TS23238

[Deleted member 12521]

Well, after 12 hours on the road on Saturday and 18 on the return trip Monday (high winds, cancelled ferries, and a medical emergency that forced the ferry to turn back part way through the first crossing attempt), 1957 TR3A TS23238 has been trailered home and is tucked safely away in my buddy's shop while I wait to break ground on my own.

I've spent a ridiculous amount of time reading old posts on this forum since joining at the end of July, and feel in a way like i've gotten to know some of you, so a proper introduction is in order.

My Dad bought this TR as a project car in 1980 (having had some fond memories of the new 3A my Mom had when they first met and which they sold when they won a 1966 Mustang through Players cigarettes) when I was just about 8 years old. The previous owner had traded his 1966 Ford pickup for it up in Terrace, British Columbia in 1977, drove it down to Warfield and sold it to my Dad three years later.

Although the body was in rough shape, with plenty of bondo, plywood bolted to the floor pans and the only seat being an unsecured passenger-type seat, it ran well up the 10 km, 12% grade to our house, where it was parked and prepared for what turned out to be a pretty long wait in the garage.

I fell in love with it instantly, and couldn't wait to learn about fixing cars with my Dad. I couldn't wait to turn 16! However, life got in the way and there she sat. Fortunately, she was never dismantled or left in pieces. Heck, I know he just loved seeing it in the garage each day, and would give it a pat on the fender whenever he went in.

Fast-forward 31 years, i'm on the other side of the province and my oldest boy is 8 now. Other than doing oil changes and mounting tires for a few months when I was 19, i've never turned a wrench, but my son loves anything with an internal-combustion engine and is glued to the Speed Channel every day. My wife said I should get the TR from my Dad and build a shop to restore it in with my son. I get to fulfill a childhood dream? Uh, ok!!

So, here we are. Dad must have had a lump in his throat when we pulled away yesterday, but I can't wait to see him behind the wheel of the TR when he gets to take it for a spin for the second time!

My good buddy is very knowledgeable when it comes to cars, so between him, the local golden oldies club and this forum, I think i'm set, but please dumb-down your responses to my queries accordingly!

I'm going to follow Randall and others' wisdom and just get the car running safely this winter. Each winter after that will be another project. The body-off restoration will happen, but can wait for a bit. After we get the engine running, we'll pull it and see how bad the body is, and what we can save and what we can't. The car is otherwise pretty much all there, and i've got spares of just about everything, including a spare rolling chassis, complete with tranny, driveshaft, brakes, suspension and steering.

Repairing and finding replacement parts for the body will be the biggest challenge, but M. Pied Lourdes' (sorry if I mispelled that)chronicles have me inspired to tackle it when it comes time.

I'm going to try to post a picture, please let me know if it works and i'll post a few more.

Sorry for the long post!!

Regards,


Gordon

 

[tinman58]

Great story, I know that you and your son will have a great time doing the work on the TR. Let the adventure begin... well getting the TR home sounded like an adventure.

 

[Mickey Richaud]

Good deal, Gordon! We all look forward to watching the progress, and enjoying the first ride with your dad!


Mickey

 

[Brosky]

Great story and post more pictures soon.

 

[M_Pied_Lourd]

Hi Gordon,

Yes, great story and I am sure that you will have a great time with your Son restoring your Dad's TR3A. We look forward to your progress reports and will be here to answer any questions that you may have, and provide some encouragement along the way if need be.

Cheers,
David

 

[vagt6]

Gordon, welcome.

Good luck with your restoration. You've very lucky to have a "family" TR which will make the restoration a labor of love.

There's no car on this planet that drives like a TR-3. You're gonna love it, I'm sure.

Keep us posted.

 

[Andrew Mace]

I'm going to follow Randall and others' wisdom and just get the car running safely this winter. Each winter after that will be another project. The body-off restoration will happen, but can wait for a bit.

Sounds like a great plan to me: get it <span style="font-style: italic">running</span>, get it <span style="font-style: italic">safe</span> and <span style="font-style: italic">reliable</span>, get something to sit on, and just <span style="font-style: italic">enjoy</span> it awhile! That'll cost you enough time and money as it is, but it likely will be paid back quickly via your enjoyment!

Thing is, roughly 100% of the general public and 99% of the "car guy" public either won't know or won't care that it's not perfect, but they will know it's a cool car made even cooler by your driving and having fun!

 

[Deleted member 12521]

We did get a lot of people commenting about the TR whenever we stopped somewhere. Usually it was something like "my friend has that exact car, what is it called again?" "It's a Triumph." "No, that's not it, it's something Healey, just like what you've got there."

