The TR 250 Rebuild

This is the car soon after I bought it .Do not adjust your set! yes its leaning to the left! The body looks pretty good but was worse than this photo suggests, the front left is sagging due to a bump to the suspension and was not right. Due to the total lack of rust in the frame, before rushing out for a replacement I first decided to try getting it sorted at a body shop. All went well and after some welded repairs to the front wishbone mounts, the chassis looked good. By now I had completely refurbished the brakes and had just got the engine running. The engine was in great shape, all I had to do was clean out the fuel system and it started right up, pretty amazing after a 9 year lay-up! Before starting on the body I did all the Mechanical work including refurbishing the suspension.

This is inside the footwell, most of the brown stuff is the undercoat! There was very little rust here and all I did was strip the surface rust, epoxy up a couple of pinholes and give the inside a good coat of rust inhibitor paint. Underneath there was a nice coating of a waxy type underseal (and oil of course--- its British) which was scraped off before getting a steam clean and Ziebart Underseal. I waxoiled inside all the cavities myself.

Here's where most of the time went in the bodywork. The LH inner wing, front valence and bonnet (hood) were replaced, the only other welding was some patching around the battery case, a patch to RH rear sill and patches to the sills under the front wings (a notorious rust trap!) The outer LH wing was in bad shape but the cost of a replacement made me attempt repairs. I learned a lot about panel beating and welding on that! In the end, the weeks of work on that wing alone, gave me the most satisfaction of the whole restoration.

Here's a rear view of the car after the boot and engine compartment had been painted. The car was in great shape behind the doors. I used an epoxy undercoat and made sure not to sand through by using a different colour hi-build primer, stopping to shoot more primer if I ever saw the red epoxy. A base/clearcoat system in the original royal blue colour. The clearcoat was fairly slow drying but I was talked out of an accelerator because of my inexperience in spraying. Next time I would use one, as sags and runs were not a problem. Dust and a swarm of flying ants were.

You can just see the trusty MIG welder borrowed from Jim Knight at British Racing Green who was a great help during the whole project.

This is just before I fitted up the wings and doors which had the inside surfaces fully painted and the first top coat only applied on the outside. I completed the painting after fitting the panels. as you can see my single Garage is a bit tight so prior to the final coats I stripped the garage bare and washed it down, I didn't forget to extinguish the gas pilots either! You can also see the "test" sprays on the wall, The wife was REALLY pleased about that!

This is the finished interior, the wooden dash, steering wheel and seats are original but all the dash pads were rotten and crumbling away so all were replaced, along with the interior panels and carpets. In the end every rubber part on this car was replaced. 9 years of storage saved the metal but not the rubber!

This is the Nearly finished engine bay, with new paint and shiny bits.

Whats done?