The Keeper - 1973 Triumph TVR 2500 M

When he traded his Cortina-powered 1968 TVR Vixen S2 in on the 2500 M at Lee Layton Foreign Cars in Mahwah, New Jersey, on June 30, 1973, Tom Scuccimarra had no idea what the future would hold for him or this rare British sports car. Little did the 25-year-old operating engineer think that the new TVR would be with him through marriage, two children, law school and nearly 40 years of driving and disuse before being renewed at the hands of a gifted home restorer. "2699 TM," this is your life.

The 1972-1977 2500 M was TVR's biggest hit in America, with fun-loving buyers like Tom taking 80 percent of the 946 examples built. The 2500 M followed TVR practice, combining a welded multi-tubular steel backbone frame with a sleek two-seat fiberglass body, and it was powered by a U.S.-spec Triumph TR6 2,498cc straight-six engine that used 8.5:1-compression and twin Stromberg carburetors to make 106hp at 4,600 RPM and 117-lbs.ft. of torque at 3,000 RPM. Its Triumph four-speed gearbox and sub-2,000-pound curb weight let it hit 60 MPH in 9 seconds and top out around 110 MPH, while its radial tires on 15-inch alloy wheels and four-wheel independent double-wishbone-and-coil-spring suspension provided nimble handling. The roomy luggage area under the fixed rear window and rustproof body made it a feasible year-rounder, as Garrison, New York, resident Judge Thomas H. Scuccimarra can attest.

"I started law school in South Royalton, Vermont, in 1974. I was recently married, and my son was born that year; I did the 750-mile commute weekly for three years," Tom recalls. "It took me about five hours each way. For many of those weekly trips, I used the TVR. Driving on winding country roads with beautiful scenery, this was the place to be--in a car that hugged the road like a go-kart." It was primarily a fair-weather friend. "I believe that, due to the weight distribution and radial tires, I did pretty good in the snow, and always kept the gas tank full for a little extra traction in the rear. But when it was 20 degrees below zero and everything froze up, including the fluids in the shocks, I was driving a dump truck. They used to say that the heaters in English cars weren't much good for our winters--there was a lot of truth in that. I recall many a winter's night driving back up to law school. Even with the heater on full blast, I was frozen. I used to wear a surplus Air Force parka, the sort with a snorkel-type hood with rabbit fur around the opening; insulated underwear and gloves were also required equipment for the trip. Looking back on those years, I wonder how I did it," he says with a laugh.

This TVR was Tom's primary car until 1980, when he replaced it with a child-friendly Datsun 280ZX 2+2, relegating 2699 TM to storage with very occasional exercise. A busy career and the addition of a 1966 Mustang 2+2 GT and 1958 Edsel Citation to the classic Scuccimarra fleet left the TVR to wait its turn. "Every year, I said I'd get around to restoring it. When I hit my 60th birthday [in 2008], I decided this was the time."

The silver paint, applied over the factory metallic brown in the mid-1970s, was in very poor condition, as was some of the fiberglass underneath, particularly on horizontal surfaces and where repairs had been made.

The car ran poorly and had needs, both mechanical and cosmetic, from its years of inactivity. Tom brought it to a local British car specialist mechanic to get the engine and brakes sorted before the bodywork was tackled. This mechanic brought the frame rust to Tom's attention, but wasn't able to bring the engine back in tune; he'd later learn why.

Seeing photos of the incredible home restoration of nearby Cortlandt Manor, New York, resident Bob Sekelsky's 1958 Chevrolet Impala in Hemmings Classic Car (HCC #43) prompted Tom to approach Bob about taking on the TVR's cosmetic restoration. Bob, no stranger to faithful Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car readers through his 1961 Hillman Minx (HS&EC #41) and 1962 Sunbeam Alpine Series II (HS&EC #22), started the project the following fall.

"I had no experience in TVRs when he first showed me the car, but I've worked on so many different and unusual cars. The worst thing about it was that the paint and fiberglass had deteriorated. It was a small car, and I could deal with its small panels and minor rust issues," Bob recalls. "My background in fiberglass work wasn't extensive, but I'd previously worked on Corvettes and motorcycles with fiberglass fairings."

After removing the front and rear glass and all exterior trim, the hobbyist restorer addressed the tired silver paint. This finish wasn't factory-applied, as Tom explains. "The original color was metallic root beer brown, which was the best choice of limited options. My first TVR had been silver, and I really wanted that color on this car, but it wasn't offered. I had the car repainted in conjunction with repair work when it was about two years old, after my wife had a minor accident in it."

