Tweet
The Lobby
Enjoy the blog this week with Blondie, Call Me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoRjm-8x8qE&list=PLnzWxFWr_jTmzyj1tVXs0BdmZZZOK5B5H&inde x=1
My 72 car, me, and my date went to see American Gigolo. In 11th grade. My date was Kinston Jr Miss. Very proper reserved gal. I may have seen a few trailers for the movie, but all I knew was this song was in the movie. Neither of us knew the raunch we were prepared to see. I was a bit, um, hell yeah. She wasn’t. So, we stood up, walked out, and went to the movie next door. Bronco Billy. Somehow, she still talked to me later. A throwback date night in a 72 TR6, circa March, 1980.
Well, its cooling down, finally. I broke out a long sleeve shirt this week. Of course as soon as it is nice and cool, bam, like opening the door to a sauna for a few hours. The house is good – number 2 is in the middle of learner permit training. Online, which like any online course, a numbing beating. My wood turning has been fun – made some legs for a cabinet, and even a peg leg for a broken wine glass. Glass fell, the base broke off, and I had this leftover wood so I turned a few coves , drilled it out, and glued that leftover wine glass into its new base – like a peg leg. This cool red and clear wine glass with a wooden base. Cheesy, but at this point, I’ll turn goofy stuff for anyone. Kids are good, life, wife, and work – all good. Oh, and I missed the trials this year, and really wish I had snuck out for that. At least a day.
Whats new
Last weekend at the shop
So, after they finish the painting this weekend, they start putting stuff back on. I can’t find my door locks. They will show up at some point. There is space in the garage, so that’s good. I’m more organized than I thought I would be at this point. But it’s a giddy kinda prep. I can’t speak for others, but I love the chaos and urgency of knowing I will be under a gun to get this rolling. I guess my brain works that way. The tangent I’m on now, is I am going to wrap the back section rather than paint it. Sounds nice, and easy – until you find out that these wrap places don’t want work like this. They want the whole car, and big chunks of money. So, I’ll either do this myself, or I’ll find a shop that will do it. More on that later.
What else. All those little bits, like the trunk lid broken bolt, and the reassembly – I’ll have more on that next week after the car gets back in the garage. Roll up the sleeves, and put the plan in action. I am as organized as I am going to be, so not even close to being prepared as most diligent restorers would be.
As always, the diary of the The School Car Wreck Blog is here
Did you put gas in your car? Go do that, even if it’s a gallon. And please drive with your lights on – we need all the visibility we can get with other motorists.
Lets have a pint
Pull up a chair, and lets have a pint together.
I slip into conspiracy as fast as the next guy or girl. Certainly when it involves automotive. I have just enough wisdom to know that whatever battles we are watching right now, those battles have been fought for years, over different terms. We didn’t just end up in a fossil fuel motoring environment. We finished here, so to speak. We might have ended up with steam, or electric, as those cars were available when this new frontier came onto us – or, our ancestors. What we don’t have today is perspective of today. In that, we will look back at all this chaos, and wonder how one side won, or how we ended up with, whatever that winner is. Right now, all I can see is what’s in front of me.
I have top gear on a 24/7 loop on my Samsung tvplus system. I’ve mentioned both before – that Samsung, competing with pluto, and other free apps, decided to load certain stuff on theirs, which seems to be unique. Lucky for me, 2 of them are great background noise – powernation TV, and top gear, seasons 1-13, or whatever the last of the Clarkson era. And on it, is my favorite episode. I can’t summon it from an on demand section, but I can look for an episode. So I did. And I got up at 4am, to record it on my iphone. Which I just did. But only that one segment. The Honda Clarity.
Why, Guv, would you do that. Certainly that segment is available to all of us. Well, yes, it is. On YouTube. If you subscribe. And think about the time at which they decided to replay this. 4am. You see, its not suppression as much as it is camoflauge. In this battle of fuel vs battery, battery seems to have its hand in what we see, and what our impressions are. I know, that sounds crazy. And probably is on the surface. But I do know, there are financial incentives to build, develop and even purchase a hybrid car. There is a significant lobby towards this movement. And the cattle, us, will wander around to the water hole. James May called the Clarity, the battery killer. So far, battery isn’t dead, and further, looks to be on the forefront. This battle won’t end with a handshake. There will be pain, and blood, most likely.
I will try to upload this vid so others can view it. The volume is very low as I had to keep the sound down while normal people slept.
Ok – on the rest of this ramble.
Tech: Car Wrap
Upside down
Throwback. The road trip
Tech: Car Wrap
This is pure opinion and not some consensus, so please don’t get online and simply order this stuff. I am going to wrap my rear valance flat black. The section that is normally flat black around the tail lights. I chose this over painting it gloss black or flat black. Many have recommended gloss. Better paint, let it fade, or keep it gloss. My original flat was splotchy – washing, polishing parts of it, and over time, wasn’t even. Wrap gives me options, allows me to re wrap in 7-10 years, or not wrap that area. Or, in 10 years, change my mind, and paint it. I think its worth the test, and new wrap on new smooth paint, should be fine.
We have contours back there. This stuff goes on like masking tape – sticky on one side. Its pliable, and conforms with a heat gun. I am sourcing a shop that will do this, but right now, the shops I have found aren’t interested in a 4x2 section of a car. They want to wrap a whole car for 5K. I’ll find one, or I’ll dust off my RC airplane covering skills with Monokote, and use that with this stuff. Online, a roll for this stuff is like 20 dollars. More to come on this after the car comes back. But sharing this in the tech area cause I suspect many are interested in shooting that area of the car over the winter.
