This has been going on since December 2000, you should jump to the bottom for the latest news.

December 2000 I did a deal with Chic for a TR7 which is a California import, LHD and has fuel injection, very rare. The car is in storage and has been for over a year. It will need a lot of work on the trim and possibly shockers and an exhaust as well as tyres and some work to change the lights to RHD spec. I was looking for a Spitfire but the TR7 is a bigger and theoretically better designed car as it is a seventies rather than a fifities design. we'll see how that works out over the next few months.

Februaury 2000 We have not done much to the car yet, apart from make the lights work and get the engine running.

April 2001 I now have a donor vehicle for the trim. The seats, carpets and some of the dash have been moved over and I hope to have pictures of that bit by the end of this week. The UK donor car was an April 1980 with tan trim and loads, (pictures to follow) of body rot. The USA car was manufactured in January 1980 and has an almost perfect shell due to the shortage of rain and of course, no salt on the roads. The old inside was very tatty but the tan trim has brightened the car up quite a bit. I steam cleaned the inside before I fitted the other carpets and I changed the steering wheel. A lot of this work would have been much harder without the BL repair manual and a Moss parts book. The books cost me nearly £40 but are well worth it.

24 May 2001 We had to burn out the seat mounting bolts as two of them had sheared off when I was removing the scrap seats. The headlight motors were goosed so replacements from another car were fitted before I got involved. The rear lamps are in an as yet unknown condition. The heater works and we also have indicators and hazard lights. The big problem we are facing at this time is that the convoluted tube for the Bosch fuel injection system is perished and collapses above 2000 rpm which chokes the engine. My wife saw the car for the first time today and said, "It's not as bad as I thought it would be" Damned with faint praise I suppose you could say.

June 2001 MOT test should be done next week end, June 17th at the latest. Rear shock absorbers and indicator lenses will be needed before then. 20 years in the California susnhine has baked the paint on this car, and a cheap respray a few years ago has not helped. The car is various shades of blue and flaking off more paint each time I get near it with the pressure washer. My intention is to run it until the winter and then have Chic and his team do a right hand drive conversion on it while I retrim the inside. This will be a good opportunity to have the shell painted, although a colour scheme is not yet certain.

June 16 has come and gone without me having anytime to work on the car. I hope to get the Bosch injection system fixed this week by replacing the hose from the air filter to the injectors. The stereo works so at least it's not all bad news. The continuing software development is draining my time which had been allocated to the "Skip with wheels", perhaps next week will bring better news.

Footman James have quoted a very reasonable premium of less than £240 for business as well as domestic use.

July Oh well, July is here and still no MOT! I fitted the switches from the steering column on the donor car and now the horn works. The offside side lights, number plate light and panel lights are all u/s but the fuse which controls that circuit is fine. I suspect the fuse holder needs to be replaced. I have removed the passenger window winder from the donor and intend to fit it to the USA car tomorrow. Removal of this was fairly easy due to the hole in the bottom of the door skin, fitting it may be harder. The car starts first turn of the key and things are looking up. Whether or not I make to Kemble in three weeks time is another story.

5th July, The dash has been removed from the donor car and I am considering a conversion before I bring it home. This depends on how much it is going to cost, and Chic tells me that depends on how much of the labouring I do! The dash came out quite easy once I had removed the windscreen, but without the assistance of my fourteen year old son I would not have managed it.

29th July, still not been for an MOT, but it is running very well. I fitted an inner tube of tinfoil to stop the inlet pipe collapsing and now the engine can breathe. We have revved it up to 5500 rpm and the only problem is a noisy exhaust. Tuesday may see the car at the MOT testers. With all this good weather slipping away I am accepting that the car is for next summer. We have missed two trips to Kemble, but hope to do the RAF Valley airshow in August. At this rate we will be going on the bike.

1st August 2001,. the car has failed, only just failed, the MOT. As we all expected the car failed on rear shockers and a fog lamp not working. There are one or two other things, more details to follow. Shox are on order and could be fitted on Friday with a bit of luck.

8th August 2001 The car has passed the MOT test but there is water in the oil so an engine change seems to be on the cards. The big dilema is, do we do the right hand drive conversion while the engine is out, avoiding two removals, or do we get the car on the road this week? The right hand drive conversion will mean changing the wiring loom, so the Fuel Injection system will have to go. This is a real shame as it makes the car quite rare.

