Tuesday, 16 October 2018

FHC resto resto nr. 72; Or how time flies!

It's exactly five years ago today that my latest TR7 joined my small collection. I actually bought the car for its, at first glance rather tatty looking, Wolfrace Turbo wheels:


But they were completely undamaged, with absolutely no curbing damage. And on the cars arrival in the shed the wheels were quickly removed and sent of to be refurbished. Shod with new rubber and with newly designed 3D printed wheel centres, they were fitted to my 1980 DHC. Why? Because for as long as I love TR7's I have always wanted a TR7 DHC with a set of these wheels fitted:


With the wheels removed from the car, it dawned on me that I was in possession of a pretty early and fairly original Dutch car, which was first registered here on the 6th of October 1976. So it was quickly decided it had to be restored. Though with a few slightly non original twists. And the rest is history as the saying goes! But still very much a work in progress, a few pictures of the body work (the full restoration story so far can be found here) ...

As bought in Hoek van Holland (17-10-2013)

Disassembling complete (12-02-2014)

Welding complete and waiting for final "light" shot blasting and a coat of primer (10-07-2014)

Almost ready for painting (08-11-2014)

Underside and inside painted (05-02-2015)

Patiently waiting for its turn in the spray cabin (05-09-2015)

Painted at last! (14-09-2015)

Slowly taking shape (30-05-2017)

Original plan was to have the car restored and back on the road in 2016. As this would be the year that she'd became tax exempt. But life and other games got in the way from time to time ...

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