Driving Miss Tillie

After almost 5 years of restoration effort, it came time for the moment of truth....yep, actually driving the TR6!

The first ride was less than a mile around the neighborhood.  I came back with a list of items that needed attention before venturing any further....like getting the rear brakes adjusted so the brake pedal felt normal, and, fixing the horn so it wouldn't honk on its own!

Here I am leaving the safety of my driveway for the first time!

The goal was to have Tillie ready for the big 16th annual  British car show on June 1st at Fort Meigs in Perrysburg, Ohio.
It was at this show 5 years earlier that I found Tillie, so it was appropriate that her first show after restoration should be at the Fort.
The show is called "The British Return To Fort Meigs" and is sponsored by the  "Lake Erie British Car Club". This event is named  after a battle that took place there during the war of 1812...very historical!

 June 1st turned out to be a beautiful day weather wise, and a number of good friends came out to help Rhoda and me celebrate getting Tillie back on the road!

Fellow 6-Pack member Jeff also brought his recently finished car down from Michigan...what a beautiful job he did on the restoration.  It was great fun meeting him and comparing notes on the cars.

One unexpected event was winning "best in class" during the judging. 

Folks who have restored cars tell me there is always something to fix after you put a car back on the road, and I'm sure no different, but getting to this point gives a lot of satisfaction!

Back from the show and nothing fell off!  Rhoda followed me in  her car "just in case".

I'm going to continue updating this blog as I have a rather long list of things that need "sorting out",so stay tuned!

Miss Tillie Gets Her New Clothes!

Miss Tillie has been without her garments for almost 5 years, so putting in the new light tan interior was a  job I was really looking forward to doing...besides, how tough a job can it be?
As it turned out, pretty challenging!

The first order of business was getting the various plugs put in the floor holes and installing the gearbox cover.

I read various "how to" interior installation articles and then ended up picking and choosing from the various methods, so it's not factory correct, but hey, this whole restoration has been a bit "different" !

I got the carpet and jute padding from TRF.  It came in a big box with nothing labeled, so I needed to take each piece and lay it in the car to figure out what went where. By the way, working with the jute padding is really messy as the fibers stick to everything!

The jute padding requires some trimming and gluing, so these are the tools I used.

 I didn't want the carpet to be permanently installed, so I glued the padding to the floor carpets (and not to the floor itself)...after all, this is a roadster and it might get wet inside and need to be dried!

Putting the covers on the rear wheel humps proved to be the biggest challenge, and I even read the directions on how to do it!  As it turned out, most of my mistakes are covered.

As you can see, this is far from perfect but not too bad for a first time, amateur installation. 

View toward the front.

The seat sliders bolt to the floor and hold  the rear part of the carpet in place.  Be sure to install the seat belts before installing the seats.

My seats are out of a '69 TR6 and have the high back head rests that fold down (a one year only feature)...many consider these the most comfortable of the various seat designs Triumph used over the 8 years of TR6 production.

My interior is quite different from the way it left the factory, but I like to think it gives Miss Tillie a bit of a unique look!

Stay tuned for Tillie's first car show!