[TR] Waking the slumbering beast

[Brad Kahler]

This past Monday I broke down and purchased a 1972 TR6 with 62,695 original
miles :)

The car is a two owner car where the 2nd owner purchased it in 1976 from
his friend who had purchased the car new. It's lived indoors all it's life,
never been driven in the rain unless caught in a storm while out driving on
a weekend.  The car was pampered and well cared for.  The bumpers are
beautiful, the dash top is perfect, seats are perfect except for the
drivers rubber seat diaphram. The carpet has been replace with what I
consider cheap black glued down carpet. The tonneau cover looks brand new
as does the top cover.  The top does need to be replaced due to severe
shrinkage and some tears.  It was originally Maroon but was repainted about
30 years ago in a Porsche grey.  Overall the current paint job is
acceptable for the time being but will someday need to be repainted.  He
also changed oil religiously at 2,000 miles, which on the face of it could
have been once every couple of years based on the mileage.

After every use he used Armor All on the dash top, and the seats as they
look brand new and he waxed the car after almost every use  He used lemon
oil on the wood dash face.

It still has the original exhaust system, is sitting on it's second set of
Michlen red line tires although the right front tire is actually the
original Goodyear red line spare as the right front was leaking badly
through the sidewalls.

Oddly after the paint job 30 years ago he didn't bother to re-install the
headlight rings or even install the male snaps on the doors or body.  Ne
never used the tonneau cover or the soft top cover instead he just left the
top folded down and drove.

There are only a couple of minor downsides.  One is the fact that he
painted it Porsche grey instead of it's original color.  Regardless whoever
painted it actually did a pretty decent job overall including painting the
engine compartment.  The other is under the battery there is a half dollar
sized hole hole from battery acid.  It still has the original (or identical
replacement) alternator.

Here's where I would like some advice.  The car has literally been in
storage for the last 5 years.  I'm trying to figure out the best way to
prep the engine for it's for it's first start since put in storage. When it
went into storage he drained the fuel tank due to laws requiring cars
stored in storage units to be empty of fuel.

The engine is not frozen as it can be turned over by rotating the fan
blade.  It's a little stiff but does turn.  He also periodically spread oil
on the carburetor pistons to keep them from sticking.  So my thoughts are
to pull the fuel tank and have it cleaned and sealed (local place does a
nice job on tanks), flush the fuel lines and then replace all rubber fuel
lines and filters, pull and replace the plugs and squirt Marvel Mystery oil
down the bores and turn the engine over by hand a bunch of revs and then
change the oil and filter.

I'm not to worried about the carburetors leaking as I will be rebuilding
them once I get the engine running.  I'd like to know where things stand
with the engine before working on anything else.  He said the engine ran
perfectly before he put it in storage.

Plans for the winter will be to rebuild the front and rear suspension.
Rebuild all of the brakes including replacing the master cylinder, all
hoses and rebuilding/replacing all wheel cylinders and calipers.  Same for
the clutch hydraulics.  At the moment both master cylinders are empty.  I
also plan to replace all hoses in the cooling system and have he radiator
cleaned at the radiator shop.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Brad
1972 TR6
1963 TR4