My apologies to my visitors today. A couple of days ago I promised some additional pictures of the car and some further analysis of the condition. This may be a long post, if you are going to stick around for the whole thing you may want to take care of some personal business, grab a refreshment of choice and then come on back, I'll be here.
I did take some pictures this weekend, but they were not all that great, I waited until to late in the day to get good ones. So I will have to put that off until next weekend when I can pull that car back out of the garage.
Oh, yes, I did get the garage a little cleaned up this weekend and enough room to move the car inside. It's not a spacious garage to begin with, so there's enough room for the car with some room to walk around it and begin to do some work. I need to do some more clutter removal and move some of the remaining boxes O stuff to the storage room. Need more room around the car to be able to jack it up on stands and role under it on the creeper.
I did find some of my old car repair and diagnostic items, timing light, compression tester, vacuum gauge, dwell meter, uni-sync, block tester, brake tools, so I can start doing some of the things I had set out to do. But some of the assessment that I did on the car this weekend leads me to think I may need to take a slightly different approach then I had originally thought.
The car has been sitting for 8 years, probably out in the sun and it shows. Just about every old piece of rubber on the car is either hard as a rock and crumbling or has turned into putty, it just really depends on where it was sitting on the car. So the gas line is leaking in about three spots, so when you run the car you are dropping gas in three different places. It's not squirting out, but it leaves puddles and the smell after the fact in the garage. So without even considering the rest of the car, there are quite a few hoses and other rubber items in the engine compartment that need to be replaced. I would rather just pull the engine and trans out of the car, clean the entire engine compartment and then start from scratch. What I will probably end up doing is piece meal work to get it running and relatively safe to drive.
What would I really rather do? The whole damn thing.
Pull the body off the frame. Pull the frame apart down to all the pieces lying about, clean it all up, put in the frame reinforcement pieces to augment the frame in the weak spots. Then get it all powder coated and start putting it all back together. New bushings all around, not sure which ones yet, adjustable swing arms mounts, new hubs in the swing arms, converted half shafts with CV joints, differential conversion, new springs all around and upgraded lever shocks in the back. A few other items, but you get the idea.
Once the frame is pristine, the engine and transmission.
I've done a little research on this and I'm not quite finished yet on deciding what exactly I want, but I do now I want something a little more powerful and reliable. I know, don't laugh. I do know that I want the electronic fuel injection, electronic distributor, fan eliminator, lightened flywheel, and the transmission conversion, to new just a few. There's more, but again, you get the idea.
Once the engine and trans are done, the body.
Pull all of the sheet metal off and strip it all done to bar metal. Prep and paint, again this one needs a little more research before I settle on the final desire. I've seen some pretty fantastic work out there on some of the other TR6s, really good quality work on the body shell, and the sheet metal hung back on it.
Now the reality of it is, it's not going to happen this way, at least not at first. I'm going to get the car running the best I can, some of the upgrades will be done, some will have to wait. The frame off work may have to wait a year or two. We are getting rid of the one of the family cars, the freaking Mercedes (the black hole in the ground that sucks money from the wallet) and my current daily driver, the M5 will be going to my wife as her daily driver. She doesn't put the miles on cars like I do and we need the M5 to last at least 3 more years. So the TR is going to be my daily driver, fortunately it's only 17 freeway miles to work each day and so I won't be over taxing the car, just need to stay up with the maintenance.
So, if you have stayed with me so far, thanks for reading the ramblings. I think I will treat each of the short paragraphs a little more in depth in future blogs, so here's what's to come.
A frame restoration plan blog.
An engine rebuild plan blog.
A body shell rebuild plan blog.
Even a blog about the car situation for the rest of the family.
Stay tuned to this station for more updates . . . .
Monday, June 24, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
The car has arrived!
Woo Hoo! It's arrived!
The newest addition to the family was dropped off after the trip down from the Bay Area. I was at the office, so my wonderful wife took care of the details as far as paying for the transport costs and telling the guy where to place the car in the driveway.
No pictures today and probably none tomorrow as well. I need to rearrange the garage and take some "stuff" to storage to give me room in the garage to work on the car. I will save the in person assessment to go along with the pictures I take this weekend.
