The restoration started with a thorough inspection of the car, it turned out not surprisingly to be a wee bit worse than I initially thought.The main areas that would require welding wasNew sillsFront inner wheel archesTrailing arm shell mountings.The first job was to get the car moving, an oil change was done and eventually with a bit of coaxing and some fresh petrol the engine "burst into life" NOT more like spluttered, some work to the carbs and points and it was running reasonably smooth. Now to free off the clutch, this I tried to do by starting in gear and driving up my driveway and braking hard, the only thing I succeeded in doing was to burst one of the badly corroded brake pipes, a temporary repair was done with an old length of brake pipe. In the end got the clutch freed off by raising the rear of the car and starting up in gear accelerating in 4th and braking hard. A bit hairy I can tell you.I next stipped the car almost to it's bare shell.The only previous repairs that had been done was to fit cover sills and new rover part (sticker still inside) front wings, these repairs were done for the PO just a few months before the car was layed up. The wings were to be reused.On the whole, or should it be hole, compared with other TR7 restoration projects my car was not pretty good. The only new panels I had to buy was full BL sills and the front lower panel the remaining rusty areas requiring repair/patching home made repair sections were let in. he only deviation I have from the standard Triumph bodywork assembly was Where the sills meet the front lower part of the rear wings (just behind the doors), The seam here which is a rust trap was given a continous weld and then the seam was ground back in to look original. Also the other well known TR7 rust area the seam between the rear deck fuel filler panel and the tops of the rear wings was seam welded. MORE TO FOLLOW

MY WEDGE
I have owned this car since Sept 2001, ownership of the car came to me in an unusual way as I had not considered owning a wedge. I am the area organizer for the Triumph Sports Six Club in the North East of Scotland and have owned a Triumph Spitfire MK3
(which I restored) for many years. In this capacity I get calls every so often from people with old Triumphs they are wanting shot of. I got a phone call from a guy that had a sad story of a TR7 that was bound for the scappies if it wasn't moved in the next 2 weeks. Martin had owned the car for 16 years and had stopped using it and layed it up in his drive 6 years previously when his second child was born, no space for 2 kids in a TR7, he was offering the car free to a Triumph enthusiast provided it was restored and not broken up. My eldest, 19 year old son, Daniel and my self went to view the car. Daniel had never seen a TR7 before and thought the style and shape was great, hating the thought of an other Triumph heading for the crusher we decided to give it a new home and restore it. A quick check of the car revealed a few sticking points, i e. rear brakes seized solid and flat tyres. The vender was told we would return in the next few days with a trailer.On our return with the trailer and armed with WD40, foot pump, and a big hammer we eventually managed to get the car moved out to the road.
As the car was being winched on to the trailer the previous owner Martin asked BTW do you want this engine? It turned out to be a Dolly Spint engine with o/drive gearbox, we gratefully took that as well. I left Martin with a payment of a case of Tennants Lager an 4 Nissan Micra hub caps (he has a Micra as a second car.) On arrival home, my wife Moira !!!!!!!!!!!!! well that's an other story !!!!!!!!!!! "The Restoration"