That's not a Triumph!

Mayuko is doing some strictly unauthorized Fiat spring cutting at the Wedginator compound, Tony's house on Lucky drive.

Add and subtract

The holes left by the batwings were filled in over the weekend and a wooden "spoiler" was added by my dad. It spoils in more ways than one IMHO. Oh, did you care that it has the NASCAR 60 degree slant?

Sunday fun

Last Sunday we had the whole team present, swarming like like ants over the wedge. Chris and Chuck got their hands dirty by cutting the front springs and installing the new brake parts. Mayuko did some bondorama on the rear deck and polished the brown paint. The other Chris, me, installed the stock car type rear spoiler (a few laughs about the spoiler being made out of wood) and slotted the front tower for camber adjustment. Tony was in a mostly supervisory position handing out tools and getting the brake lines bent to properly mate to the new Capri calipers.
Next week the plan is to install and weld the roll cage and exhaust systems, tune/bleed brakes and maybe paint the white parts of the car.

Comments

Some of these comments are classic...

"Those things in the back makes it look like it's been wedgied by a Fiero!"

"What an absolutely mad combination."

"Triumph: Most inaccurately named car company of all time."

"I'm not sure what could top this--maybe a VW Corrado with a BMW v8?"

Stay tuned more pics to follow as we work on it this Sunday.

Thank you Murilee!

http://jalopnik.com/367263/buick-v6+powered-tr7-gets-ready-for-lemons-action
The coolest car website on the planet has now been graced by our Triumph TR7! Thanks to Murilee for the post!

Last Sunday we got a lot of work done:

Wired the alternator
installed new fuel filter
cut rear springs to lower the car about 2 inches
rolled the rear fender lips for clearance
checked and cleaned the rear brake shoes. cylinders and drums
replaced a steering shaft bush at the firewall
repaired a leak to the trans cooler
painted the rocker panels all around
test drive and checked for leaks

This Sunday the 16th we will have the whole team present, here is the check list of thingss to do:

Cut front springs
slot shock tower holes for camber adjustment
change oil and filter
change trans fluid and filter
tune up, cap rotor plugs timing etc.
install new front brakes, rotors, calipers and pads
grease front wheel bearings
paint front wheels
paint white portion of the car
replace top radiator hose
rivet panel from front spoiler to radiator for added cooling

It would be nice to have a test day at Sears point the end of the month if feasible, who knows what bits might fall off once on a race track!

RUNNING!!!!

Tony lost his head!!

Rodent home no more

Besides finding numerous wasp nests we also had some mice taking up residence in the heater box!

Tony barkin orders

It was cold and raining hard the day we decided to put the new (to us) engine in. We had already been working for several hours prepping when I looked at Tony with those lets put it in now eyes, on went his rain gear to retrieve the engine with the cherry picker. After 3 or so hours trying to wedge the motor in we were cold, wet and getting cranky, finally the little 231 odd-fire is back where it belonged, though one of the motor mounts will have to be modified. The really hard grunt work is done!

I better pull these up a little!

Chief designer and auto body mangler

Mayuko fillin some of those pesky holes with some sweet fab and paint work

Team photo

Tony and Race Car

Parts. parts, parts

Parts off the Triumph are on eBay right now! This headlight and actuator motor set is in working condition. Need something else? Go here: http://motors.search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsuperasiaone



Here is the proud new owner of the old engine which was sold for $80 not moments after we got the thing out.

Future home of the odd fire V6

As Chief Paint and Body Detailer my next assignment is to clean and paint the engine compartment, if the rain doesn't get in the way. Tony was mumbling something about looking like professionals?

There she goes!

Thirsty!

Instead of beer he drinks radiator juice now.

Squeeze

The conversion is a tight fit. My dad is here using some gentle persuasion getting the engine out. Tighter than a ducks ass in a sandstorm, as my friend Johnny would say.

Why is he smiling?

This past Sunday was major excitement as the old engine came out and some interesting discoveries were made...#1 Dual Exhaust!

100 mile an hour boom-box or the “boyz in the hood” go racing.

There are quite a lot of things to consider when constructing a race car: brakes, suspension, fire and fuel systems not to mention an engine that will stay together at high speeds for 24 hours.

The one thing over looked or just totally ignored is a good sound system. I’m not talking about exhaust here. I talking a really great stereo system with powerful amplifiers and living room sized speakers. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I always seem to drive faster when I’m surrounded by great music. No Henry Mancini or Barry Manilow, I’m talking classics like The Doors, Rolling Stones (got some Puerto Rican gals just dying to meet ya!) Led Zeppelin. I want to hear Magic Carpet Ride, Born to be Wild, L.A. Woman. Give me real Rock & Roll!

