HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Happy holidays. I can’t believe in 2 days I will have been up here in NH a year already. I should do the year in retrospect but I think that might depress me a little. I do miss Bufflo and hope to spend a little more time there this year

In the shop this week…the engine rebuild went home. We had a bit of trouble with the front carb, the fast idle cam wasn’t on the carbs and we didn’t have a set up on hand, so dad is going to make a house call and correct the problem.

That leaves the fender repair as the last service job of the year. Dad hopes to have that fender painted and on shortly.

On the restoration front… the Beasts frame is painted…yeaa!!! That opens the paint booth for BlownTC to finally move to the front of the shop and get into the booth. The only problem is that there is now 2 feet of snow to go through to get to the back of the shop. I guess dad is going to have to bring the tractor and blower down to the shop next week.

TF Frame

The Beasts trans was pulled apart yesterday…ouch. I seems as though something (a bit of metal?) has been through the trans at one time. There are small chips out of a few of the teeth in second and third gear. There is the usual wear on a 50 year old transmission, wear on the cluster gear, first gear and the first and second gear sliding hub. The scare came when we tried to get parts. The cluster is no longer available, as well as the sliding hub. Luckily a few phone calls secured the parts we need for this trans and a few spares for the shop. Unfortunately we probably found one of the last cluster gears available. I hope there’s enough demand for trans parts to make it lucrative for a machine shop to tool up and make them.

Some of the major steps done outside of the shop are completed. The sheet metal is back from the stripper, the machine work is completed on the engine (it’s back) and the shocks have been rebuilt and are back.

Sheet metal back from stripper

The engine is going back together. The crank, cam and pistons are in. The timing gears and chain are back on. The oil pump has been rebuilt and is on. So there is some decent progress on the engine. I could see the engine back together and ready for paint in no time.

TF Engine

It’s late, I’m beat, I hope this post made sense…Later

Here it is!

As promised here’s the update!

The unplanned engine rebuild is finished. We are just waiting for some decent roads for the customer to have it trucked home. I would say bite the bullet and drive it hardy but with the road salt and all… The engine looks great and purrs like a…an MG!

Just an oil change???

The fender on the accident victim has a bit of welding to do on the new fender then it’s off to paint. It’s been fitted and looks nice. The push is to get these two, last of the service season, cars back home. Then the winter restoration period can get into full swing. Not that restorations have fallen by the wayside, we have made progress on non-paint restoration work but we need the paint booth to get into full swing.

Fender fitted

Paint wise we have a line up that’s scary. First is the accident finder on the TD. Then the doors for 53TD. The frame for the TF. By then the two TD’s should be gone and the floor opened up. The TF frame will find a home where it was taken apart. That will leave the booth open and BlownTC can come into the main shop. The body is going to be taken off so the frame can be painted decently. Then the rest of BlownTC and 53TD’s body parts need painting. The TA body tub will be back by spring and that’s another body and parts that will need painting. My personal TD body parts (forget those.) The Beast’s body and parts…. get the picture. Quite a backlog for the paint booth isn't it?

The dash on 53TD is almost finished and the interior is going in. I’ll wire it soon. All we need is ummm painted body parts!!!

53TD Dash

BlownTC is my mission…to get it into the paint booth. A lot of the parts are ready to go back onto the frame but it isn’t painted. I want to get the TC into the main part of the shop so it can be worked on.

The Beast is moving along. A lot of the major components are on their way to rebirth. I hope to get the frame out of the paint booth soon. Today I went to the machine shop and retrieved the engine components. The stripper will be finished with the body parts this week, by weeks end we hope to have all of the body back. And the shocks will be rebuilt by the second week of January. The carbs and oil pump have been rebuilt…not bad progress!

The TF carbs

The 37TA body tub is nearly finished. The gauges are back from England. And the dash panel is nearing completion. Soon we will have to get the frame out of the Quonset hut and bring it into the shop. But we don’t expect to see the body tub until late winter early spring.

That brings most cars up to date. I’ll try to be a bit more vigilant on getting posts up on a regular basis.

Hey all

Yes I’m still around. I see people are looking here but there’s nothing new. For that I apologize. I’ve been busy with Holiday issues and setting up for winter. Tonight I will follow this post with an update on the shop with pictures…. Promise!