Who want's a TD?
I found a 1952 TD for sale around here. It has been sitting in a garage
for some time. The owner had it for a short time, maybe a year or so,
and bought it from a pal in the used car business out of Princeton,
Illinois.
Anyway, the car is in good shape, if dusty. It is black with tan
interior and a new tan cloth top. The paint looked good enough to drive
around but, as it was dirty and approaching dusk, there's not much yet
to know. Disk wheels, red grille. The doors wouldn't close flush and
there was some obvious flex in the scuttle when trying to latch the
doors.
I pushed it out of the garage, found the engine bay to be scrupulously
clean. I pulled the choke and the starter and it fired right off. It
idled nicely and the engine made lots of clattery noises which I assumed
were the solid tappets singing away. Nothing obvious from the bottom
end.
My concern is that it showed no oil pressure. Slight revving would make
the gauge just budge. So, my question:
Doesn't the oil pump hang off the port side of the motor, run oil
through a filter, and pipe it back into the motor? There seemed to be a
new oil pressure hose disappearing into the firewall but I didn't trace
it into the cockpit.
Is it possible for an XPAG motor to fire off without having the oil pump
operational? The sump was full.
Okay, it should just be a broken gauge, right?
Another thing that was odd was a funky clutch. The hydraulics seemed to
be working okay and I was getting good feel but the engagement was
really grabby. Literally, I only 'drove' the car back into the garage
and I managed to chirp the tires and don't think I moved the pedal
hardly at all on the upswing. Is the clutch made of funky material or
something?
All the other gauges and switches seemed to be there. I poked around
underneath and didn't see any rust but lots of undercoating. It was in a
lot better shape than some B's I've seen around here. All of the trim
and pieces parts seemed to be there. It would be a good driver if people
actually drive these cars.
The owner of the car is dead. His widow is selling the car and a decent
looking A coupe. She is asking $11,000 for the TD. It seems like an
$8,500 #3 driver to me but feel free to call me a cheap-ass and
straighten me out on TD values.
The 59 1600, wire-wheel, red 'A' coupe was wedged up against the garage
wall with a dead battery so I didn't get to check it out much. Asking
$8,000.
So, TD folks, is this car a 'find' or just another one trying to change
hands?
As an aside, I know of a pale yellow '55 TD for sale. I haven't seen it
but it's been on the road and is a little tired but it's a driver for
$6,000.
Bob Allen, Kansas City, '69CGT, '75TR6, '62Elva, '97TR'bird
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