The Rolling Restoration Dream Finally Crashed !

April 2010,

For the last 10 months I'd been telling myself that I could do a "rolling restoration", meaning , repairing the Six just small chunks at a time while still being able to drive the car in between times.  Well, the engine fiasco  put that idea to rest....this car isn't going any where for a long time !
Thankfully I have a very perceptive and understanding wife, who all along has been telling me that this is a hobby car and there is no time table on when it needs to be completed, so just enjoy in process.

With those words in mind, I began dismantling more "stuff" like this wiring harness...

How do you spell spaghetti ?

Gee, I wonder why the fuses were blowing ?"

Would you trust this guy with your wiring harness ?

Ted Tells Me The Facts of Life....(About Thrust Washers)

March 2010,

During my visit with Ted Schumacher, he asked me if I understood the concept of thrust washers in the TR6 engine.  Of course my answer was "thrust who" !?!  So Ted pulled a set of new thrust washers off the shelf and explained where they went in the engine (at the rear of the engine around the crankshaft), what their purpose was (control the fore/aft movement of the crankshaft) a.k.a. "float", and most importantly, how to measure the amount of float (should be between 6 and 9 thousands of an inch).

On the drive back home, I got a sinking feeling that the float in my engine was more that .009 of an inch !  Ted had also explained  that the bronze face of the washers was designed to be sacrificed in order to preserve the crankshaft (clutch usage is what tries to move the crankshaft  fore and aft ) ,and checking the float was something that must be done annually or every 10K miles.

Once I got home, I went to the 6-Pack Forum and did a search on "thrust washers".  It seems this has been a favorite topic over the years as many threads were retrieved for me to read. I learned that if the float becomes too great from worn washers,  they will fall out of their crankshaft nesting place and lay in the oil pan. Once that happens, the crankshaft and and block will slowly destory each other !

During my next visit to the "Man Cave" (my garage) where I am working on "Tillie", I grabbed  the engine damper and gave a it yank....it moved waaaay too much (you should hardly feel .009), so ,I got a ruler and rough measured about 1/8 inch movement, that's 125 thousands !!  Based on what I had read on the 6-Pack threads, I knew my thrust washers were laying in my oil pan, and who knows how long the crankshaft and engine block had been tearing each other apart.

Here is what I saw when I dropped the oil pan....

Here are some of the metal chunks / shavings

And finally the battered thrust washers

You'll notice the washer on the left appears to look pretty good, while the one on the right shows battle scars. I'm told that is very common, as the left washer was in front of the crank, while the right washer was at the rear, and it  takes the most abuse. 
At this point , I know I'll need to have the engine rebuilt. The issue is whether or not the crankshaft and engine block can be salvaged.

 Ted has assured me that he has the machine shop resources available when it comes time to deal with the engine, so for now I've put the whole engine mess on the back burner.

A Visit with Ted at TSI

February 2010

I had been making a list of things to order from TSI and finally pulled the trigger on ordering those parts.  When Ted had  my shopping list completed, he called and mentioned that since I lived just a little over an hour from his shop, I might want to drive down and pick up the order, saving the shipping cost.  It turned out to be a sunny winter day, and the roads were clear, so I pointed my Ram truck to Pandora, Ohio, home of Ted Schumacher Imported Automotive.

A short list of Ted's 40+ year involvement with British iron includes racing, engine building,  part design, and part manufacture.  He is truly a legend among British car enthusiasts!  These days, other vendors do the actual parts manufacture, engine rebuilding, etc., but the work is done to Ted's specifications....to very high standards !

For me, one highlight of the visit was seeing his shop.  The building that is home to TSI was originally opened in 1914 as a Dodge dealership by Ted's  uncle, Leon Steiner.(Steiner Motor Sales) Ted's dad worked in the dealership before and after WWII, (Leon had all daughters),until retiring in 1968,and it remained a Dodge / Plymouth dealer until the franshise was sold in 1987.  In 2000, Ted was able to purchase back the building and is restoring it to look like it did when he worked there as a kid the the 40's and 50's....very cool!

Just to show you what a small world we live in, my first grade teacher in 1954 was a Miss Steiner, and her brother, Hayden Steiner, lived next door to where I was growing up. They were originally from Pandora, and when I asked Ted, he confirmed they were his mother's kin.  That explains why they always drove Dodges bought from the dealer in Pandora !!

Here is an example of Ted seeing a need and providing a fix.  The standard oil pressure line from the engine to the oil gauge in the dash was plastic, and when it broke, it made a mess.  Ted's fix is a braided stainless steel line....

Likewise, part of the line from the clutch master cylinder to the slave cylinder was plastic.  Braided stainless steel is way tougher and looks great !

Original Color verses New Color

For you eagle eye folks, you may have noticed that my car's "birth certificate" said it left the factory painted "Maple".  Obviously the car is now painted red, so I thought I'd post a picture of a TR6 in the original Maple Brown color.