The paperwork will be at the LVLO on Wednesday and with a bit of luck we could have number plates on it by Friday.The painter has completed the rubbing down and filling the roughest of the wee bumps and scratches on the car and by Wednesday afternoon it should be a nice shade of Ford red. Pictures of this bit will be here tomorrow afternoon.

20th August 2001 The trip to Wales was done on the bike as "The Skip With Wheels" still remains unpainted and unroadworthy. We removed the front bumper, indicator lenses and bonnet but now we are waiting for a real mechanic to take the head off so we can cure the water/oil mixture problem. This is a suck it and see operation, as the head refusing to come off will result in an engine change so I will not have the car for Leuchars, and that means no ragtop this summer.

September 2001 The fuel injected engine has a crack in the block and the donor engine has seized, so we tried to take the head off but the studs just break when you try to remove them. We are now fitting a refurbished engine from a Dolomite. This has a nearly new clutch and some reconditioned carbs so it should do the rest of the life of the car. Having the engine out means the conversion has been started, I have painted the engine bay and Andy will fit the engine any day now.

The LVLO have not seen the papers yet as I am reluctant to insure it while it is still months away from being in use. 

October 2001 We are still working on this, and it is now a car for 2002! The RHD conversion has gone really well. The wiring loom has been moved over and the steering rack has been replaced. The newish engine has been fitted and we hope this will put an end to the engine problems at last.

November 1st was a big day for the skip, we got the fuel tank replaced and the dashboard fitted. I even managed to transplant the trim from the rear of the donor car. This of course meant removing the seats again but at least I can do that quickly now that I have a lot of experience at it! The donor car has been cut up some more and is just about ready to be crushed. I am going to remove the windows and the door striker plates as they are hard to come by. I think there is nothing else left on it now.

November 3rd was even more productive, but now the engine has been removed again as the big ends were noisy so Andy decided it needed another crankshaft and bearings. New parts have been ordered.

November 10th 2001 The engine has been rebuilt with loads of new parts and is ready to go into the car.

1^st of  December 2001 The car has been painted at last. Not a great paint job but it was ever so cheap. I really just wanted it all the one colour. We should have wipers fitted by the middle of the week and "The Skip" could be in Bathgate by the end of the week. More pictures to follow as soon as I get it out of the paint shed so I can stand far enough back to get the entire car in the picture!

22nd December 2001 I got the car home for Christmas and now I can start working on the inside.

March 2002 Nearly ready for the LVLO, armed with my MOT and my import paperwork I will soon be out in the sunshine, with the wind in my bald patch and Deacon Blue in the stereo. 

April 2002 I am now using the car We got the car registered on a V plate and it has been more fun than I hoped for. We have fitted a new roof, a battery and a set of Goodyear tyres. Apart from that all it has had is petrol.

October 2002 The car is now parked up for the winter except for really nice days. The drivers headlamp is a little out of sync so it sits a little high and drops down before it comes up, making the car look as if it winks at oncoming traffic when I flash the lights. This and the non functioning lighter socket will keep me amused over the coming months.

December 2002  Well here we are two years down the line. The TR7 has been to Liverpool and to York, twice, and still sounds, looks and drives great! The trim has not been replaced but is acceptable and I have gone off the idea of doing it in leather. The speedo only works if I hold the cable up at the back and I have lost half a dozen of the screws that hold the dash together so some of it is loose but nothing major. The wipers are the American arms on uk fittings so the unswept area on the drivers side looks weird but I hope to replace the arms soon. My main problem now is that I need four seat all weather transport as I am doing the school run and my wife reuses to part with her Ka in favour of the TR7. I would now like to sell this and go onto my next project which is a ................................... 2.9i 4x4 Cortina............

 

January 2003 I have sold "the skip" to a TR7 fan from Essex and I fear it is destined to become a TR8. I will miss this car as it has been a laugh a minute but at least it is going to someone who will appreciate the car for years to come. I hope to have some pictures here of how it progresses in new ownership later this year.

Chic and the guys are building a 2.7 Litre Spitfire! and this is not their first. The car was on display at the Triumph Sports Six show at Stafford in July, and should be on road by the end of August. Pictures of this beast will be along soon.

Dorothy has this really cool 1550 Spitfire

This MGB Roadster has to be seen in the flesh, it is really something.

Last update was on Tuesday, 07 January 2003 at 11:48