OK, what am I missing?

[Hasbeen]

Yes I'm probably mad, but I'm thinking of buying another 7. This one is a late DHC, with only 38,500 Km on it. More than a little frighteningly, it still has the original tyres on it.

It is advertised on Carsales.com.au, at A$15950, which is reduced a bit from the first asking price.It has a genuine air-con system with it, which would have to be fitted. It is UK spec, so not much work to get it up to my 7 FHC performance.

Obviously the tyres would have to go, I would expect to rebuild all the brakes & clutch hydraulics, pads etc, plus hoses. All the coolant hoses, & belts would also have to go, but what else would be likely to give problems.

The thing is registered, & driven a little, but obviously not very much. How it can have got a safety certificate with those old tyres I don't know.

What do you reckon. A great opportunity to get a low mileage car, or a pile of trouble, which would take too much work to sort out, to be worth the effort?

Assuming he would drop a bit, it would have to be up around A$20,000 by the time it was sorted. Present exchange rates makes it around US$20,000 & UK 14,000 so not cheep. However we got so few DHC that any good one is worth about A$14000.

Hasbeen

[Odd]

Depends entirely on how much ironoxide is hiding in there my friend.
Rust free = Snag it! You know you'll like it...
/Odd

<font color="red"><b>My two 1980 Wedges...</b></font id="red">

[jclay (RIP 2018)]

<i>"You should be happy in your retirement!"</i>

Or so my wife says!

Clay

[url="http://web.mac.com/jclaythompson/Site/Welcome.html"]My Triumph Site[/url], [url="http://web.mac.com/jclaythompson/iWeb/Technical/Intro.html"]Technical Stuff[/url], [url="http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa/53/wo/HJMTK8gsojtwKleP.1/0.2.1.2.26.31.97.0.35.0.1.1.1?user=jclaythompson&fpath=Triumph_Articles&templatefn=FileSharing4.html"]Download Page[/url]

[TR Tony]

Electrics & rust is all I can think of, Hasbeen. if it's Ok on both of those then the rest of it is straightforward.

If the A/C system is important (& I guess it may well be in your weather!) then make sure all the parts, hoses etc are there - some of it is unobtanium now. And as the car is UK spec then changes to the loom will be needed for the A/C electrics. Is the all important A/C version of the heater box included?

Tony

<font size="1">1981 2L FHC Cavalry Blue
1980 3.5L V8 DHC Jaguar Regency Red - sadly sold!
1977 TR8 FHC EFI Factory development car Inca Yellow</font id="size1">

[FI Spyder]

Hot and dry destroyed most rubber on my Califirnia Spider where as cool and wet (Pacific Northwest) makes them last longer. This particularly on gaiters, smaller bushings. If your hot and wet, not sure. Most wiring connections would likely have wet/dry corrosion on them so a systematic cleaning of these would eliminate a lot of electrical problems that would pop up.

What do you mean by genuine air-con? Original? Although mine hasn't been working for a long time (7 years storage plus + 1 year bringing up to snuff) there was still a short whoosh as the last of the freon escaped when I disconnected the hose to remove and refurbish the A/C Heater unit. I'm sure it would work today if I recharged it (probably need a new dryer but don't need A/C here on a conertible other than a few days a year.)

My Yellow TCT (47,000 km) for a hundred bucks had new Pirelli's just put on it before it went into storage 4 years ago. The high cost of living in Australia I guess. That's why my neice and her Australian husband just moved back to Edmonton from Canberra.[;)]

These cars are so reliable you always need an extra to keep one busy,[:(][:D]

TR7 Spider - 1978 Spifire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra

[REPLIC8]

I think it depends on the type of use it's had. If it racked up the miles in the first few years & then stood about doing nothing since it could have all sorts of problems, however if it's just had light use over the years and been well serviced the worn bits & pieces would have been replaced as time went on. Best to go & have a look & a good poke around.

Andy
1981 UK SPEC TR8

[Marsu]

The price seems high given that a reasonable DHC in BRG with a Sprint engine went for under AU$9k a few months ago.

In addition to your list you're likely to want to replace shocks and bushes. How are the seats - are the lambs wool covers concealing the fact that they need rebuilding too?

As others have said, it's all about the condition of the shell. But given the strength of our currency at the moment it's worth comparing the cost of local cars against importing. (A friend has just taken advantage of this to import a 1979 Daimler Double 6 - yes, everyone says he's gone mad too! He expects to land it here for < AU$4k on top of purchase price.)

For example, this restored [url="http://www.tr7.co.uk/TR7/tr7-38.html"]1982 DHC[/url] is advertised at UKP3,500 (AU$5,621) and this low milage (71,693) [url="http://www.tr7.co.uk/TR7/tr7-33.html"]1981 DHC[/url] is listed at UKP2,750 (AU$4,418). Either would seem to leave a lot of room to make improvements and come out ahead of buying the local car.

I should express my prejudice at this point: simply, I think it it is a good idea to bring more DHCs to Australia as there are not enough here at present.

Of course, if the available budget is AU$20k, then it is probably best to aim to get a (real) low mileage TR8 and enjoy it in the unmolested state that the factory originally intended. This is likely to have best ROI. There is a [url="http://www.tr8.co.uk/TR8/tr8-10.html"]1980 pre-production DHC[/url] RHD example listed for UKP10,000 (AU$16,067), but there may be better examples on the US market.

