© 2018-2025 - Macy’s Garage, Ltd.
Blog
WHAT we’re doing, and HOW we’re doing it!
May 27, 2025
Previously, we have shown the wooden bucks (red arrow)
that we use to create new TR2-TR3B inner front fenders
from new flat steel. But they are also useful for repairing
original parts as well. This particular inner fender
(wheelarch) was all nice solid metal, just crinkled up and
crudely beaten back somewhat into shape. In this case, we
sliced the original apart in approximately the same places
that we would seam a new part, straightened all of the
component pieces individually with the help of our English
Wheel and planishing hammer, then used the wooden buck
to position all the pieces and weld them back together
again. After solidly TIG welding all of the pieces together
and grinding the welds smooth, the repaired inner fender
will look (and fit) as good as new, and the repairs will be
impossible to see. Just as a side note, these seams are
nearly identical to the seems we’ve found on TS1LO and
other very early TR2’s, and replicates the way that Triumph
created these parts before they had the large tooling
needed to stamp them as a single piece.
May 19, 2025
Back on November 11, 2024 (Blog 2024Q4) we showed
you photos of a mostly disassembled TR2 body shell, a
home restoration project that got way out of hand. We also
showed this project on Nov. 18 and 25, 2024, as well as
just two weeks ago on May 5, 2025. Today we can proudly
proclaim that Humpty Dumpty has been put back together
again, (along with several other smaller tweaks and
modifications to the metalwork) and the car is happily back
home in its own garage. The owner will be completing the
final bodywork and paint preparation, and may even paint
the car himself. The goal for completion of this 30 year
project is summer of 2026, in time for the owner’s 85th
birthday! Having owned and driven this very same car way
back in college as the third owner, then finding and re-
acquiring it as the 9th owner, it’s nice to see it over the
hump and within spitting distance of completion.
May 12, 2025
Here’s yet another example of a situation where having
intimate knowledge of the Triumph TR2-TR6 range of cars
pays off. Many vehicles through the years have steering
components that are supposed to have strange curves and
shapes to them, so someone with minimal to no TR
experience might think this is how it’s supposed to be. But
we work on NOTHING but TR2-TR6 cars, so we
recognized immediately that this TR2-TR3B steering “drop
arm” (pitman arm in USA terms) is bent, probably from an
accident sometime during the last 63-73 years. It also
helps that we rebuild more TR2-TR3B steering boxes than
anyone in the USA, and possibly the entire world. Since
we posted a “how to” page on rebuilding these steering
boxes on our website over 16 years ago, most guys (and
many shops) have said “screw this” and sent their boxes to
us for overhaul, averaging 2 per month during that entire
time. Having seen more than our fair share of these, a bent
arm like this one jumps out immediately. And the best
advantage of all to our specialization is that although new
replacements are not available, we have plenty of good and
straight used arms in stock to replace this damaged one!
May 5, 2025
You see a lot of oil cooler air vents below the grille in period
race car pics and on today’s vintage racers, and even on a
few of today’s street cars that are going for the vintage
racer look like this one. The owner of this TR2 even
provided an extra grille (damaged) that we were able to
carefully cut so that the mesh pattern worked out “even” in
both of the lower openings. Now we doubt that the racers
years ago took the time we did to design openings and
reinforce them with round rod, nor did they weld studs to
the back of the apron to fasten the grills securely as we did
with this car. Quick and sloppy workmanship that wouldn’t
have been noticed 50-60 years ago will stand out today
(ever since Toyota commercials showed a ball bearing
rolling down a hood gap), so we must pay attention to the
details on everything we do here today, especially the
custom modifications. We guarantee that slip-shod and
half-assed work will never be found on a Macy’s Garage
Triumph!
