My Tiger hunt started in November, 2012 when a friend of mine (Growler) drove up in his '65 MK1A. I had no idea he was restoring a car let alone a Tiger. He had just finished it and drove it top down to a holiday party (late November). I could hear that unique growl a few blocks away. When I saw it I knew I had to fine one of my own. My dad was into cars but we never worked on them together. A '31 Ford model A, a '68 MBZ 280SL. He had a 260Z as his mid life crisis car.
Living in So. Cal. I was certain I could find a Tiger that needed some freshening up. I was looking for a daily driver I could teach my son how to work on. The first Tiger I found was in San Diego. Thought it was perfect. It even came with a BON! But Leepear ended up getting it. I looked at a few more cars out here but none were right. They were either modified, needed what I thought was too much work or too expensive. I looked on line every day and night. One day I went to a Bring a Trailer post that was still floating around on the web and asked the seller if he knew of any other Tigers for sale. I am certain all of you had seen this Tiger at one time or another but as I got to know the seller and the car it seemed like the right one. After speaking with Norm and a few forum members I went back and forth for about a month never traveling to FL to actually see the car I wired off my money and made the commitment.
I am the 3rd owner according to the records I received with the car. My Tiger lived its entire life in Florida. The first owner had it for several years then put it away in 1978. With most of the records and receipt in tact it looks like he did a pretty good job of keeping it all in together. Several early options including the radio, LAT 9 wheels and a hard top. Even the package deck pad was still with the car. The original color was Embassy Black with red GT interior but at some point prior to '78 the original owner sprayed it BRG to attend a college reunion. It stayed in his hangar for several years until he passed when the person I acquired the car took it over. It had a lot of rust and the interior was shot. My bet is many of you had seen the car over the years on BAT but passed on it due to the location and rust work needed. But I took a chance and had the seller (a metal guy with a lot of Tiger experience) work out all of the rust before shipping it out to California.
First thing I did when it got here was pull the hard top off and it has yet to go back on. We took care of some basic mechanical work, cleaned up the interior then got it on the road. We drove it for about a year and a half then decided to start the restoration process. Sorting it our was a lot of fun. Growler helped and made sure I took a lot of pictures so I would know how to put it all back together. It was important to me to bring the Tiger back as close to it's original stance as possible so I opted to go back to Embassy Black with red interior and keep it all stock. It's been back from the paint shop for a while and I think we are about another two weeks from getting the upholstery in. Still looking for a few key parts to finish it off but nothing that will stop it now.
I will post some progressive pictures when I figure out the uploading. I plan to attend a CAT event soon and am looking forward to getting it TAC Certified sometime this year.
Living in So. Cal. I was certain I could find a Tiger that needed some freshening up. I was looking for a daily driver I could teach my son how to work on. The first Tiger I found was in San Diego. Thought it was perfect. It even came with a BON! But Leepear ended up getting it. I looked at a few more cars out here but none were right. They were either modified, needed what I thought was too much work or too expensive. I looked on line every day and night. One day I went to a Bring a Trailer post that was still floating around on the web and asked the seller if he knew of any other Tigers for sale. I am certain all of you had seen this Tiger at one time or another but as I got to know the seller and the car it seemed like the right one. After speaking with Norm and a few forum members I went back and forth for about a month never traveling to FL to actually see the car I wired off my money and made the commitment.
I am the 3rd owner according to the records I received with the car. My Tiger lived its entire life in Florida. The first owner had it for several years then put it away in 1978. With most of the records and receipt in tact it looks like he did a pretty good job of keeping it all in together. Several early options including the radio, LAT 9 wheels and a hard top. Even the package deck pad was still with the car. The original color was Embassy Black with red GT interior but at some point prior to '78 the original owner sprayed it BRG to attend a college reunion. It stayed in his hangar for several years until he passed when the person I acquired the car took it over. It had a lot of rust and the interior was shot. My bet is many of you had seen the car over the years on BAT but passed on it due to the location and rust work needed. But I took a chance and had the seller (a metal guy with a lot of Tiger experience) work out all of the rust before shipping it out to California.
First thing I did when it got here was pull the hard top off and it has yet to go back on. We took care of some basic mechanical work, cleaned up the interior then got it on the road. We drove it for about a year and a half then decided to start the restoration process. Sorting it our was a lot of fun. Growler helped and made sure I took a lot of pictures so I would know how to put it all back together. It was important to me to bring the Tiger back as close to it's original stance as possible so I opted to go back to Embassy Black with red interior and keep it all stock. It's been back from the paint shop for a while and I think we are about another two weeks from getting the upholstery in. Still looking for a few key parts to finish it off but nothing that will stop it now.
I will post some progressive pictures when I figure out the uploading. I plan to attend a CAT event soon and am looking forward to getting it TAC Certified sometime this year.
