Bill and Liz Glen

Bonshaw, PEI

     The year was 1975 and job prospects for a newly minted graduate forester did not look good.  Government Departments weren't hiring and the industry was in a recession.  What does one do?  The chosen option was to use the mechanical skills I had acquired after getting my Mini van back in 1969.  No mechanics' papers and a skill with only British cars limited the options.  We were still living in the Frederecton, N.B. area and I learned of the unofficial British car garage run by Ernst van Groenewoud called Canmore Motors.  We had a chat and as a result, the next year was spent working with Ernst and a couple of other guys repairing what came thru the door.  There were lots of British cars in Frederiction in those days and many were owned by students and often needed repairs.

     Working in the garage gave me the opportunity to find a car to rebuild/restore and that is what happened.  Behind a house on Hanwell Road in Frederiction was a 1962 TR3A or that is what the ownership papers said.  I subsequently learned it was a 1960 (The TR3A were not built in 1962 only TR4s).  The car at first glance looked ok but up close one realized it had been sitting for some years with the top partly up, no side curtains and weeds growing up thru the floor.  After some haggling the car was mine and we towed it to the garage where over the next nine months it was taken apart and eventually mostly assembled.  

     Ernest had a good skill set and equipment that proved to be critical to the project.  The first job was to see how bad the car really was.  The remains of the seats were removed.  Nothing to salvage there, even the frames were past reuse.  The floors, well you could tell there had been floors!  Fortunately mechanically, the car appeared complete.  After a few evenings of tinkering I was able to get it to run, not well but run.  Not good, no/very low oil pressure.  Thoughts of a quick rebuild ended right then.  

     So the body was stripped and good news, the front and back ends were still connected by the inner sills (which are still in place on the car today).  The fenders/wings were removed, what captive nuts (!), the other opening panels also came off.  The bare body was carefully lifted off with the help of some customers and put to one side.  

     The frame and running gear looked good but it was hard to tell under the decade or so of oil, grease, muck etc.  The mechanical bits were removed so only the bare frame remained and Ernest used his sandblasting equipment to give it the once over.  Only two areas had problems.  The sleeves thru which the bolts for the lower bump stop on the front suspension were no longer attached and the lower side of one of the rear frame rails was a bit soft.  Welding fixed the problem areas and the frame was painted with a red oxide paint as used on steel beams at the time.  (That paint was as good as when we put it on in 1975 when I redid the car last year.)

     Over the winter of 1975/76 the suspension was sand blasted, painted and rebuilt and by Christmas I had a rolling chassis.  The engine was a bit more of a problem.  Not only was there low iol pressure but the block was cracked as well.  Scrounging found a block and the cranshaft wasn't as bad as feared, a regrind to 20 thou brought it back to spec.  Now one has to remember that in 1975 almost no parts were available from British Leyland for a car 15 years old and there were no after market vendors on this side of the Atlantic, so most of the needed mechanical bits were sourced thru S.A.H. in Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire.  this meant there was a long delay between identifying the parts needed and receipt but this progressed well so by spring the chassis now sported a rebuilt engin (with the oversized sleeves), transmission and suspension.  The rear axle had new seals and brake parts installed but other than that it is still original.  

     Examination of the body showed that the main body tub was not too bad.  The normal things like the floors, the lower section of the footwells, the 'B' posts, and minor holes in the boot floor, the spare wheel well needed attention.  The repaired body tub was primed and bolted to the chassis.  The fenders were in rather poor condition due to rust and previous minor accidents and needed significant attention.  

     At this point, May 1976, I had accepted a job with Michelin Tire in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia so I ordered new fiberglass fenders and outer rocker panels.  The panels arrived by air and undamaged and were fitted.  Some modifications were required but the fit was acceptable, not good but time was a problem.  Work was limited to weekends after driving from Bridgewater to Digby catching the ferry and being met by Elizabeth whe was still in Frederiction.  Ernest had painted the car after I had the car ready and the next weekend I returned to find that red which had been one of the cars previous colours had bled thru the white turning areas pink!  The solution was to paint the car black and then paint it white!  Another weekend later the necessary bits were installed and the car test driven.  The first time it moved under its own power in probably the best part of a decade.  

     The following weekend I borrowed my Dad's Landrover (Sereies 3) and the double horsebox and my brother and I headed for Fredericton.  We packed up the apartment and all the bits for the Triumph we hadn't had time to fit the headed for Nova Scotia.  Quite a convoy, the Landrovcer towing a British horsebox (Rice), Liz's Austin Marina and the TR3.  By brother came up with the short straw and drove the TR.  It wa a cool shoere day and the TR had no heater, no wipers, no side curtains, no interior except one seat from a Triumph Spitfire and no plugs in the firewall or floors.  Despite this he smiled all the way to Bridgewater.  The TR performed well with no problems thank goodness!

     Over the next month or so the car had the remaining bits fitted and then was put into storage as I had accepted a job in Scotland!  There it sat for the next 6 years.

Tractor:                   International B414

Model Year:            1962

Original Colour:    

Current Colour:     Red

Odometer:    

Car:                           TR3A

Model Year:            1960

Original Colour:     Silver, Red

Current Colour:     White

Odometer:    

The TR as acquired in 1975.

Note the tow rope still attached!

A floor! And a younger owner

Ernest taking a break from sandblasting