Bob Evans's Journal

Wow! The TR6 arrived at the end of April 2004 and I was impressed. No rust, decent driver but mechanically tired. No problem, I'll just throw money at it! What a feeling to own a TR again and I quickly lost the nostalgia for the TR4A as I instantly liked the TR6 better. Buddy Dave had also bought a TR6 from Len and had it shipped with mine so now we had 3 buds with TR6's and soon discover 8 or 9 more in the St. John's area. Surprised that a city of a little over 100,000 on the far eastern coast of Canada would have that many very nice, restored TR6's but there they were.All I knew was that my white beauty turned heads everywhere and I was flat out crazy about her. Big hit at the A&W on Thursday Cruise Night too. Anyway I drove it all that Summer of 2004 and when I finally stored it a a buddy's I started buying new parts from Moss and TRF. I've been adding new parts ever since and still have boxes of new stuff to install. I have a brand new rebuilt engine that I will install this Winter along with new gearbox, clutch and pressure plate but I'm ahead of myself. When I got the car Len said there were strange "pimples" in the paint that were not rust so I took a chance and bought the car over the web. Sure enough, there were the pimples when the TR arrived but they disappeared at 10 feet. Hence she's a "10 footer". Convinced the pimples were not rust but still concerned I consulted body shops and got mixed reviews. Most said it was rust and wanted to take on the job. I scraped a few of the bigger "pimples and found a white powder when I cracked the paint. Satisfied that this was not some crazed drug dealer's new way of smuggling coke I found an eager and very talented 25 yr old bodyman who said he's take on the job. In the early Summer of 2005 we stripped the car to bare metal and disassembled it for paint. We consulted the paint supply guys and it turns out that the pimples were some kind of chemical reaction between the original paint and whatever was used on the most recent respray. Deano cut 3 small pieces of rust out of the whole car and welded in new pieces. No rust in the inner or outer fenders,
sills or rockers except 1pc 2.5"x8.0' on the right lower front fender, a silver dollar sized piece on the side of the right front fender and a piece by the left front headlamp about the size of a stick of Wrigleys Doublemint.It took Steve and I one week end to disassemble the TR6 for painting and in the next entry I'll tell the story of putting it back together. Meanwhile my other buddy buys a 43' Bayliner Motoryacht in Tampa Bay and we head to Florida to have an adventure bringing it home to Newfoundland.