Some Photos From Around Town!

Just some cool photos from around town.....

Finished Hard Top!

Back during Fall, I finally moved my family to a new home. The process was definitely a lengthy and tough process. Not for the faint of heart. The good news however is that the new home is great and has a very nice garage.

On to the Hardtop - Its been installed since October or so. I'm really enjoying driving the car with it installed. Tightens the car up from a noise perspective, from a handling perspective and from a temperature prospective. All great things.

I refinished the 'vents' in before installing them, and they turned out nicely.

 

The headliner was not an easy thing to install, but the result looks good and finished the top beautifully. 

I installed some sound and temperature insulation inside the hardtop shell before installing the headliner. That has made the car much more quiet inside with the hardtop on, and nice and toasty when the heat is on.

 

The finished hardtop is great!

 

 

Factory Hardtop Restoration

Dug in deeper on the hard top restoration for my TR. I've owned this top for about 20 years. When I bought it originally, my uncle, father and I slapped some matching lacquer on it and I used it. Weather took its toll however and it eventually looked horrible.

Today was finally a day to lay the paint. I shot Nason 2k primer on the original white paint (prepped with 220). Over the top went Dupont ChromaBase basecoat, matched by the Dupont computer. Finally, I shot Nason clearcoat over the basecoat for a nice shine.

I'm leaving it to cure for 3 days before I move it or touch it. That should ensure a long lasting shine.

Triumph TR6 Factory Hardtop

One of the great accessories I added to my TR6 many years ago was a hard top. The TR6 is known as a flexy flyer because of its very flexible frame. The hardtop significantly stiffens up the entire chassis because of how it attaches and the fact that it was made for the car in steel instead of the more common fiberglass (which would add no rigidity).

My father and I found mine through the 6-Pack classified adds which were previously posted in the printed club newsletter. A trip to Indiana or Ohio yielded a white factory hardtop in usable shape. I should mention that this was 20 years ago. We painted that top to match the BRG paint on my car. You can see it laying in the background of this photo from a 2001 autocross.

This year, I decided to undertake a full restoration of my hardtop. The years had not been kind to it. Rust had crept into many different areas, and the rubber seals and headliner were simply shot. The paint itself (a quickly done splash of lacquer) was faded, flat and showed cracking all over.

I stripped the top in the late spring and worked each weekend this summer on stripping the paint back, while also remediating the rust. It was messy work...

After completing the teardown task, I had my first opportunity to spray some paint. I primed the top in my driveway (still using full protective gear) and got her ready to go. It now needs basecoat and clear to begin looking like a top again. I've also managed to find all the soft bits (seals and headliner) on sale throughout the year, so I can complete the top after the paint cures. I'd really like it to be ready for this fall.

Hardtop!

Based on some plans found on Brosky's site, I made up a stand to put my hardtop on.

While I was at it, I checked out the condition of all the seals and the rest of the hardtop.

There is a lot of work to do on it to bring it up to usable status again....