Monday, March 31, 2008

Quick Update

Not much doing in the way of work on the TR6 lately. Been busy with work, plus the weather has been strange around here in the last few days. 75 degrees and sunny one day, then 40 and rainy the next. Got to love spring in Atlanta, still waiting on the pollen to hit. Anyways, still waiting to get everything together to do the front brakes, rear shocks, and install an electric cooling fan. I'll get those done in the next month or two.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Weekday work, gearing up for good weather...

Received the new clutch master cylinder yesterday. Ebay seller did a great job getting it to me quick. Also won the auction for the rear tube shock mounts, so that job is added to the list of to-do projects. Hopefully I can get the new clutch MC installed and bleed tonight or tomorrow. Then maybe this weekend I can get the glove box installed along with a few other interior/trim bits and pieces I have not gotten around to yet. Plan on doing the whole front brake job sometime towards the end of the month. That will involve a run to Harbor Freight to find a brake flare tool and then picking up the new calipers and brake line at Autozone. Also going to read up on how to touch up paint. See if I can find somewhere to mix me up paint to match the current color and then do some touch ups on the few bad areas. If that goes well then I may try to re-paint the rear end in the correct flat-black color. I'll go grab a peek at the '73 TR6 down the street to make sure I get the exact color and area to be painted correct.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

More Leakage....

Drove the TR6 to work today since it is going to be near 70. Figured I would get some good top down driving in before the nasty weather hits tomorrow and this weekend. Anyway, I drive to lunch and discover that there is some sort of fluid on the new plastic floor mats that I bought (glad I bought them, now I don't have to pull the carpet out again...). First thought is that the brake servo and MC is leaking again. Nope, fluid isn't blue (I used some left over ATE Super Blue brake fluid) so what could it be. Get to looking around and it looks as if my clutch master cylinder may now have a leak, great. I'm not a big fan of rebuilding when I don't know how old the part is or how many times it has been rebuilt. Decided to go with a new MC I picked up off of ebay for about $60. I'll park the car until the new one comes in, install it and then think about rebuilding the one I pull from the car. Keep it around as a spare I guess.

Month by Month Plan

Ok, here is my long term plan for work on the TR6. Trying to keep it to one project a month for time and cost reasons...

March: Front brakes and rear tube shock conversion (both sets of my lever shocks are dead)
April: New steering rack and replace o-rings in carbs
May: Transmission work? Replace tach?
June: Go through all front suspension bushings and check frame mounts
July: Rear brakes
August: Enjoy driving....

I think I will be putting the rewiring off until next winter. Everything works now but is not pretty and I just don't want to take the car off the road when prime driving season is coming up.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Now Motoring Topless......

Pulled the hardtop off the TR6 yesterday. Pretty easy, only took about 10 minutes and the help of my future brother-in-law to help lift it off. Decided to take the 6 for a quick spin with the top off. Tell you what, I really liked the car with the hardtop on but I love the thing with the top off! Everything about the car is just better with the top off. Glad to have a true convertible sitting in the garage again. I had to order a few nuts and bolts to make sure I have everything to mount the soft top sometime this weekend. I think I may also get the chance to tackle the front brakes this weekend. I also may have sourced a cheap transmission, more to come on that later. Right now I am thinking once I get the brakes done I may replace the steering rack (lot of play in the current one) and then convert the rear to tube shocks. I snap some topless pictures of the car this weekend.