British Appreciation..

[windy one]

Gotta love support concerning our wedges, eh!

For weeks now been tryin to get my local Brit parts supplier to check his stock and see if he had a good-used windshield he could sell me. Finally hear back from him yesterday, no luck. He can only get me new. ($250.00 + 130.00 shipping from Cali)

I tell him I need the windshield asap so I can get my car state-inspected. This current wedge I just put together will be another daily driver for me. Love drivin em. My truck needs work, so I will be using the Wedge (almost) full time untill I get my truck done.

When I tell him I use my 7 as a daily driver he repeats to me "Daily driver, you are brave. You are brave to do that!"

What the heck.......My first TR7 Spider, a nice Black driver, I drove as a daily driver- in snow, rain, summer heat- any only had two problems in four years of driving. Fuel pump went south one time, and the ball joints eventually needing replacing. But thats just one of three TR7's I utilized as daily drivers. Nary a breakdown with any of them, just normal wear item parts-replacments (brakes, tune up, hoses, filters etc)

My second TR8 I owned I also used as a daily driver. Snow, wind, rain..whatever. I drove it almost all the time. Never left me stranded either.

Just cracks me up, someone who is into British cars as much as anyone, and he has to doubt my 7! Though all us LBC junkies stuck together LOL [?]

Johnny

[cliff]

Jhonny, try V.B. $200.00 +shipping or Safelite autoglass. Safelite replaced my windshiel a few years back. They have a repair center in Failess Hills. Give them a call.[:D]
Cliff[8D]

Don't use force, get a bigger hammer!!

[PeterTR7V8]

Amen! When I was young & could only afford to have 1 car that car was a GT6 Mk3. Despite living opposite a bus stop I drove the car to work every day. Whenever the club had a track day, I was there fully expecting to be able to use the car to commute the next day. Even other club members thought I was overly daring if not completely stupid but if there was an excuse to drive up country, I'd happily spend several hours in the car & it never left me stranded on the side of the road. The times that it wouldn't start were usually Mondays after I'd spent Sunday tinkering with something I shouldn't have but it was very rare. A couple of years after a major restoration I sold the car before heading off overseas but it felt like unfinished business so I bought it back 8 years later when I returned. When I got it back it was a mess & it cost me a fortune to re-restore which kind of drained the joy out of the relationship - a bit like having a girlfriend who takes money out of you wallet without asking. So, when I found it getting harder to get in & out of the car I decided the time was right to part ways permanently & traded it in for the TR7. The 7 is a weekend car so it isn't the same as those early days with the GT6. The 7 is more of a toy in comparison & the relationship is more frivolous whereas the GT was much more significant than that. It isn't a reflection on the car itself just a consequence of how the relationship developed. The V8 7 is a much better toy than the GT6. [:)]

When you drive an old car you tend to take more notice of cars on the side of the road with the hood up. What I've noticed lately is the amount of BMWs that are broken down. I put that down to the fact that Beamers imported from Japan are so cheap & are so popular but the owners can't afford to get them serviced or just assume that these 'ultimate driving machines' don't need any maintenance. No LBC owner would make that mistake.


Never say die. At least not while you're still breathing.

[FI Spyder]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by windy one</i>


Just cracks me up, someone who is into British cars as much as anyone, and he has to doubt my 7! Though all us LBC junkies stuck together LOL [?]
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Reminds me of last years Club Xmas party (third Sat in November). Despite the fact it was dry out I was one of only three cars there that drove to it with their LBC despite the fact I had furthest to go. (I think the other two were Jag sedans.)

As we were leaving after the do, one of the club officers said "You're mighty brave bringing it out this time of year." Without skipping a beat I said "Not at all...it's got a great heater". I think his jaw was still dropped as I drove out of the parking lot.[:)]


TR7 Spider - 1978 Spifire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra

[TR7Aaron]

I've given this some thought over the past few months. Triumphs get a bad rap, and *some* of it is deserving, but IMHO, they are no better nor worse than any other brand of car the same year.
Every make of car has it's specific quirks and with British cars, it seems to be electrics. Since a lot of owners can change a spark plug, set points and/or do some suspension work, many of these same owners are at a loss when it comes to tracking down electrical problems, so they tend to take it to an 'expert' who may screw it up worse than before and the car gets the blame due to 'poor design'.
I used to think that TR7's were 'junk' because there were so many of them available dirt cheap and with relatively low miles whereas you would see American brand cars of the same years with 100,000+ miles. But, again IMHO, these cars just aren't convenient for many people to drive everyday, so the mileage doesn't rack up as much. With mine, I think about driving it MUCH more than I actually do.
If my wife and I go grocery shopping, we don't take the TR7. If we take our dogs with us, we don't take the TR7. If it's raining, we don't take the TR7. And so on. As such, I haven't put a lot of miles on my car, not because it's unreliable but because it isn't convenient since it only has two seats and a small trunk and I don't want to drive it in the rain (a personal decision).
As far as build quality, I've worked on a lot of different cars over the years and TR7's are about average for what you'd expect for a 1970's designed car (and my 1976 is considered one of the poorly built ones compared to later models).
So, to wrap this up, I wouldn't put a lot of stock in what people say about these cars UNLESS THEY HAVE OWNED ONE AND ARE SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE. Otherwise, they can STFU.

Aaron
1976 TR7 FHC (an ongoing project)

[windy one]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by cliff</i>

Jhonny, try V.B. $200.00 +shipping or Safelite autoglass. Safelite replaced my windshiel a few years back. They have a repair center in Failess Hills. Give them a call.[:D]
Cliff[8D]<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Excellent, thanks. I just called Safelite, they will get back to me if / when they find me one.

Johnny

[windy one]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by TR7Aaron</i>

I wouldn't put a lot of stock in what people say about these cars UNLESS THEY HAVE OWNED ONE AND ARE SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE. Otherwise, they can STFU.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Amen brutha! Actually, the guy who said that to me is a MG fanatic so you can see where he was comin from LOL. I bought <i>every</i> wedge Ive owned (I think Im like on my 9th or 10th wedge now) to be used, i.e; <i>Driven</i>. Yeah I entered each one I owned / drove daily, in shows but that requiered a total cleaning before getting to the show. Because, I drove them...they would get filthy.

Johnny

[Hasbeen]

I have never understood this reliability thing with pommy cars.

I have driven, as daily drivers,
A 30s Morris 8/40,
A Singer 9 sports,
An MG TB,
An MG TF, all when they more than 20 years old, with no more trouble
than I have had with new cars, used the same way.

I have put almost 60,000Km on the 7, as a daily driver, & use the 8
a similar amount.

The 8 brought home the hardware shopping yesterday, [from 25Km in
one direction], & the 7 will bring home the food for a fortnight
today, [from 25 Km in another].

The only real problems were with rusty fuel, with the 7, fixed once
I knew of the problem.

With the 8, all the problems were from lousy work by professional
restoration companies, done for the PO.

I would happily jump in to either, for a 1,000Km drive, right now, &
expect no problems.

Hasbeen

[bottomtop]

I've had a few problems, but no real show stoppers. I think that each of our TRs (i.e. the cars of the users of this forum) are probably more reliable than new. This probably is beacuse of three things:
(1) The design is as good as most other cars of the same age;
(2) The ones that were screwed together wrong from the factory have either died already or been fixed; and
(3) we at least try to take good care of them

In relation to the last point, to the extent we have other cars as well, they are probably more dependable than the same car in the hands of some other people. I think ppl who are into classics generally are a personality type who are not wasteful and take care of their things - especially the things that (although not "expensive" in some peoples eyes) are things that we had to work very hard for and make us happy.