© 2018-2022 - Macy’s Garage, Ltd.
Blog
WHAT we’re doing, and HOW we’re doing it!
May 16, 2022
Crumpled sheet metal can usually be straightened with
relative ease, as long as there aren’t any “hard” breaks
(folds) or multiple pieces welded to each other which tend
to lock-in the damage. In the case of multiple piece panels,
they are easier to straighten if you first separate the pieces
and straighten the components one at a time. Take this
early TR2 inner front fender for example. This is from
TS333L, and on the earliest cars like this Triumph created
these panels from many smaller pieces. Later in
production they could afford large stamping dies, so the
inner fenders were made in one giant piece. Most
sidescreen cars have been bashed in the front end at least
once by now, so years ago we built bucks so we could
create new fender wells from scratch. But in the case of
this early car, where the panel was made from so many
smaller pieces, we opted to cut everything apart at the
seams and straighten all of the parts one by one. We then
used the buck to reassemble the fender well in precisely
the same manner as the Triumph factory did back in 1953.
Making the repair in this way let us retain a larger portion of
the original car, and fix the problem at a lower cost than to
fabricate a completely new one.
May 9, 2022
Attention to detail isn’t just about getting the visible parts of
the car right, but applies to each and every hidden
component as well. Take the lower battery box and under
dash area of this TR3B for example. The heater has the
correct black wrinkle finish on the lower plate and doors,
and the doors both have bright new ivory colored plastic
knobs. The aluminum elbow for the defrost hose
connection is the proper silver, and the screw holding the
elbow to the heater is the correct natural finish. The
overdrive solenoid is mounted in the correct location at the
rear of the battery box, with the proper spade wire
connectors installed in the correct “down” orientation. The
solenoid is attached with the original style hex nuts and
slotted flat head screws that were countersunk into the
battery box, necessary to keep the screw heads from
wearing holes in the battery case. Don’t forget to install the
battery box drain tube either! Also note the detail in routing
the water temp gauge capillary tube as shown in the
Standard-Triumph TR2 Service Instruction Manual (Section
C, Cooling System, page 4). Not shown here, but the
additional details to route the capillary tube through the
engine bay as shown in Service Bulletin Sports/2/C,
October 1954 were also followed. All of these details don’t
need to be memorized, but it sure helps to know that
references are available, and where to find them!
May 2, 2022
Most of the TR’s that arrive here for full restoration have
been sitting in storage for a very long time, but rarely are
we able to determine exactly why the cars were taken off
the road and parked in the first place. The crack in the
bottom of this TR3A gearbox case leaves little doubt as to
why this particular car stopped providing fun transportation
to it’s owner, though we still have to wonder why they didn’t
look for a replacement transmission to get it back on the
road? At the time this car was parked in the mid-1970’s,
there were foreign car service shops and junk/salvage
yards where parts and service were available, so a $25
used transmission and an afternoon’s work could have put
this TR3A back into service. We’ve never seen a gearbox
broken this severely before, nor have we heard one make
the same noises inside when you roll it over on the bench,
so we’ll tear it down to see what happened but we don’t
expect to find many re-usable parts inside. The solution
here will undoubtedly be to start with another gearbox from
our 9000 sq ft warehouse, and upgrade to a 4-synchro TR4
box with overdrive while we’re at it!
April 25, 2022
Over the many years that have elapsed since our beloved
Triumphs were new cars, they’ve all taken a lot of abuse
from previous owners and body men alike. Seemingly all
cars and body panels have been beaten and wrinkled at
some point in time, and with most cars this has happened
to them multiple times throughout the years. It’s gotten to
the point where original shapes have been lost to the
previous 5-7 decades, and most cars are “restored” back to
the “best guess” as to how they should really be shaped.
Because we repair and restore the TR2-TR6 model range
EXCLUSIVELY, we’ve seen and worked on more TR’s than
anyone else on this side of the Atlantic. It also means that
through this high volume, we occasionally find that rare
body panel that has escaped the usual abuse. We then
make a durable template and keep those templates here
for use on every car which follows through our shop. In this
photo you can see our lower rear fender (wing) template
being used to confirm that our metal repairs to this
crumpled rear corner have returned it to the correct original
profile.
April 18, 2022
We recently rebuilt a TR250 engine and the owner wanted
to participate, so he “rebuilt” the carburetors himself at
home. When it came time for us to mount the engine onto
our test stand and run it for the proper camshaft break-in
procedure (and to check for leaks and general operation),
the owner delivered the freshly rebuilt carburetors for us to
install and use during the test. We always pump up the oil
pressure and fuel before hitting the starter, but as the fuel
began to enter the carbs, they started to drip almost
instantly. This new found problem meant that the test run
was delayed while we removed and disassembled the
carburetors to find the source of the leaks. Once the lower
fuel bowls were removed, the source of the leaks was
readily apparent. A portion of the old gasket still remained
on the edge of the fuel bowl, and expecting the new gasket
to seal around this was asking a bit much. So the lesson to
be learned here is that whenever replacing ANY gasket on
your car, motorcycle, or even your lawnmower, make sure
that the gasket surfaces on your parts are absolutely clean
and smooth. Otherwise, you may end up with a larger leak
than the one you intended to fix!
April 11, 2022
When examining transmission gears, it is the large teeth
that usually get all the attention. They are the teeth which
transfer all of the engine power, but they suffer little wear or
abuse as they are always in constant mesh with the
countershaft gears and are never supposed to move out of
position. What is actually the most important feature of
these gears are the smaller teeth, seen only on the gear at
the left in this photo. Look closely at the gear on the right,
and you can see where the small teeth were once attached,
but all have now been stripped away clean. These small
teeth are the place where the transmission synchronizers
continually slide on and off to connect and disconnect the
gear on every up-shift and down-shift. If worn enough by
this action, they can cause your transmission to pop out of
gear on a downshift or during deceleration. They are also
the teeth that you hear when someone grinds the gears!
April 4, 2022
Here’s a new one that we’ve never seen before! This TR4A
had two driving lights installed in the front fenders, one on
each side of the car. It might have been understandable if
they had been pointed outside of the fenderwell so that
they could have been used as turning lamps to illuminate
the pavement around a corner. But no, they weren’t aimed
at anything except the tire tread, or the brake calipers when
the wheels were removed. Perhaps a previous owner was
having a large amount of brake problems, and found
himself always working on it in the middle of the night? Or
could they have possibly raced this car at Sebring or
Daytona where brake service might have been required
after dark in the 12 and 24 hour races? We’ll never know
for certain why these lights were mounted here, but one
thing for sure is that we now have another one to add to our
“What Were They Thinking?” files.
America’s BEST Triumph Shop