I do have a list of tasks that I put together the other night as I was waiting for the car to arrive. Things I will do before I actually put it on the road for a drive.
The list goes like this;
- Tune up including adjust and balance carbs.
- Drain and replace oil and filter.
- Radiator flush and new coolant.
- Check all drive belts and replace as needed, may just replace on GP (General Principle)
- Check front and rear wheel bearings.
- Inspect brake lines and e-brake cable.
- Check brakes front and rear.
- Check trans and diff oil levels, add as necessary.
- Check suspension bushing condition.
Most of this I can do myself and have the tools for it. Many years ago my Dad had a car repair shop and I worked for him for a year. I had the opportunity to learn from some of his years of knowledge, but doing it as a career was not a goal. I enjoy the tinkering aspect and fixing things on my own schedule. I will probably farm out the carb adjustment and balance, I could never get the hang of the Strombergs. My Dad had the knack for them and he never had any problems getting them to work beautifully together, even when using that crappy UniSync.
I will also have to build a frame to store the hardtop, get some new seats (more on that with the pictures) and get a replacement soft top frame and top.
I'll add a few other tidbits just from the first quick look at the car. First, I think it's still in the original Mimosa Yellow, I can see a spot where the paint had worn through to the primer. Looks like the previous owner drove with his arm out the window or something like that because of the wear pattern. But it's really faded and the paint is in poor condition as well as the really stupid spray can paint job in some areas.
With few exceptions, soft top frame being a big one, everything else seems to be there. The obligatory box of stuff was in the trunk, but not a big box, the car will need all of the rubber replaced everywhere it appears and I think I'll leave it at that for today.
So, pictures this weekend, hopefully Saturday, for sure by Sunday, and the beginning of the list of improvements. Going to start with a few simple ones to get back into the tinkering routine.
More to come . . . .
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Assessment II
So I left off in my last post with the upper areas of the car. Now we'll take a look at the underside a little and the engine compartment. I also have a couple of other images from the guy who was flipping the car. Do I classify him as an owner? Curious if he actually signed the transfer paperwork or if he just has the signed title and will give it to me?
Under the car from just in front of the engine, doesn't look to bad here. Typical English frame preservative materials (leaked oil) in some places, a little rust here and there, but nothing major that I can see in the picture.
This time just in front of the back wheel looking forward. Again the frame looks good from this shot, no major dings or collapses in the frame and the drivers side floorboard looks very nice.
At the very back of the car looking forward again. Not much to see here, the muffler looks to be in okay condition and no major rust visible from this angle. When it gets to the house I'll have a look again with more light and a little light poking.
Another view of the driver's side floorboards from below.
Passenger side floorboard and frame area. The plug on this side looks like it's popped out of the hole and maybe the hole is a little deformed, hard to tell for sure. Something I have on my list of things to check more in depth when the car gets here.
The engine and engine compartment. Obviously will need a new shroud for the radiator and air filters for the carburetors. A little bit of rust here and there, no major issues though and with the exception of the air filters, it looks like all of the bits are there.
The view from the other side. Again, looks like just about everything is there, just old and in need of some care. It looks like even the battery tray is there and doing it's job.
This is a shot of how the person selling the car found it. He told me it had been sitting out in front of this house for some time and hadn't moved. He had left a few notes on the car expressing interest in purchasing it and finally someone called him about it. Turns out is was owned by an older German gentleman that had passed away and he was the original owner of the car. I'm curious if the 78K miles are all that's on it from an original miles perspective.
Notice a couple of things here. First, the hood/bonnet in the picture is black, not yellow. Second, there is an area under the driver's side door that looks like the paint has work off down to the primer.
Car sitting inside the garage at the seller's house, waiting to be picked up for transport to me. There is a box of "stuff" coming with the car, pretty standard for Triumphs I hear. The car should be arriving either tomorrow or Thursday at the latest. Doesn't look to bad from this angle.
More to come . . . .
Under the car from just in front of the engine, doesn't look to bad here. Typical English frame preservative materials (leaked oil) in some places, a little rust here and there, but nothing major that I can see in the picture.
