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.