1955 Triumph TR2

 As is typical, when we put more miles on the car we found more issues (44 miles so far).  Three more issues to be exact. First was poor acceleration.  Seemed to come and go.  But last time we had it out, decided to "not overlook the obvious" and check the oil in the carbs.  They were almost dry.  Filled them up, then ran like a champ. Second was pulling to the right when braking.  Adjusted front brakes, still there.  Took them apart, could not find a root cause.  Decided to sand paper the shoes and drums, plus swap drums from side to side.  Problem appears to be gone now! Third was more challenging, running hot.  We knew gauge read too high.  But we also felt like the car was running too hot, esp when idling.  TR2's and TR3's are known for not moving enough air.  But we also had not done anything to the radiator. More checking ended up first finding a bunch of maple seeds in the radiator.  First picture is from ...

Moss motors could not get us a throwout bearing that was narrower.  So we ended up making ours narrower, ie ground off some of the pin on the right side.  Took about 0.040" off, filed it nice and smooth, reassembled and parts now fit great!  Root cause was original bell housing machining was slightly off center, which was fine with a wider throwout bearing but not the new narrower ones.  Then we finally got transmission reinstalled. Received refurbished steering wheel and control head, got them installed.  They both look and function great: Got rest of interior done, including seat installation and carpet.  Those "hot rod" seat rails work pretty darn good! Got new top installed.  Well, it was actually several years old from sitting around in it's box.  Had to let mother nature stretch the material during installation.  We think it turned out real good: Developed a "punch list" of things to finish up.  Great progress on the list.  Do...