So today I finally got some spare time to play with my new TR6 a bit, its quite exciting :) Heres what I found..

First off, I think a diff pin must be busted, if I apply power suddenly it feels like something is going to jump out from behind the passenger seat. “CLUNK!”. I took a bunch of shots of the differential area, pins, U-Joint etc and it ‘looks’ ok but it is obviously not. I’ll investigate more using some more formalized testing but if anyone see’s anything wacky in the photos please let me know.
The second item is rust. (GASP!). Yes, as amazing as it might sound this is a TR6 that has some rust. Today I strapped on my Makita drill, attached a wire brush drillbit and went looking for trouble. First the good news, everything that looks like surface rust is, in reality, surface rust. Very nice!
The trouble came when I attacked the 4 or so small bondo areas around the rear deck. Yup, there it was, pinhole rust in the same spot on both sides, right where the rear deck joins to the wings. The good of this is that it is extremely localized (or so it appears) and everything else seems intact on both the inside and the outside and its very very structurally sound. It looks like the previous DPO attempted to stop the spread and succeeded.
So now I have to decide how to repair these pinholes, replace the deck or solder them or something like that. Time to do some more research!
The right wing is totally trashed. For some reason the previous DPO decided that it would be advantageous to apply 1/4″ of bondo the the wing rather then just replace it. It must have gotten pushed in when the other front damage occured. I don’t see any obvious frame damage etc so I think I am in the clear.
Anyhow, everything is looking pretty nice so far outside of these issues. Its a really complete car, even down to the original plastic covers for the seatbelt bolts behind the shoulders. Current list of ‘required new stuff’ is a right wing, front valance, new dash pad and a new bonnet, oh and the interior of course. Pricey stuff but easy enough to deal with!

Current dilemma – Restore to original or ‘make it better’. I guess in the big scheme of things thats a good decision to have to make! Oliver on the 6-Pack list said that his philosophy is to restore ‘in the spirit of the time’. I like that because it lets me put more HP under the hood and upgrade to an overdrive transmission