Hi Larry,
All I can provide is my experience over the last year and the frame off
restoration I have done on the '59 TR3a. Firstly, I have to set the stage
by describing the condition in which I got the car. The GPO ( Great
Previous Owner ), had disassembled most of the car before I got it. Put all
of the sub assemblies into marked boxes, bags & containers. The engine was
out and rebuilt, the tub was braced and detached from the frame. I then
started on the car and did the following:
- cleaned and recoated the frame. This included re-fabricating some missing
brackets.
- strip all of the paint of the rear end, new bearings, new seals repainted
the entire unit
- wheels blasted and powder coated
- assembled the entire rolling chassis myself, got a hand for 3 hours to
mount the engine.
The tub went to the body shop, cause I have no ability or tools to do the
proper job! There are many examples of my "work" in junkyards around
southern Ontario :-P
The body was mounted to the chassis and I got her back on xmas eve( blew the
knee out trying to get the plastic off the engine ). Then proceeded to
install wiring harness and other components.
This adventure started August 15th, 2001 with 3-4 nights a week and 3-4
hours a night, she was safetied June 7th 2002. I have still to do some
interior work and work out the bugs. But as Mr. "FT" will attest it was a
real strain on the nerves and the lack of sleep didn't help. Since this was
my first "frame-off" and about 40% of the jobs was already done for me, I
think the Spitfire will be a significantly longer task. In the software
industry there is fact that all estimates need to be multiplied by 2 and
even then they run over.
I have to agree with the consensus that if you can pull it off in 2 months,
then "hats-off" to ya. That would be a hard to do, a couple of members of
the local car club stated that I did the '3 restoration in probably the
fastest time they have ever seen. Good luck in this adventure and please
keep us posted.
David A. Templeton
'59 TR3a - 9TS54226L ( "9" denotes the CDN import on year of mfr )
'74 Spitfire - FM10491L
Located in Guelph, Ontario, Canada
/// spitfires@autox.team.net mailing list
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive
|