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Well ain't this just peaches and cream.
- Thread starter jdubois
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jdubois
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sail said:
1/4" socket extension worked too
Except for the mounting bolts, the engine and gearbox are now ready to get taken out. I've got about a week before I can get some extra pairs of hands for the pull, so I guess I'll go back to scraping oily gunk off the frame of the 308. There's red under there somewhere...
Even though this TR3A has been in the family for the past 15 years, I only got my hands on it last spring, and I haven't paid too close attention to it until now. This thing was supposedly "professionally restored". Well, I'm finding all kinds of weirdness. The speedo cable was held together with duck tape. Lots of missing hardware. Some wrong hardware (including some metric stuff!). Incorrect electrical connectors, with crimps so bad they were barely holding together, some kind of homemade 'cereal box' type gasket on the thermostat, etc... I've gotta be very careful not to succumb to shipwrights too badly!
jdubois said:
I pulled mine solo a month ago or so. Pretty easy to do by yourself if you don't want to wait for those extra hands. Pics in an older thread here:
https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcforum/u...gine#Post658825
Gordon_Dedrick
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Is the FOR SALE sign in the background for the car???
Gordon
Gordon
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jdubois
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The car belonged to my mother for about ten years. She learned to drive on her father's brand new '59 TR3A (and her mother's Triumph 10, which was purchased out of jealousy because the husband brought home the TR3A unannounced.) and she wanted to recapture her youth.
So we went and dragged this TR3A up from New Jersey after my mom got tired of looking for a decent car at a decent price. We decided against the "drive her right up, no problem!" suggestion of the previous owner when we found the brake lines held together with duct tape and an additional switch on the dashboard to turn on an electric radiator fan because, "these cars overheated from the factory!" I advised my mother against purchasing this car, because it was not as represented, but she was tired of looking and it was exactly the car she was looking for (she wanted a powder blue '59 in good shape, this was a black/red '60 basket case :crazy: ) So we paid $5000 for it, and drove it back on a trailer.
When we got it back home, I patched it together the best I could and replaced the critical safety issues. She then had a miserable summer with it, as the steering was so worn that it was almost impossible to drive. She decided that winter to have it "restored". So she took it to a garage that specialized in foreign cars (the name of which I'll keep to myself, as I don't believe Basil likes vendor bashing) who then took $35K from her before she had the sense to tell them to stop. But at least what she got back was a now powder blue car with a brand new interior and a rebuild engine and gearbox. They weren't complete and total hacks, just sloppy and not interested in details, so what she got back was indeed much improved and she drove it for a few years in reasonable contentment.
Well, about four years after the "restoration" the paint started to crack in a few places. One of those was the passenger door (remember, that's what the story is about!) She wanted to get that fixed, so she took it to a local body shop (she wasn't going to take it back to the original shop, because she didn't want to deal with them). Soon after she picked it up, I went over to her place to see how they did. I sort of did a double take and said, "Uh... why is it a different color?" He response was that it was fine, the body shop guy assured her it just had to fade. In a few months it would look just like the rest of the car. I told her that was simply not going to happen and she should take it back and have it repainted correctly. She didn't want to. It was fine. Ok then, I said.
Now a few years after that, and a yearly ritual of her calling me up each spring and fall to pull the car out of storage and put it back in, and I start to notice that the car doesn't move between when I take it out and when I put it back. She finally tells me last spring that she's done and is going to sell it. She offers it to me, and I grab at it.
So... I now have a car that has a door that is the wrong color. I could just go and have my body guy fix it, but the rest of the paint job isn't terribly great anymore. It's holding together, but it isn't going to be forever. So, do I get the door painted now or do I hold off until the whole job needs to be done and at that point put it back to the correct black. I'm currently leaning on the latter, but I'd have to redo the interior again too (to put it back to red) and I'd like to get a few good years out of the car before I strip it down completely.
So we went and dragged this TR3A up from New Jersey after my mom got tired of looking for a decent car at a decent price. We decided against the "drive her right up, no problem!" suggestion of the previous owner when we found the brake lines held together with duct tape and an additional switch on the dashboard to turn on an electric radiator fan because, "these cars overheated from the factory!" I advised my mother against purchasing this car, because it was not as represented, but she was tired of looking and it was exactly the car she was looking for (she wanted a powder blue '59 in good shape, this was a black/red '60 basket case :crazy: ) So we paid $5000 for it, and drove it back on a trailer.
