Hi Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
Offline
Sometimes things just sorta work out. A few weeks ago I was leading a local car club drive and had a chance to catch up with an old friend. He mentioned that he was thinking of selling his TR3A. He’s of an age where he has some other car-stuff he wants to get done before he can’t, so he felt it was time to move the Triumph on after 9 years of ownership. A TR3 has been on my list since I started playing with old cars, but it never rose to the top of my list for a number of reasons.
So I reached out to my friend and after a test drive and some looking over the car on my lift a deal was struck. I am now the proud owner of a ’61 TR3A!
The car was fully restored by a local fellow and then sold to my friend. It is in incredible shape (* with a few caveats). No rust. No dents. I paid a fair price for it, reasonable considering the current market and time of year.
*So about those caveats:
1) The biggest one is that somewhere on the 20 mile drive between my friends house and mine, on the way to look the car over on my lift before negotiating, the radiator failed. Looks like a crack in the header tank or extension. Car never overheated at all (it actually ran great and cool) but when I got home and opened the bonnet there was a coolant dripping everywhere. Funny thing is that before I left the seller’s house he mentioned that he had fixed the radiator a few years ago for this very issue. So we factored this repair into the purchase price. I’ll likely go with a Wizard aluminum radiator and Macy’s fan to keep things properly cool.
2) Brakes pull pretty hard to the right. That’ll be a spring project to sort out, don’t expect it will be too difficult. I’ve done brakes before.
3) At the end of the restoration the restorer sent the side curtains to a local upholster to be redone. 10 years on and they are not done. I will try and reach out to him to see if we can get them done, but I’m working under the assumption that I’ll just need to buy some.
4) I’m not a fan of wire wheels. They look nice, but my experience with them in the past has not been good. So sometime down the road I’ll convert over to steel or alloy wheels.
That’s it, really. Replace the radiator, sort the brakes, and I’m on the road. And after years with only white cars (not on purpose) I now have a colorful fleet. Couldn’t be happier.
Many more questions to come, as the last Triumph I had (A TR4) was 20 years ago.
So I reached out to my friend and after a test drive and some looking over the car on my lift a deal was struck. I am now the proud owner of a ’61 TR3A!
The car was fully restored by a local fellow and then sold to my friend. It is in incredible shape (* with a few caveats). No rust. No dents. I paid a fair price for it, reasonable considering the current market and time of year.
*So about those caveats:
1) The biggest one is that somewhere on the 20 mile drive between my friends house and mine, on the way to look the car over on my lift before negotiating, the radiator failed. Looks like a crack in the header tank or extension. Car never overheated at all (it actually ran great and cool) but when I got home and opened the bonnet there was a coolant dripping everywhere. Funny thing is that before I left the seller’s house he mentioned that he had fixed the radiator a few years ago for this very issue. So we factored this repair into the purchase price. I’ll likely go with a Wizard aluminum radiator and Macy’s fan to keep things properly cool.
2) Brakes pull pretty hard to the right. That’ll be a spring project to sort out, don’t expect it will be too difficult. I’ve done brakes before.
3) At the end of the restoration the restorer sent the side curtains to a local upholster to be redone. 10 years on and they are not done. I will try and reach out to him to see if we can get them done, but I’m working under the assumption that I’ll just need to buy some.
4) I’m not a fan of wire wheels. They look nice, but my experience with them in the past has not been good. So sometime down the road I’ll convert over to steel or alloy wheels.
That’s it, really. Replace the radiator, sort the brakes, and I’m on the road. And after years with only white cars (not on purpose) I now have a colorful fleet. Couldn’t be happier.
Many more questions to come, as the last Triumph I had (A TR4) was 20 years ago.
