Well, now that good driving weather has left most of the country , I
thought I might update everyone on the progress I have made on my car.
For those of you who don't remember, or are new to the list, I am working
on a frame-off restoration on my 1966 TR4A IRS.
First, a little background on the car. I purchased her in the summer of
1981. I was actually looking for an MGB or TR6, but both were out of the
price range of a high school student making minimum wage bussing tables.
In fact, when I saw a TR4A advertised in the paper, I wasn't even sure
what one was, tho it sounded like "sports" car.
Well, a test drive and $1800 later, I was the proud owner of a 15-year old
roadster with no interior to speak of, and an engine that couldn't decide
if it wanted to leak all of its oil or burn it. I couldn't help but fall
in love...
Probably the best part of the car was that it included a Haynes shop manual,
which I still have (it is a three "piece" set). Up to this point in my
life, the only things I knew how to do on a car was change the oil, change
the brake pads, and wash & wax. Of course, I was about to learn a lot more...
Over the next year, a new (but unoriginal) interior was installed, the car
was rear-ended and repainted, the engine was rebuilt, and various other
things replaced/repaired. Unfortunately, four years of college and the
resulting neglect (both financial and maintainence-wise) took their toll on
the poor girl. She spent the next three years at my parents, then at my
in-laws house in semi-storage. My sister drove her for one summer, and I
took her out when I could, and worked on bits and pieces.
Finally, two years ago I moved from Sunnyvale (in an apartment) to
Sacramento (into a house - with a garage!). Finally, we were united
again. Unfortunately, three years of partial storage was worse than
four years of college, and she was in pretty sad shape.
My original intention was to restore her in steps that would minimize
time off the road (which obviously precluded a frame-off restoration).
The first task I chose to tackle was a complete brake system rebuilt.
My sister was not aware of the evils of DOT3 fluid on British brake
systems (I myself was fairly unaware of the hazards, fortunately the
previous owner had included a bottle of LMA, and I continued to
purchase that).
I had decided to replace all hard and soft brake lines, rebuild the
wheel cylinders, calipers and master cylinders. In removing the
master cylinders, I encountered quite a bit of rust under the bracket
that they mount to. Also, the brake and clutch pedals had slowly
began to operate together, so the decision was made to removed them
as well. As I slowly stripped more components under the hood, I realized
that there would never be a better time to paint in there, so out came
the battery, revealing yet more rust.
At this point, I still was signed up for the restore a bit at at time
program, so all of the rust was cleaned up or converted, and fiberglass
was laid out to fill the holes under the battery shelf. The engine
compartment was then cleaned and painted, and I began to reinstall the
components. I then discovered the first law of restoration: No matter
how good the parts looked when you took then out, they will look like junk
installed next to fresh paint.
This revelation clearly meant that my rusty engine block would have to be
painted. Also, while in the process of removing interior and exterior
bits, I discovered that the floorboards were pretty "holy". Finally,
one of the front suspension mounts was in pretty sad shape, having been
broken/repaired several times. All of this added up to my decision to
do an actual frame-off restoration.
I began stripping the car apart in earnest in the summer of '90. As you
may know, the wings on the TRs are bolted on, so those were removed and
hung on the wall, along with the doors, boot and bonnet. All of the interior,
such that is was, was removed and placed in the attic. In December, 1990,
I lifted the body tub off for the first time.
The first order of business was to clean off 25 years of dirt, grease and
oil (and a TR can leak a lot of oil in 25 years...) off of the frame. After
hours of scraping, and several cans of "foamy engine brite" later, something
automotive began to appear. Next, the engine, tranny and diff were removed.
The engine had been rebuilt several years earlier, so the only work there
was to replace some gaskets and rebuild the rocker gear. Then the block was
painted. The tranny and diff were sent off to be inspected, the tranny was
pronounced sound, but the diff was trashed.
Next, the suspension was removed, cleaned and painted. A new bracket was
welded to the frame, and it was checked for alignment and pronounced perfect.
Reinforcements were also added to the front suspension mounts, thanks to a loan
from mjb.
In the spring of this year, the suspension and drive train were once again
reunited, and my attentions turned to the body...
The first order of business was to clean the shell. Again, scraping and
"foamy engine brite" did the job. It was at this point that I discovered
that Triumph didn't pay too much attention to painting the under- and inside
of cars. There was also a heavy coat of a tar-like substance, I assume
as some type of undercoat. This was removed by heating the metal (on the
opposite side of the coating) with a propane torch, and removing it with
a putty knife. Then the shell was taken to have the paint removed by
plastic media blasting. The blasting revealed that both floors were
perforated, one bad enough to call for replacement, the other could be
patched. A new battery shelf was fabricated, the front and rear valence
panels were replaced, and the drivers side rear door post was replaced.
Once the shell was painted, my attention focused on the rest of the body
panels. These were stripped chemically, only because I had already purchased
two gallons of stripper. The plastic media blasting is worth the price
($300 to strip the body shell).
Thru the end of the summer, I completed stripping the panels, pounded out
the major damage and filled the dings, and applied primer and primer-filler.
Then I began the process of block sanding everything. About a month ago,
I thought I was done with the block sanding, but the guy doing the painting
disagreed. However, the body shell was ready, so about two weeks ago that
was painted. The shell has now been installed on the frame, hopefully for
at least another 25 years. As it is getting a little cold for wet-sanding,
I have started to install some of the interior bits, many of which I purchased
over a year ago. It was almost like Christmas, opening up all of those
packages.
I should be able to start the engine in a few more weeks, and I will be working
on the interior over the holidays. Once the weather warms up again, I should
be able to knock off the rest of the body work in a few weeks. My goal
is to have her on the road for her 26th birthday on April 9th.
--
Darrell Walker walker@hprpcd.hp.com
(916) 785-4059 HPDesk: walker (hprpcd) /HP5200/UX
|