I’ve been shopping for a car. I think I’ve settled on a BMW 335d but, of course, it is not being offered in the 2012 model year and it is too late to order exactly what I want. I’ve been to the dealership here twice and my salesperson has been pretty helpful and we’ve found a car that I would buy except that they’re being kinda hard-asses about the price. I contacted a different, out of town dealership and their price is better so far but is light on details as it’s been going over email which is a pretty high latency communication protocol. I’ve asked for more detail from the B team and we’ll see if that gets the ball rolling any better here at home.
The Triumph lives once more. It’s like a bad horror movie villain. You just do a few rituals and sacrifices and it rises, sputtering and roaring from the grave. The problem this time was that once the coolant had been flushed during last project with the car, the years of crud and rust (more on that in a second) that had been keeping a half-assed repair job holding were suddenly gone and the radiator began leaking in earnest.
Once I got the hoses off it turns out that the flexible return hose up top has a plain old steel spring inside it to help it keep shape. This thing is basically rusting to pieces so that will need to be replaced at some point. It never ends.
Anyway, I wasn’t very excited about the prospect of coughing up $500 + s/h to get a new one from Moss or Vicky Brit but it turns out there is a company in Alabama that makes and sells new, all aluminum replacement radiators for all kinds of old cars. They have the 1969-1974 TR6 radiator and the 1975-1976 model as well. And it’s significantly cheaper. I got mine for $270 + $45 s/h. The company name is Brice Thomas Radiator and they sell through eBay as radman2776. The radiator came quickly but when I got it it was the wrong model (75-76). However, when I contacted them about it they had the right one built and shipped and it got here the same week so my plans didn’t have to change. I got the old radiator out and the new one in this afternoon in about three hours. The new one actually didn’t fit right. The mounting holes needed to be about 1/8″ farther from center but the ol’ Dremel and some patience solved that.
It works fine, doesn’t seem to leak and the temperature gauge got a little past halfway, the thermostat opened all the way and we leveled off right at center on the gauge. Hard to argue with that.
Maybe everything will work out and I’ll be able to get the new car at a good price and it will be a magical car-filled thanksgiving. Fingers crossed.