The TR4 last seen undergoing frame repair at East Coast Collsion & Restoration

Sometimes we’ll run a roadtest on a rainy day to check for weather tightness.  This red TR4A was last seen on this page about six feet up in the air undergoing extensive repairs to the rear of the frame at East Coast Collision & Restoration in Mount Holly.  It was sympathetically prepared for sale with a paint job, new upholstery and a frame full of plastic filler.  This is the M.O. of a certain New York metro area operator which we’ve seen several times before.

  In any event, having a frame under the back half of the car again was a transformative experience as far as the handling is concerned.  

We took the top brake hose off a TD that came from the same seller. Click to enlarge

The brake hose on the top is an original which came off an MG TD in the same Arrest-Me Red livery from the same source.  It was so badly deteriorated that it dissolved on contact.    It was kind of hard to miss if you looked underneath the car.  Although the front brake hoses had been replaced, all six wheel cylinders were seized and you could barely stop it.

  For the sake of your own physical safety, as well as that of your investment, do your “Due Diligence” or call us for assistance.  

Road testing the TF 1500 on a sunny spring day

We found a sunny day to roadtest this TF 1500 which last turned a wheel in 1965.  Some carb tuning is in order, as well as a set of replacements for these 45 year old tires. When I asked the owner if he wasn’t going to paint the car, he replied, “I think I’d like to drive around a little first”.  Our kind of guy.

David roadtests the O.E.W. MGB, Friday, about 2:00pm

Here in New England we like to say, “If you don’t like the weather, wait a few minutes, it’ll change”  Yesterday at this time it was snowing.  

 This photo is of the initial roadtest of Old English White MGB, earlier this afternoon.  My red driving gloves are from NAPA and they say “Mechanics” on them.  Don’t be fooled by the price, they’re just as good as the Italian String-Back variety, and you can’t throw those in the washing machine when they get dirty.

On the Westminster West Road with the O.E.W. MGB

Our standard short course roadtest is the the Putney snowplow turn around on the Westminster West road.  It’s five miles out & back, and if you’re not back in 15 minutes, we know where to go looking.  This was enough of a shakeout to confirm that everything is working including the overdrive.  The accelerator is a little sticky coming off a closed throttle, but that’s the biggest item on our punchlist.  

John retorques the MGB cylinder head

Our protocol with fresh engines is to run them up for about five minutes, shut down and let ’em heat soak for ten.  Then we re-torque the cylinder head & readjust the valves.  We do it again after the first roadtest, and this engine will see a repeat after we’ve run our 25 mile loop.  

  We struggled mightily  this week mostly with the windshield, but it’s all been worth it, because the car has a nice feel to it.

A picture taken late last week of the Black Tulip MGC. Click to enlarge for detail

It was very difficult to capture a sense of the color of this “Black Tulip” MGC, however we had some pretty good light last Friday, and here it is.  That’s the infamous winter-beater MGB GT behind it

"Black Tulip" MGC GT in front of our storage garage Thursday afternoon

Mid-April has produced some exceedingly nice days for road test & evaluation work.  We completed the high speed testing of the Black Tulip MGC GT Thursday afternoon on Interstate 91 between Putney and Brattleboro.  Apart from a little twitchy-ness because this car hasn’t been on the alignment rack yet, it went like a cannon with a pleasing lack of drama.  We relinquished it to the owner later in the day, and we’re already looking forward to the 500 mile check over.  

MGC GT interior in biscuit, less door cappings.

In the beginning we wern’t too sure about the paint and upholstery colors, but the final conscensus is it’s a home run.   As it worked out, Patrick ended up  completely recovering the dashboard, while Warner did the door panels & carpets, and Butch retrimmed the seats.  Because we’re going to have two Austin Healeys to put back together soon, we’ll probably be lateralling off some of our upholstery work to Richard Hurd at Hurd’s upholstering.  

  Our first rule of sublets is don’t… unless you’re handing it to someone who’s better than you are, and Dick Hurd is to leather and fabric, what Jon Thompson at Sports Car Specialties is to paint & sheetmetal.

Patrick manually checks MGC oil pressure

About a month ago while we were still waiting for a break in the weather for road testing, we had some concerns about the oil pressure readings, so Patrick checked them against our Snap-on mechanical gauge.  As a result, we tossed the brand new reproduction oil pressure sender and dug up a used one which almost exactly corresponded to our test gauge.  You can draw your own conclusions, but it’s why we say used is sometimes better than new.

                                      ******************

Butch adjusts the MGB fender in order to fit the windshield

Meanwhile, we’re close to starting up this MGB and running in a few miles.

*DEFINITION:  “One off”  Limited to a single time, something unique or special

One of the annual rites of spring is the appearance of cars which we’ve never seen before, some of them quite nice, and some of them quite nice appearing, only to reveal a veritable shop of horrors underneath.  It would not be off the mark to say that about two thirds of the “restored” cars that pass thru here for the first time are really testimonials to the art of plastic sculpture.  One particularly memorable MGB actually had the rear quarter panels formed in expanding foam insulation with a skim coat of Bondo to provide the final shape, a condition only discovered by the owner after they caught fire !
This isn’t one of them.  Take a closer look here.  This MGA is getting a “one off” rebuild.  In this picture the car is fixtured to the Global Jig frame bench, you can see the measuring equipment above and around it.  While the more common Global Jig application is for collision work, in this case it’s being employed to ensure that all of the sheetmetal on the car is symmetrical.  Any “body man” who tells you he doesn’t need a frame bench to align the structure of your car while it’s under restoration is a fool.  If you still hire him to do the work, that makes you a fool, too.
These panels were hand formed on the “Pullmax” power hammer which you can see to the center right of the post in the last picture.  It’s all butt-welded, not lap jointed.  This kind of work doesn’t come cheap, of course, but even in the short run, neither does the crappy but shiny job from the boys down at the Bondo Shop.
Look familiar ?  It’s the same car, previously a Concours winner in Stowe at the British Invasion, a true dual purpose machine,  (names redacted) are seen here rehanging all the right hand sheetmetal  after an off road excursion on the West Virginia Rally on 2007.  Eventually, this car was retired from competition in favor of  the TR3 profiled in a cover story in the January issue of Hemmings Sports & Exotics.  Go to “In The News” on this website for the link.

Eddie checks his cardboard template against a TR4A frame at East Coast Collision & Restoration. Can you identify the rear sheetmetal of the two marques back against the wall ?

Speaking of creative uses of plastic filler, it was used to replace the left hand frame rail of this TR4A for as far as the eye can see.  This was the least damaged of three newly purchased Independant Rear Suspension Triumphs we had in here in quick succession last year.

The owner of one of those cars originally contacted us about an unusual braking condition whereby the car would pull to the right  under a moderate pedal application and then straighten out.  This turned out to be the left rear trailing arm pulling completely away from the rusted-thru frame and steering the car off the road.  The seller from Connecticut, a long time flipper of British cars claimed never to have looked underneath.  Make sure you look underneath.  Or call us.

Elisha installs window regulators in the doors for this Mk2 Jaguar at East Coast Collision in Mount Holly

Here’s Elisha installing the window regulators in the doors of the Mk2 Jaguar behind him.  Partially visible behind Elisha is the the front structure of another Austin Healey in all its glorious dishabille.

All pictures Taken Tuesday, April 5, except as noted