The Story

Chloe' story starts when I was in Grade 12 university and looking for a project car to work on in my spare time, something to keep me out of trouble. My mom found the car listing for a 1965 Triumph Spitfire on Kijiji in North Bay. The advertisement noted that the car had been dismantled for restoration by the previous own and purchased by the current owner as a project. The add went on to say that everything was there, it just needed to be put back together. My close friend Ryan and I stopped in to see the car after work one day, but the owner was not home, his wife said that we were welcome to go around back and that the car was under a tarp. We had a look at the car and noted that everything seemed to be there in the boxes and that frame was in impeccable condition, and the body showed only a small amount of surface rust on the top of the floor pans from the leaky tarp. We told the wife that were interested and I left my number.

When we returned we discussed a price ($1K, he was asking $1.5K), he agreed to deliver the car for $100 in his enclosed trailer. I also asked about getting the ownership, which he said he did not currently have in his name, but that is was not a problem as the prev owner was a friend of the family. Turns out that couldn't have been further from the truth.

Chloe having just made the move

The parts were sorted only to find that other than the body, frame and front suspension the parts that came with the car were junk. The wrist pins were welded in the connecting rods, the rear leaf spring was missing, only one rotor and caliper were present, the exhaust manifold was butchered, the crank scored. the block appeared to have been seized solid from the large amount of wear in the bores and traces of aluminum. The car sat in this semi-organized pile of parts for some time, until another car was found.

The semi sorted pile of parts

The second car was found during my second year of university while browsing the classic car section of Kijiji. I had been sold on trying to buy an old 3 series BMW during my first year of university, but I could never seem to get the cash together. The car was noted to be heavily modified with a TR4 hardtop in place, but it was running and could be test driven. My father and I drove out to Waterloo to give the car a drive and see what kind of condition it was in. It was very modified, it had an extra heater core, the gas tank had been lowered into the trunk, the rear behind the seats had been totally removed with the addition of the hard top. BUT the drive train was intact and running. A deal was negotiated and the car was purchased for $800. A great deal of thanks goes to my uncle for going to pick the car up and bring it back to Dundas until it could be picked up.

The image from the donor car ad

A great deal of thanks also goes to Trevor for helping me out with his truck and towing the car all the way back to North Bay.

Loading her up for the long tow home

The merging process then began with the original frame sitting on a pair of jack stands. Parts were removed, clean, painted and assembled building on this frame.

The frame and two bodies

Which ultimately led to a running car which pasted a safety with flying colours on my 20th birthday.