[TR7's and rust]

6 hours ago, HowardB said:

Rust on bonnet/wings/sills is quite normal & a fact of life on a TR7. As far as I know the serious problem areas are around the rear suspension mountings, behind the seats & bottom of the A pillars.

As you say getting the head off is hard work, and mine had to come in 2018 off for the first time after 37 years.... It took time and a proper head puller but it worked.

Howard

Interesting, so some of these might be worth a look. Not sure I would touch a car with sill rust though.

As for the head problems, is there anyway of preventing them from seizing in the future once you have one off?

[TR7's and rust]

I have confession to make, I bought into to all non-sense about TR7 worst car of all time stuff. Then I started really looking at them and when you do, you realise it is actually a pretty car. The hardtop is striking and the convertible is genuinely a looker. When you combined that with good handling and refinement, relative to other British sports cars, it becomes tempting. I keep seeing them popping up on ebay and there is the temptation.

However, most of these cars are listed as bodywork good condition for age, or have rust bubbles in various places on the bodywork. Now I bought a Dolomite, which I thought was relatively OK rust wise. Put it this way, before I had that car I couldn't weld, now I can. So I know what horrors can lurk underneath. So is it possible that bubbles in the bonnet/wing could be easy localised fixes or will they inevitably hide horrors? How easy is it to get panels and fix a TR7?

The mechanical don't scare me, as I am converting the dolly to a Sprint, so I am familiar with the engine. The only concern is the horror stories I have heard about head removal. On a Sprint engine, it is easy, for some reason the studs don't seize. From the sound of things, the 2.0 is the TR7 is less friendly in that reguard.