Thank you for all the replies so far. Perhaps I should explain our situation. As Dilkeris mentioned I am 70 years old. I have neither the space, the proper tools nor the health to take on a long, involved restoration. Nor do I have the financial means to pay others to do such on our behalf. I have a very close, long-time friend who runs a Jaguar parts and restoration shop. I know what he and his employee(s) go through and what it costs. Heck, he has to outsource some of the work at times because it’s too time consuming or they are just too busy to do it all themselves. He’s booked up even though he’d love to do a car for me, even a Lotus.
My father was a motorcycle/automotive mechanic in the mid to late 20’s. He became an certified automotive electrician in the 30’s working for a company called; Walter Chapman Auto Electric. Just before the war he tried to start up a machine shop. He ended up selling his equipment to and then going to work for Oshawa Engineering. This company did a lot of the machine work for the planes and vehicles built by GM of Canada. He built his own airplane in the early 30’s and raced boats and motorcycles. In the fifties he got into car racing by helping a family friend build race cars. In the late fifties he got into restoring old cars. I came along late in his life but remember well him and my much older brothers working on the cars. One of which is quite well known, a yellow 1934 LaSalle rumble seat convertible coupe. So you can see how I come by this love of cars and all things mechanical.
Now how this business about a Europa all started was that the wife agreed to allow me to purchase one of my bucket list cars. We had a 1973 TCS 4 speed back when we were first married so that was one of the cars I was looking for. However, I had always wanted, (and had tried several times to buy) a Caterham seven. I lost out on one that was just two hours from our home. It went to a scumbag flipper who tied to get an extra $15K profit. He’s adjusted his price over the past six months but as far as I know has yet to sell it. I was successful in buying a car off of the on-line action site Bring a Trailer. I over paid for the car but I do not regret that for a moment. Is anyone here a member of the UK Caterham and Lotus 7 Club? If so my car and I were in the May issue of Lowflying in an article entitled, “A Glass And A Half”
So, some of the user names on this forum are familiar like jbcollier who I know via USA7’s.
Now the wife is very supportive of the Caterham and enjoys going places in it but… She will not drive it. The clutch is VERY heavy, the brakes require a lot of effort and the throttle is shall we say “very responsive”. It is not an easy car to drive slowly. She now wants to relive our youth and get a TCS. We were hoping to find a runner that requires minimal expense to make reliable. When she heard about this car she had visions of a low cost recommissioning. You know, go over the brakes, flush the fuel lines, replace some rubber bits and do the cosmetics over time as she enjoyed driving it. This car is not that.
However, she is still thinking that if/when we get to see all the parts boxes and hopefully learn that there are no missing pieces that she can make a deal. She is thinking about offering some of her jewellery and/or camera equipment in trade. The custodian of this car does seem to like a bargain.
We’ll figure out what we do with it if/when we see all the boxes and paper work etc. And that is “IF” she can successfully negotiate a deal.
I’ve attached some photos. One of our old 1973 TCS and one of our new to us 1993 Caterham HPC Evo and a couple of the family’s 1934 LaSalle as when we drove it and after my brother’s/new owner’s restoration.
