We have a good friend in Denver who is a broker of high line European cars and he acquired this TD on a trade in. It has a few needs. It is a great car to start with because it's never been hit, there isn't any rust and the wood is in good shape. The car was "worked on" by a German repair shop in Boulder and they need to stick to German cars. We started off by disassembling the front suspension to have the shocks rebuilt. We took off the manifolds and discovered that the carbs were 1 1/2" not the proper 1 1/14" SU's. Much of the wiring was just twisted together without any insulation!! The old SU fuel pump is just sitting there and the copper line is cut and hanging. The previous owner paid for that "quality" work!! The car will also be receiving a complete new wiring harness. This will be a great driving car for the new owner. Stay tuned for updates.
Manifolds off and freeze plugs out. There was a 1/2 inch high dam of rust behind the freeze plugs.
Here is the cleaned up and resealed front suspension. We media blasted and painted the front control arms.
Here is the home made coolant drain that was made. Not a good plan. Also note the rust build up in the freeze plug holes.
The front suspension coming together. Rebuilt lever action shocks and new king pin seals will transform the car!
The rocker arm wrong angle and it is making the push rod rub against the cylinder head, it's pushing on the valve keeper and the spring retainer rather than the valve stem . This needs to be fixed. A new rocker arm and valve keeper should fix these problems.
These are interesting carburettors, the throttle plates usually just run in the throtle bodies, however these have ball bearings. Everything is plated for a period correct look. The exhaust manifold was coated in ceramic to help with underhood temperatures and to keep the fuel from boiling.
Here is the finished caburettor & manifold set up . We are also installing the original style SU fuel pump. It will look more proper and function as was originally intended. We also installed a new Tourist Trophy stainless exhaust system.
The TD needed a new wiring harness. It is hard to find a peroid correct harness for these cars, but we managed to source one. We also needed to replace the old wiring harness. We removed all of the VERY poorly installed band aids. Someone had previously installed a toggle switch under the dash to operate the brake lights rather than simply replacing the failed hydraulic brake lamp switch!
Someone had cut out most of the inner dash frame, why, we have no idea. We got one made out of Baltic Burch and it looks great. We will be sealing and installing it properly so the dash does not flex when you pull on the starter and choke cables.
