Sunny Days, Sweeping the Clouds Away

It's a beautiful day outside. I decided to spend most of it in the garage. I'm not really sure why but that seems to be standard for me. If it's crappy outside I'm in the house, if it's nice out I'm in the garage. You'd think a sensible person would spend the crappy days working in the garage so when the weather turns nice you could enjoy the fruits of your labor. ... Draw your own conclusions.

I'm still waiting on the master clutch cylinder for the bike so the new TR6 was my target today.

I finished up the paint today. (Or at least I finished as much of the paint as *I* intend to do. I might get some professional work done on it.) It took about 5 hours to clean, polish and wax the whole car. It made a noticable improvement (even to Anandi) but it didn't fix everything. There's a spot on the top of the passenger door where the paint has cracked. I also found one or two dozen places where touch-up paint was used (and not in a good way). In addition I found a couple of dents and wrinkles that I hadn't noticed before. Nothing too imposing some may require professional help.

I also started a simple tune-up. Set the dwell, set the needle height of the carbs, replace the plugs, change the oil. And took it for a spin. It runs well. The engine is strong, the suspension is good and the brakes are very strong. (Although the shuttle in the hydraulic system may be shifted so only the front wheels are receiving pressure.) The worst things I found were squeaky brakes and it pulls to the right.

(Should I be happy or sad that it runs considerably better than my other TR6? It's nice that it runs well, but I like to think I'm good enough at this stuff that my work should be as good or better than everyone else's. ... Maybe I'll just blame it on the extra 82,000+ miles that my other TR6 has covered.)

Tomorrow I'll take it in for a front-end alignment and finish up the brief tune-up.

It needs new tires. The four it's wearing are the wrong style and they're shot (probably because of the alignment) and the spare is an original which means it's probably 33 years old. I have two choices:
- Michelin Redlines. 185/75/R15. These are original equipment for a TR6. $180/ea.
- Coker reproductions. I could get these in wider sizes. (The tires on the car now are 205 series.) $125-$155/ea.

I think I'll bite the bullet and buy 10 and replace all the tires for both cars. Who knows, maybe I'll get a bulk-rate discount.