Page 20 - Feb2023

L oves L abour is neither L ost nor Wasted
'

The two ?orange? Spitfire pictures are the
?before? pictures of Scarlet, my 1973 Triumph
Spitfire resurrection. This car was a complete
basket case mechanically, electrically, and
cosmetically. The floorboards were completely
rotted out, as were both rocker panels and front
quarter panels. I did a complete frame off
rebuild of the chassis and running gear, then
spent about two years restoring the body and
interior. I did all my own work, including
painting and upholstery.

The ?red? Triumph TR7 in the background of the
garage photo is my current project and will
ultimately be green.

My first sports car was a Austin Healy 100. The
biggest problem I had with it was that much of
the body was aluminum and difficult to repair.
In 1966 the summer between my junior and
senior year I was working in a bay area gas
station when a pair of hippies stopped for gas
on their way from Los Angeles to Oregon to join
a commune.

Their 1959 Triumph TR3 had seen better days
and at the time I was driving a 1956 Ford pickup
that had been wrecked and rolled, was drivable
but in pretty sad shape.

I jokingly asked if they wanted to trade the TR3
for my pickup, and surprisingly they agreed as
they figured the truck would be more usable on
a commune. We traded pink slips and Gladys
became mine. It was my daily driver for about
20 years, and after wrapping it around a tree it
became a flower pot for about 30 years.

When I finally had both the time and money to
work on it I finally got Gladys back on the road.
My wife wanted to drive Gladys, but a TR3 is not
an easy car to drive so I agreed to build her a
car, and found the Spitfire that hadn? moved in
t
over 10 years. sitting in a lot .
I started the rebuild and quickly found it was
going to take a while since it was truthfully not
worth the effort. About then a Triumph TR6
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