Dan Scharpf, 33, Seattle WA, dfscharpf@yahoo.com
I've been lurking on the list since I bought my TR2 in December from a
widow in Indiana. The car had been sitting in her garage since 1973
when her husband died in a wreck in his TR6. He started to restore the
car, but from the looks of things it seemed he was more into collecting
parts than putting anything together.
Some of you may remember the note I posted about all of the spare parts
I have and how I was going to put a web page together by February to
document the restoration and unload some of these parts. Well, the car
is now here in Seattle, and is still waiting its first surgical
incision of the restoration which is being postponed until I finish
painting my 77 MGB. I still have all the addresses of those who
expressed interest in the parts, and I will get back to you sometime
this year, but the simple painting of the engine bay on the MG turned
into a full ground-up restoration, and I've had to hold off on the TR2
for a while.
I'd have to say that my love of cars came from Dad, who always seemed
to be working on something. The one I remember the most was his 68 MG
midget that we all used to pile into.
My first car was a 1980 TR7 that I bought in the dark after a quick
test drive in 1987 while starting grad school at Notre Dame. It must
have been the cool night with top down that made me susceptible to the
LBC bug. After a few months of ownership, I suddenly had to become a
mechanic since a valve broke off the stem and cracked a piston. After
successfully fixing this and numerous other problems I soon become
broke and after a few years and had to replace the car with something
more reliable - the ol' Nissan Sentra. In 1993 I got out of N.D. with a
Ph.D. in aeroacoustics and headed for Seattle to work for Boeing where
I try to figure out ways to quiet the airplane engines.
After two years of living in the "real world" without a convertible, it
was time to get back into a real car where driving was more than just
heading down the freeway to work. My 77 MGB was bought with 115k miles
on it, and now has had almost every nut and bolt removed, cleaned, or
replaced. Once the paint is applied, and the re-assembly complete, the
TR2 project will begin and I'm sure I'll flood the list with many
questions. Until then I enjoy reading all of the pearls of wisdom,
humor and B.S. that the list supplies every day.
In addition to my LBC hobby I also play guiter, have 2 Samoyeds, teach
skiing and snowboarding, play soccer every chance I get, and have a
wonderful wife that actually agreed to let me convert a bedroom into a
garage.
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