April 28, 2025
Floor mounted handbrake handles (TR2-TR4) and the
holes they pass through don’t always play nice with new
replacement floor pans. The holes come per-punched in
the TR2-3B pans, but as can be seen here they may need
a little trimming for full movement of the handle. It’s not a
big deal here because we encounter the problem all the
time, but for someone doing their first sidescreen car it is
usually a head scratcher when the handbrake cannot be
adjusted to catch and release properly. For the TR4 cars,
which use the same floor pan as a TR4A-TR6, those cars
have a handbrake lever mounted on the driveshaft tunnel
so the replacement pans do not have any hole for a floor
mounted handle. Our experience pays off once again here,
and we have a template in the metal shop so that new TR4
pans (right siide only) can be modified with a precisely
located hole BEFORE the pan is installed, and also having
the proper shape makes sure we don’t need to waste time
trimming the hole later for full travel of the lever.
April 21, 2025
Installing new fuel and brake lines for maintenance and or
repair can be done on a fully assembled car, but it can also
be a royal PITA! During reassembly of a complete frame-
up restoration, it’s usually regarded as one of those few
remaining “loose-ends” left toward the end of the process,
but again with body and engine/gearbox and most of the
major components already in-place, it reverts back to one
of those PITA tasks. We prefer to get after the “plumbing”
early in the reassembly process while the body, engine,
gearbox and exhaust are not in the way. Unfettered access
speeds up the whole process, and saves our clients $ while
helping us to do a cleaner and neater job of installation.
Over the 20+ years we have been restoring and repairing
the Triumph TR2-TR6 line EXCLUSIVELY, we’ve acquired,
identified, labeled, and stored perfect examples of every
single steel line (pipe) used on these cars from TS1LO
through the very last TR6. At one time we had a somewhat
local Columbus, OH company bending these for us on a
CNC bender, but a change of company ownership and the
resulting failure of quality and service meant that we had to
bring the fabrication of each line back into our own shop.
By purchasing just about every tubing flaring and bending
tool known (short of the CNC machines), and referring to
our huge collection of original patterns, the lines produced
and installed here are virtually indistinguishable from the
OEM Triumph lines.
April 14, 2025
Rust happens in mysterious places, usually down “low”
where water naturally flows, but it can also occur higher up
if there’s a way for the moisture to become trapped. It
doesn’t really matter to us, we’ll just make the patch
panel(s) to fit the area(s) which need to be replaced. In this
instance, we suppose that some mud or old undercoating
created a pocket which held a rain/snow/salt mix up against
the steel fender lip for a very long number of years, slowly
eating away at what had once been fine British steel! Once
we had removed all of the old rusty metal, and trimmed
back to full thickness where we’d have something
substantial to weld to, a new patch was fabricated which
matched the opening precisely. We always fit the patch all
around with no overlaps, then hold it in place with an
assortment of special clamps and super strong magnets
before the first arc is struck to begin the TIG welding
process. Once the new patch has been completely welded
into place, weld beads are dressed down with an
assortment of grinders until we’re left with an invisible
repair. Perfect fitting patches and butt welded edges are
the only way to perform a lasting repair, because the old
way of patching over a hole with overlapping patches only
creates new pockets to hold moisture and start the rusting
process all over again.
April 7, 2025
Head studs are one of those things which can sometimes
be easily removed, and then there are other times (60/40)
when they’ll kick your butt! Many folks will leave them in
place when “rebuilding” an engine, but they quickly get in
the way when you’re handling the bare block (eg. to clean
it) or to run a cylinder hone down through glazed cylinders.
If the block goes to the machine shop for boring or decking,
the machine shop will add an extra charge to remove any
studs still remaining. Most home mechanics and even a
few “professionals” will lock two nuts together at the top,
and if they’re lucky they can back the stud out of the hole.
But with studs this large, and the tendency for long studs to
flex a bit due to the distance between the two nuts at top
and the frozen threads down-in the block, this is another
60/40 proposition. We always replace old (and probably
stretched) studs with new high-strength ARP studs, so they
always have to come out. With that in mind, it wasn’t
difficult to justify the purchase of a proper stud remover to
remove head studs, as well as the smaller studs used in
our Triumphs. By gripping down close to the threads you
need to loosen and remove, all of the torque from a long
breaker bar is transmitted to the area which needs the
force. Just by having this little gem in the toolbox, our
success rate for head stud removal is up around 99.9%.
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