Level 1 Sales 1 (800) 678-8764 · Level 2 Sales 1 (800) 234-1104
XX
THE CAST OF CHARACTERS
1972 TR6 P.I., Comm. No. 1CP51935LP, Left-Hand Steering,
Assembled in Belgium and Originally Sold in France, Owned by
Albert Runyan, Sales Manager and Purchasing Director
I'm not sure I ever planned on working at TRF, at least not since I was a youngster.
Charles started the company in our apartment the same year I was born, and he always
jokes that he and I stayed home to learn the British Parts business while my mom
taught high school Spanish. But the company expanded into my grandparents' barn by
the time I was a couple of years old and on into the current location a couple of years
after that. And while I helped out at car shows and cut the grass on the farm, I wasn't
really involved with the business or the cars, and I grew more and more distant through
my teenage years.
When I was in my mid-twenties and nearing the end of my second stint in college, I
felt the need to take a semester off, and Charles offered me a job in Purchasing at TRF.
I think it was about a year later, when it became obvious I wasn't going back to college,
he decided I had better have a TR and a TR6 was pulled out of storage in a local
garage. It had been sold in Europe originally, so it is "petrol injected." It is also a
"CKD" car assembled in Belgium which makes it all the more interesting.
The rear brakes were locked up, but we soon had it pushed into the "1-09"
warehouse, and the decision had to be made on whether to just get it running or to do a
frame-off restoration. In hindsight, I wish I'd got to drive it around for a bit, but I was
keen to learn how a car was put together, and I wanted to take it all apart. It was soon
down to the frame, which was fairly rotten in the usual places. Tom Spadafora was
working in the shop at that time, and he came in Saturday mornings for a couple of
months to help repair it. The trailing arm cross-members were replaced, and he beefed
up the differential cross-members, and then we got it powder coated.
Albert's Chassis Frame Ready for More Work...
