The Restoration of PRRROWL
TIGER # B382000221
An Article by John Crawley
February, 2001
Page 3
Define Your Objective
After you have become familiar with the history of the marque you should decide what you want as a finished car.
The best advice I can give is that the CAR exists for YOU and not you for the CAR. Also the CAR exists for YOU and not for anybody else. Listen to advice but remember it is YOU that must live with the car when it is finished and it is YOU that must pay for it.
You should, however, be able to answer a number of questions for yourself.
The first questions are the most important and should be thought of hard and long before you begin work on the car. These involve what you will REALLY do with the car when it is finished. The TIGER is a unique car to restore in that it has incredible performance potential. The restored TIGER that is show room stock – especially a 260 powered car – is a pretty tame piece of transportation. It is not the tire burning fire breather that you think of from your youth. Almost any modern car with anything under the hood will give it a run from the stoplight. This said the norm of restoration for a TIGER is different that what you would find in the restoration of other classic/antique cars. If you were restoring a Model A Ford you might be very proud of the fact that everything inside the engine – down to the bore size – is exactly the way it came from the factory. With a TIGER most people prefer to "warm the engine a little". The question is how much?
Do you want a driver? Do you want a 100 point show car? Do you want a competition car?
If you are planning to drive the car to work every day you might not want to build a 400 HP TIGER with a $20,000 paint job. On the other hand you might. How much driveability / reliability are you willing to compromise in order to gain performance. Are you really going to spend thousands of dollars on a restoration and then take the car Auto crossing? Is a wheel-to-wheel race something that will just happen while you are in your armchair fantasizing?
The important thing here is to have your directions well planned before you start. Use the networks you have established to help in the planning.
The next questions involve originality. A numbers-matching car will always be more desirable to some people but to others numbers do not matter, only how fast it will go. How important is complete originality to you? The answer to this must be based on your answer to the question: "What are you going to do with the car when it is finished?" A showroom stock TIGER will never be competitive in slalom or Autocross. A really well built competition car can do well in a show but will never be a 100-point winner in concourse class.
The best way to answer these first questions for yourself is to attend a few TIGER events before you start your project. Observe the class structure in the concourse and watch the competition events. Meet the people and see what they have done with their cars. My TIGER travels long and hard every summer. It tows a tent trailer and takes us on holidays. It has seen dust and mud and snow at times. I treat it well and maintain it well but it earns its keep and I enjoy it immensely. What it does not do is place as a 100 points car in a car show. That is not to say that my TIGER is a dog, it is a very respectable car. I just built it and use it for a different purpose that the TIGER that is trailered to car shows or the TIGER that is built to run wheel-to -wheel in anger. 221 exists for me not for the concourse judge nor for the checkered flag. Make your decisions based on what you want from your TIGER.
Once you have decided on what the end use of the car will be there are some restorations questions to ask yourself.
Are you going to strip the whole car of paint and do a color change?
What are your mechanical abilities? Are you going to exceed them? Be realistic here!!
What is your budget? Again be realistic. Get some catalogs and price out what you want to do. Ask others what it cost them to do similar work.
Questions, such as these, are all important to answer before you start.
If you are new at the whole restoration process buy several books on the restoration of cars and read the thoroughly before you start. You will find that most general books will have direct application to the TIGER if you supplement the information with TIGER specific peculiarities.
WAIT, QUESTION, THINK, ACT = SAVE.
Just a thought: Is it really necessary to take the car off the road? A chap I know has four of the nicest sports cars around and he has never restored any of them. First he bought cars that were the best he could find and afford. He then got them running and has used the philosophy that they should always stay that way. He works on one area at a time and does it very well. If the brakes need doing he does it like a restoration with all new parts. While the lines are off everything in the area is sanded, primed and painted. Over a period of years he has slowly built his cars up to a point were they look and drive like the best of restorations. He has never had them totally apart and as a result has always had a car to drive — worth considering.
The other day a young fellow proudly opened his garage and showed his new acquisition to me — a 70 MGB in great original condition. His first question to me was what should he do to restore it. My reply to him was "Join the Sports Car Club and keep on driving the MG." I then advised him to take one small chore at a time and do it right. If the chrome needs doing, do it correctly but a little at a time. Do the bumpers and bumperetts. When they are off, sand and paint the bumper brackets also replace any rubber grommets. Reassemble the whole thing and then DRIVE the car.
Remember that many cars are purchased from would-be-restores who discover that it is easier to tear apart than to but back together.
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