Triumph Spitfire Mk3

'Oneday'

The car was found standing in a rather unkept state in the front yard of a house in Rondebosch in 1998.

Initially Ken Boss was roped in to test the car, but due to an unknown noise coming from the rear when pulling away, Brian Maggs was requested to also test the car before a final decision was made.

Bought initially as a 'running' project, the car was purchased and driven home (consuming 4 litres of water on the way) to our then flat in Goodwood. This would also be the last time the car was driven.

The unknown noise was diagnosed as a loose diff, so the rear suspension and diff was removed. The diff was sent off to Specialized Moulding Products (Ashley Ellis and Roger Wood) in order for replacement polyurethane mountings to be made, while the rear spring was retensioned and the rear suspension area prep'd for reinstallation. It was at this point (early 1999) that I realised that I would never be happy with a running repair and it was decided to do a complete rebuild (a BIG mistake). 

Over the years, the car has acquired a name, being ONEDAY. The name was given to the car by Ken Boss, as it will be back on the road one day.

Ken incidentally just happened to be one of the previous owners of the car, he had sold it in the early 1980's to the person that I had bought the car from - this was in order to purchase the TR5 Pi, now owned by Neil Cameron. Ken had recognised the car by a certain modification that he had made to the steering column, he had installed a clock which was still in the original position.