TR6 It's about time.....and patience

[JimmyBb]

I bought a TR6 about a year ago. It hadn't run in 15 years and needed brakes and some body work. That what I thought at the time, anyway. It was my intention to be tooling around with the top down before winter, like I did with an MGB in college many years ago. But then there were broken differential mounts and low oil pressure and vastly excessive end float on the crank and and a disgusting, nagging sense of having to do the job correctly. So now the car is about half way into a frame off restore. The excitement that comes from the neighbors stopping by declaring how they wish they could have this much fun and the inspiration of the many tv shows that highlight an engine starting for the first time with a bunch a professional techs standing around cheering drew me in. with all the before and after photos, I find myself wondering why there is so little coverage of the "during". After hundreds of hours of scraping off old rustproofing and media blasting rust I'm wondering when the fun stuff, like the tedium of welding patch panels and weeks of sanding paint will finally get here.

Signed, looking for inspiration in Wisconsin

 

[Gliderman8]

Hang in there Jimmy. My TR was a basket case when I bought it. I ended up doing a frame off that lasted six years. When you're done the payback in driving it will make the resto all worth while. Get her done!

 

[TR3driver]

I find myself wondering why there is so little coverage of the "during".

I think you answered your own question there!

If it helps any, this is what my current TR3 looked like before I started work on it. But I had a definite schedule for getting it back on the road, so anything that didn't absolutely have to be done, wasn't done at the time. It's been about 8 years now, and I'm still not done by any means (but it sure is a lot of fun to drive even without the interior and so on).

 

[NutmegCT]

I bought a TR6 about a year ago. It hadn't run in 15 years and needed brakes and some body work. That what I thought at the time, anyway. It was my intention to be tooling around with the top down before winter, like I did with an MGB in college many years ago. But then there were broken differential mounts and low oil pressure and vastly excessive end float on the crank and and a disgusting, nagging sense of having to do the job correctly. So now the car is about half way into a frame off restore. The excitement that comes from the neighbors stopping by declaring how they wish they could have this much fun and the inspiration of the many tv shows that highlight an engine starting for the first time with a bunch a professional techs standing around cheering drew me in. with all the before and after photos, I find myself wondering why there is so little coverage of the "during". After hundreds of hours of scraping off old rustproofing and media blasting rust I'm wondering when the fun stuff, like the tedium of welding patch panels and weeks of sanding paint will finally get here.

Signed, looking for inspiration in Wisconsin

Well, if you're looking for posts, photos, and comments about the "during" - that's called British Car Forum!

(And there are oh so many of us who bought "what looked like it only needed this and that ..." - but soon wished we had done a more thorough job of testing, checking, and inspecting first.) Buying long-distance on Ebay comes to mind.

T.

 

[Brinkerhoff]

When the going gets tough , the tough sandblast. That's the bottom of a 67 E type AFTER the factory undercoating was heated and scraped off.