By DEAN SPRAGUE

The time had come sell my first car a 1955 Triumph TR2. My friend Dennis and I had just put about 100 yards of fiberglass and a gallon of gel coat on the body and sprayed it with a half a dozen rattle cans of Power Blue. You know it looked really good from about 20 feet away. I sold the car to another kid for $10.00 more than I paid for it, $275.00. Now it was time to look for a new car.

My Stepfather was also a sports car nut and finally convinced me that what I needed was a Sunbeam Alpine. They were attractive (girls liked them), comfortable and cheap to maintain. I thought an Austin Healy or Jaguar would be nicer. I was right of course, but finances as they were the Sunbeam won. I found one at the local sports car lot. It shall remain nameless for reasons I will describe later.

It was a 1960 Sunbeam Alpine. It had pressed wheels, good top, interior and tires. The red paint was faded but it “seemed” to run fine. The salesman told me everything I wanted to hear so why have it checked out? I was a young wide-eyed boy of 18 so I took my TR2 money and my savings and bought it for a mere $650.00.

All went well for about 50 miles until the car developed a low engine knock. This got much louder very quickly, oil pressure dropped and I was in trouble. I limped the car back to the dealer. My “friendly” salesman just smiled and said “you bought it, you own it. We only guarantee them to the curb”. I took it back to their service department. They barely listened to it and said it had spun a rod bearing. Apparently, they knew the engine was weak before they sold it. I was stuck.

I bought a workshop manual, put the car on jack stands and with my box of tools I removed the oil pan and everything else in the way. My Mother was so pleased to find my new car sitting over a puddle of oil scattered all over the driveway. The #3 rod bearing was spun all right. It was .020 under and the others were standard. Not a good sign. I should have pulled the engine and done it all over but I was young, poor and inexperienced. I found a guy that turned crankshafts in the car at your house. He came out in the rain and did it. I bought a new set of .060 under bearings, used one, put the car back together and off we went. Well, for about 20 miles anyway and then she dropped to 3 cylinders, blown head gasket. I pulled the head and took it to the machine shop. The head was OK but 2 valves were badly burned and the guides were weak. A valve job and head gasket later we were back together.

Now it ran so well that I immediately got the car repainted. When it came out of the paint shop I took my girlfriend on a picnic. Everything was wonderful until we were heading back and that lower engine knock reappeared. I had almost 500 miles on it this time! Back on the jack stands, parts everywhere again only to find the same bearing had spun. It would seem that the machining in your driveway approach is a visit so my Grandfather took a look at it. The bad news: the crank was toast. I couldn’t afford a new crankshaft and all that it entailed so my Grandfather said “I know an old shade-tree trick, we will hand sand the journal and “pack it” with hard leather. He said: “you can’t drive it very far but it will be quiet enough to take it back to that dealer and trade it for a good car this time”.

First we went to the dealer to look at what they had. I found a Power Blue 1963 TR3B, I fell in love with it but my Grandfather looked her over and he said, “This one will put you back in the frying pan, keep looking”. He found a White 1963 TR4 with black interior and overdrive that was well cared for. I didn’t like the colors but he said: “We buy by condition not color”. We towed the Alpine to a block from the dealer and limped it in. We found the same salesman and he took the Alpine on a test drive, it passed! My Grandfather negotiated the deal. He was a Yankee trader from our home state of Maine so I got a great deal. I borrowed the $450.00 difference from my Grandmother (she handled the money) and we bought the TR4.

I heard they sold the Alpine to some girl and of course it fell apart. This time however, since it looked like they had “glued it together” they had to fix it right like they should have the first time. My TR4 turned out to be a great car. I paid back my Grandmother, drove it to college for 2 years and from Miami to Canada and back without incident.

Sometimes, “What goes around can actually come around”.