Lucky for us this Tr-7 came equipped with an 8- track (yes folks, an 8-track!) player. For those of you unfamiliar with this type of device, please google. We have dumped the anemic door speakers and now are on the hunt for some decent equipment. We are limited to $500. for the cost of the car but there is no restrictions on the sound system We plan to install speakers in every open orifice in our beast so we may share our love of fine music with our racing cohorts while we trash their butts during the entire race. This will also make pit stops more enjoyable while our bevy of almost naked race groupies go-go dance to the beat of the true legends of music history.

Tony Lazzarini-Race Car Driver

“Refuse to grow up and refuse to die!”

The other TR7 and guard dogs

Brake talk

Tony, the only member of our team that actually owns a race car (1968 AMX 390) says: "the faster you go the faster you need to stop". With that in mind I have been researching a way to make this TR7 stop properly, the 7's stock brakes are pretty feeble. There are many different setups available for the car but almost all of them way too expensive!! TR8 rotors and calipers bolt on but the calipers alone cost over $250. There is a volvo 4 pot caliper set up with ford escort vented rotors that has been done, again too muchy money! I have settled on Capri II calipers with TR8 rotors and Triumph TR6 ceramic pads. It all bolts right on! Found some used (new to me) rotors for free on the TriumphTR7.com website, kragen has some rebuilt Capri calipers for $27 bucks each and I found some TR6 ceramic pads for $37 buy it now on Ebay. OK for the fronts, the rear brakes should be easy as we have a Ford 9" diff that came with the car, ck the pads and hardware and make sure the cylinders don't leak and we are done! Total spent $91. Brakes are considered safety equipment and are not counted toward the $500 total.

I put the old Buick engine parts on various Craigs lists and have so far sold the HEI distributor(odd fire model and RARE! Jeep guys like them) for $40 and have the old block and intake manifold with carb listed for $80, a guy for San Jose is coming to take a look Sunday. So that's $120 bucks for the old busted engine and I think there is probably another $100-$150 worth of parts on the race car that have been stripped off and will be sold on Ebay and Craigs list. The original sears 8 track stereo will stay, Tony had the idea to put some speakers in the tail light holes so all those we pass on the race track can get a load some creedence clear water or maybe a little deep purple.

Sunday we will swap the engines and maybe even get it running, we will also try to guess the differential ratio by making a mark on the drive shaft then rotating the rear wheel 360 degrees. The number of drive shaft rotations should give us an approximate ratio. If the ratio is 3.73 or above the 13" wheels currently on the back of the car won't do. With the three speed turbo 350 trans the top end will be the shits and the revs will be way too high, blow a rod high, float the valves high! So maybe some 15's on the back and keep the 13's up front, really exaggerate the wedge affect! We will see.

The Beast...2 of 10

Thanks Rick for the nice Odd fire 231!!

Rick (from somewhere within 30 miles of Santa Rosa) is responsible for getting our little project well under way. I saw a post on Merced Craigslist some time ago, with 231 V6 as the search criteria. (Our Triumph has 231 with a bad rod) After chatting with Rick several times on the phone we decided to take a look. The owner of that beautiful 77 Pontiac Ventura is his son, he got it from grandma with less than 50K miles or so the story goes. After the front crash it was parked and sitting for a year.

We got around to turning it over, Rick assured us it was a "good runner", with a goodly amount of staring fluid we got it started and in the process starting a small under hood fire! My bad!! I should know NEVER spray starting fluid on a running engine! Rick raced out from the car and took off his jacket and doused the flames! After a bit the engine smoothed out and ran perfectly. We agreed $200 was fair with delivery included and shook hands. If anybody needs parts for full size Pontiac Bonnevilles, circa mid to late 60's Rick is your man, he also has a 66 GTO 389 4speed!! Its NOT for sale. Nice running low miles odd-fire 231 engines don't grow on trees (GM only produced the engine for 2 1/2 years before changing to even-fire 231's), most have been snapped up by the Jeep guys to upgrade their old dauntless 225 odd-fire engines. A link to some Buick V6 history here

The Beauty...1 of 10

Havana, CA?

It's been a while since I've hung out in the old hood and my Dad remembers this guy from back in the day. We are assuming two things here...that all these cars are owned by one person and that the owner is at least a 75 year old man but the identity of the owner/s remains a mystery. Spread throughout a 1 block radius from this red house are 10 pre 1960 Dodge, Plymouth, Mercury's and a beautiful Studebaker Commander. The street is this guy's garage. Every single car is registered with current parking permits. Just moving these cars for street cleaning would be a full time job! A quick look on Google Satellite reveals no cars in the backyard but I'm sure this guy has 5 more cars laying around that we missed including 2 in the garage. He must be the bane of the neighborhood but nowhere outside of Havana, Cuba can you see such a glorious collection of 1950's American automobiles parked on the street. Should some of these cars be in a museum? Maybe. Definitely worth a Jalopnik DOTS special SF edition. Do you hear me Murilee?

V6 close up...

