I meant to do this a week or so ago on british-cars but never got around
to it. Since the moment has sort of passed over there, I'll do it here.
I got into Triumphs at the suggestion of my SO. Not many people can say
that! Actually, as a kid, I always pictured myself owning a TR6 some day
(which still hasn't happened). As a teenager, I used to monitor the
price of TR6's in the paper and compare it to my savings account.
Amazingly, the ratio stayed at right about 2:1, TR6:savings. Years
passed and Triumphs got pushed to the back burner.
About 6 years ago, my girlfriend (now wife) was visiting me in Phoenix.
She came home one day and told me about a little convertible she had seen
parked in someone's yard with a for sale sign on the window - "$350.00 As
Is" it read. The car turned out to be a 1970 Triumph Spitfire painted
day-glo green. It had a blown motor, rumpled front right corner, no
interior, etc... I had to have it. The guy who owned it (Fred) was an
older fellow that was into restoring Lincoln Continentals. (He had 2 in
his garage and a 3rd one in progress). He had picked the Spit up at a
junkyard while looking for Lincoln parts. He said he had been thinking of
doing a sports car just for fun and this Spit was so cute that he just
couldn't let it go to the crusher. Since then, his health began to fail
and he realized he just couldn't take it on as a project. Unfortunately
for me, someone was in line before me. Oh the pain... He told me to try
back in three days to see if it was still there.
Well I drove by his house the next day and it was gone. Totally hot for a
convertible by this time, I looked at a couple of other cars in the paper
(Fiats) but nothing in my price range, and I couldn't get that Spitfire out
of my mind. In desperation, I went back to check on the Spitfire. Still
gone, but I rang the doorbell anyway. Fred's wife was home and said that
they still had the car! It had just been pushed into the backyard pending
payment by the fellow in line ahead of me. It turned out that Fred was
tired of waiting and was about to push it back into the front yard. He
wasn't around but her feeling was that if I were to show up in an hour or
so with cash in hand, it was mine for the taking. I shot over to the
bank, pulled out $350, and pulled up in front of Fred's house just as he
pulled up. Money changed hands and I had myself a Spitfire.
I got a friend with a trailer to help me haul it over to another friends
carport where I proceded to do an engine rebuild with nothing but my
enthusiasm and a Haynes manual as guides. (Yes, I built the motor
outside, in the desert!) I got it running and drove it rumples, day-glo
paint, rattling u-joints, blown muffler and all for about 3 years. During
that time, I moved to North Carolina and got married. We were famous
(infamous maybe) around Durham in that "loud green convertible".
Amazingly to me, I would get one or two offers a week from people wanting
to buy it.
3 years ago, I did a frame-off refurbishment (including a second engine
rebuild) of the car but that's another story. In the mean time, we have
accumulated another Spitfire ('75 1500) and 2 TR4's (both 1964). The
Spit1500 is Sarah's summer commute car and the TR4s are future projects
(although one does run). Who knows, maybe that TR6 is still in my future.
Waiting eagerly for spring,
Mike
mburdick@unmc.edu
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