This time just in front of the back wheel looking forward. Again the frame looks good from this shot, no major dings or collapses in the frame and the drivers side floorboard looks very nice.
At the very back of the car looking forward again. Not much to see here, the muffler looks to be in okay condition and no major rust visible from this angle. When it gets to the house I'll have a look again with more light and a little light poking.
Another view of the driver's side floorboards from below.
Passenger side floorboard and frame area. The plug on this side looks like it's popped out of the hole and maybe the hole is a little deformed, hard to tell for sure. Something I have on my list of things to check more in depth when the car gets here.
The engine and engine compartment. Obviously will need a new shroud for the radiator and air filters for the carburetors. A little bit of rust here and there, no major issues though and with the exception of the air filters, it looks like all of the bits are there.
The view from the other side. Again, looks like just about everything is there, just old and in need of some care. It looks like even the battery tray is there and doing it's job.
This is a shot of how the person selling the car found it. He told me it had been sitting out in front of this house for some time and hadn't moved. He had left a few notes on the car expressing interest in purchasing it and finally someone called him about it. Turns out is was owned by an older German gentleman that had passed away and he was the original owner of the car. I'm curious if the 78K miles are all that's on it from an original miles perspective.
Notice a couple of things here. First, the hood/bonnet in the picture is black, not yellow. Second, there is an area under the driver's side door that looks like the paint has work off down to the primer.
Car sitting inside the garage at the seller's house, waiting to be picked up for transport to me. There is a box of "stuff" coming with the car, pretty standard for Triumphs I hear. The car should be arriving either tomorrow or Thursday at the latest. Doesn't look to bad from this angle.
More to come . . . .
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Initial Assessment I
I see this blog as a record for me,and anyone paying attention, of what I find about the car as I move through this journey and how I deal with it. Also as a record of what I do to improve the usefulness and quality of the car.
I'm going to post some of the photographs I have of the car prior to it's arrival here at the house and some observations based what can been seen in the photos. So here goes!
Full right side view of the car. This is how I first saw the car on eBay and what grabbed my attention. It had a hardtop, one of my requirements and the body looked pretty straight. Not a big fan of the yellow wheels, liked the original color on these wheels much better and will be getting back to that as soon as I can. The windshield frame needs to be refurbished, it's rusty and looks like a mess. Also, there is some paint chipping around the front wheel well, but the front fender will probably be replaced, more on the later. One final comment, the paint on the hood and surrounding the hood joint does not match the rest of the paint, cheap spray can job it appears.
Confirmation of the spray can paint job on the hood and gap area as well as the condition of the windshield frame. It's nice that the little blue badges are in their original spots and I am curious if this is the original color and paint? I'll find this coming week.
Not to bad from this angle, the door gap looks good for the most part. Going to get rid of those stupid black lumps on the bumpers, I really hate those things.
The poor spray can paint job is even more evident from this view as well as some of the paint chipping around the wheel arch and scratches.
There it is, now we can see the ding in the front fender by the light, the scratches and the color difference between the hood and the fender. Also evident here is the need for a refurbishment of the front grill surround, the covering has bubbled up from the rust underneath it. Ugly bumper over-riders needing to be deleted.
The grill surround as mentioned before but also you may notice the front lip of the hood. Looks uneven and crimped in a couple of places. This is a little strange in my view and makes me wonder a little. In a picture I will put up in a few moments you will see a black front hood on the car, like a replacement was done. Did the seller take the new hood to sell separately and put the old hood back on the car? Curious.
Not to bad from this angle, other then what has been previously mentioned. One thing that is not obvious until you see a later picture is the paint patch on the upper door area. It looked like the paint had been worn through to the primer. You'll see that in a few more pictures.
More of the left side of the car.
Left side 3 quarter view from the back. Looks like the door is not closing all the way, or maybe they didn't close the door all of the way. Something to look into.
A little closer and a little lower then the last, that door . . . .
From the rear with the trunk lid open. Looks like the black paint on the lip of the truck has worn off and there appears to be some rust staining on the lid as well. Something else to take note of.
Looking down inside the trunk, looks surprisingly good in here. A little bit of rust here and there, but nothing major to speak of. Gilbert had mentioned that is was really clean looking, this kinda bears it out.
