My sister-in-law, Fredda, was driving around Hallandale, Florida and pulled up to a stop light. Next to her was this funny little convertible with the words "TRIUMPH" on the trunk. Well, her husband (my brother) Mark is also afflicted with the dreaded British Sports Car disease, andhas owned his fair share of LBCs, including TVRs, Triumphs, MGs, Jaguars and Lotus, so Freddawas pretty familiar with most of the models. But she just didn't know what that funny littlecar was. She rolled the window down and asked the driver about the car, who promptly handed hera few photos and told her it was for sale.

A few days later, Fredda gave me the photos, saying, "Here is your next Triumph". I promptlystuck the pictures in a drawer and forgot about them for two months.

Then while looking for something, I found them, and seeing the phone number on the back, calledthe owner to see if he still had the car. He did, and I made arrangements to go see the car at hiswork, an auto trim shop.

In the time between getting the pictures and seeing the car, the owner had replaced the interiorwith white seats and blue fuzzy (cheap) carpet and a refinished dashboard.

The body was in fair shape, having miscellaneous dents and dings on every panel, but was rust free.Just the week before I saw the car, the owner had been side swiped by a hit-and-run driver that put a crease down the entire drivers side, breaking the door handle off.

The top was full of holes, but that was OK because the rear window was so black with age, that you had to look out the holes to see behind the car.

Under the hood was a monstrous 1200cc 4 cyl Triumph motor, that ran pretty well, considering that the down draft Solex carb was in such bad shape that you had to put your foot to the floorjust to keep the car running.

The brakes worked only if you pumped them 4 or 5 times, which was a little difficult as ifyou took your foot off the gas, the car would stall!

We put the car up on a lift, and found the chassis and floors to be solid and in good shape.

Great, just what I needed, another car that needed brakes, electrical, suspension, exhaust and motor work. But, I had to have it and $1,000 later the car was mine.

I decided that the car was running well enough to drive to Boca Raton, to my good friend,Dean Houston's British Sports Car Works. The poor little thing could barely make 35mph onI-95, but it made it all the way without a hitch. Well, almost.

You see, while exiting I-95 I had to make a choice of keeping my foot on the gas (to keep the car running) and to push the clutch so I could shift. That means I had no foot availableto push the brakes (which really didn't work anyway). So I went around the exit ramp at 35-40 mph (way to fast for a car in this shape) and all the wires that the DPO (dang prior owner)had NOT hooked back up after refinishing the dash grounded against the car's bulkhead, and thedash caught on fire!

I had a choice of stopping on the road and watching the little car burn, or continue to Dean's shop and get something to put it out. Fortunately, it was really only smouldering, rather than fully ablaze, and I pulled into Dean's with smoke pouring from the car, but managed to get thingsunder control.

Then began the real work. Within the next few weeks I replaced the dash wiring, put a new top on,rebuilt all the hydraulics including replacing the brakes (all drums originally) with a frontdisc set up from a Spitfire, installed a new clutch, and put on a set of twin SU carbs to replacethat horrible old Solex.

Now at least the car ran well, but still looked awful. We drove it this way for a year or so, even all the way to Orlando and back for a car show (4 hours each way) and the car was lots of fun.

The next summer, while my wife, Susan, was away visiting her grandmother, I made a plan tosurprise her with a new paint job on "Harry".

I stripped the car down, removing all the glass, chrome and interior. Took the car to a paintshop and after much begging and pleading, I had all the dents and dings fixed and the car repainted in a very Florida color, turquoise. It was a real race to finish the car beforeSusan came home, and while the car was not fully done, she was very surprised to see "Harry" inhis new color.

In addition to the paint and body work, all new window rubbers were installed, the interior was cleaned and put back in place, a new set of proper carpets was installed, new rubber bumpers werebrought back from England by some friends of ours, and a bunch of other stuff was installed,refinished or renewed to finish the details. In short, the car looked great!

Other modifications came later when I took the opportunity to replace the original 4 speedtransmission with a J type overdrive transmission from a late model Spitfire and a set ofwire wheels.

"Harry" has not had as extensive a restoration as some of my other cars, and there is still workthat needs doing, but after almost 10 years, the car still looks fantastic, drives well and always gets great reactions from other folks on the road.