I arranged the purchase of this car for my sister who wanted to use it as an alternate when her Porsche 911 is in the shop (it happens). The overall appearance of the car is controversial – you either love it or hate it. Blacked out trim, striping that I could do without and those damn Dagmars (Google it) on the bumpers that were not originally installed on this model year. Being a Miami car it has AC. It was lovingly restored a long time ago and has a beautiful Centari single stage paint job which has apparently been kept inside for most of its life. The paint has minor scratches but polishes up beautifully.
The sale was necessitated by the death of its owner. The family put it on Facebook which is where I found it just after my sister announced the need for an alternate driver. Really nice Cuban family who were a pleasure to deal with and satisfied every request for additional pictures and video and they took my first offer which was below their asking price. They even sent me trophies they had won at local shows. I have tried to track down restorers/maintainers of the car from the past, but I’m afraid the history died with the owner.
It took a torturously long time for it to get here after it was picked up by the transport company, but it finally got here. Here it is on the truck in Virginia Beach after traveling from Miami. Open carriers like this are much less expensive then closed transporters, which obviously provide much more protection, but I have to save a buck where I can. I shipped a beautiful MG TD from California this way and it rode under an Audi that was leaking oil. No damage done but it makes you think about the risks that include weather and being exposed to the general public. In spite of all of that, it arrived in good condition, fired up and drove off of the truck.
Buying cars on the internet can, of course, be risky. Pictures and video are obviously not the same as fondling a car first hand and examining it under a microscope. Bringatrailer.com is an excellent platform for car shopping. Cars are usually documented to the nth degree and no seller wants to be embarrassed by misrepresenting their offering. The comments that compile during the auctions are educational and usually catch any brand-specific quirks that may come up. Marque experts are watching and often point out flaws/features that the seller has overlooked. This one was on one of the Facebook forums and I was able to communicate directly with the owner’s family. It was obviously cared for in a meticulous manner, but like all cars this age, it had a long to-do list for minor issues.
Some of the things I have done/ need to do:
- The tires were 20 years old. Put on new 185/75 Goodyears.
- Temp gauge did not work and an aftermarket unit had been installed under the dash. I got the original gauge working and removed the aftermarket, but the factory gauge read low as did the gas gauge, so I put in a new solid state voltage stabilizer. All good.
- Turn signal stalk had broken off and been glued back in place. Turn signals did not self-cancel which is a REALLY irritating problem. I got a new switch and spent a couple of days putting it in. Miserable job.
- The car has two electric fans, a pusher and a puller. Neither came on when the car was started, but I figured there was a thermo switch involved. While I was looking for it the car overheated (remember, the temp gauge was reading low) and blew out the upper radiator hose. Fortunately, the blast of scalding water just missed me. Turned out the fan was supposed to be activated by a relay that had failed. Since I replaced that, the car runs cool as a cucumber.
- The rear end had the infamous clip-clop, indicating u-joints need attention, so I pulled the left axle and replaced a the both u-joints. While I had it apart, I noticed the rear brake components all appear to be new. Since then I have replaced the right side axle u-joints as well. Then I replaced the u-joints on the right axle. While doing so, I found that someone in this car’s past had apparently over-torqued the mounting studs for the bearing carrier in the swing arm, a common problem with these cars over the years. The proper corrective action is to install helicoils and refit the studs, torqueing them to the specified 15 ft-lbs. The solution they chose in this case was to drill and tap four of the holes to a larger size. This necessitated drilling the corresponding holes in the bearing carrier to go over the larger studs. To their credit, it worked and the bearing housing is securely mounted, but you now have to remove the brake shoes to remove the axle. Were I to keep the car, I would buy a used swing arm from E-bay (~$150) and an upgraded wheel bearing assembly from Goodparts,com.
- I removed the bumper over-riders. I don’t know what the black coating is on the bumpers but it seems to be pretty durable.
- I replaced the velcro strips on the side of the top bows
- A previous owner attached sound deadening foam under the hood and trunk lid with contact cement. By the time it got to us, the foam had been removed, but the vestiges remain.
Features
- 6 to 1 stainless headers
- Upgraded sound system with good speakers, boxed subwoofers
- Adjustable mounting brackets for rear swing arms
- Dual exhaust with four outlets
- Stainless steel heat shield for carburetors
- Fuel pressure regulator
- Dual push/pull electric fans
AC in a TR6? Well, Sort Of…
Here we are in the middle of summer 2023 and I thought I would try the AC and as I kind of expected, it was pretty puny. It’s an vintage R12 system, and looking in the sight glass there didn’t appear to be much refrigerant in there. I went searching for cans of it and again, as I expected it has gone the way of the unicorn. Somebody suggested that my cousin might have some as he had an old car that he was keeping alive. I went over to see him and voila, he came out with about 8 cans and the hose to hook it up. I hooked a can to the suction side and let’er rip. The one can did not quite get the sight glass clear, but it got close and the system was blowing nice cold air. Until… I noticed AC performance degrading and when I checked the sight glass in the accumulator it was cloudy. My research says that probably means the desiccant bag in the accumulator has probably burst, probably clogging the expansion valve. Bottom line the AC system is intact and I have seen it work. The next step would be to replace the receiver drier, flush the system and convert it to R-134. The remaining cans of R-12 will convey with the car when it’s sold
Moving on – the tappets were a little noisy so I decided to adjust them and set the timing, new plugs, etc. In the process, I managed to break the ground lead from the Allison XR700 capacitor discharge ignition system. I couldn’t see the broken terminal, so I spent a lot of time exploring my new no spark problem. Once I found the culprit wire, reattaching it did not solve the problem. Apparently the lack of ground had wiped out the unit. Just as well – I prefer Pertronix anyway. So I started removing the Crane/Allison components to install the Pertronix module and when I removed the optical shutter I found that a previous maintainer had removed all of the distributor cam lobes, making the shutter a pressure fit on the shaft.. This, of course meant that the new Pertronix magnetic pulser just spun on the shaft. Just to satisfy my curiosity, I wrapped enough electrical tape around the shaft to make the pulser a press fit, set the timing and the engine fired up. I found an enthusiast on the FB TR6 forum who had a core distributor for sale from which I obtained a good cam and put everything aright.
Summary
This is a nice car that runs well. I have too many cars and not enough space to keep this one inside. My sister doesn’t like driving it; she’s 80 years old and these cars are a bit brutish so we’re going back to the online market to find something more appropriate. Check out auction values at bringatrailer.com.
Now available $19,500.
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