's about all I can find so far. Can someone send a picture of where the tie bar and front apron come together? There be at least one more issue.
 
Not to discourage you, but more frustration does lie ahead. Small things that you figure should jump together can turn out to be very puzzling and more time consuming that you (well at least me) planned.

Sorry I can't help with the nose pic, I'm not there yet and a quick look at my photo collection didn't turn up what you need. I sold a front nose a while back for $375 in good shape (packing it was a real pain) but they aren't available just anywhere - it may be a tough piece to find.
 
mcguijo said:
Note, the "unusual color" is supposed to be Pale Yellow. Tried to match original as best we could.
Click to expand...

Certainly not meant as derogatory comment, its just that I am not up on the details of the colors other than the basic red, green, white which probably represents the majority of the cars out there.

I've always liked the "unusual" shades - light blues, grey, yellows, apple green etc. My car is going to be boring signal red because a) my original TR3 as a teenager was red and b) the Heritage sheet said my car started life out as red. At a glance your car looked like the right shade to me. I thought perhaps it was "Primrose" but I know colors and shades changed over the years so maybe Primrose was an earlier color only, that became Pale Yellow later.
 
Sorry for sounding defensive about the paint. It was either pale or primrose. Again, tried to match with what was there so I'll merely call it "matched" yellow. I do like the fact it is one of those different color schemes.
 
I just walked into the garage and took this picture for you. I painted this apron about a week ago. It's one of the PPG cross numbers for base/clear Primrose Yellow. Note, I chose to not paint the aluminum support rail, or the stainless bolts, and the spring/latch mechanism is not yet installed.

I think you need to sit your project aside, or prepare to take a bath. Good luck, and be happy with your decision.

apron_cross_bar.jpg
 
Yes! That's the exact picture I was looking for! So it looks like the issues with the front apron are as I described earlier; no more, no less. Hope is continuing to build!! If time allows, Mr. Knucklehead, can you snap a picture of the front where the grill goes in? I can take these pics to my body guy and see if he can narrow down a price for me.
 
Not sure if you can tell with these pictures. Does appear to be another issue with the front apron (comparing Mr. Knucklehead's top picture with mine below). It appears my apron is "sitting higher" on the front of the car. I've always suspected this repo front apron was "longer" then the original. All I'd be worried about is whether or not I could get the hood to line up.

Slide1.JPG
 
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