Hi folks
As some may know I am restoring a '77 Speke-built FHC and enjoying it very much. I come across many items in the rebuild which make me think "why did they build it like that?". However there's nothing really so far which makes me shudder.
I have been reading David Knowles' book which wonderfully chronicles the story of the TR7's development and he talks a lot about quality issues in the early days, but is a bit short on detail. Sure, we all know the headlamp motors needed sealing, the headlamps were temperamental and the A-pillar trims don't fit, but I wonder what specifically were the original pre-launch and immediately post-launch quality issues? I'd love to know what else didn't fit, or work, or broke off, or failed in those early months. For example, Mr Knowles illustrates the problem with the US press launch cars and describes how they had to cobble together something like 17 cars for review from a total of c30 shipped, but doesn't really go into detail.
It would be great to hear about which welds, panels, trim, switches, engine components etc were troublesome.
Likewise it would be fascinating to learn about which items got modified due to those early problems, aside from the obvious like the 5 speed gearbox etc.
Hopefully the TR7 historians can fill in!
Thanks
John
