This Stag has an interesting history. Some time ago, a friend of mine
was in Sarasota at a car auction and he called me telling me there was
a Triumph Stag going at auction for less than a thousand dollars, and it was an 8 on a scale of
10 in condition. He also told me the car was burgundy. Of course, a Stag at that price, how could
I refuse, and I told him to go ahead and bid on it.
Well $1,000 turned into $3,250 and the car was mine!
Great! Another Triumph! And an 8 out of 10 condition!!!!....NOT!
My wife, Susan, and I
traveled to Central Florida to see the car where we learned a little about its history. You see,
the car had been in Nellam's Auto Museum in Sarasota for the past 17 years. It had belonged to
the owner's son-in-law who couldn't keep the car running, and conned his father-in-law into
putting the car on display. So there it sat for 17 years. Of course, in that time no one bothered
to run the car, so when I got it all the brakes were frozen, the motor had 3 spun bearings,
the paint was crazed and
cracked, the chrome was peeling and pitted, the exhaust was falling off the car, and the car was in
general in a 2 to 3 condition on a scale of 10.
Oh, my friend is color blind also, as
the car is not burgundy, but bright purple (Magenta), the original Triumph color.
So once again began a full blown
restoration including a bare metal strip down, where we discovered that the car had been involved
in an accident in it's past life. The left rear quarter panel was full of Bondo, and under that were
70+ dent puller holes! After grinding all of that out, we tried to weld the holes up and shrink the
panel, but it was too far gone, so during the restoration the damaged area was cut out and a new panel was fabricated
and welded in.
I struggled with whether to rebuild the original Triumph 3 liter motor (which is known to
be a problem) or fitting a Rover motor, a popular conversion. In the end, I elected to stay with
originality, and made a commitment to do any and all modifications to the Triumph engine that would make
it more reliable, including an up-rated 12 vane water pump, new 4 core radiator, and head modifications to
ensure proper cooling.
The engine bay was prepped for paint and in the end, we decided to also
stick with the original magenta color. The engine bay looked fantastic with the fresh motor
installed, and then disaster... my good friend Dean Houston lost his large shop in Boca Raton,
and moved to much smaller space which meant that my project had to come home to my garage,
where it sat, unfinished for about a year.
The car looked pretty sorry in primer with all the parts
thrown into the interior. Finally I struck a deal with my brother John to drag the car to
Gainesville and have a "painter" there finish up the body work and paint. Thus began a 10 month long
fight with this prima donna body guy (NOT John or June) who kept insisting that the deal
he had made was unfair, and every time I gave him additional money, he just wanted more.
Only long after the car was done did I learn that the painter had abandoned the job half finished,
and that John and June had re-done much of the car as this JERK (the body guy) did such a bad job
on the work he had done, that the car looked terrible. Just to show how bad this guy was,
he did things like mix an entire gallon of paint at one time!! At $350 a gallon!!!
So, after almost a year, the paint was done (thank you, June) and the car returned to South Florida.
To be honest, I was so relieved to have the car back, that I put this bad experiance behind me and
got cracking on putting the car back together. By now I had owned the car for three and a half
years, and had still not driven it one mile!
The first thing I set out to do was install the interior. New carpets had been in a box
for about 3 years, and these were installed, but just didn't look right. I removed them, and
installed some heavy jute padding under them, then spent another weekend re-installing the
carpets. What a difference! They now look better than factory.
The seats were being held hostage in a Gainesville upholsterer's shop, until she got the right
attitude to tackle fixing the bolsters that needed repair. We retained the original center
sections, and put new original grain bolsters on the driver & passenger seat along with new
piping.
The dash and wood veneers were in excellent condition, so the balance of the interior consisted of
installing new door panels, reinstalling the original quarter trim panels and installing
a new canvas top.
An NOS driver's door mirror was bought from Jaguar at an outrageous price (it is the same unit
as a XKE Series III) and all new door handle chrome was installed.
I had already installed the restored/rebuilt front and rear suspension, and installed a new
stainless steel exhaust system to finish the underside of the car.
The chrome was done by a shop in Melbourne, and while it was expensive, it really makes the car
look good. The re-chromed bumpers went on followed by all of the driving lights, and suddenly
it was a car again!
After four and a half years the car was back together!!!!
OK, it didn't run yet, but it was whole! This was a major accomplishment as the parts had
been spread from Sarasota to Boca Raton to Pompano to Gainesville and back again. It is amazing
that in the whole restoration the only part to go missing was the hood prop rod.
One weekend, Dean Houston had come down to Pompano from Pt. St. Lucie to help me finally get the car
running. After sorting out a few problems, like a plugged fuel line, the car fired up and ran
great. It was amazing! I sorted out the fuel problem and sorted out a problem in the cooling
system just in time for our British car club's big annual show, where on February 18th, 1999
the car made it's debut at the 7th Annual British Classic Car Show at Mizner Park, in Boca Raton,
Florida.
I had thought about driving it to the show, but discretion won out and I had a tow truck bring
the car, with my Herald on the back hook of the same wrecker to Mizner Park. I drove my
friend, Keith Headley's, 1971 Stag to the show, as I had borrowed the car for about 4 months as
a guide to help me put my car back together.
The car showed great, although there were lots of things unfinished, and it won second place in
a class of five Stags.
There were lots of "teething" problems, like leaky automatic transmission hoses (custom made
brand new ones) and lots of electrical gremlins to chase down, but one by one they were worked
out.
Today, almost all of the problems are resolved, (although I still have to put the windshield
chrome trim on, but that's another story) and Susan and I have driven the car all over the state
of Florida, including 2 trips to Lake City, a trip to St. Augustine, several trips to Orlando,
and lots of back and forth trips to Vero Beach. It is a wonderful road car with a great ride
and excellent handling characteristics. And the burble of the V8 can't be beat.
