Triumphsters,
You may all remember that the lovely Helena did the TR-6 wrong recently by
rear ending a piece of murican i-ron. Four weeks later...the car is back
together...almost.... the new valence and left front wing are on and the
hood is straightened and the front end is primer/filler coated. New hinges
were required as the pivot points were so worn that the upper arms just king
of flopped around. On the first fitting the hood and wing would not align
correctly w/hood sitting almost an inch higher than the fender. the gap
between hood and fender at forward end was way too wide both sides...3/4
inch or so. Off to the frame shop. They found that from previous damage the
frame was off up to 1/2 inch. That was the easy part. Realigned now with
wheel realignment also and with only one shim at the A arm/frame mount on
the left instead of three. The worst part was getting the inner left wing
back in shape, it had been pushed aft and rolled out and downward at the
front thus the difference in hood fender height. The car was chained down
and the inner wing pulled forward hydraulically then with much banging and
heating to shrink the stretched metal, brought back into its original
configuration ...seams were then spotwelded where necessary. So bill for new
parts ~$700.00, alignment shop...$1500.00 I'll be getting $150.00 of that
back as all the banging and pushing and pulling opened a leak in the
radiator so I had it recored...my body man says this WILL be covered by the
frame shop or else he will take his $40,000 plus business a year with the
place elsewhere. Originally we planned on just painting from the rear edge
of the doors forward but he convinced me (easily) that the paint on front
while he would guarantee a perfect color match would be noticeably glossier
than the rear wings and trunk so we're going for a complete respray. Looking
at about $2500.00 for that. Will also need new tires on front, they were new
less than 5000 miles ago but the fender ate up the left on nicely and I will
replace both and put the right on the spare. By the way... for tires I have
been buying Winston Californian radials (215s) on the car for nearly 15
years. These guys are a little stiff in the side walls but come with a
60,000 mile warrantee and lifetime rotation and balance and handle just
great as far as I'm concerned. And for about $57.00 ea. base price are one
of the best deals around. In over 200,000 miles I've never had a failure
except for the occasional nail in the tread. I'm not sure there are Winston
outlets outside CA but there are plenty here and I have had good service all
over the state. So by the end of the week and ~$5000.00 later I'll have the
car back on the road and looking SOOO FINE. H will be paying off the bill on
time...I'll be paying off w/some cash... body man loves cash... and I got a
BIG tax refund this year and H will pay me and her credit card Co. off for
the next couple of years. She says "I probably won't be driving the TR in
the near future huh?" I say: "Yup that's about right" The trouble is when
she's not driving the TR she's driving the Jag....Oh well! First stop with
the TR will be at my insurance man...collision on this one for sure from now
on.
Deano
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