Good luck, McGiver
New vs Old
We get calls from our Toyota dealership at least once a month. Our 2018 Rav4 apparently is in demand, and we can sell it back to them for more than we bought it for. The problem is, we have to get in line for a car. That sounds horrible except that we have a yard of cars, some running, actually. Even my used tahoe is worth….I don’t know – maybe 6K. Realistically, 1-2K, but everything is 3 times more than the normal values. Why is this? I mean, on the surface, we can all get our arms around the chip shortage, the new car shortage, but understanding the macro economics of transportation require a few hours with a professor in front of a large audience. Or, we can just explain it by saying – who cares – I can sell cars for a lot of money.
I think some of this spills over into the vintage segment, but not fully. In covid, in the middle of it, bored wealthy would look for something to spend their extra money on, so why not cars. I think some of that drove our market up. It does seem odd that a new Ford Truck sells for what you would spend on a 1972 C10 Chevy Truck. In this economy, we are in a place where cars aren’t depreciating. Well, they depreciated, but then they appreciated. This wasn’t on the paper when we bought these cars, and now many are stumbling to wrestle with it. I don’t have a solution, or financial advice, but I will say, this is interesting, and I should take advantage of it. We all should somehow. Not in a flip strategy – you can’t acquire and sell and make money. At least I don’t think that is a good long strategy, but for someone like me, I could lean down a little. This does not include the school car, but we did sell the Honda Accord. And too quickly. If I sold that 94 sled today, I could get 6K easy for it. Sure, bad paint, but the interior was almost like new. And the motor was solid, new clutch, yada yada.
It’s a great time to be in the TR6 community, I will say. We are blessed with support in a time when you’d think support would have diminished in this pandemic. There are some threats besides caustic fuel, such as frame shops. They are closing cause they don’t make frame cars anymore. And you don’t straighten a new car tub, you total it. Shops like radiator shops diminishing are probably healthy for us, as we have replacement radiators, and tanks, and my only finger shake here is – let it go – get your arms off the radiator and stand back so we can throw it away. But this mark – not all vintage marks, did pretty good thru this pandemic, and we are exiting in good shape, and even with new product and development on the shelf. I don’t know when the lines on this graph will reverse, but until it does, I’m fortunate that I have good regular transportation. I hope all of us do.
Throwback. My first road trip
My first 72 car, was around town, and back and forth to college. But lets be clear on that last part – my college was 30 miles away, so lets trim that back to around town. I poke around the brain to look for any time I really drove more than that, and the only thing I have is back and forth to the beach, Salter Path from Kinston, 80 miles away. This was a standard gearbox, with a floating tach, and 55 mph speed limits. Looking back, I don’t think I considered loading it up and going somewhere. In Texas, a big state, I had plenty to drive to, and I would have trusted it mechanically, I think. As I type it, I’m not sure I really believe that. But Austin, a popular road trip, was a nice drive back in the day. Or East Texas, certainly West Texas. And the beach from Dallas, Galveston, would have been 5 or so hours. But I never did, for whatever reason.
I am in a second year of work with IHG – the parent company for Holiday Inn and those chains, around 2003, after 9/11. This was a time for hotels to scramble for a return to business, and my team had a big meeting in Austin. I have friends there. So, I combine work with a weekend, and I choose not to fly down, but to drive the school car. And this was the first trip for that car, for me, that was over 70 miles. Dallas to Austin, around 220 miles. The school car was more orginal than it is now. Michelin redlines, original rims, regular fan, but with decent carbs. What was struggling then was my leaky gearbox. Not like pouring out, but like most, wet on the case, and a few drips on the garage floor. So, foolishly, I don’t top up the gear oil before the trip, so the only struggle I remember was getting the overdrive engaged on the trip down. Only until recently, my solution to get my OD engaged was to flip my lever a few times, tap on it, pull on it – do whatever I needed to get it to engage. Once engaged, it was fine. But you’d think I’d know that it wasn’t so much the amount of oil in the gearbox, but the connection in the switch. Tiny steel ball, corroded somewhat, not doing its job in the circuit.
This was a fun week in Austin – with the car, around Austin, and even with co workers, one who had a GT6 back in his history of cars – so fun to share my engine back with a pair of strombergs for him. The car, on the highway, ran well, and it helped that I had a hard top. That makes a road trip much more enjoyable, and lets be honest, tolerable. And if its cooler – even better. You can roll the windows up, knocking down maybe half the decibels. And it was cooler for that trip, so that is how I rolled down there and back. A fun week with workers, a fun week with friends, and that trip opened the door for me for those other trips I have made sense then. My longest trip so far, round trip from Dallas to Kinston, near Raleigh, 1300 miles each way. High school reunion, in July, hot, and I’d do it again, and will, either there, or to VTR next year in Georgia. I hope you get out and travel outside your circle, and I know your 6 will be well sorted with all the support we have around us. Forums, Hagerty, tire plugs, air pump and a host of spares and mcgiver stuff to keep you rolling if a problem pops up.
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.
Please join my journey here:
The Guvna Blog Playlist:
The D6 Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/d6tr6
The Guvna Blog Youtube Channel
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.