2011 for me was the year of the tub. By the end of the year I had pretty much sorted all of the major issues and while I was dealing with the various sheet metal repairs I was also taking care of some of the mechanical tasks. The engine and gearbox were removed as a unit and all of the interior and engine bay was stripped. I used a pressure blaster with my 30 gal 1.6HP compressor to clean up the tub in the driveway using 80 grit aluminum oxide in the pressure blaster.

The engine had issues with the cam and lifters and I sent them off to get refurbished. The top piston ring on every piston was broken into multiple pieces and I found the two halves of an abrasive ball from a honing device in the sump. The non-overdrive gearbox had been dropped at some point in its life and a big chunk had been broken off the bell housing. The broken chunk had been crudely welded back on so that gearbox case was scrap.

I took the gearbox and a spare TR3 gearbox down to Quantum Mechanics in CT and John Esposito built me a new gearbox with an A type overdrive .

I tested and refurbished many of the small parts like the heater, the pedal assembly and anything else that needed rebuilding and/or painting.

Overall a good year considering I still had a full time job that required a lot of travel.

Things get a lot more interesting as we start 2012, the year of the outer body panels.