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The Lobby
Enjoy the blog this week with REO Speedwagon, Time for Me to Fly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMMXoCuwcOM&list=PLnzWxFWr_jTlyJPzWfIATZqx 3fotaQpd0&index=18
More on this song in the throwback below.
Summer league bowling is over. Fall league starts next week – just wish we could have a week off. I need to harvest some honey from my hives. And prepare them for the winter. Number 2 has been under the weather for a few days – tested negative for the rona. I’m getting parts for my wood lathe – should be in the gearshift business soon. Made our new monthly cars and coffee to Van Alstyne this morning – light turnout for D6, but a good event. It’s a holiday weekend, affecting attendance. Biz is good, fam is good. Decent week.
Whats new
More bam!
I finish the blog last Saturday, then head back to the shop to get pics. In the span of 3pm Friday until 9am Saturday – my car was painted – except for the front valance that needed some bodywork. All that is left now is the sanding and buffing, and my Vietnam bumpers, which should take a week or so to get in. I’ll let them install those, and put the handles and lock back on, and other little things. The diary of the wreck and updates are here
The School Car Wreck Blog
Did you put gas in your car? Go do that, even if it’s a gallon.
The Wax
Last week, powernation and top gear. Watching it all week, including other famous episodes, like tom cruise getting it up on 2 wheels. I will say, I was surprised how tired of top gear I got. That was bad English, which seems fitting against the backdrop of the stiff upper lip crowd. Sure – some amazing episodes – a few I never saw.
But to get away from the norm of noise around me, I am stepping away from the anchor stuff I’ve blabbed about and recentering on the essence of the wax. A segment I squeezed in a few blogs back cause I needed to share some thoughts over a pint. Or wanted to. Pints do that – help you speak, and often too much.
orchestra
We talk in chunks on this mark – what gets in our blood. We talk about those bits in segments. We never think about them in a soup. Or how they mix together. How they work together. I don’t think that anyone in Coventry was brilliant enough to put all these senses together intentionally. Art often comes by mistake. Aim here, hit there.
I’m at this point with my reconstruction where I think about my car bumper to bumper. I’ve had almost a year in time-out reworking many areas on this car. And as I go over these areas, some synapse fires, and my tangents pop off, and I’m remembering a smell. Or a noise, touch…you get the drift. And since I am gathering all these sense memories, it hits me – like many cars, a TR6 has an orchestra of senses. Here is my orchestra, in no particular order, but trying to organize them from starting to parking.
Opening the door of a buttoned up car - the aroma of a TR6. With windows up, in the garage after sitting for a few days or weeks. The coziness of this cockpit, which feels very cozy after you shut the door with that slight rattle and check strap pop. The sound of the seat creaking as you adjust, and push the clutch in. The sound of that starter and the little creek of the choke cable. The purr or rumble of the motor when it hits, eyeing that floating tach needle. The reverse whine. The first gear launch, the gear shifting, and a good ear can hear the turn signal relay. That light smell of gas, The purr of the snakes. The roar under a bridge, or in a tunnel. That resonance that every owner notices from day one.
And to end this wax, aware of others around us, noticing us. Traffic is different in this car, as it is with any unusual or vintage car. This awareness that comes with driving it. And in the end of this stint, a park, a shut down, maybe a 1st gear position to insure it won’t roll away, and hopefully a lift on a working handbrake. The quietness of that shut down, popping that door handle, climbing or crawling out. Standing, walking away, and confident most TR6 owners turn to look back at their car.
Tech: GPS mount
Full circle
Throwback. Spider
Tech: The blob
I often get this area, struggle with how many times I can say shorten a cable, or now not to take a speedo needle off the spindle. Some influence from Top Gear – Clarkson tackles the Nurburgring, and instead of a gps around 140 corners, he has mounted a timer, counting down from 10 minutes, his goal. Somehow, I get back to those rigs that fit in our ash trays – which look great, proper design, all that. I think, all I really need is to pour something in that tray, let it set up, and have a popsicle stick in it. And I realize, you can pour, or squeeze, black silicone in it. And after it dries, cut a slit for the popsicle stick, and you have an iphone mount. An iphone horizontal mount.
Yeah, this tech segment isn’t tested. And its Sanford and Son, don’t get me wrong, but hear me out. With a tray in a, vice, say. Take a sandwich baggie, and line that tray. So, with a piece of balsa wood, or something shapeable, shape something that fits under that bar, fills the space down to the bottom of the tray. Then, press in a sandwich baggie, and start squeezing in black silicone sealant – like bath stuff for moisture. The silicone will start moving the baggie around, filling the void, up to that spacer you fabricated on both sides – essentially the shape of a carb float. Filled to the top, over a bit, and let it dry. A few days later, pull this gunk out, and cut the excess of baggie off. If trimmed right, the baggie will disappear under the silicone. And further trimming, will allow the lid to close. Remember to remove the fabricated spacer. Now you have this stress ball like form that will wedge into your ash tray. And will allow you to poke something into it that will hold your phone – I have that pop socket on the back, so I’ll use a piece of hard plastic, cut to fit around that pop socket, and a flat end, that will wedge into silicone. That its removeable means, it comes out, and goes into the glove box.
