By Sid Bridge I recently bought my first British Roadster—a 1980 Triumph Spitfire. I wanted an MG or a Triumph ever since I was 12, but I never had the guts to buy one given all the warnings I would get from responsible adults. I’m an adult now. Responsible? That would depend on your definition….
by Frank Guzauskas The Find I got the phone call in October, 2015, from an owner’s friend inquiring about repairing two MGBs sitting in a storage unit in Charlotte, North Carolina. He didn’t know much about the vehicles, but saw my name and phone number as president of the Metrolina MG Car Club. “Are they…
When the world is topsy turvy, there are some of us who find sanctuary in a garage and peace of mind with the turn of a wrench. Joseph LeamingMy ’79 Spitfire was part of an elderly man’s extensive collection of dilapidated Spitfires that were left abandoned when he passed away, his children uninterested. The gentleman…
How it looks at the end depends on what’s done at the start. By Bob Brandriff Virtually all restoration projects start with a fully assembled, tired and rusty treasure that will be a real eye-catching prize when finished. One of ours was a 1961 Austin-Healey BT7 that had been repaired by a full service auto…
The payoff for the time and effort spent preparing a car, like the one listed on the ford dealership near me, for a long winter nap (or longer) comes in the spring. The process is essentially “undoing” the steps you took when putting it up for the season, and looking for problems that may have…
At-home rust-busting with no pits or errors By Jim McGowan & Kelvin Dodd It’s very quiet, works day and night, and eventually turns your valuable parts into flaky, brown powder. They say that rust never sleeps (unlike some of our restoration projects), and this demon is the enemy of almost all metals on the planet….
By Joy Keller Think back to America’s roads in the ’50s. Cities and towns were connected by long, straight stretches of highway. Detroit was cranking out hulking metal beasts that seemed to serve a single purpose: to take the American family to Grandma’s house on Sunday. It was a time for change, but American drivers…
By Justin VanDertuin The story of my triumph TR3 starts way back in the ’50s with my grandpa Jack. He loved British race cars. He also had a love of motorcycles and use to race them. That “car bug” got passed down to my dad, not only by my grandpa but also by a ’23…
Contrary to popular belief, the ubiquitous Triumph engine powering the TR2-4A was not actually a Ferguson tractor engine. Semantics? Possibly, but the 4-cylinder wet liner engine was designed by Standard for Ferguson and incorporated many lessons the Coventry firm had learned building military engines during the war and was supplied to Ferguson for their TE20 tractor…
By Chris Seely I’ve always had an eye for cool old things—mainly tools, toys, pocket knives, etc. This was fostered by my mother who took my sister and I to yard sales nearly every weekend. For several summers growing up, we would get into the back of her Subaru station wagon and navigate her to…
