Subtitled "Triumphant again"
Many thanks to Ken Gano for his notice of the TR-4 at a farm auction in
Dalton City, Illinois. After announcing the auction on the list, Ken went
to the farm on Friday and looked at the car, and also sent some digital
photos of it. It's a really solid TR-4A IRS, about 1965 if I remember the
Comm # correctly. It's all there and pretty straight, although there was a
fairly minor rear-end collision that was poorly repaired. The boot lid was
replaced with a really rusty one, too.
Car hasn't run since 1988, and it's been in a storage building ever since.
Mickey Mouse and all his buddies have had a great time with the carpets, and
what they left smells really bad. Yuck!!
The only serious rust is confined to a small area in the driver's floor at
the left side, and a tiny hole in the left sill at the door-seal rubber.
Other than that, all rust is apparently minor surface rust. Frame looks and
feels sound, with some very light surface rust but nothing apparently
significant. Most of the typical rust spots seem fine. It's a white car
which helps in identifying rust spots, too!! Could not get to the
differential mounting points, but will of course check those out thoroughly
soon.
All in all, it's a candidate for a thorough restoration, but it'll
apparently be a fairly easy job with only minor metal work. Engine is free,
with no rods through the side of the block or etc.
Ken professed no personal interest in the car other than to see it go to a
good home, for which I am grateful. He sure did his best. The locals had
no serious interest in this furrin' car, and thus bidding was not too
fierce. I plan to pick it up within the next week or so, soon as I can get
down there with a trailer.
I've owned four TR's including a '57 smallmouth TR-3 (my first car, in
1965), replaced 6 weeks later with a '63 TR-3B (it was still a nearly new
car then), a '71 TR-6 (my first new car, and my Showroom Stock ride in
Drivers School when I started racing in 1971), and a '64 TR-4 my wife and I
owned for a couple of years in the early 80's. Had lots of other British
iron over the years as well, including a '48 TC, an E-Production Healey
100-6, and a '64 Midget. An Amphicar still resides in my driveway (the
Herald engine partially ameliorates the sauerkraut in its veins), but I've
been Triumph-less for a decade and a half now. Thanks to Ken, I'm on the
road to recovery ;-)
- Karl Vacek
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