Well it’s done! My TR3B looks great!  Of course, I’ve had it out only twice since taking it home late last year, but it ran well then and no reason not to expect it to run well again this Spring.  But for now, Baby stays in the garage under 3 covers with an occasional startup to keep the engine lubed and the battery fresh.

It all started back in September 1996 with a telephone call from my son, John, from Maryland.  He owns two TR3A’s and is forever working on them. He saw an ad for a TR3B and sold me on the idea of starting another restoration. I’d just completed a 5 year job on a 1930 Ford Tudor  What sold me was the fact that the B model is fairly rare as only 3000 were made expressly for the US market.

Well, I negotiated and bought it without ever having seen it.  Boy, I’ll never do that again!  It came from Texas and was delivered with a tow at the back of a Chevy Blazer.  It looked good from my doorway, but the enthusiasm waned considerably as I got a closer look.  We unhooked it and ran it around the sub-division, concluded our business, and the seller took off. The more I looked at it, the more body problems I discovered.  Plus mechanically it left a lot to be desired. I got it to Charlie Steger on Manchester for a valve job and check of the brakes which needed adjustment.  Of course we checked and changed oil and transmission fluids. Looked all over, but couldn’t find the power steering fill up.  haven’t to this day!

Anyway, I played with it for a year and a half and decided I’d had enough of frozen bolts, rusted parts and body scraping and sanding.  And who needs two carburetors for just four cylinders?

I looked for a company I could trust to restore it as a good looking runner.  I found Charley Key at British Cars of America and we set a budget and he picked up the Baby in mid 1998.  We did a complete body off restoration with pictures every step of the way. The body came back in tip top shape with the shiniest coat of black I have ever seen. It appeared we were on budget right up to mid 2000.  Then all sense of sanity evaporated. We rarely repaired anything unless it was totally unavailable from some source and replaced everything with new.  What started out as a good looking runner ended up a top notch show car as well as an excellent runner!

We are looking forward to many miles of fun motoring this next summer and for many years thereafter!  As much as I like this little car, I must admit, my first love will always be my 1930 Ford Flivva! 

Restoration photos.

 

 

 

 Editor's note:  I don't know what the photo on the right is!

The completed restoration.