Hello again

Hi faithful reader! I believe I have at least one person reading this blog, don’t I? Anyway I Shall Continue!

I know I haven’t posted in a while; I’ve been taking a break from the blog. And I’ve been consciously been trying to make money at the shop (taxes due on the Buffalo house.) I had to knuckle down and take a serious look at my finances or lack there of. It is six months into “retirement” now and I have to take a look at where I’m heading and where I would like to go. So it was time to do a bit of soul searching. Bottom line is someday I want to be back living in Buffalo. That is where my heart really is. I enjoy having the things that I like to do within walking distance or a 5-minute drive. And having friends to do things with. I haven’t found a place to live in NH and there isn’t much in the way of possible homes that are affordable at the moment plus I don’t want to sell my house in Buffalo to buy something up here. So here I sit…contemplating

OK enough of the bellyaching. What’s been happening in the shop? Well Racer TD is finished for the moment, inspected and waiting to be picked up. We had a few last minute problems. The major one again points to our suspicion that this car was raced at one time. During the run to the inspection station dad wasn’t happy with the clutch action. Upon inspection all I heard was, “What the hell.” I hear that a lot! It seems that the linkage was something fabricated to correct a possible broken link or something to get a bit more adjustment or??? Either way it looks like there is a different pressure plate in the car possibly a competition set up, can’t be sure unless we tear it apart and take a look. It’s working fine but still a puzzle. We were able to find a broken clutch link in our “bone yard” and weld another end on the existing one; they had cut it off and inserted a long bolt with a connection welded to it. Nothing surprises me any longer. Except maybe a car that comes in with nothing changed on it, 100% original! Anyway it’s up to the customer next time RacerTD comes for a visit. I believe that visit will include a paint job. Already it’s a great looking car. I’m undecided on whether I like the bonnet or not but how many have you seen like this one? We have another one similar to this one with the louvers on the top for my dad’s car.

New Chapeau

Side view

The other big progress has been on 53TD. The firewall is finished and installed, footplate is in and the steering column. I put the wiring harness in yesterday. The floorboards and rear deck boards are painted, I’m waiting on fasteners for the floorboards then we will begin the interior. Getting this body out of the paint booth was a priority to free up the booth a bit.

Progress!

We’ve had a backlog on the booth with this body in it. We generally don’t have a lot of painting to do (one maybe two cars a year) but we have a few parts waiting to be done. I have my water pump (which I donated to Winston) and my branch pipe (red), then the rims to the Jag 140 (white), then BlownTC is in the booth to get it’s frame painted (black), body parts for 53TD, back to BlownTC for body and parts and so on and so on. I try to line up all the parts that need to be a certain color and paint type to get as much done in one shot as possible. Plus there is 1500TF (no name yet) that is a total restoration. I’d better stop I’m beginning to freak a bit!!!

1500TF’s owner is up for vacation and wants to take it out for a few last rides before it gets “exploded.” I guess when it gets back to the shop we should have enough room to start its journey.

Well that’s the way it goes in a restoration shop I guess. I’m just not used to it yet. Will I ever be???

Later…

Almost!

Well we almost made it!!! The 53TD body tub is back on the chassis. There was a bit more painting than I had originally thought, the wheel wells and interior sheet metal weren't painted yet. Plus we had all that rain that brought up the humidity and that delayed painting. It’s best to paint in less humid days as we don’t have a climate controlled paint booth. So we did have a few slow downs but it is back on the chassis.

53TD (the lacquer still has to be rubbed out)

It just seems like everything works to slow you down in one of these shops. Monday we had a caravan come through; one of the drivers owns the Jag140 that we are working on. They were an hour out and called to stop in. We had 6 cars pull up, 3 TD’s, a TC, a MGA and a VW Beetle. I guess the Beetle was the safety car! They had a look around the shop looked at all the work that was in progress and hit the road. They were on a road trip to Nova Scotia. I would love to do that with my car when it’s done. How fun would that be? So while it was fun it put the cabash on work going on in the shop for a while.

The merry travelers

RacerTD had a good week but didn’t get to go home. After solving fuse problems and fixing the right rear taillight I thought the electrical problems were finished. NOT! While the fuel light was on due to the low gas, testing the circuit found the tank switch to be bad. I pulled it and someone had been in there before me and altered the inside of the switch. I was able to put the switch back to where it would work like it was supposed to. The next light that wouldn’t go out was a little harder to fix. With the dash back to original condition and the gauges hooked up we started the car and the amp gauge wasn’t working and the ignition light wouldn’t go out. To make it short the generator wasn’t working...new brushes and a bushing didn’t help…so we sent it out to get rebuilt. In the meantime the car has a loner from the shop. The seats are in, electrical is finished, new tires on, etc. AND today it ran down the road. I have to put the seat belts in. Dad will paint the frame for the top and Tuesday that should be done and on. But we still have to figure out something for air cleaners. RacerTD came in with 1 ½” carbs and now it has the original 1 ¼” carbs. The air cleaners that were on it won’t fit the new set up and the owner didn’t have the intake manifold and oil bath air cleaner, bummer. We shall see what next week holds for RacerTD.

On the road again

On other fronts I slipped my doors to my TD and my horns into the painting process and they are done. I may get the horns on tomorrow. I painted one side of the floorboards for the 53TD today. BlownTC will be back in the mix next week, hopefully getting the frame painted after the frame for RacerTD is finished. Then I can start the rebuilding of the brakes, pedals and shocks. All this talk about work…makin’ me tired.

Later…

The Best Laid Plans…

There is always more work than meets the eye. I’m the optimistic one… and I’m wrong a lot! While we had one TF go out (it's in the pic below.) That was the one in for a new master cylinder and a few small items. We had this one up at the house for a bit because we are full at the shop as always.

One hangs out!!! How many do you see? Can you name them?

The 53TD body tub got it's first coats of lacquer. It has been wet sanded is ready for the finishing coats but it’s been a bit too humid to paint. We do have an additive that slows the drying time but we try not to use it and paint only on dry days. It's not that big of a delay but it seems when we want to paint we get humidity (we only paint a couple of cars a year.) So the TD tub sits ready for final paint. That is one of two goals for this coming week to have that body tub back on the chassis.

The other is to have RacerTD back home. I worked this week on straightening out the electrical system of the car. It needed a bit of trouble shooting which led to some bad components, which I repaired. As it stands now, with the exception to putting the wires on the coil and barring no more surprises, the electrical system is finished and working. Yeaaa. The starter and choke cables are in. My goal is to be able to have RacerTD home on Friday…cross your fingers! And legs! And eyes!

Dad is already trying to push getting the “new” TF apart. I’m trying to hold off for a week or so to have the room to store it properly in it’s own place. It will be taking over the storage shelves from my car in the attic as most of my parts are on the car or ready to go in. When one of these cars “explode” there are bags upon bags of parts and it takes up a lot more room in pieces than it ever did assembled.

Tomorrow, Sunday, I’m going to get a bit of work done on BlownTC, which has been sitting on the back burner for a while. I think the week will be full putting the finishing touches on RacerTD and getting the body tub painted to be able to work on much else.

I think that’s about it for now…Later