Message text written by Ted Ward
>I thought I'd weigh in on the subject of wedge bashing. I'm 35 years old,
my
first car at 16 was a TR-7 (don't remember the year) and I can honestly say
I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I mean, I LOVED the look and feel of it. It
felt great just to sit in it fortunately, because that damn thing would
absolutely NOT run more than a week at a time without something going
wrong.
When you are 16 and trying to go places with friends or date girls, there
is
nothing worse than being stuck on the side of the road in the middle of
nowhere (which is where I lived). I mean, I have such mixed feelings for
those cars, total love/hate thing. I wouldn't mind getting a TR8, or even
another TR7 with my overinflated ego telling me I could make it reliable
now(??). But I still hold a grudge against that bastard for being my first
car.
<
Let's see, your 35 now so you were 16 in 1982. That means it wasn't a new
car.
Too bad you don't recall the model year but there are those on the list who
will
tell you that the later models were much more reliable with better build
quality.
As for myself, I rebuilt a TR8 a few years back and have since then driven
it more than 10,000 miles with only a couple of times where I was
sidelined. One time was due to a faulty radiator cap at 7,000 ft of
altitude. A new cap resolved that issue. The other problems were due to
20 year old wiring and contacts. A little cleaning and everything is fine.
To maximize reliability I recommend unpluging and repluging all connectors
you can find. This will wipe away some of the corrosion that has developed
over the years. Replace all hoses. 20 year old rubber tends to get hard
and cracked. Consider rebuilding all the hydraulics - brakes and clutch
cylinders. Replace all the bulbs. From this point onward I would fix
things on an as-needed basis. Most of the other devices will give you some
warning of an impending failure.
My other recommendation is buy a TR8 if you can afford it (they are
undervalued at the moment IMO).
Cheers
Dave
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