Good luck, McGiver
Back the Blue
It hit me this week, an awareness of my regression. I am changing, or planning on changing – so may things on my 76 car, to things that would normally be on an early car. Move the car away from correct points for judges and smart fans. Grass is greener, and that seems to have been the fabric for me in this whole TR6 journey. 72 car, with sad blue paint, chicken wire grille, nothing on the rear wings, red neck exhaust, and low profile goodyear sprint tires – longing for my car to look like other TR6s. A hypnosis of contemporary production cars – their look, sound, features – that was my sears catalogue as a teenager – itemizing things I wanted to do to the car to make it like those. Oh, and don’t forget the black center caps – I was sure they were heavier and made my car slower. I’m kidding. But from that vantage, the silver center caps just looked right, if not faster.
And look at me today. My life behind the wheel of a 2 white TR6s, both wrecked while they were white, btw. That sounds like I am a bad driver, and that white is a curse. But now that I have said it, lets just assume that blue is safer. Or Mallard. A psychologist might tell me why I have this urge to change up my car, besides the color. On the surface, I don’t know, or have that agenda. I accepted the fact that I was not going to have a correct 106 mallard paint on the car, and even further, that it wouldn’t be single stage. Maybe with that, I realized I had freedom, and if we are going to do this, lets have some fun. I won’t lie. This car will create a conversation, and I like that, frankly. Deep down, this could be most of it. But as I step back, and look at my journey, something tells me I miss my sad blue car, and that in my sunset, this is how I want to end the journey. I’m not driving over a cliff tomorrow, but at my age, there will be a time when I hand my keys over to my kids, and ask them to park it somewhere. If I really could control that future, I would run off a rural road, into a corn field, and take out a few stalks, argue with the farmer, pay him, and take my corn. Just like my great grandfather did at 80.
Throwback. The Spider
What a silly lead in. This aint about spiders. Or even spyders. This is about Mike Spivey, his blue ford maverick, and working in the summer. This is about tobacco farming, and the song this week, Time for me to fly, and that album, or 8 track in Spider’s car, was about the ride home from work.
Mike Spivey, or Spider, drove a 1974….ish blue ford maverick. Spider was either a senior in high school when I was a freshman, or he might have been in college. He wasn’t the only college guy to work in tobacco – several did it. I think we made 2.25 an hour back then. 7am until 7pm. I won’t beat you down on how hard that work was – many of us had tough jobs. This one was up there – literally. Before automation, it was me and other boys in barns 20 feet off the dirt ground, standing on beams, hanging 50 pound sticks of tobacco on those beams above us. Summer, NC, hot outside, oven in those barns. Decent paycheck at the end of the week, good workout – exhausting, and the drive home was always relaxing. Spider was our ride to and from Jimmy Tyndall’s farm. About a 20 minute drive. I should mention – Spider was a cropper. I was a hanger. Croppers took more talent. Croppers sat in chairs in the harvester, and pulled tobacco leafs off the stalk as the harvester rolled by at a mile an hour. Seems easy. It ain’t, or wasn’t. And Spider was one of the best – Jimmy loved Spider like a son.
Spider is a genuine great guy – have no idea where he is today. I know he treated everyone well, and I looked up to this guy, still do. REO seemed to always be on his 8 track deck, and the rides home were always full of laughs – usually at our own expense. Something stupid we did – or someone else did. Sometimes about Preston, the tractor driver. Another hard job. Anyone can keep a tractor straight at 1mph for 5 minutes. Maybe 10 minutes. A tobacco harvester usually went down rows that were a quarter mile long. The time to get to the end was about an hour. Just long enough for us to leave with the last load of tobacco sticks, hang them, and get to the other end to wait for the harvester to make the turn.
It was here that I learned ethic, respect, and hard work. I made good money, spent it wisely, and look back on this as very shapping years for me. And Spider was a big part of that.
That’s enough for today. See you on down the road,
Thank you for caring for your Triumph TR6. Lets also thank those considering one. This is a great mark for young and old. This mark is blessed with an amazing network development, parts, owners, experts and car availability. A TR6 helps people everyday, lifting spirits, bringing smiles. A TR6 brings happiness to Lynn, a previous owner, missing her car. Please start your car with it out of gear and foot off the clutch to save your thrust washers – they struggle with oiling at start up. Please pop your hood and have a good look around the engine bay. Please put fresh gas in your car each week, even if just 1 gallon. Please have good insurance, and review your policy regularly. And please drive your 6 defensively, as if it was a 4 wheeled Harley.
And remember. Smile when you drive, and whenever possible, take a kid driving.
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I am the 3rd steward of CF50460UO, born September 1975 with paint code 19 and 11 black interior. Nicknamed “the school car”, is now over 100K in miles, with new Cayman Blue Mica 2 stage paint, and 11 interior. Car was delivered with original hard top and factory overdrive. Current upgrades include Volvo overdrive internals, König Rewind 16x7 rims, Michelin Pilot Sport 205.55.16s, 4Runner calipers and 7/8 rear wheel cylinders. Poolboy carbs, FlexAlite electric fan, Patton Fan Eliminator, Pertronix ignitor ignition, TR5 cam, pacesetter header, 70amp Lucas direct fit alternator, solid state Rheostat, Silverstar Halogen headlights, Wishbone blueprinted oil pump, Bastuck 9LB flywheel, Goodparts suspension on all 4 corners, Goodparts sway bar, Goodparts trailing arm brackets, Uprated Armstrong lever shocks with cycle fork oil, high torque starter, JVC Bluetooth audio with front and rear USB, 4 speakers, stainless steel bumpers, flip up scuttle vent, hidden antenna, window tint, custom gear knob, and other concours frustrations.
My to do list
New carpet, new panels, custom dash.
r200B diff with goodparts cv joints and hubs
fresh head with roller rockers.
At some point, a fresh square motor with lightened crank, cam bearings,
Hard top inside insulation, and dome light.
Oh, and AC.