The body was bared through many applications of chemical remover, thinners and mild hand sanding. "You could see cracking in many paint surfaces, but the cracking was actually in the fiberglass. I used a Dremel with a stone tip to dig out the cracks so I could fill them in with fiberglass bonding adhesive. I actually reshaped the panels so they were a bit straighter and nicer than they were originally, including smoothing a reinforced area below the rear window that had been flatter than the surrounding panel from new," Bob says. He smoothed and feathered every panel with body filler, sealing it with PPG DP50 epoxy primer that he topped with PPG NCP-271 high-build sandable primer. "From that point up, it's the same thing as working on metal."

While he waited for the primer to cure, Bob turned his attention to the frame issues. "It was worst behind the front wheels, behind a fiberglass apron, and there was another bad section under the rocker panel in the middle of the car. Working so close to fiberglass, using a torch would be devastating," he continues. "I did the repairs without having to remove the body from the frame. Wherever the body was near the frame, I wrapped everything in wet towels, and made a metal shield I could slip between the fiberglass and the frame." He used a MIG welder to weld original style replacement tubes into place.

Working on the doors and bonnet separately from the body, Bob smoothed the wavy fiberglass with standard auto-body filler, block sanding and feathering it before sealing it with epoxy-based PPG DP50 primer.

There was never a second thought about respraying the car in silver, but like many light metallics, this color was unforgiving. "I noticed that the metallic in the silver showed little mountains if there were imperfections in the surface. I'd sanded the primer with 400 [grade] paper to get every area smooth so no artifacts would show up in the silver," Bob muses. He turned his home garage into a paint booth, blowing it down and washing all surfaces. "I washed the car itself, which removes more dust than blowing. And when I masked the car for final paint, I replaced all of the tape and masking from the primers." From a SATA gravity spray gun, the TVR received two coats of PPG Concept basecoat in Honda Alabaster Silver, and, within the hour, two of PPG urethane clear. After more than a week of curing, it received a light color sanding and buffing using wool pads and Wizards products. "I told Tom, 'It's old fiberglass--it could crack again somewhere, but with the good paints, it surely won't do what it did before.'"

While the factory-installed sliding vinyl sunroof brightened the interior, it didn't do much to alleviate the heat the engine transmitted to the interior ("You could bake a turkey in there on hot days," Tom recalls with a laugh); still, he wanted it to work again. "Nobody made a replacement kit for it," Bob says. "I re-fabricated the top frame pieces, and brought the top to Jo-Lea Interiors in Peekskill, New York; they duplicated the original style of top. I was concerned that taking apart the sliders would lose the critical dimensions, because it had to fit tight to the roof, but they re-made the top with the elastic strips outside that pulled it tight to the body. We got it dead on."

This TVR doesn't have much exterior brightwork, and just one part needed re-chroming: a door handle. The TR6-sourced headlamp rings and fuel filler cap were easily replaced, while the stock license plate housing and two corner bumpers remained good, and the aluminum window frames were polished to a shine. Those bumpers, now fitted to the rear, were originally on the front, but Tom had removed and stored them years ago to prevent scuffing as the bonnet tilted forward. Bob repaired the badly rusted rear bumpers, painting them body color and fitting them to the nose. Tom restored the alloy wheels himself, having a photocopy center reproduce one good center cap emblem on sticker paper for the other wheel centers.

The interior remained in fine shape with the exception of the threadbare carpeting, which was replaced with a kit sourced from Lakewell Classic Car Interiors in Boutersem, Belgium. The burlap-like material facing the seats had faded, but Bob re-dyed it black with Sunshine Joy upholstery fabric spray paint. The vinyl on the seat bolsters, center console and instrument panel remained serviceable.

Under the bonnet, the inefficient original radiator was replaced with a custom-made cross-flow aluminum unit from Wizard Cooling in West Falls, New York; this was complemented by new electric cooling fan blades sourced from the OEM supplier, Kenlowe Ltd. of Berkshire, England. The pinhole-rusted fuel tank was repaired and re-sealed locally. After an exhaustive search, the factory-fitted rack-and-pinion steering rack, which was binding dangerously in right turns, was replaced with a functioning used TR6 rack.

After having the Stromberg carburetors rebuilt by Apple Hydraulics in Calverton, New York, and finding the car still didn't run properly, that aforementioned engine trouble was traced to four broken valve springs in the head. Bob had the head rebuilt, and set the timing to factory specifications, with amazing effect: "It runs better now than it ever did," Tom exclaims. "It wasn't this good when it was new!"

The restoration of 2699 TM took the better part of a year, but the time invested paid dividends. Bob understood Tom's attachment: "I love the car, and like all that I do, it became my car for a while." And for this TVR's original owner, it was worth the wait. "The drive to and from the first cruise-in I attended brought back memories from many, many years ago. My wife and old friends have been thrilled to see it again, saying it's even better than they remember," he smiles. "My son says this is the only car he's looking forward to inheriting."

Owner Tom Scuccimarra