A Christmas Gift To...Me!

Hi folks and Merry Christmas.

This year, I got a great gift in the shape of a big, red, shiny lump of metal to go in my garage. No, it's not a new fire extinguisher but Bessy the TR7, back from the paint shop. Seeing Ben pull up with Bessy on the back of his trailer was a lump-in-the throat moment, as I thought about all those hours (hours? I mean years) spent in the freezing cold and sweltering heat getting her ready. And she even fitted in the garage with the MGF and Suzuki V-Strom. Result!

Let the fit-up commence.

From one old bald bloke to, no doubt, countless others with the same TR7 obsession,  Happy New Year and here's to 2019.

John

Paint Progress (4)

You're not going to believe this, but it is nearly time for Bessy to come home. I got an email from the paint shop to say that, bar polishing, the car was finished.

Final polish

How did that happen? It has been quite a long haul, hasn't it? I remember the despair of finding piles of rot and rust while the car was on its side on the spit. Freezing in the garage; weeks and weeks sorting out this or that area.

Anyway, we're not there yet. Once Bessy is home I have to re-fit everything!

But, for now, I am just going to take a moment or two to reflect. Metaphorically, and literally.

Headlamps

Well, the TR7 isn't back quite yet and while I wait for the paint shop to finish it (adding satin black to the sills, door frames, rear lower sills and of course the rear lamp panel) I decided to have a go at refurbing a headlamp assembly.

I had a pile of bits in the garage, and the originals looked very scruffy. Stripping them down was surprisingly fiddly, especially as there was a myriad of rusted screws, springs and rivets to deal with. However, using a new old stock headlamp mounting plate, I managed to make something once grotty look nice. Now to do the other one.

Better?

Paint Progress (3)

Getting there...Bessy's new coat.

The boys in the paint shop have been busy and she's coming on so well. Below are a selection of pics so far. As you can see, not all of the panels are glossy. Yet ;)

Paint Progress (2)

Well, the progress continues! The cabin, boot/trunk and engine bay have all been painted in the original BL "CAD" Flamenco. Next stop, the topcoat.

Paint Progress!

Well folks, here's the latest update from the paint shop, in pictures.

Stripped to bare metal

Anti-rust coat

Checking the panel fit

Rear wing corrections

The troublesome offside rear wing and arch, in filler...

...and flatted to perfection.

Masked and ready for primer

First primer coat

Work on the inside...

...and engine bay begins.

There's a hole in my garage

There's a hole in my garage, and it is TR7-shaped. Since the TR7 went away, I have filled my time with lots of jobs, from rebuilding the engine to repainting the inisde of the ash trays.

This is going to be quite a long post, because it spans almost six months and I should have blogged about these jobs as I did them, but alas work pressures got in the way. Anyway, the first job to tackle was the engine. I'd actually got an engine stashed away which I bought from a guy who said he had rebuilt it, but I wanted to strip down my old engine for two main reasons: 1. To have some practice and 2. to see what caused it to almost seize all those years ago in 1994.

Getting the head off wasn't too difficult, which surprised me considering how long it had stood in the corner of the garage. What I found was a whole load of rusty sludge. Further stripping revealed very worn big ends and a load of swarf/bits of metal in the sump. Clearly this one was a goner.

So, onto the new engine. I had hoped to just drop it straight into the car on its return, but something was nagging at me. The guy said it was rebuilt, but how well? Could I trust his word? In the end I decided that the pain of putting it in, only to find it knackered, would be too much. So the decision was made to strip it again and rebuild.

In the end I replaced the crank and shells, water pump and bearing, oil pump, timing chain & tensioner, head bolts/studs/nuts, and re-did the valve timing using new shims. Incidentally, this is a very fiddly job. Rather than do a blow by blow account of the rebuild, here are some pictures.

By the way, the brass cage into which the water pump is driven was a sod to remove. In the end, I made my own special tool.

Having rebuilt the engine, I scratched my head about what to do next. The TR7 was going to be away for some time, so I set about a campaign of pulling parts out of my shed and refurbishing them. I started with the larger items like the gear box, and worked through the brake components, clutch cylinders, interior trim, engine mounts, everything. I mean, everything. Again, I will let the photos do the talking although I must admit I didn't take enough photos so there are just a few here.