Here’s a cheap TR3 project for someone! There’s parts missing and the title is gone, but how can you go wrong for $450? As long as the frame isn’t rotted, this should be a doable project. These are easy to restore because the parts are cheap and plentiful. With their big inline-four these were quick machines in their day and they provide that traditional British sports car experience. It’s located in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and is listed here on eBay. Thanks goes to Dave W for the tip!
Wow my first TR3 was running and driving for about the same price.
Of course that was 30 years ago. Well to be honest, it didn’t look much better
Man, IDK, this looks pretty toast. TR-3’s aren’t exactly rare. Hemmings has about 50 of them, naturally, all over the place, but it seems a decent one could be had for 10g’s. I’d consider this an “ambitious” restoration, and could easily reach 10g’s with a ton of headaches. Nice parts car.
I haven’t seen a TR3 on the road……outside a show…….for maby 1/2 a decade……how many can there be?
I guess the BF reader who thumbs-downed Howard would disagree, but Howard and the seller are right. It’s a parts car.
And not all of them there.
What you see is what you get, eh?
I would agree. too much rusted out, broken or missing stuff to make it an economically viable restoration. Having said that, there’s considerably more than $450-worth of parts there is you are just buying to part it out. It’s sad, because as folks often say “they aren’t making anymore of these….” and I hate the thought of taking another original car out of circulation permanently – but if your goal is to have one of these cars to drive and enjoy it’s going to prove so much cheaper just to buy one that is already complete and drive-able.
…to be fair to the seller, they are only describing it as a “parts car” not laying on the kind of B-S we often see about “just needing a little work to get it back on the road”.
I guess worse cars get rescued? Maybe it would make a good project for some local technical college doing auto restoration shop class, who could pick it off as a long-term teaching kind of project?
“Maybe it would make a good project for some local technical college doing auto restoration shop class, who could pick it off as a long-term teaching kind of project?”
What a great idea. You could buy it, then donate it to a school, and take a tax deduction.
And Voila! Future Foreign Car Mechanics of America.
And you won’t have to send them to college.
But wouldn’t he then be responsible for the psychiatric expenses and divorce expenses for the students over the subsequent years for getting them involved in classic cars?
@whippeteer
Not if they opened up their own foreign car shops and made a living from fixing other people’s cars, non?
Nothing like a steady source of income to cure whatever ails you, eh?
Happy in work, happy in life, non?
It is common for old pieces of equipment move from parts to restoration projects. Most of the respondents here are amatures with little real experiance. They will pay more for a car in one piece that needs disassembled and the same parts replaced as this one does. This is how I like to buy them, no surprises and a cheep starting price. Like my 1955 Porsche Speedster that was totaled in 1959 after sliding into a snow bank. It was in a Pocatello junk yard until I bought it in 1981 for 100.00. It cost less than 10,000 to totally restore and I sold it for 28,000 3 years later. Today it is worth 10 times that. I don’t do or like Fords…….but bought many Mustangs from a junk yard in Woods Cross Utah in the late 80’s. Most had been picked over but all were pre -69 Comvertible chassis with little rust or damage. Again paid 100.00 each for them……sold them for around 1000.00 each, mostly to people that had rusted coupes. They were rebuilt over the years. Every one I followed became a very nice car much more valuable than the orignal coupe would have ever been. You can see everything that this car needs, I am not a big British car guy but they have to be moving up the value scale, they are simple machines that I belive everything is available for. Might not be a bad place to start for 450.00
Hi Dave, I respectfully disagree. 1st off, this ain’t no Porsche Speedster, and TR-3’s really aren’t that popular, say like a Spitfire or MGB ( BF tie in there) 2nd, I think most of the respondents here are indeed knowledgeable people. It’s actually kind of short sighted of you to say they aren’t. People are usually here, not on a whim to maybe buy a classic car, but because they’ve either had the cars that come through here, or had some connection with certain cars, and know a lot about them. I will agree with you, that cars that were parts cars years ago, are being turned into restorations, only because the car itself is so rare, but not so much on the TR-3. I myself don’t really care for the 3, and would much rather go with a 4 ( or 250, good luck) or a 6. Like I say, Hemmings has over 50 alone.
A TR-3 (especially a B) is twice the car a Spitfire is. Why a girl’s car is more popular I’ll never know.
JMO-
I respectfully disagree with you there Howard. Why would you think the TR3 is less popular than the Spitfire or MGB? I think it comes down to economics really. Most British car guys would rather have a TR3, but they may have to settle for a Sprite or MGB because they are cheaper and easier to acquire. That doesn’t mean people don’t want them though. Current TR3 values prove that your theory may be a little off.
And its gone…….
Did someone here get it?
Unless someone ‘fesses up, we’ll never know.