The Donor

The heart for the little Triumph that could comes from this heap. A 1977 Pontiac Ventura in Santa Rosa that got banged up by the owners son. The conversation on the drive back centered on possibly registering the Triumph, currently the car is not in the system at all. Maybe we should hold off on that until after the race, the car could just be scrap anyway. If that happens my dad wants to save the engine and drop it into his '80 TR7. Another issue, we're all ass backwards on entering this thing. It probably should have been get team together, enter race, buy and prep car, win race. Right now we're at car & 4 drivers and we're not even sure we're in the race! I'm gonna be bummed if we don't get in. What the EF am I gonna do with the car? Maybe get it registered and turn it into my daily driver? I could sell my '81 Fiat Spider to make room in the garage. Can I go through the car pool lane on the Bay Bridge with only 1 person because I only have one seat?

Team Wedginator Looking for racers!

Wanna be this guy? We are forming a team to apply for the 24 Hours of LeMons May 10-11, 2008 race at Altamont Motorsports Park. All costs of car/parts/gas/car entry fee to be shared by team members. We will try to sell the car and split the proceeds after the race (IF the car survives) or race it again! In addition, BYO-helmet, suit, gloves and $175 driver & temp. racing license fee (paid to organizers). Give us your contact info in the comments if you are down.

Somebody get my helmet! I'm ready!

Buck is rarin to go!

Don't try this at home

It Runs!!

Our little Triumph TR7 coupe had been sitting for over 10 years on some farmland in Elverta, Ca. Within an hour I had it running with a small electric fuel pump with gas out of a can! The PO was right, it does have a rod knock when warmed up. We have started to decontent the interior but will leave the Sears 8 track stereo, is there a rule about racin while listening to your favorite tunes?

V6 Conversion

When I first spotted this car on Ebay about 2 weeks ago I wasn't thinking of the "24 hours of lemons" race. In the back of my little pea brain I was thinking the parts on this car would go very nicely on my 80 TR7 (that little orange beauty in the photo). While the stock TR7's came with a 4 cylinder engine and about 100 HP, the much rarer TR8 had a small V8 Buick based engine with about 150 HP. Some owners replaced the anemic 4 banger with the Buick 231 V6, its a nice compact engine that sits back in the engine bay giving the slightly heavier V6 good weight distribution. The Buick engine was chosen because the distributor is in the front of the engine and won't get in the way of the hood closure on the TR7, unlike Chevy engines of the same size.
That's where our little car comes in, this 76 coupe was converted some time in the early 80's, it has a mid 70's 231 Buick engine (3.8l 2 barrel carb) with a Turbo 350 3 speed auto trans. and a very beefy Ford rear end. The PO said this car was roughly comparable to driving a 327 Corvette in terms of power to weight ratio. That may have something to do with the gear ratio of the Ford diff. and the small 13" rims. His words were " this thing goes like stink and will get sideways very fast if your not careful." Well that sound like an E ticket to me! I will get the car running tomorrow to see how tired this engine is. I have a line on a 252 Buick riviera engine (4.1l) from a wreaked car, it comes with an aluminum 4 barrel intake manifold. So imagine this car with a 4.1l engine and a Holly 390 or a small 4 barrel Quadrajet carb! We may have to de-gear the diff to keep the tires planted on the road!
This should tun out to be a fun little race car! I will know more tomorrow about the condition of the current engine and trans. Who ever did the original conversion on this car did a professional job, its not all hacked up, looking at it you might think it came from the factory like this, until you look under the rear of the car and see this massive Ford diff!

The work begins...

2 TR7's at team headquarters, 2 more than I have ever seen on the road in my entire life...as chief body engineer there is some discussion on what to do for the paint. I suggested painting the Union Jack on the hood, (or I should say bonnet) but apparently it's in bad form... it wouldn't be hard for me to paint one on the roof. What to do for the hood and sides then? Flames? It's agreed that the brown has to go but the white is in good shape.



The team mascot really working really hard helping with the disassembly,

Least expensive rig on the road...

You are looking at $624 of automotive glory, Jeep $440, trailer rental $35, Race Car $149.

Picking up the Wedgie

Exciting day today as we drive up to Sacramento to pick up the Race Car...My dad and former owner...it took a little muscle to get the car on the dolly.

We have the car!

Buy it now price on Ebay $149.99

Item Description:

1976 Triumph TR-7 with a Buick V-6 engine. To be sold as parts only. Due to the fine Goobernator we have in Caleefornia (I'll be Back) this is a boat anchor, as he signed in a bill at the end of 2004 stopping the rolling 30 years on old vehicles at 1975. So this is now a pile of used parts to be sold as such! They just happen to be assembled in the picture that you see, some dis-assembly will be required! Has TH 350 Trans 3.8 Buick Rivera engine Ford Cougar rearend. Just add elbo grease! It will scare the $hit out of you on the road! You will need a Transporter truck to pick it up! Add this fine pile of used parts to your spare parts collection to keep your TR-7 on the road!!! So if you have a TR-7 and need a pile of parts you are in luck!!! You won't find these parts any cheaper any where!!! Where else can you get this much iron for so little? BUY IT NOW!!! <(O:O)