Well after using every conceivable excuse to drive the car this
week (aren't those library books due tomorrow? we're
getting low on paper clips, why don't I pop over to the store?
hey Phil wanna go to your friend's house, I'll drive you) my
wife finally used the P word - I'm pathetic.
Except for the one I'm driving I haven't seen a single LBC this week
in Tidewater. Lots of old VW bugs and one truly pathetic Fiat.
Driving around this evening brought back a lot of memories. I bought
my first car, a TR4A, when I was a sophomore in college 13 years
ago. In Utah, in September, and it had just a tonneau. I ordered a top,
took it
out of the box, and (revealing my ignorance) called Moss and asked
where the "frame" was (long pause on their end before they started
laughing. I finally found hoodsticks a year later at Scotland Yard, a
now-defunct junkyard in Denver. Be grateful now for the internet.)
This was the beginning of my Triumph education.
Others lessons included the struggle to eliminate fuel leaks from
the float bowl overflows (fuel pressure regulator), learning to
balance the carburettors (yes the hose trick does work), and
there are two different sizes of heater hose. (Found this one
out when on a date, she was cold, no problem the heater works.
Only too well as hot water dripped onto her white slacks.)
Several months later I met my wife (different date.) I drove
that car all winter with no top. My wife frequently reminds me
that I was a little unreasonable when it rained, or snowed. She
would hold the tonneau up over our heads while I reached
around and wiped the windshield (the wipers didn't work either.)
I wish I could have seen this from everyone else's viewpoint,
must have been damn funny. A year later, with the top on
and the wipers fixed, we drove to and away from our wedding
in that car. But by then my bank account was down to single
digits and the insurance was due. I had the car up
for sale. My dad, of all people, the personification of thrift, decided
that he wanted it and bought it (we didn't consult my mother;
I'd think there's something genetic about Triumph ownership
except that my brother bought and drove _in daylight_ an orange
Gremlin.) Since Dad was living out of the country at the time
he rented the Triumph back to us in exchange for various
maintenance and repairs to his house. Valerie and I enjoyed
the car for the next 6 months. What I miss the most is going
to drive-in movies, parking facing down the slope and watching
the show over the top of the windshield.
After Dad returned he drove the car regularly for a couple of years
while I maintained it for him, then after we moved East he parked it,
and there it has sat for 9 years. Still sitting now. Last summer we
bought my second and our first Triumph, another TR4A. Since it now
looks like we're moving back west this summer and Dad wants his
garage back I want to buy the first car, but I'm afraid to look. You could
do the Fred Flintstone on the driver's side when I owned it, there wasn't
much floor left. But the thought of fixing up the first car we owned is
really
appealing. Especially since I've now got an unmolested, non-leaking
(really), reliable TR4A for inspiration.
Anyway, happy BCW, and go topless :-)
Cliff Hansen
chansen@exis.net
1966 TR-4A CTC 64615L (on the road daily)
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