Good luck with this Hasbeen.

[Jolyon39]

Hi Hasbeen,

Congratulations on the new car, what ever you choose!

I have purchased and dismantled three UK cars plus my original DHC is a UK car. The reason I purchased the UK cars so cheap was the rust in them. It is so pervaisive that you should be very very very cautious. What our UK brothers think is normal is extremely negative in our part of the world.

Considering your budget I agree with Marsu, that you should bring in your own car and an original TR8 would be a fantastic option.

Luckily you can readly access old DHC cars for a new dash and wiring loom so the RHD conversion is practical. Look at California and Texas cars, no rust just lots of sun damage and you are more than familiar with that.

An AUD $20,000 car is just incredible and it would need to be completely amazing for you to consider it.

There is a court case going on here where a girl purchased a horse, well her father did, because it was very expensive. They assumed it had to be great because of the price. Turned out to be drugged when they saw it because it was too dangerous for anyone in the country and the only therapy it needs is Lead Therapy (lead as in the metal Ph). They are currently begging Gail to be a witness because she tried to warn them but the father, being totally arrogant, brushed her off at that time.

My last statement is the lesson I learnt from importing cars - Fly over and see it before you make the final payment. Better to loose an airfare than the cost of car plus shipping.

Jolyon

[PeterTR7V8]

Its always good to hear that people have spare money to blow on a 3rd TR7. It makes me feel a lot more positively about the economy! [8D]

So it looks like you've been bitten by the convertible bug and it does make sense to have a DHC to complement a V8 FHC. The main thing is to make sure you don't end up with a body resto project anything else comes under 'running repairs' in my book. As for low mileage, assuming I'm not buying a show car I'd rather buy something that has shown it has stamina & has been around long enough to have the bugs ironed out.



The map: http://tinyurl.com/wedgemap . The blog: http://www.forum.triumphtr7.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8548

[Hasbeen]

Jclay, your wife is very wise.

Odd, I'm not sure my wife would agree with you.

Tony, it is showing some of the usual lack of use electrical hassles.
The air is critical here. On hot slow news days, someone will cook an egg on a bitumen footpath, to get on the TV news.

Spyder, Marsu, I guess I'd better factor in replacing all the old rubber bushes & gaiters, in the near future. The air con is genuine TR7, off a damaged car.

Jolyon, no longer up to it mate. I can only handle an hour or two's work every second day or so these days. What I really want is my 7 FHC to miraculously turn into a DHC. It is such a great car, & fits me perfectly. When I'm using it, I sometimes drive 25Km for a bottle of milk, rather than 3Km to the local shop.

The problem is getting in to it. Sometimes the back just won't let me use it. I've been using the 8DHC much more because I can get into it, but the boy wants to take it south for a while, & it really is too good for daily driving.

If this thing is as good as my FHC, handling, & performance wise, with air, it would be worth every penny to me.

Yes Peter, the low mileage is a great attraction, but is also the greatest worry. It took a year to get all the 8s electrics working properly, after it's year sitting at the painters.

Thanks for the thoughts fellers, You haven't frightened me out of it, but I'm not on my way to the bank for the money just yet either.

Hasbeen

[Bobbieslandy]

Just do it. get the car, get it sorted and enjoy it. If after all the time an money you decide you don't like it then what the hell, i'd rather own a car and know i didn't like it than not own it at all.

One day i will own that Lambo countach[:D]

Rob

[Beans]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Bobbieslandy</i>

... One day i will own that Lambo countach ... <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Hopefully sooner rather than later, otherwise you might not get out of it [:p]

<center>
<font color="blue"><i>1980 TR7 DHC (my first car, now restored and back on the road)
1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)</font id="blue">
<b>[url="http://www.tr7beans.blogspot.com/"]<u><b><font size="2"><font color="red">My Weblog</font id="red"></font id="size2"></b></u>[/url]</b></i></center>

[Marsu]

Rob, speaking from experience of a couple of drives I've had, you will probably change your mind about owning a Countach after taking one for a drive. (Reverse parking is farcical!)

My fav lambo is Islero. (My boss had one in the early to mid 80's.) It's a true Grand Tourismo 2+2, with styling that just hasn't dated. The sound of the v12 spinning up is just amazing.


I've always thought Triumph took inspiration for the Wedge alloy wheels from the Islero. There are other similarites too. I don't think the wedge looks out of place parked beside one either.

[Bobbieslandy]

did anyone see the topgear episode where James May drove the Countach? he had his boyhood dream smashed by an ungainly and totally un-userfriendly lump of a car. As i said before, i'd rather drive it and say "yeah i hated it" than to never drive it at all. I want to regret the things i did do[;)]

Beans, i'm already making groaning noises when climbing up into the land rover or down into the TR7. Because of this reason i keep telling the missus how much we need a supercar before it's too late!

Marsu, that car is pure sex, i've never seen it before.

Rob.

[Marsu]

I hadn't seen the [url="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2990298820909118096#"]topgear countach segment[/url] before but it reminds me of embarrassing myself trying to reverse park one in Kings X (Sydney) on a Saturday night. It’s the sort of car that should never be parked, except by the valet.

They made very few Islero (less than 500 from memory). Only 3 were originally delivered as RHD vehicles here. It’s the sort car you just want to run your hands over with the same enthusiasm one brings to a sexy woman’s legs. Inside it is spacious and comfortable.