Triumph TR3 -Musing 101

Yesterday I was talking to a fellow sitting at the counter at my body shop supplier. He seemed like a real character...We struck up a conversation based on my purchase of a wheel well replacement panel for my Ford Ranger-the passenger side this time. He asked me how I was going to install it and we talked about my gluing on the panel which lead to discussion about his experience with amateur body work examples that turn up at his shop. We had some laughs and through our conversation I think I convinced him that I knew enough to do a "reasonable" job of installing the panel. (given I have already done the driver's side) He stated he never glues anything but there were some other fellows waiting who indicated they did and had embraced the technology big time. An interesting discussion followed which convinced me gluing was still the way to go vrs an amateur weld job or paying a shop to do it.......The conversation ebbed and flowed and eventually turned to a discussion about "rat rods". He stated as part of his auto body shop service he builds cars for people and was commenting on the fact that a customer had $20K invested in a 1928 Chev and the vehicle still lo0ked unfinished. He said he just didn't understand the trend and why people would pay good money for something that would not meet his standards?? The interesting trend for me is that it seems like the "rat rods" get lots of attention at show and shines vrs more "finished" cars that seem to be "a dime a dozen" types of builds. I know personally that I am drawn to homegrown examples when I look around and often walk by "slick" professionally built examples.

Which brings me to my latest musing: For the last couple of weeks I have been "obsessing" about the potential to reassemble the '57 Triumph as a "rat rod" example. I rejected this notion earlier but lately I have been steering back towards the idea... Spend a couple of weekends on bodywork-slap on a homegrown paint job, reassemble the body onto the powder coated chassis using all the new parts I have bought over the past year, paint the rims red and buy some wide white wall tires from Coker and start driving...probably sooner that finishing off the '59. Although the logic is basically misguided and faulty (particularly around the necessity to to re-buy all the needed parts) it seems like it might be a "fun" thing to do which may translate into a sale-able entity once I have finished. I haven't taken the cover of the '57 body for months and once I do I might change my mind? Not sure....