Anyways, more pics:

Goodies in the boot. Have three radiators to choose from...

Several boxes of parts, and the spare chassis that I remember was in our hay barn when I was a kid:

Homemade dash:

 

[Gliderman8]

Looks like you have a diamond in the rough there... can't wait to see it polished!
Great father/son project.

 

[martx-5]

Great story. Keep us posted on the progress. Your car was probably born a week or two before my TS23677L.

 

[HerronScott]

Awesome. I wish I had been in a position where my son (now 17) and I could have worked on my cars.

Scott

 

[Tugboat]

Aww Gordon,
That is one sweet looking TR! And in much better shape than mine when I started down that road. Welcome aboard and good luck. Can't wait to see your progress.

 

[Tr3aguy]

Gordon,
Nice project.....if you want to see a basket case, check my link....my little guy is going on 5 and keeps pushing me every day to "work on the car". I will follow along with your progress.....

 

[Bremer]

Great story, great car, hope you'll get it on the road soon!
Just fyi, your car may have been sold and first registered in 1959, but it was made in 57. The first TR3A was TS22014, built on Sept 17th 1957.

 

[Deleted member 12521]

Oops, thanks Bremer! :blush:

Looks like she was green at some point, maybe white, too:

 

[dklawson]

Welcome Gordon! Though the car has had a 31 year rest, don't rush yourself. That said, I always caution people that when they start a restoration project they should do at least one thing every day on that project. Even if it is only cleaning one bolt, that involvement will prevent you from pushing the car to the side for "some other day".

Awesome. I wish I had been in a position where my son (now 17) and I could have worked on my cars.

Scott

Scott, I had that same thought regarding my older son (now 18). That's why we got the project Spitfire. While he did help, his heart was not in it until the day he was driving the car and the starter motor died. He remembered I had a spare in the garage and phoned mom to bring it to him. Together they installed it in the bank parking lot and he turned a corner in confidence regarding what he could do.

 

[Deleted member 12521]

After taking a good look at TS23238L, one thing was clear: the rust/bondo-to-metal ratio is not optimal. Disappointing to say the least, but, as luck would have it a fellow BCF member (I didn't ask his permission so I won't name him) who resides relatively close by had too many Triumphs and gave me a great deal on his project car, 1961 TR3A TS69594L.

Not an ounce of filler on her, and the only rust is on the rear tub and it's quite repairable. Whew! I'm extremely happy. Now i've got three rolling chassis, three tranny's, two engines, two bodies and too many other spare parts to shake a stick at (no, really, I tried and my arms got tired) with which to make a '57/'61 3A out of. Agonizing decision will be which will be the donor and which the donee. After all is said and done, i'm going to have a ton of left-over parts.

The only string my wife attached to all this (you didn't think I'd do it without permission, did you?) was that I had to finish the home renovations before touching any cars. Fortunately, i'm down to trim work...

More to come soon... :banana:

 

[Geo Hahn]

...Now i've got three rolling chassis, three tranny's, two engines, two bodies and too many other spare parts to shake a stick at...

You've got it bad. Alas, no known cure.

 

[Andrew Mace]

Just a thought: don't be too hasty in giving up on TS23238L. Rust is a pain and expensive to fix, but it was a relatively complete assembled car (or at least it looked that way in the pictures). Much, much worse a car has been restored. It's tough to break that bond of sentimentality, I know! But consider passing it on as-is to someone who really wants that sort of project...or just tuck it back into a corner. It's waited this long, and I'm sure it wouldn't mind waiting a bit longer for you or someone else....

 

[Deleted member 12521]

Geo, do I ever. When we got the latest addition into my buddy's rather large shop I looked around and said, in earnest, "how many more do you think we can fit in here?" I don't even care if they run, I just like looking at them!
And from what i've read on this forum i'm not alone.

On the way home we were stopped at a red light, next to a parking lot where what looked like a local car club was meeting for their Sunday drive. I saw several beautiful LBC's, and as soon as one of the owners noticed what we had on the trailer, the whole group was pointing at us and talking excitedly.

Andrew, I appreciate your thoughts. I badly want to keep TS23238L as intact as possible, and I won't really know how bad she is until we start taking her apart. But good body parts, let alone complete "donor" cars don't come along too often so I had to jump on TS69594L, when I could, just in case. The thought of mixing pre and post-60k bodies has caused me more than a few sleepless nights...