This photo was one I snagged off eBay of a TR6 that was for sale, for you to see what Maple Brown really looked like...you don't see many Sixes still painted this color.  Yeah I know, it's looks a bit like shiny mud !

Wife Rhoda and I are still debating what color to use when it comes time to paint our Six.  For a while I thought the original color of Mallard Blue was going to be our new color, but now I'm not so sure.  I have seen a couple of Sixes painted black, and even though black was not offered as an option on the TR6, it does look pretty nice!
Here is a car in the Mallard Blue color...

Here is one in black...

Well, it's not like we need to make a decision any time soon, but it's fun to think about !!

Factory Records

It's always fun to hear about the "factory records" that classic car guys find for their cars.  Since Triumph went out of business in the early '80's I didn't have much hope of finding such a record for my Six.  Imagine my delight / surprise when one day on the 6-Pack forum someone mentioned the "British Motor Industry Heritage Trust" !  It seems this organization  had collected all the factory records, and for about $70.00  would do a search for the VIN / Chassis number of your car. They  send a very nice certificate with all the details of how and when your car left the assembly line, and even the name of the ship on which it came to the USA.
My sweet wife took the certificate for my car to our local frame shop and had it professionally framed, so it now hangs on the wall next to my desk.  Very cool !

Here is a closer look at the details on the certificate.

Rusty Floors

December 2009
Well of course the fire made me wonder how many more holes were in the floor ! I can't say the previous owner didn't warn me.   He told me the floors had rusted through and that he had them fixed. ( I have the receipt.)  But again, I can only blame myself. I saw new metal under the carpet and figured all was good.  An experienced Triumph buyer would have put the car up on a lift for a closer look !  The vendor who did the floor repair just slapped some new tin over the rusty floors and called it good.  SIGH !!

Here are some pixs of the problem.

Here was the fix !!

Hello TRF, send me new floors, inner and outer rocker panels.

It Was Just a Small Fire......

November 2009
I was using a heat gun and scraper to remove the undercoating / gunk from inside the fenders and the front "tub" where the fenders attach. There are small crevices that the scraper won't fit in, so I was carefully using a propane torch to burn the undercoating , and then I could use a wire brush to remove the remains.
All was going well until I saw flames inside the passenger side of the car !!  I'd like to say I didn't panic, but truth be told, I was pretty excited....not in a good way.  Thankfully the carpet that was burning was flame resistant, and burned slowly, giving me time to get my fire extinguisher on the job....WHEW, this scared the pants off me !
It turned out the rocker panel I was using the torch on had a big old rust hole that allowed the flame to reach the interior carpet!

 Well, the passenger side carpet was ruined, and the interior of the car was covered in soot from the flames.
The only course of action was to start taking apart the interior and cleaning things up the best I could.

Bad Case of "WIIT" (While I'm In There)

Fall 2009
I kept pulling parts off the engine bay and front suspension, being careful to label the big parts and bag/label the small parts. I placed an order to Good Parts for the front bushing kit and to TSI (Ted Schumacher) for all the smaller parts like trunion rebuild kits, etc.

The front fenders came off, and a lot of time was spent cleaning off the under coating so I could determine their condition

Oh, did I mention the wiring harness ?   Not good....

Gosh, I wonder if this accelerator control rod is supposed to be curvy ?   NOT !

Where to start ?

The summer of 2009 was a time of learning for me.  I wasn't comfortable driving the Six, since I didn't know what all would require attention, so I spent most of the summer reading older threads in the 6-Pack forum, and trying to "fix" and cleanup smaller items on the car.

By the fall of 2009, my plan was to rebuild the front suspension and clean up / repaint the engine bay.

Finally, a little bit of bare metal !

The engine bay renovation was  quickly getting out of control ! 

Ah what the heck, I'll just pull off some more parts off the engine, that way I'll have more room to work !!

6-Pack to the rescue

 6-Pack, a.k.a. The TR6/250 Car Club of America, is the most knowledgeable group of folks anyone could find when it comes to the Triumph TR6.  Once I realized "Tillie" was going to need a lot of attention, I spent the best $30.00 of this whole project and joined the Pack.
The on-line forum is chocked full of good advise going back several years. Questions are not treated with flaming answers, but in a polite, professional manner. The advise I got from the Pack convinced me I could indeed work on my car myself, that a whole slew of cottage industry specialists / vendors are available, and the folks on the forum have "been there, done that" for most any question that might come up.

So, with just a bit of trepidation, I began to dig in, thinking I could do a "rolling renovation" starting with the front half of the car.

I want to mention two of the 6-Pack gang who have gone way above and beyond when it comes to documenting all the work that has gone into their cars.

  

 "Brosky"...www.74TR6.com

"Bobby D"....tr6.danielsonfamily.org

Both these guys take the time to photo document any work that is done on their cars and present it in a way that even a novice like me can understand. On top of that, their work is all done to a very high standard, giving us new folks something to strive for !

Thanks guys !!