Well, I finally badgered Fred long enough until he capitulated and started the restoration of the 1958 TR3A. On Saturday, 5/16 he un-tarped the car and rolled it into the bay.
Here are the details on the car:
1958 Triumph TR3A
Commission number TS34643L Here is a link that deciphers the commission numbers.
Status:
Engine partially disassembled, however pistons are seized.
In true English car fashion, the car came with several boxes of "extra parts".
The body has surprisingly very little rust.
In order to get the ball rolling, Fred gave himself a self-imposed deadline of June 6 to have the body removed and at the body shop. So..... off with the fenders, etc.
First, squirt BG Enforce onto all bolts/nuts slated for removal (gotta loosen up all the years of rust, dirt, stuff). 
It turns out that the English use a LOT of bolts to hold on the simplest of parts.
It turns out that the English use a LOT of bolts to hold on the simplest of parts.
The second step is for Fred to explain to me what a wrench is. 
Ok, that might be pushing it a bit...but I did feel that way throughout the morning. So, we start taking stuff off. And we start photographing it all so we know how the heck to put it all back together.
While taking the door off, a large amount of dirt and sunflower seeds fell out of the door panel. Apparently the door also doubles as a nest for a critter.
Ok, that might be pushing it a bit...but I did feel that way throughout the morning. So, we start taking stuff off. And we start photographing it all so we know how the heck to put it all back together. While taking the door off, a large amount of dirt and sunflower seeds fell out of the door panel. Apparently the door also doubles as a nest for a critter.
While taking the door panel off, Fred comments that for some strange reason they used wood screws to hold on the side curtain bracing. After taking the part off he realizes that there is a part made out of wood inside the door!
The removal of the first fender called for some picture taking....
Apparently the front end was replaced some time ago, and used to be red.
Along the way we encountered some "interesting" British engineering. For example, here is the steering column bracing. It should be interesting to see how long it will take to figure out how to get this back on.
The dash finally came out.
The day ended with us stuck on removal of the rear fenders. The flat head screws were frozen with body paint and required more patience than we had left in us. We will update this blog as we progress. Thanks for reading!
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