Please,restore it,or shoot it.😖

[NYLIBUD]

I don’t know whose car this is.I saw it on line for sale.I forgot,but I think it’s a 53 MG,or an Austin Healey..But either restore it,or put it out of its misery.☹️It is hard to look at.🫣

Edited February 15 by NYLIBUD

[stitchdup]

Its a triumph tr3. doesn't look to be that bad just dented and dirty. I'd just throw it on a slammed bug pan and call it done

[Safire6]

Probabley a TR3A (verses a 3B) to be exact. Built between '57 and '62. I've seen others in much worse condition.

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, Safire6 said:

...I've seen others in much worse condition.

Yup, it's really not so bad. Add to that that these are among the simplest cars (mechanically and electrically) on the planet, it's not a difficult resto.

But unfortunately, due to the shortage of competent people in the biz today, and the crazy expense of often sub-standard hacker work, the cost of a decent resto will almost certainly exceed the price it would bring at auction after completion...unless the owner can do a large percentage of the work himself.

Nice ones are trading at around $25 grand, which is less than half what even a barely acceptable resto would cost.

Too many people get into projects like this thinking they're going to make a boatload of money, and then try to low-ball every expense...often ruining the car in the process, filling everything with bondo, with wavy panels, poor panel fit, compromised structure, loose running gear, bad brakes, and poorly-performing oil-burning engines.

Sad, but that's the way it really is.

Little car needs someone to love it, who understands there will never be any more made, and that a piece of automotive history that's survived this long in pretty decent shape deserves to be rescued and brought back to life...not someone looking for an easy buck.

EDIT: You might get in the $40-$50k range for a REALLY nice one, one that presents and drives like a new car, but that's still way shy of what a high-quality resto would cost to get it to that point.

An owner who could do ALL the work right and had the tools and equipment, shop space, skills, etc., could probably bring in a high-quality resto for between $15-$20k out-of pocket for parts and materials, so if you're willing to work for a few-bucks-an-hour, you might make a little cash. 

Bottom line...it's like building model cars. Do it for enjoyment, and never kid yourself about it being an investment...unless you luck into a barn-find exotic that'll bring millions at auction.

 

 

 

Edited February 15 by Ace-Garageguy

[blunc]

an intact banjo steering wheel is worth it's weight in gold...

my TR4 still has it's banjo steering wheel (with functional horn button) but the center section is different from TR3.

[NYLIBUD]

So this is a 58 TR3?Thank you

[Safire6]

18 hours ago, NYLIBUD said:

So this is a 58 TR3?Thank you

No it's not a TR3. TR3s had much narrower grills and did not have exterior door handles. The headlights stuck out much further on TR3s. They were inset a bit on 3As and 3Bs.  It is a TR3A or TR3B. It could be a '58. Cannot tell from the photos. A photo of the commission number ("VIN") could help identify the year. If it starts with "TS" it is a TR3A. If it starts with "TSF" it is a TR3B, which basically is an end of production TR3A.

TR3:

 

TR3A:

Edited February 18 by Safire6

[Safire6]

......Bottom line...it's like building model cars. Do it for enjoyment, and never kid yourself about it being an investment...unless you luck into a barn-find exotic that'll bring millions at auction.

I have a TR6 that I've owned since 1989. Took me 5 years to do a complete body-off restoration on it. I could probably sell it for what I have into it, maybe more. I also have a very original TR7, had it for only 18 months. I know that I will NEVER get out of it what I have into it. Like Ace-Garage Guy says, someone would never buy a TR7 for an investment, I did it for enjoyment because I love TRiumphs. 

 

 

[NYLIBUD]

Interesting info,thank you.

[Safire6]

I’m always happy to educate people on these cars!

[DustyMojave]

I've always (as a guy who grew up involved in sports car racing and rallying in the late 50s into the 70s) far preferred the appearance of the TR3A and B over the narrow grilled TR2 and 3. In about 1958 or 59 my family took my uncle out shopping for a car as he was recently out of the Marine Corps. One car he nearly bought was a light blue TR2. He wound up buying a more sedate American sedan. He spent far more time haggling over the TR2 than the whole time actually buying the other car.

In the early 70s, at the SCCA road races in SoCal I was Tech Inspector before the races, Wreck Impounds and helped the Emergency Crew during the races, then Rules Enforcement post race doing teardowns and inspection to ensure rule compliance.

A guy I considered a friend, Dr. Sturm, a Dentist, was racing his TR3A at Riverside Raceway in SCCA events. So I was near the exit end of the Pit Row when I watched Doc come around in a close dice with some others. Then approaching Turn 2, he was one of 3 cars that went off into the dirt. He hit a rain rut about 2' deep and 4' wide from some recent monsoon rains (yeah, it DOES rain in Southern California, just not near as often as back east). The car flipped in an endo. and landed on its nose. His roll bar with rear braces held. But the frame and body of the car folded just in front of the roll bar. Squished Doc fatally. After that us Tech Inspectors in our region pushed for unofficial roll bar rule advising other racers to brace their roll bars forward of the main hoop to prevent that sort of failure. SCCA did not change the rule, so it was unofficial and we couldn't ban any racers who didn't want to go along. But many local racers were convinced and changed their roll bar structures accordingly.

If you look at AMT's kit of the 289 Cobra from 1964, it includes a roll bar with a forward brace and no rearward. Also found in other renditions of that tooling including the Sunny "427" version recently sold under the Revell brand (not really a depiction of a 427 Cobra, as it has the same chassis and engine as the 289 kits it's based on - just has the oval nose and big fenders of the 427). This represents Shelby's "factory" roll bar of the time. It's not as good as a full roll cage, nor as good as a full width roll bar with forward braces on both sides. But it was pretty good. I watched Steve McCaslin endo his 427 Cobra in the same area as Doc Sturm about a year later with a roll bar as depicted in the AMT kit. Turned the car into a wadded up piece of aluminum foil. But Steve was fine. Revell's kits of the 427 Cobra from their own tooling have a rear brace and no forward brace.

[MeatMan]

Me, I don't mind so much seeing a car like that for sale, what spins me up is when I see hoarders with rare cars sitting out in the open rotting, and with vegetation growing through them. Now that I hate!!