Justin,
I need hood and fenders for my TR250 race car -- any leads about cars in So
Cal that I could salvage for this purpose would be appreciated. I am in
Seattle and have a trailer.
Thanks,
Chuck
On 2/7/07, Justin Wagner <jmwagner@greenheart.com> wrote:
>
> The following is probably obvious, but I'll write it assuming that some
> reader might have ZERO experience with rust and TR's.... --Justin
>
>
> Looking for rust:
>
> Along the top edges of the wings... particularly the rear quarter
> panels just behind the taillights along the top leading edge. If you
> see some bubbling of paint, you can assume it's 500% worse under the
> paint.
> Around the Battery Box
> Under the floorboard carpets... foot wells, and behind the seats.
> Open the boot lid and look at the backside of the boot lid, near the
> lowest leading edge..around the welded in structural steel, etc.
> Sometimes there is very terminal rust there that is easily hidden by a
> good bondo job on the outside of the boot.
> The rocker panels tend to rust badly. Look for bubbling or holes there.
>
> Frame - just inspect carefully with an emphasis on where suspension
> parts bolt to the frame. Look for deep pitting, thin metal. The very
> bottom of the box frame, particularly toward the rear of the car, is
> where you'll often find the most obvious signs of severe "rust from the
> inside out of the frame".. If there's any suspicious areas, tap it,
> reasonably gently, with hammer/wrench, etc.. to see if it's
> brittle-thin... etc. I've seen holes in the bottom and inside flats
> of the frame on TR's that you could stick your hand into. This sort of
> rust is serious, as it's from the inside out. It's not something you
> can just wire brush and throw some paint on.
>
> MY ADVICE... If the car has spent time in rust-belt state (salted
> roads) or is otherwise showing serious signs of rust, PASS on it.
> These cars are not so rare that, with a little patience, you can't find
> a perfectly fine car, with minimal rust, from a sun-belt state, and have
> it shipped. $1000 in shipping fees, for example, is FAR FAR FAR less
> than the cost of repairing serious rust. It blows my mind when I see
> articles about ground up restorations of TR4/4A's in Britain, and they
> show entire sub-panel areas being fabricated from scratch, etc... all
> over the car... when I know... TR4 cars, with practically no
> rust, are sitting around California, just waiting for a buyer. Some are
> even hard for the owners to sell, because despite the lack of rust, the
> rest of the car is a basket case, so fellow Californian's aren't
> interested. It's noble that they put so much into repairing those old
> rust buckets in England, etc., but really... why not save that level of
> restoration for cars that are extremely rare? "No child left behind"
> makes sense for kids, but I think the world will survive if a
> rusted/clapped out TR4, without any particular history that makes it
> extraordinary, is allowed a dignified demise, in order that their parts
> can be harvested and passed along to other restorations.
>
> I sold a rust free, California TR4A IRS frame to a guy in Penn... The
> rest of his TR4A was fine, but his frame was riddled with rust. He
> saved a lot of time and effort, just buying that frame from me.
> Sometimes combining a rust-belt car with a sun-belt former-parts car,
> etc., is a way to go.
>
> --Justin
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Scott Janzen wrote:
>
> >sorry to bomb the list with a non-racing thread, but I'm going to inspect
> a
> >1961 TR4, supposedly very pristine, unrestored body, with well maintained
> >mechanicals that I hope to buy and use weekend fun. Where are the
> typical
> >spots to look for rust on the body/frame?
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--
Chuck Arnold
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