September 2020 Ragtop Letter from the President Don Couch
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The September 2020 Ragtop Letter from the President Don Couch eptember is here and hopefully we have turned a corner on this hot weather. At least we did �inally In This Issue: Sget some rain in Austin. It really helped cool things Letter from the President off. I hope this “cooler” weather will stick around for our 2 Saturday meeting at Live Oak Brewery. We had a great turnout last month and should have one more Triumph in the parking lot this time. I renewed my Hagerty Secretary’s Report Insurance so I’ll be able to legally drive Ruby. August2020 4 Hope to see you all at Live Oak Brewery Saturday. Covid- FromtheArchives 7 19 restrictions are still in place so please bring a mask and follow the CDC guidelines as posted by Live Oak. TR6 Pedal Box Rebuild 9 First Lady Brenda and I were discussing this next meeting and the idea of bringing your own lawn chair My Coronavirus Project: came up. You could then �ind your own patch of shade to TR6 Seat Restoration12 “distance” in and be cool at the same time. Also, at the last meeting I spoke to Chip about the club parking Race Report CVAR at around back near where we held the meeting. I’ll get Hallett Motor Racing with Chip and see if that’s still a go and send out an Circuit16 email later this week. Classifieds19 PAY YOUR DUES and Stay Tuned! HCTC Officers27 UpcomingEvents28 NextMeeting29 Secretary’s Report August 2020 Mike McPhail 107 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday, come highly recommended. Next time join August 15 missed tying the hottest day of us there…say 10 AM? the year by 1 degree. That didn’t keep the faithful from gathering at Chip McElroy’s We are actually having a real driving event Live Oak Brewing Company for another in September! A Labor Day trip to Kerrville exciting HCTC monthly meeting! is happening with a stay-over at the magni�icent Inn of the Hills on the 5th and Fortunately, there is plenty of shade and ice-cold craft beer to be had at this lovely spot on the mighty Colorado River across the highway from the Austin Airport. Chips and salsa (tasty!) come with each purchase and a Bavarian-style food trailer is just a few short steps away, making this the perfect place to be on a sunny summer afternoon. Some hardcore members drove their Triumph convertibles to the 290 Café in beautiful downtown Manor for a hearty breakfast prior to the meeting…the Migas Oasis. Oasis. 6th. Saturday will be spent touring the area’s glorious backroads and visiting the spectacular Lost Maples Natural Area. Best of all, the daytime highs will be about 90…now that’s more like it! From the Archives Art Graves This gem from the archives is taken from the March 2000 issue of the Ragtop. This event actually took place in November of 1999. The Y2K bug probably delayed the article, right Richard? The club has organized several garage tours in the past and they were all fun. So much fun that I named my home brew equipment ‘Garage Tour Brewery’. You may notice that not much has changed in the behavior of club members. Matt Baker has since passed away (as noted last month) as well as ‘Big’ Al Johnson. Both, way too soon. Ye Ole Garage Tour ‘99 driving. Big Al put away the bus pass, dusted off the TR8, and joined in what he by Richard Ceraldi refers to as “his favorite event.” Mr. “TRs We Got ‘em” Mike McPhail came out in the What a great day for the annual tour of TR6 to help guide us down the back Austin's back roads and toy boxes. The streets. Woodchuck and his daughter, who early morning drive to Austin High School by the way passed up a thrilling afternoon could not be any �iner. The air was that of yard work, came out to enjoy the tour. early morning cool we have this time of With the arrival of Roger and Michelle we year and the sun shone brightly through were off on our adventure. As the day wore the crystal-clear sky. What a day for being on, we were also joined by Frank Woodul, out and about-in some old British iron. some guy in a Mercedes, and a Bel Air also had to stop by to see what was happening. The main core of the tour met at 8:45-9:00. Many others also joined the party but I I failed to read the newsletter and really can't remember all the names so sorry to busted a move to get there at 8. Jeez you leave you out of print. would think the guy that made it up would know when to be there! Pat and Merle First stop on the tour was Matt Baker's toy were one of the �irsts to arrive. They were box. A very easy place to �ind as it had 3 sporting the Green Jaguar XK120, top up Triumphs (2 Spits and 1 GT6) parked in the without the side curtains. Merle must have driveway. The garage was well stocked traded the side curtains for his jacket as a with the tools needed to mount a Rover V8 compromise with Pat. Art arrived shortly on the GT6 chassis. A very solid TR8 afterwards and immediately lowered his gearbox will be mated between the V8 and top in anticipation of the days more sedate Roto-�lex rear to complete the drive train. Eventually one of the Spit�ire bodies will be Gadgets workshop that was beyond words. grafted to the frame with a trick wrap You just have to see it. We kept trying to around windshield of Matt’s own design. �igure out why there was a tubular skeleton that looked like a T-Rex out front. The A few other items of interest (besides the mystery was answered when we went coffee and donuts) were the vintage behind the garage to see a smaller version motorcycle collection and a fairly large of US Steel. The T-Rex was actually some amount of very old cameras. Both the box kind of device used to pick up and transfer and folding varieties. Oh, now did I molten metal, you know like you see in the mention the vintage café racer frame movies when the big pot pours out the behind the couch? Big Al gives it a big 4 molten stuff with sparks and all the special thumbs up! effects. After the big Q&A session it didn't take long to �igure out that John could melt Mike led the way to his place off Bee Caves down his entire TR3 and make some pretty by taking us out through Lost Creek. These cool jewelry. John topped off the stop by were some excellent roads just inviting you passing out baggies full of #10 stainless to go a little over the speed limit. Mike had socket head cap screws. parked his TR3 body parts out front along Bee Caves as a landmark for all to �ind. After another thrilling drive we ended up Learning from the Iraqi Scud movements at Roger’s Snake Pit. As usual there were he has wisely put his yard car on a boat plenty of TR6's and their associated parts trailer to keep it mobile. On our arrival we to paw. The main event was the Cobra kit were greeted by Nel the Betty Crocker of partially assembled in bay one. The best our tour (though Betty Ford might be thing about hot rods over the concourse better for us) with some fresh cinnamon cars is the ability to add chrome anywhere rolls. On display was the freshly painted you want. So, Roger has located some TR3 frame. The landmark TR3 enticed pretty cool shiny parts for the engine some guy out driving his 60s Bel Air to compartment. We had another visitor drop drop in and see what all the old car fuss by trying to sell one of us old car guys his was about. We also had a few other HCTC Mercedes. To him a 10-year-old Benz must members join us as the day wore on Just to be antique. Not old and torn up enough for make things interesting someone pointed this bunch. So, we went back to checking out that Big Al's rear brake was on and was out the many different rear suspension squealing. Mike was quick with the jack systems Roger is toying with using. One and before you knew it the rear drum was thing about visiting the Snake Pit is a almost off. With a little �inagling and a few never-ending supply of boxes of unique phone calls to other wedge owners the parts, new and used to drool over. Speaking drum was removed. of drooling it was time to head out to Lake Travis for the last stop and something to After some scratching and spitting it was eat! determined by our panel of experts that nothing was wrong after the emergency Last stop as usual was my house, home of brake cable was loosened a bit. With the the Big Al's favorite garage refrigerator, repair out of the way, we were off on the stocked with whatever you might be thirsty test drive. for. The big change this year besides the house was the 3-car garage arrangement is Our drive took us down Red Bud trail, now split into a 2-bay one attached to the along Scenic Drive, eventually to the Mt.