May / June 2021 Issue No 329

Good to read Chairman Allan's news on the Inter-Club Malvern weekend to be linked with the MG Car Club, and also the possible collaboration with another 'prestigious car club' regarding future events. Your scribe feels that this will be an inevitability in days to come, with, as the Chairman pointed out, other classics sharing TR garages. In this regard, please see an update on Bob Gadsden:

'Bob wrote of initial experiences and reasons for buying a TR7 in 1990 in TR Action Issue 322, and scribe has been talking to him recently. Bob began work on the car immediately after this acquisition, with the intention of taking the well-tried route of installing a Rover V8 engine from an SD1 but got side-tracked many years ago and the car has never been finished. However he has recently returned to dabbling with old cars. Bob has split up this project and the bits he is going to take on himself. This may be of interest, not least because of course, there are strong similarities across all car restoration. This is the resulting dissection - the stages of a car restoration, assuming full body repairs and respray are required:

1. Dismantling
2. Cleaning the resulting shell of all paint/rust/filler/underseal
3. Rust repairs as required
4. Painting
5. Refurb/replacement of running gear in preparation for return to the shell
6. Reassembly
7. Interior trim

The extent to which these are within the scope of us all will of course vary, both individual abilities, equipment and experience, and of course greatest interest.

Steve Young (TR4A) acquired a few problems (not the French Police) en route back from Laon (remember that place?) about which he wrote in Issue 326. There's been a follow-up from him:

"'The TR was returned to me in one piece from the Classic car workshop with its new clutch and refurbished gearbox just before Christmas. A revelation driving without having to pump the clutch and ease the old dear gently into gear...but hearing an unbefore noticed 'tinkling' rattle from the rear as I drove it home, I was not entirely happy. However, I resolved to leave the car in the garage until the weather got a little warmer before looking for the culprit. It didn't seem to affect the performance at all and nothing had fallen off during the odd trip around the block to run the oil round the engine. I reckoned it was just another age-related noise. However, me being me, it annoyed me to the point of distraction, so I looked everywhere in the rear of the TR that I thought it could possibly be - but to no avail. Eventually after a couple of weeks of looking and a lot of
mild cursing, I took it down to the garage for Ashley to stick it up on the ramp so we could look underneath.
Nothing obvious showed up, but for something to do we moved the exhaust up slightly as it could have been touching the strut underneath, but after a test drive the rattle was still there. But now it was annoying Ashley as well as me. Back up on the ramp and after fiddling about for a bit we decided to take the wheels off prior to going into the diff.....turns out one of the bolts was loose holding on the brake drum and causing the tinkle. The wheel had not been taken off at all during the clutch and gearbox work so I can only assume that it has worked loose by itself over time. The last time the wheel was off was for a new set of tyres in 2019 before the long trip down to Laon. Thought it was a good idea to check all the wheels after that! Anyway, all's well that ends
well - and hopefully now the off-season drag on the wallet will pay dividends when we can get together and run about in our TRs again''. One wonders if rattling around the cobbled streets in Laon might have had something to do with it.
Don't forget the help available at gwtrgroupleader@gmail.com for GWTR members in need (but leave a phone number when emailing).'