When we got it back home, I patched it together the best I could and replaced the critical safety issues. She then had a miserable summer with it, as the steering was so worn that it was almost impossible to drive. She decided that winter to have it "restored". So she took it to a garage that specialized in foreign cars (the name of which I'll keep to myself, as I don't believe Basil likes vendor bashing) who then took $35K from her before she had the sense to tell them to stop. But at least what she got back was a now powder blue car with a brand new interior and a rebuild engine and gearbox. They weren't complete and total hacks, just sloppy and not interested in details, so what she got back was indeed much improved and she drove it for a few years in reasonable contentment.
Well, about four years after the "restoration" the paint started to crack in a few places. One of those was the passenger door (remember, that's what the story is about!) She wanted to get that fixed, so she took it to a local body shop (she wasn't going to take it back to the original shop, because she didn't want to deal with them). Soon after she picked it up, I went over to her place to see how they did. I sort of did a double take and said, "Uh... why is it a different color?" He response was that it was fine, the body shop guy assured her it just had to fade. In a few months it would look just like the rest of the car. I told her that was simply not going to happen and she should take it back and have it repainted correctly. She didn't want to. It was fine. Ok then, I said.
Now a few years after that, and a yearly ritual of her calling me up each spring and fall to pull the car out of storage and put it back in, and I start to notice that the car doesn't move between when I take it out and when I put it back. She finally tells me last spring that she's done and is going to sell it. She offers it to me, and I grab at it.
So... I now have a car that has a door that is the wrong color. I could just go and have my body guy fix it, but the rest of the paint job isn't terribly great anymore. It's holding together, but it isn't going to be forever. So, do I get the door painted now or do I hold off until the whole job needs to be done and at that point put it back to the correct black. I'm currently leaning on the latter, but I'd have to redo the interior again too (to put it back to red) and I'd like to get a few good years out of the car before I strip it down completely.
powerwagontim
Member
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Hi Jeremy,
I can understand your attachment to the car.
My Dad had an 80 Spitfire. He had it down in Florida, and was plagued with vapor lock isues. He got it into his head that if he cut 2 holes in the side of the hood and installed MGA vents in it his vapor lock would go away.
When he died, I bought it from mt Mother, and still have it. It is a good driver, but white, (I really dislike white cars). I debate repainting it, and every time I see those MGA vents I shake my head, but at the same time I think of my Dad, so its not all bad! I dont drive it nearly as much as I should, but it is stored inside.
Tim
I can understand your attachment to the car.
My Dad had an 80 Spitfire. He had it down in Florida, and was plagued with vapor lock isues. He got it into his head that if he cut 2 holes in the side of the hood and installed MGA vents in it his vapor lock would go away.
When he died, I bought it from mt Mother, and still have it. It is a good driver, but white, (I really dislike white cars). I debate repainting it, and every time I see those MGA vents I shake my head, but at the same time I think of my Dad, so its not all bad! I dont drive it nearly as much as I should, but it is stored inside.
Tim
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jdubois
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NutmegCT said:
I think my mother was completely nuts to spend the money she did on it. It would have been much, much better for her to have originally just bought a really nice example for $25K-$30K. But beyond voicing my opinion, I didn't want to be too hard on her. It was her car, after all...
Currently, I'm personally not really spending anything on it. I think I have spent maybe $600 on it so far (I bought it from my mother for $1 + the rights to drive it when she wants to). Unless this engine is a disaster when I get it out, I'm not expecting to spend that much on that either. And even if it is, the cost of complete rebuilding this thing seems like peanuts compared to my 308 engine project.
But why the possibility of tearing it down in a few years and rebuilding it, spending some more significant money? Well, at this point it's not a bad restoration candidate. It's generally complete, body has basically zero rust (floor has some minor surface rust in a few spots, etc, but nothing worse than that) and it's got a very appealing 'bird in the hand' quality to it.
It also keeps me from screwing with the Spitfire too much, as my spit is the one of most intact original early spit I've ever seen, and it usually does me well to just keep my fingers out of it!
G
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I wonder if the problem will turn out to be a head gasket that leaked into one of the cylinders and mucked everything up? Pretty common problem on a car that might have sat all winter.