Dashboard & Gauges

Instead of running the gauntlet and taking the risk of sending my gauges to an individual in the UK for refurbishing, I’ve decided to take the plunge and buy a completely reconditioned set of gauges and switches including centre dash from a chap in the US.

To be honest, I’m getting tired of so called professionals taking parts that are essential to the car running (like a steering wheel for instance) and then taking forever to do the work so I’m not taking this chance this time. I think it’s turned out more expensive initially to do this (the part will most likely cost £500 by the time it’s landed in the UK with taxes) but at least it will (hopefully) be fit and forget. On top of this I still have my original gauges that I can sell on at a later date. The ammeter, temperature and oil pressure all work fine – just a few cosmetic issues. This will also solve an issue where I had to resolder the ignition switch spade connector. It seems strong enough but I do doubt the joint long term.

The chap that sold it to me even contacted me shortly after payment to ask if I would like him to convert it to RHD configuration as apparently there are a couple of small wiring differences. He seemed keen to point out I had bought a quality component and that he wanted everything to be right with it.

So now I just have to wait a couple of weeks for delivery from the US. It should arrive just in time for the car to go to Watermill Carriage Company for fitting.

Hood Sticks

I’ve finally fitted the hood sticks. Honestly, it was easy as there are only four screws that fit go into the captive nuts on the B post. The hardest thing was to figure out how the thing folds up so that it sits right in the car when it’s folded down. Anyway, all is good. Next stage is to fit the hood and then I’ll fit the webbing straps permanently when I know where they go exactly.

Body Number Plates

All TR3’s have little brass commission plates on the bulkhead – there are two and it’s important that you don’t lose them (or at least you note the numbers down) as they are a) really hard to buy from anyone and b) the numbers won’t be on any paperwork anywhere.

When I bought my car and I was asked about them, I couldn’t remember seeing them which is no wonder as the previous owner had painted over them. So today’s job was to try and get the brass screws undone without destroying them so I could strip the paint off.

Would you know it, use the right tool and they popped undone with a very satisfying click. Here is the plate before:

Originality Details

I like originality…..which is a shame because when you have a 54 year old car people are going to have changed things on the basis of cost, or availability with scant regard to correctness. This means that lots of things are coming out of the woodwork that are incorrect and my OCD is kicking in.

One of those is the hood fitment. My car has been fitted with “Lift the Dot” pegs along the top edge of the windscreen where the hood is fitted. Indeed, Moto Build have supplied LTD fittings for the new hood. However, TR3a’s were fitted with Tenax type fasteners which are difficult to find now (and of course, the thread needs to match the thread for the LTD pegs now fitted). You can see the pegs in the photo below.

Having had a phone call with Southern Triumph regarding another TR3a he has in for work, the question of the lettering on the front apron arose. Asked if I knew if I had the correct lettering I had to admit that I had no clue so I went off to investigate.

As it turns out, the lettering on the front of my car is only used on very late TR3’s (apparently they are the same as a Triumph Herald) from chassis EB72384. My lettering is flat (see image below)

The actual lettering should be the older ribbed and dished lettering as shown in this photo

 

 

 

A Quick Update on Progress

Things didn’t go so well at Phoenix Classic Cars. Without going into too many details, I was frustrated with the lack of progress on the car, and the shock of a 20 hour labour bill to change the rear leaf springs, 12 of which were for removing a single pin. Eventually, we agreed on 12 hours total and I removed the car from their workshop without the new hood having been removed from the package it was delivered in.

So the car is now in Southern Triumph and Mark and I have now drawn up a comprehensive list of jobs to do in some sort of priority.

Apart from the parts being shinier, replacing the front coil springs and rear leaf springs has done little to level the car out. It’s made about a 5mm improvement. Having looked at the car on the ramp in more detail (which is what should have happened in the first place) it looks like the body has been badly shimmed onto the chassis with a 25mm gap between the body and the chassis running the entire length of the car. Re-shimming the chassis correctly is priority number one.

While we were there we took off some of the trim to check if the appropriate holes for the hood fixings were present and it looks like everything is there which should make trimming the hood much easier. Phoenix have powdercoated the hood frame in tan/beige to match the interior rather than the British Racing Green as it should be which is frustrating, but at this stage it doesn’t seem worth painting again. If it really annoys me later, I’ll paint it then – it’s only held in with four screws.

The windscreen has to come out to screw the pegs on for the tonneau so the rear view mirror will be replaced at this point, as will the rotten rubber sealing strip between the frame and scuttle panel.

Apart from the trimming and shimming, there are a number of jobs that we’ve agreed are a priority to make the car reliable.

AC Delco Radiator Cap

According to Bill Piggotts bible to the original TR2/3 the TR3a was fitted with an AC Delco radiator cap at 4lbs pressure.

I had fitted a new cap when I bought the car as the spring on the original had separated from the cap. It worked, but fell apart when you removed it. But this was one of the cheap Moss radiator caps and had a simple galvanised finish.