Wow! Floors look fantastic! Gilbert mentioned that it appears as if they have been painted, but they look original with no major rust cancer or even pin holes! Carpet is gone and the passenger seat needs to be redone. Steering wheel as well is a little tired at this point. Missing the radio and the boot over the gear shift level. The hood release is sitting on the floor.
Again, the floor looks great! The dash is all there as well as all the switches and it looks to be in pretty good condition. The dash pad doesn't look that bad. The drivers side door covering is looking a little tired at this point.
More to come . . . .
I'm going to post some of the photographs I have of the car prior to it's arrival here at the house and some observations based what can been seen in the photos. So here goes!
Full right side view of the car. This is how I first saw the car on eBay and what grabbed my attention. It had a hardtop, one of my requirements and the body looked pretty straight. Not a big fan of the yellow wheels, liked the original color on these wheels much better and will be getting back to that as soon as I can. The windshield frame needs to be refurbished, it's rusty and looks like a mess. Also, there is some paint chipping around the front wheel well, but the front fender will probably be replaced, more on the later. One final comment, the paint on the hood and surrounding the hood joint does not match the rest of the paint, cheap spray can job it appears.
Confirmation of the spray can paint job on the hood and gap area as well as the condition of the windshield frame. It's nice that the little blue badges are in their original spots and I am curious if this is the original color and paint? I'll find this coming week.
Not to bad from this angle, the door gap looks good for the most part. Going to get rid of those stupid black lumps on the bumpers, I really hate those things.
The poor spray can paint job is even more evident from this view as well as some of the paint chipping around the wheel arch and scratches.
There it is, now we can see the ding in the front fender by the light, the scratches and the color difference between the hood and the fender. Also evident here is the need for a refurbishment of the front grill surround, the covering has bubbled up from the rust underneath it. Ugly bumper over-riders needing to be deleted.
The grill surround as mentioned before but also you may notice the front lip of the hood. Looks uneven and crimped in a couple of places. This is a little strange in my view and makes me wonder a little. In a picture I will put up in a few moments you will see a black front hood on the car, like a replacement was done. Did the seller take the new hood to sell separately and put the old hood back on the car? Curious.
Not to bad from this angle, other then what has been previously mentioned. One thing that is not obvious until you see a later picture is the paint patch on the upper door area. It looked like the paint had been worn through to the primer. You'll see that in a few more pictures.
More of the left side of the car.
Left side 3 quarter view from the back. Looks like the door is not closing all the way, or maybe they didn't close the door all of the way. Something to look into.
A little closer and a little lower then the last, that door . . . .
From the rear with the trunk lid open. Looks like the black paint on the lip of the truck has worn off and there appears to be some rust staining on the lid as well. Something else to take note of.
Looking down inside the trunk, looks surprisingly good in here. A little bit of rust here and there, but nothing major to speak of. Gilbert had mentioned that is was really clean looking, this kinda bears it out.
Wow! Floors look fantastic! Gilbert mentioned that it appears as if they have been painted, but they look original with no major rust cancer or even pin holes! Carpet is gone and the passenger seat needs to be redone. Steering wheel as well is a little tired at this point. Missing the radio and the boot over the gear shift level. The hood release is sitting on the floor.
Again, the floor looks great! The dash is all there as well as all the switches and it looks to be in pretty good condition. The dash pad doesn't look that bad. The drivers side door covering is looking a little tired at this point.
More to come . . . .
In the Beginning . . .
Triumph, a division of British Leyland Motor Corporation, created the TR6. And a high school student of the times saw that it was good.
He lusted after the automobile, but a lack of funds and other matters kept him from his dream.
Fast forward many years later, the former student has not forgotten about what he had lusted for in his prior years. So he set about to purchase himself the car of his dreams. He looked in many areas of the world (wide web) and found some perspective subjects that would potentially satisfy his lust. After looking all over the place and setting a range I was willing to pay, I settled on a couple of choices, both on eBay.
The first was a yellow 1974 with a after market hard top, in need of some work, hadn't been driven in some time, but not bad looking in the pictures. The other was a red 1970 with an after market hard top as well that looked a little better in the pictures and was a weekend driver.
