Blog

WHAT we’re doing, and HOW we’re doing it!

November 2, 2026

If the seats in your late TR4 (after 20877CT) through the last TR6 look good, but are uncomfortable to the point you feel like you’re sitting in a hole (AKA “Bucket Seat”), then maybe you should flip them over and inspect the black rubber diaphragm on the bottom. All of these seats lack actual “springs” in the seat bottom, and this tightly stretched rubber diaphragm serves the same purpose. Now your foam padding (off white/yellow) could also be hard and flakey, but replacing a torn diaphragm or rotten foam can be accomplished without the cost of new cover upholstery, and return driving your Triumph to a much more comfortable activity.

October 26, 2026

If you folks work on Triumph TR2-TR6 EXCLUSIVELY, then what is this thing doing in your shop? Well, actually, this is more of a TR3 than it appears to be. There were once many small boutique automobile manufacturers in England, and Peerless built this Peerless GT 2.0 between 1958- 1960. The stated goal was to build “a sports car for the man who also wants a family”, so they designed this fiberglass bodied 2+2 coupe, and placed it onto their own square tube frame. They also bought much of the remaining parts from Standard-Triumph, who were eager to sell whatever bits they could. Engine, transmission, steering, front suspension, brakes, instruments, wiring harness, even the gas caps were TR3 parts. They planned to sell 2000 cars/yr, but the final total over the production period was only 300-325 cars. They are extremely rare today, so you are forgiven if you’ve never heard of them. This is now the 4th Peerless GT that we’ve had here, so does this now make us America’s most experienced Peerless GT shop?

October 19, 2026

Lower front generator mounts on the 4-cyl TR’s are notorious for working loose. It isn’t easily seen, but if you have trouble keeping the belt tight this is probably the reason. Once the mounting stud gets loose, it quickly wollows out the hole, both in this lower generator mount and in the front motor plate as well. And once the hole is worn oversize, simple tightening the loose pedestal stud won’t remain tight for very long at all. When the hole is worn, one fix is to remove the bracket and weld up the hole, then re-drill back to the proper size. The same fix is required if the motor plate hole is also worn but it can be very difficult to repair with the engine in the car. And before you bolt this bracket back onto the side of the engine, put some good gasket sealer on the bolt threads. Those 3 bolts thread into ‘through-holes’ reaching into the crankcase, and have been known to leak oil profusely.

October 12, 2026

If some is good, then more must be better, right? This is the front main bearing cap from a TR4 engine that we just tore-down for rebuild. The arrow shows that one of the main cap bolt heads had snapped off, which explains the loose part noise we heard when turning the engine upside down on the engine stand. There was another one in the exact same condition on the rear main cap as well. It was easy to see that these were not original bolts, both here on the mains as well as the connecting rod bolts. Decoding the markings on the heads, we determined that these were rarely seen Grade 9 fasteners. In fact, our machinists Pocket Ref had no specs shown for Grade 9, but we found tensil strength numbers on the McMaster-Carr website. Normally, Grade 8 is about the strongest bolts you can find. The numbers we found show a tensile strength of 150,000 PSI for the Grade 8, and 180,000 PSI for the 9’s. More strength should be better, right? Obviously not in this case. Perhaps these bolts failed because they were made from the wrong steel, or maybe they were just a touch long and bottomed in the hole, leaving just enough clearance for the cap to walk (wiggle) and eventually snap the heads. Whatever the cause, you can be certain that none of these Grade 9 bolts will be going back into this engine now! We’ll use ARP main and connecting rod bolts, proven to be the highest quality fasteners available for holding an engine together, even a lowly 4-cylinder Triumph motor.

October 5, 2026

Lower dash supports (consoles) for the TR4A-TR6 have usually been modified several times to fit various radios/stereos over the past 50-60 years, so it’s not unusual to find one with little left to install yet another radio into. The fix in these cases is to cut out the butchered area, and TIG weld a new piece of 1/8” aluminum into the opening to completely fill the hole. Next we will cut out and drill the perfect opening(s) for the latest radio to be installed, and recover the entire support with an appropriate cover from one of the usual TR parts suppliers.