Monday, July 16, 2007

Back to work with rusty metal...


I'm getting used to seeing old rusty metal at night. Here's to getting rid of it one way or another!

It's been a while since my last update. Here's some of the parts purchases:


A NOS front lower valence...I just LOVE the old Stanpart label. Don't know if I can save it but I'll try...


A NOS front nosecone. Nice eBay seller packaged this really well from England.


A set of 7X15 wheels. Yeah, they're LOUD, but the color ought to work well with the cream paint and red interior. Thank heaven for the upsurge in AE86 Toyota drifters that have the same bolt circle and offset as TR's.... :-)


So, where we last left the project I had to attack the nose. First, one half came off:




Which was enough to expose that there was a lot more work to be done. Then, the other half came off. That's the new nosecone below:





Unfortunately, I'll be creating some panels myself using the old cardboard and transfer method. You can see why here:



Yes, there's actually supposed to be sheetmetal there. Oooops. I only wish that the "craftsman" that did the previous work actually was one.
I'll try to update sooner. Maybe by the next post I'll be attaching rather than detaching!
Jamie




3 comments:

vitessesteve said...

Neat wheels. So you are not wanting the finished car to look stock then?

Jamie said...

No...I will be driving her about 45 miles most days and don't trust the safety of both me and my 2-year old to 165-13 radials on that size car. Don't get me wrong, I truly appreciate stock vehicles (and that's what my Italia is for) but that's not why I bought this one. Besides, with the totally changed dash, A/C, deletion of the front badge and other items it wouldn't have been stock anyway. Shoot, eventually I want to complete the Megasquirt kit I bought and fuel inject it anyway...

I am looking to make it look somewhat like a 60's rally support car (thus the Minilite clone choice of wheels) with tasteful (at least I think so) period-looking vinyl sill stripes that say "Triumph" (like the ones you saw all over in the back of 60's/70's car magazines). Combined with the off-white paint it should be a nice combination. Hope I don't offend any purists out there!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you've gotten some time to work on the car. I know how hard it is to balance job & family and then get out there late at night to work on a major project.

When you're ready for some help, we're only a phone call away whether it's for mechanical work or wiring up the electrics.

Doug


It looks like you're making good progress.