KEEPERS
COLIN WILSON WEST LONDON
Seeing a concours 541 at a show spurred Colin and Sarah into getting one of their own – even if it meant getting this project back from Monaco!
‘S eeing a lovely 541 at the 2013 NEC Classic Motor Show swayed my wife Sarah and I in deciding what our next classic would be after owning an MGA and a Magnette ZA. After looking at some so-so examples, we decided on a project and we found one!
‘TPX 212 – one of earliest 541s (chassis no 24 out of total 546) – had enjoyed a chequered life in more ways than one since its 1955 build. Well-known gentleman driver David Shale had used it both on the road and on race tracks and its 35-year slumber included two years in Turin. We bought it online from its ninth owner for £12,000; he lived in Monaco and had decided that restoring it was too much of a task. He wasn’t wrong – it took us almost eight years to return it to the road.
‘TPX 212 looked in basically good original shape at first glance despite having been left outside under a tarpaulin for half of its life although remember that its body is chiefly made of glassfibre. It was much rustier underneath than I had thought on initial inspection and the chassis, which was propped up with hidden bits of four-by-two, was scrap. However my Jensen specialist noted certain design changes unique to this car during stripdown. For example the crossmember behind the behind the rear seats was different and the bulkhead construction was unique.
‘It was almost as if you could sense how the design was being developed as Jensen gained experience of how to build 541s. Fitting a new frame would have been easier and a lot cheaper but would also have lost some of the car’s heart and provenance so we elected to re-build the old one, which alone took 18 months to achieve.
‘The mechanics were completely overhauled, particularly the Austin Sheerline engine, which was seized solid. Thankfully it uses many components from mainstream manufacturers so getting hold of parts wasn’t a great problem, although I must give massive thanks to 541 registrars Dave and Jane Turnage for their help, knowledge and friendliness.
‘It was all coming together nicely by 2018; the body had been fettled and painted in its original dark green once more, the wiring had been renewed, a new windscreen had been found and the interior re-trimmed. However early test runs were blighted by sticking engine valves that we couldn’t eradicate until 541 registrars discovered that the root cause of the problem was actually lubrication starvation. Other restoration horrors (both major and minor) that they unearthed really shook me up – the most concerning being brake lines that were either too short or routed so low th