So I’ve managed to source a NOS cap from Cyprus of all places. Just one more little detail ticked off a very long list.

This is what 54 years does to a drivers side coil spring!

So this is what happens to your drivers side coil spring after what appears to be many, many years of compression and corrosion. It’s difficult to tell, but it feels like it has a much different spring rate to the passengers side coil spring.

The leaf springs are also almost fitted now. One side easy, one side not so. The old ones were looking very corroded indeed and appeared to have lost their spring which would explain the vague feeling from the rear end when cornering.

While the car is still on the lift at the moment, the difference in wheel arch to axle height has reduced from 30mm to 10mm but fitting the springs so this looks more like a case of a misaligned front apron now.

Incidentally, the damaged near side suspension bump stop bracket has now been replaced and looks much better.

Wonky Car

So, just after I got the car back from having the MOT work done, I parked up outside my house and immediately noticed the car was wonky. Bad enough that the grill looked higher on one side than the other. I was not a happy bunny.

So I put the car into my garage which has a relatively level floor and measured the distance between the front tyres and the wheel arch on both sides.

The long and short of it is that the left hand side of the car is 30mm lower on the front and 10mm lower on the rear than the right hand side.

A quick post up on the forum and the general consensus of opinion is that 54 year old coil springs are going to be pretty tired and leaving the suspension hanging while on a ramp for 3 weeks isn’t going to help. A quick bounce test and the left hand side (where the driver is normally sat) is considerably firmer than the right

So just to add to the list of jobs is a suspension overhaul, with new coil springs, leaf springs and bushes all round. This will be done when the car is in having the roof fitted.

Roof Re-trim and more work

When I bought JSK 404, the roof was conspicuously absent – I guess the owner in America didn’t bother to replace it when it aged due to lack of use. Here in sunny Britain, weather protection is a little more important.

Unfortunately, this meant I had to source a hood frame, hood, tonneau, sidescreens and hood cover. I’ve decided to buy these in the same tan/grey colour as the seats and interior panels are trimmed in.

I sourced a second hand hood frame from a chap on Ebay and this was delivered in a pretty sorry state for £115. As it needs completely reconditioning I have asked Phoenix Classic Cars to do this and powder coat it in British Racing Green so it matches the paint colour (which is original spec).

Unfortunately, Phoenix seem to have ignored this and have powder coated it in a tan colour to match the trim which is annoying. On the other hand, the hood frame isn’t really something I want to feature in the car and the fact it’s tan might hide it a bit if it’s folded down and I can’t be bothered to put the cover on. Also, the hood frame in Bill Piggots book looks pretty terrible to me so I’m leaving it tan for the moment. If it annoys me I can always strip it and paint it the correct colour later.

In terms of the sidecreens, hood, tonneau and cover, I decided after reading comments on the forums about the quality of Moss sidecreens, to source them from Moto-Build. The total cost in Tan Vinyl (I didn’t want mohair – to my eye TR3’s with mohair roofs look like they are trying too hard) was £1338 including delivery. On top of this I need to source a Sidescreen Fitting Kit (£125) and Hood Frame Webbing Kit (£33) from Moss/Rimmer.

Moto-Build were good to their word and delivered the items to me in time which is always nice in a supplier. I didn’t have much of a chance to inspect them before dropping it all down to Phoenix but the sidecreens certainly looked very good and matched the design for the later TR3a which is excellent.

The car is at Phoenix Classic Cars at the moment so I will update with images shortly.

MOT Work

In the end, I took my car to Phoenix Classic Cars in Wareham for some work to be done. I have used Roger Taylor before when I had my MG Midget and he has built up a good reputation over the (many) years he has been in the classic car business. And to be honest, Southern Triumph seemed reluctant to book the car in when it had an overheating problem and suggested some remedial work to carry out myself.

So I took the car in and “Big” John put it up on the ramp and we worked out a schedule of works as follows:

• Recore Radiator (keeping hole for starter crank) £100 extra!!
• Replace Waterpump
• Replace (missing) thermostat
• Resolve fast idling problem – replace missing idle screw
• Adjust Steering Box to remove excess play
• Fit Vent Pull escutcheon and rod
• Fit Boot Stay
• Replace damaged bump stop suspension bracket
• Fit brake pipe to chassis
• Fit new tyres
• Fit the gear lever gaitor I bought from Rimmer Bros and refit carpet over transmission tunnel
• Recondition Dynamo
• Repair indicator repeater on dashboard
• Weld inner wing splash guard – corroded

A nice list I might hear you say but as with anything, when you take it apart after 54 years the jobs seem to grow. So added to the list are:

• Recondition worn out steering box
• Replace top and bottom radiator hoses
• Maybe replace thermostat housing as stud broke off
• Maybe replace temperature sender as also frozen into thermostat housing

Hopefully, after all this, the car will pass its MOT and coupled with the work it has already had on its brakes, all the important stuff will be resolved so I can continue with the restoration rather than repair work.