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1976 Triumph TR6
I purchased the TR6 in 1989 after seeing it parked in a local
drive way with a "For Sale" sign on it. Once again,
insanity took over and, while I still had a perfectly good little
British car (LBC) in the driveway (my MGB), I just had to have
another. It was a 1976 model with an original radio, factory A/C,
and overdrive tranny. This was all very desirable, being the last
year of production, but at the time I was just dumb lucky, as I
knew NOTHING about TRs. All I knew was that the MG kept
overheating on me, and I had heard that Triumphs were much better
in traffic. So once again, out came the check book and $800
lighter, I drove this one home. Hey, at least it ran!
The car sat in my car port for about a year while I collected
enough money and parts to do a cosmetic restoration on the car.
Finally, my brother John came down from Gainesville with his
trailer to pick up the now stripped to bare bones body back to
North Florida for a paint job. Naturally, the job turned into
much more than this and thus ensued 10 weekends of marathon trips
to North Florida where Susan and I would leave Pompano on Friday
after work, travel 300 miles to Gainesville, work like crazy all
day Saturday and half the day Sunday and drive home to be at work
all fresh and ready on Monday morning! The first job was to
replace the non-existent floor boards, then came the body work.
The car had at least 5 coats of paint on it, including the
original pimento red, two coats of signal red, and two coats of
yellow. A lot of this came off with a simple water pressure
washer, and the rest was chemically stripped. The few rust holes
were Bondo/fiberglassed up and a fresh coat of carmine red (an
original TR6 color) was finally applied by June (John's
girlfriend) over the freshly prepared surface. What a difference!
A new set of carpets, MOSS door panels and seat covers were
installed, along with a new top, and the car looked like a
million bucks. It was finished off with a fresh coat of paint on
the original wheels and a big fat set of Uniroyal Tiger Paws ,
which gave the car an aggressive look and great handling, too.
The last weekend to Gainesville was a true marathon, with help
from two of my brothers, Mark and John, from John's girlfriend,
June and from Susan. Everyone was all over that car, putting trim
on, painting the wheel wells, installing the top... It looked
like an Indy pit stop. At the end of the day, it looked terrific!
Of course this image disappeared when you opened the hood and saw
it looking almost as nasty as when I bought the car. Three
different colors of paint all over the place, and very dirty. The
mechanicals had been worked on a little less extensively, as a
good tune-up cured most of the cars running problems. Heck, even
the A/C was working! The car did get a new clutch, brakes and
wheel cylinders, but the suspension was in need of work and the
O/D was not working. The car was finished just in time for the
Vintage Triumph Registers South East Regional in Sebring Florida
in 1990. This had been a goal of the project, and we were pleased
as could be that we made it. To make things that much better, the
car won first place in the Participants' Choice category, even
though I had the hood closed during the entire show.
It was at this show that I met so many of the people who would
play a great part in my life for the next decade, and more. I
first met Dean Houston, George Proctor, Peter Burris-Meyer and
his wife George, Glenn Effinger, and a whole host of people who
are the "Triumph Gurus" in Florida.
After the show, I sorted out many of the little problems,
detailed under the hood with a few cans of flat black paint and
Susan and I enjoyed the car in this condition for another 2 years
and over 10,000 miles.. I was often heard saying, "This car
is so great even though it is all worn out, it must have been
fantastic when it was new". That is when the second stage of
the car's restoration began. It all started when the paint on the
trunk began reacting with something. Little bubbles began
appearing and I could see them on the front fenders as well. Oh
well, after all the other coats of paint I knew that I was
playing Russian Roulette with out doing a bare metal prep-job on
the car. I brought the car to Dean Houston's shop, by now a very
close friend, and proceeded to take the trim off the car to paint
the car properly. Pull the fenders, fix the rust with metal, and
paint the engine bay. It just so happened that another friend,
Jack Voller, was having Dean restore his 71 TR6 (a car that I
sold him) and Jack came up to me while I was taping up stuff and
said those words that will forever haunt me... "LARRY, WHEN
ARE YOU GOING TO DO ONE RIGHT..." Well, if that wasn't a
challenge, I don't know what was, and after making up a bunch of
lies to tell Susan, (like the winning LOTTO numbers are stamped
on the frame), we agreed to do a frame-off restoration. But, as
insurance, I told Susan that she would have to take the body
bolts off so she couldn't blame it on me later on. Thus began a 3
year restoration which entailed a rebuilt engine, blasted body
shell, all new fenders using either NOS or Heritage parts, new
door skins, new trunk and sills. The floors had already been
replaced the first go-round. Another new interior was ordered,
this time the correct material as furnished by The Roadster
Factory, new correct reflective top, and so much more I don't
even want to think of it. The car was returned to its original
Pimento (red orange) and many rare NOS Triumph and Lucas parts
were located to make this as perfect a TR6 as I could. I found
NOS green hoses long before TRF made the new ones (the NOS hoses
are olive drab, not Kelly green), NOS Lucas halogen headlights,
and lots of NOS lights, switches, etc. The car rolled out of the
shop while Dean was still buffing the paint out in order to make
it to the VTR Regional convention in Sebring 1993. Of course,
getting ready for the show required many all nighters which
resulted in my getting so ill that the doctor wanted to
hospitalize me, but having my priorities in order, I went ahead
to the car show on enough medication to choke a horse. The
weekend was a blur of illness and drug induced stupor, but the
car showed beautifully, and I collected a first in class award
with the TR6. I enjoyed this car for several years, and drove it
to as many events as I could, including taking it to The Roadster
Factory Summer Party in the summer of 1998.
Finally, at the VTR SE Regional event in Ocala, Florida I was
approached by a gentleman who made an offer to buy the car for an
amount that I could not refuse, and the car now lives in an air
conditioned garage in Savannah, Georgia. In retrospect, I wish I
had not sold the car as it was the most reliable and enjoyable
British car I have ever owned.
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