This is where being a member of a group helps a great deal. Both of these cars were not close by and I was worried about purchasing a car that I had not looked at myself. The 6-Pack is a group which has a web site with loads of information, forums and runs events for TR250s and TR6 owners. I reached out seeking help in getting the cars looked at prior to bidding and was blesses with responses from some of the really great people on 6-Pack.
First these was Gilbert who was close to the yellow car and volunteered to go have a look at it. I has actually bid and won the car from the current owner, someone who was flipping it, but it was contingent on the inspection being OK. Gilbert went out to look the car over for me and reported back that it was in pretty good condition, frame looked to be strong and the body shell had no major rust cancer spots, the floorboards actually looked really good. I almost pulled the trigger on this car, but I really wanted something I could drive right away and this car would need some work to get it back on the road, mainly maintenance it looked like.
In stepped Bruce from 6-Pack. He's a surrogate buyer up in the bay area, he was a little too far away from the red car but knew a fellow TR6 owner in the area who would help out with the inspection of the red car. Bruce gave me Bill's phone number and we arranged to get the red car looked over. This is a vast simplification of what we had to go through to get to the car, but Bill persevered on my behalf and he had a chance to look the car over. His feedback was critical, the red car was a nice looker cosmetically, but it had some other issues that made me take pause in the purchase.
I settled on the yellow car, called the current owner and let him know I was closing the deal on the auction. The car will be on a transport truck this next week on it's way to my house here in Southern California.
Here's what I picked up off eBay for $4550.00.
I want to says a hearty thanks and cheers to Gilbert, Bruce and Bill from 6-Pack. These guys were all very helpful and really epitomize the comradery of this type of organization. I am glad I joined and look forward to providing others help as well as availing myself of the expertise out there.
He lusted after the automobile, but a lack of funds and other matters kept him from his dream.
Fast forward many years later, the former student has not forgotten about what he had lusted for in his prior years. So he set about to purchase himself the car of his dreams. He looked in many areas of the world (wide web) and found some perspective subjects that would potentially satisfy his lust. After looking all over the place and setting a range I was willing to pay, I settled on a couple of choices, both on eBay.
The first was a yellow 1974 with a after market hard top, in need of some work, hadn't been driven in some time, but not bad looking in the pictures. The other was a red 1970 with an after market hard top as well that looked a little better in the pictures and was a weekend driver.
This is where being a member of a group helps a great deal. Both of these cars were not close by and I was worried about purchasing a car that I had not looked at myself. The 6-Pack is a group which has a web site with loads of information, forums and runs events for TR250s and TR6 owners. I reached out seeking help in getting the cars looked at prior to bidding and was blesses with responses from some of the really great people on 6-Pack.
First these was Gilbert who was close to the yellow car and volunteered to go have a look at it. I has actually bid and won the car from the current owner, someone who was flipping it, but it was contingent on the inspection being OK. Gilbert went out to look the car over for me and reported back that it was in pretty good condition, frame looked to be strong and the body shell had no major rust cancer spots, the floorboards actually looked really good. I almost pulled the trigger on this car, but I really wanted something I could drive right away and this car would need some work to get it back on the road, mainly maintenance it looked like.
In stepped Bruce from 6-Pack. He's a surrogate buyer up in the bay area, he was a little too far away from the red car but knew a fellow TR6 owner in the area who would help out with the inspection of the red car. Bruce gave me Bill's phone number and we arranged to get the red car looked over. This is a vast simplification of what we had to go through to get to the car, but Bill persevered on my behalf and he had a chance to look the car over. His feedback was critical, the red car was a nice looker cosmetically, but it had some other issues that made me take pause in the purchase.
I settled on the yellow car, called the current owner and let him know I was closing the deal on the auction. The car will be on a transport truck this next week on it's way to my house here in Southern California.
Here's what I picked up off eBay for $4550.00.
I want to says a hearty thanks and cheers to Gilbert, Bruce and Bill from 6-Pack. These guys were all very helpful and really epitomize the comradery of this type of organization. I am glad I joined and look forward to providing others help as well as availing myself of the expertise out there.
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