The True History of the Three Amigos

Now that the last of the Amigos has been claimed and will be departing shortly I thought I'd go back
into the archives for some photos and the back stories. We all like photos and stories yes? 

The 775 was the first to come home. It came from Washington state. My phone rang at 11:30 in the evening one night (EST),
it was Yeti !  He was dooing some late night gooning on his computer and saw the ad come up on the NH classifieds. 
He knew I was looking for one so he called to tip me off.  It was only 8:30 on the west coast so I called right up.
The guy had the complete sled. He bought it new, eventually sold it, then eventually bought it back. Getting a
complete sled to Massachusetts was not practical. I offered him the asking price, $500, plus shipping, if he would
be willing to send the engine only along with the chassis tag. He agreed. He assured me he would pack it properly
in a wood crate.  It arrived in a shredded cardboard box with oil leaking everywhere. The UPS guy was totally pissed.
But the 775 was here. 

Next came the 292. My brother, Michael, got a tip on an old sled, might be yellow, not sure. It was local so we went 
to see it. Total Frankenstein 1972 TNT 292. Just about everything on the sled was junk, it was ghastly. The engine, 
however, was not junk. $50

The 340 completed the trifecta. A nice gentle fella that worked at the local hardware store had it. His name is also Larry. 
Us Larrys gotta stick together ya know. He bought the sled new. By this time all he had left were a few random
parts and the engine. His wife was the boss, very obnoxious, she wanted way too much for it so I passed. I felt
really bad for him, got the distinct feeling that he'd been bullied for his entire marriage. About five years after the
initial inquiry I walked into the store one day and he offered it to me for $50. I gave him $100 and still felt guilty. 

I have trouble keeping track of the years at this point in life. Personal history events seems to be five, ten, or twenty years ago.
So I'm going to guess 2015. I had no sled projects in the que so I decided I would commit the winter months to restoring
these three engines. I burned a lot of propane night after night working and staying warm with my awesome Mr. Heater
"Big Buddy"

Winter melted into Spring here in New England and I ended up with three shinning examples of the classic TNT performance engines.
The two singles went to a nice young kid in NH who put them in Elans and raced them. Now the 775 goes to a collector
in the upper Great Lakes. I had a blast restoring them. I learned a lot. I enjoyed taking the wraps off of them from time to time
to drink a beer and admire them. What a great hobby. What a great gang. Thanks Monty for keeping us going. 

Thanks to Scott Tompkins for all the great photos. And now, without further adieu, the Three Amigos...