In message <"15-Dec-94 8:50:08".*.George_N_Haynes.wbst207v@Xerox.com> writes:
> Teriann,
> <Now if only it would stop raining long enough for me to bolt the
> engine down & start connecting things....... If only I had a garage>
>
> You should be congratulated for getting as much work done as you
> do - WITHOUT A GARAGE! Here in the snow belt the sworking
> season would be cut in half without garages. I'm now dismantling
> my TR4A in heated, insulated comfort. OK, it's only 55 degrees
> but that's warm enough in a sweatshirt and coveralls.
>
> I don't envy you but certainly do congratulate you! Keep it up!
>
> George Haynes
> Dove Grey 1956 MGA
> Beverly's Blue 1964 Spitfire ... slowly being reassembled
> BRG 1965 TR4A... the restoration is finally underway!
Thanks, but considering the winter daylight morning hours I wasted waiting for
the frost to go away before begining work, or looking at the mud and saying not
today. My 3 would have been on the road years earlier. Its hard to get
enthused about laying down in the mud with a cool breeze blowing and frost on
everything or when its raining and streams of water are flowing under the TR. I
realize that in many places this would be warm weather, but most people have
more sense than I and have real places to work on their cars, or aren't dumb
enough to take all the parts off their car to tidy it up a little.
It stopped raining last night. If it stays dry through the weekend, maybe I can
get the oil filter adaptor put back on, and the mounts tightened down. If that
goes well, I have the starter motor, front generator mounts, lower bellhousing
cover plate and clutch slave cylinder fixings ready to go on. Then except for
fabricating new lower seals for the hydrolic resavour, the new hydrolic system
will be complete and ready for filling. Maybe I can get new paint on the
radiator so it will be ready to go back in. It was re-cored about a year before
I stoped driving the 3, so the radiator is in very good condition.
This Sunday marks the fifth annaversery of my starting to take parts off the TR
(Sunday of the week before Christmas). Its been a long time. Well at least the
body work is done, suspension and steering is done (except for final alignment
of front wheels & tightning the new rod ends), the brake system is rebuilt and
replumbed with new tubing, the instrument panel refinished and new wiring harnes
attached to the insturment panel & bulkhead and the engine and transmission are
back in.
The second most rusty TR3 I have ever seen is now rust free with new metal
welded in place. I was looking at some before and early project pictures the
other day. She didn't look half bad before I did this. The body looked nice,
even if the white paint wasn't a TR white. Just a little paint bubbling along
the lower part of the front wings and outer sills. The PO's fiber glassing and
painting over rust did make it look nice. You had to look to see the bubbles
that were just starting to emerge. The car ran well, as long as you swapped out
the oil fouled #3 plug every 50 miles or so. It would go around those tight
mountain corners well. The problems was those wide sweeping high speed curves.
With steering that did not return, a broken trunion (didn't even know what that
part was 5 years ago) and unequal front springs (both with spacers), the
handling was a little chancy on high speed curves. So what if people wouldn't
ride with me because there wasn't enough metal in the floors to bolt the seats
down....at least she was drivable and fun.
Sometimes... when its cold & wet and the TR looks so unfinished, its hard to
remember why I am putting myself through all this. All the lost weekends, all
the going without to get a new part. This thing had better work when its done!
Sorry George, I'm drifting again.. I get like that sometimes when I don't feel
like I'm making the headway I was hoping to be making. I expected to be back on
the road the summer after I started taking the car appart.
I hope your restoration goes MUCH faster then mine
TeriAnn Wakeman Large format photographers look at the world
twakeman@apple.com upside down and backwards
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