The story doesn't end there though, I have in my possesion right now, several project cars. Not that I had intended to have so many to deal with, but when my dad fell ill with cancer, I assumed payments on the rent of our storage barn. When he died, I became defacto possessor of the contents inside the barn. Anyway, what I was left with was 1 1961 MGA 1600 MkII, 2 Triumph TR3As, and 1 older Triumph TR3. They weren't glamor queens, and at first glance, somebody would probably think - SCRAP HEAP!
I had also been storing my old Mercedes sedan in this barn, and the years had not been kind to it. I had already resigned myself to giving it up as it would be far too expensive to bring it back to a safe daily driver. This car served me well for 8 years or so, and i put over 100k miles on it. The engine rebuild was holding up fantastically, and if it weren't for the body and other mechanicals, I could have continued driving it.
The brit cars though, are comparatively cheap to restore compared to any Mercedes, given that they're in good condition. Even more so, they're two-seat convertibles, and that's just a hell of a lot more fun regardless of the cost.
So begins my long (probably indefinite) ordeal into restoration of the MGA and one of the TR3As. Of the two TR3As, one was already clearly beyond hope. My dad even recognized this, but held onto the car since it was right-hand drive. His idea was to rebuild the second car (which was freshly painted when he bought it) using the RHD parts, then scrap the rest. I'm not so sure I'm going to attempt to perform this transformation, but I will make the effort to remove anything that's unique to the RHD chassis and keep it before finally trashing the rusty body and panels. See the cars here and my progress into their rebirth or demise as it may be.
| 1960 Mercedes 190b | 1961 MGA 1600 MkII |
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| The "good" 58 Triumph TR3A | The "bad" 59 Triumph TR3A | The "ugly" 57 Triumph TR3 |
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