>>The seats were torn, the paint was peeling off the
>>dash and the general condition of the interior was very poor. When he
>>started the car, it made a horrible rattling sound, as if some loose
>>sheetmetal was bouncing against the exhaust pipe.
Sounds like mine, are you saying that all of this is not normal?<g>
Mike Welch
http://home.turbopower.com/~mikew
'68+/- Triumph Spitfire
'60 Jaguar MkII 3.8 auto
'87 Jeep Cherokee
'96 GMC Suburban
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff McNeal [mailto:jmcneal@ohms.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2000 12:23 PM
To: spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: Spitfire rescues Jag
On my way back from taking my kids to the orthodontist in our New Beetle
this morning, I saw a '53 Jaguar XK120 pulled to the side of the road with
its' hood up and the middle aged couple with it trying to flag down passing
cars for help. The woman was trying to thumb a ride. I pulled a U-turn to
see if I could assist, and the owner, a salt and pepper long-bearded gent
with a brown floppy leather hat explained that they ran out of gas, but
didn't want to leave the car. I told them to sit tight, that I'd be back in
about 20 minutes with a gallon of gas after I dropped off the kids, which I
did, toted proudly in my recently washed and gleaming Spitfire.
It felt good to help another British car enthusiast, but somehow felt even
better knowing that a Spitfire was bailing out a Jag. I wonder if he would
have stopped had the situation been reversed? I'd like to think so... At
least this gave me a long moment to gawk over his car, which until now, had
always been one of my "dream" cars. He said he recently repainted it (a
terrible, dull respray) and was very concerned about spilling gas on the
paint, so he wrapped a maxi-pad around the neck of the gas can, and in his
haste, proceeded to dribble gas all over his paint anyway.
To my silent horror, he then carefully wiped the spilled gas deep into the
paint, rather than simply using water at the gas station a block away to
rinse it off. Oh well. The seats were torn, the paint was peeling off the
dash and the general condition of the interior was very poor. When he
started the car, it made a horrible rattling sound, as if some loose
sheetmetal was bouncing against the exhaust pipe. The gentleman was clearly
in a hurry to get on his way, so I didn't try to engage him in any small
talk. He offered to pay for the gas, but I politely declined. While his
car is clearly $50,000 (or more) away from being a good restoral, I suddenly
realized that I no longer covet those old Jags the way I used to and that
I'm really quite content with my Spitfire. That was a good feeling to have.
Best wishes,
Jeff in San Diego
'67 RHD Spitfire Mk3 aka "Mrs. Jones"
Jeff's Classic '67 Spitfire Mk3 site & Vintage Spitfire Webring
http://www.ohms.com/spitfire/spitfire.shtml
home of the NEW Totally Triumph Auction
"By Triumph enthusiasts, for Triumph enthusiasts"
http://www.ohms.com/cgi-bin/TRauction.cgi
and... The Triumph Autos/Parts Wanted Listings
http://www.ohms.com/cgi-bin/TRwanted.cgi
...plus a few other surprises!
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