I've done three Tigers now-
The first I did everything- engine, suspension, etc. Only thing I didn't do
was the body work. Took me over three years and a ton of money.
The second one I had Doug Jennings do the suspension, I did the engine and
everything else, and farmed out the body work. took me three years and a ton
of money.
This time I farmed out the engine, had Doug do the suspension, am leaving
the body alone, and did everythign else myself. Took a ton of money minus a
little, and so far I hope to be done in two years. I am either getting
busier or something.
I enjoyed rebuilding the engines and it's not all that hard. But I thought a
professional rebuild would be a nice change. I have rebuilt two of the
transmissions before and that is pretty easy. This one I am leaving alone.
The brakes and such are pretty straighforward as is all the assembly. Just
decided to let Doug do the welding and bushing installation on the
suspension. I did the assembly.
The previous note about pictures, bags or something for all the bolts, etc
is critical. After three years, you forget where those bolts went and how
something goes together. I labeled everything and still it could have used
more. years of fading has hurt my labeling of bolts / parts too. Plus
putting the old greasy parts in a bag with a paper label has caused some
problems over time as the grease morphed into the paper making the label
unreadable. I label every wire and such too even if it seemed childish and
obvious when I first took it apart. I know from hard knocks on previous
projects.
The other good thing about taking three years to complete a car. You get
three summers of car events to go look at other cars, take pictures, and ask
questions to cover up your amnesia.
Curt Hoffman
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