DCTRA

As many of you know, I have been around the Triumph club since I was about five years old. I have always loved everything Triumph and enjoyed every minute of club events with my dad and his TR6. Well, finally for my 17th birthday, I got my own! My dad and I brought home a 1970 TR6 that had been sitting on the side of a house in Tempe for about 15 years. The car was infested with spiders and the hood was stuck but it had no rust! The previous owner had parked it with a hardtop on it which saved the car. After a few cans of Raid we were able to start taking it apart.

I spent the weekends taking parts off and throwing them aside, not thinking about ever needing to remember how they went back on.

After about a month, parts filled up the garage and we weren’t even halfway done taking it apart. For the most part, parts seemed to fly off of the car. There were a few difficulties that we had like taking out the windshield frame. It had welded itself in after being in there 30+ years. My dad and I tried everything from a gallon of Kroil to heat and finally we needed to cut the brackets off with a dremel.

 A few months went by and we found out just how much space a car takes up when it has been disassembled. After the car had been taken apart we found out that we needed a couple of fenders, a hood and a trunk lid. Luckily we had been prepared and bought a donor car, a TR6 from Germany which was in pretty good shape. I also needed to replace my rocker panel which the previous owner had caved in on a curb. So, the first step of putting my car back together was welding the new rocker panel in place. Then it looked to be a sad excuse for a car as it was towed to get blasted and painted. For two months I was without my car. It felt weird not having anything to do on the weekends.

The car wasn’t completely gone because you still couldn’t walk through the garage without tripping over parts.

Finally after two months we towed the car back and it looked so good I was afraid to touch it. We got home with the fenders and hood off of the car and realized that we had no place to keep them safe. So, to my mom’s surprise they came in the house and were put in my room where they couldn’t be scratched. Then, finally, assembly began.

We rebuilt the suspension front and rear, replaced u-joints, differential bushings, and steering rack bushings, etc. With a little help from Gene, we got my engine in with my Toyota 5-speed. I got all my fenders on and then the hard part began. We had to rewire the car with Dan Masters wiring harness.

After a few months and countless arguments we were able to get through it and hook up the battery, only to find out that only a few things worked. After a few hours of sourcing possible problems we found that little kill switch we installed with the kit. We flipped it and it was like magic. Everything worked and worked well. The lights were bright and worked just as they should have. After some preparation we even got the engine started. Following that we had millions of small things to do.

Finally about a month later it was time for my first test run. I took the car on a breakfast run and it ran great. I had a blast driving it even if it had only one seat and no carpet. The next month was spent on the interior in preparation for the BEAT.

To my surprise, installing carpet and panels was not as bad as I had thought. We finished the interior and top the weekend before the BEAT and I was ready.

My dad suggested that I drive it to work the week before to make sure that everything was ok. Well, sure enough that Tuesday while out on lunch, driving about 45mph, I heard a bang and the whole car started shaking. I called my dad out to get me and the whole time I was thinking about how my weekend will be ruined. We got the car towed home and found out that a u-joint cap had fallen out of a u-joint in the driveshaft. We had it fixed in two hours and even drove the car to the club meeting that night. That weekend I went on the BEAT had a great time. The car made it the whole way with no problems! It really is a great car and I’m having so much fun driving it. I plan on taking it to as many shows as I can including the All Triumph Drive In this August in Oregon. I will also be at Triumphest 2009 in October which should be a lot of fun.

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