As you can probably tell from the attached pictures "The Queen" needs a bit of body work done, before getting her on the road.

I've gotten a few quotes for body work and boy oh boy do they vary in price. Even though labour tends to be very cheap over here in the UAE some of the quotes were around $5'000.- and the cheapest were at around $1'100,- I decided on a bodyshop in Sharjah (next City from Dubai) that have done work on other Classic Cars before and they seem quite professional. It's going to cost about $ 1'800.- there so quite cheap! The are going to get rid of all the rust and do a nice repaint including the engine compartment, trunk, spare wheel compartement etc. I've chosen to have it repainted in black just like I had originally planned, but I will be doing all the stripping of the car to the shell myself.

I've started to dismantle the car by taking off the lights, bumpers, luggage rack, wheels etc. Great fun and besides the window and the roof I've more or less dismantled everything.

Next step: My friend is coming back to help me out with adjusting the carburetors to get the engine running nice and smoothly. I'll then take the engine out of the car for storage and possible rebuild whilst the shell is in the bodyshop.

I think I've found myself my 2nd wife :-)... my human wife's comment to this was, "good to know she's older than me" :-)

Isn't it amazing what kind of talents and knowledge people in your closer environment have without you knowing. As I mentioned my TR3 at work, a guy mentioned that he used to do all the work on his TR6 himself. Additionally he was an aircraft mechanic.

Well we met up for a couple of beers at my place and a couple of hours later "The Queen" was brought back to life and purred like a kitten. The carbs definately need some adjusting and synchronising, but it was by far enough to drive around the block and boy oh boy did we have a great time! We smiled and acted like two little boys... God save the Queen...

After waiting for over 6 months the TR3 has finally arrived. I bought it in Canada and had it shipped halfway around the World to Dubai. The Transport itself became a nightmare and it ended up costing 3 times the amount originally expected. However, my dream of having an own TR3 has finally come true and it was delivered from the Port on January 15th 2009.

My first impression was a bit shocked, since the car did not run for a few years and I thought the body would be in better condition. Having have said that, there is hardly any rust so it's mainly the paint and a few dents that need to be done.

... first let's get her running.