I messaged the owner that I was interested and had a few question about the car. He sent me his phone number and I gave him a call. Turns out the car is in upper New York and I live in West Virginia. I asked some general questions on the car's condition and he seemed very honest with his answers. I didn't get a sense he was trying to hide anything.
He had bought the car from the original owner in Florida about a decade earlier with the idea to restore the car himself. The car had been off the road for years. After buying the car he found a TR6 which is what he really wanted, so the TR7 sat. And sat. And sat until he needed room at his shop. It was $700, so I thought, "What the hell". At the time TR7's in good shape where selling for about $3000ish and TR8's about $4000 and up.
The car was what I was looking for. Solid body. Runs. Needs work to make it "My own". So I asked if I could drive the car home? He replied honestly he would not recommend it since the car had been off the road for so long and the engine was fed gas from a 1 gallon plastic gasoline can jury rigged in the trunk because the original fuel tank was rusted out. Well, I said I'd take it and I rented a car transport and the wife and I made a day trip to New York.
When we got there I did a walk around, he told me what was wrong about the car, which I listed below and he started the car. The motor ran well, I drove the car a short distance in the business park where his shop was located and decided to consummate the deal by handing over seven $100 bills.
After roughly 40 years I was once again the owner of a car you either hated or loved. Now the work to bring this car back alive was about to begin. Errr... Or so I thought... See the next section "My Plans" for more of the story!
Here's a list of what was wrong with the car as told by the previous owner:
- Two rust spots as pictured
- Fuel tank rusted out
- Top was missing
- One headlight had to be manually raised and lowered
- Cooling fan bearing bad
- Electrical drain
- Exterior lights not working
- Passenger side door won't open from outside
- Choke cable broken
- Seats broken and unbolted from car
...and what I discovered was additionally wrong once I got it hauled home:
- Rear brakes frozen
- Electrical wires melted/shorted in dash
- Window's frozen, hard to crank window up/down
- Rear carburetor fills with gas and floods after idling 10 minutes
- Wiper switch broken
- High beam switch broken
- Driver side rear control arm mount rusted away
- Water pump leaks
- Vent control broken
- Plus ??? once the teardown begins
