TR2/3/3A TR3 BODY NUMBERS

Got such great help on my last question, figured someone could help me with this one too. My car has only a Mulliner's body number plate (EB.....), no six digit number from Triumph, and I notice that lots of other owners also show only an EB number on the various registries. What happened to the Triumph body number plates? My car has a couple of holes under the Mulliner plate, was that where it was - is there an exact position above the battery box where these were supposed to be? Why have so many of them seemingly disappeared?

Fred

Yes the plate is normally secured using those 2 screw holes. They often corroded through and fell off by the acid spitting out from the battery. When I bought my TR3A (brand new in 1958) the dealer topped up the battery. He told me he did. He put so much water in it that it was up to just below the caps. I later found out that the voltage regulator (control box) had left the factory with a setting that produced 15 volts. This boiled out the battery acid and not only was the lower body number plate eaten through, but it also ate through the steel where the bend above the battery box is located - just below this plate. Since my restoration in 1987 to 1990, I have had no problems with corrosion here because the control box is set properly and I fill my battery to the correct level. And I don't have a plastic box for sitting the battery in like so many sidescreen TR owners have. BTW, TRA judges do not deduct points if you have one of these recent plastic battery boxes. The top flange of this non-original item covers the missing body plate location, so the competitor saves himself a lost point if he does not have this plate, because the judges can't see if it's there or not. I have a friend who used to work on TRs and he had losts of spare parts. He gave me a very nice body plate. It's not the right number, but it saves me losing a judges's point at TRA or VTR.

See the attachment how the recent battery box on this BRG TR3A covers the EB plate.

https://www.britishcarforum.com/ubbthreads/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1919/ppuser/4127

Attached is the body number plate on my 1958 TR3A. It's from a later car and has 7 digits reverse stamped.

My question...The title for one of my 3's has the six digit body number. On my last driver, the commission # was on the title. i suppose the # used depended on the original dealer and what he used?

Does British Motor Heritage have the correct info on all the tags when you get their certificate?

[ QUOTE ]
...Does British Motor Heritage have the correct info on all the tags when you get their certificate?

[/ QUOTE ]

The BMIHT cert I got for my 59 TR3A had the 7 digit body number but not an 'EB' number.

Yes. If you send for the build record, that information will be provided. I posted a request for info regarding these numberplates recently. The lower tag, the one closest to the battery, gets the acid fumes and gets eaten away first. See the attached photo. Only half is left! I received a lead on this ompany:https://www.clarkespares.com/carparts.html

They are located within an hour's drive of me. I will be checking them out this week and I will post the details.

Frank - My original one looks only a little better than yours. If he can make a new one like the originals let me know. I've been looking for 15 years for someone who can make me one with the correct number for me.

Don

You've got it Don!

Just a historical note: the TR3B models had only one body plate, beginning with a TSF prefix, regardless of whether the commission number was a TSF series (1991cc) or TCF series (2138cc).

Well, I suspected the battery acid might have something to do with the missing plates from an earlier thread that I looked at here. It's my understanding that there is no way to find out what your EB number should be, that Mulliners did not keep track of that like the other information on the build records. Is that correct? Also, if you don't have a build record already, you can get one on "non fancy" paper from the VTR much cheaper than the ones from Heritage Trust. Same information.

Fred

And one more question, Frank. If your guy pans out and can make a good duplicate of the original Triumph plate, are you saying that the Mulliner's EB plate was mounted above this Triumph plate? Any particular spacing for total authenticity?

Fred

They are all spaced the same distance apart and the screws had different sizes and head diameters. The EB number should bear a relationship to the Comm. No. in some way. The upper brass plate was and still should be painted the same as the body colour and the lower brass plate should be brass. Mine came that way (like in the attachment above) when I bought the car new in 1958. TRA will not dock points if both are painted because they think otherwise.

https://www.triumphest2006.com/images/clubcars/30donelliott'str3.jpg
Photo from VTR 2001 in Colorado when I drove a total of 5225 miles

Frank,

Since I gave you the lead on these plates, don't forget to send me what you find out from the guy at Clarkes Spares too. Tanks.

Don has it right! I am contacting them today and hope to drive up there Wednesday morning. I'll keep you guy informed. Don't worry.

Who was Mulliner? As in Mulliner's plate?

Mulliners was the firm that made the body shells.

Well folks. Just got some bad news. Todd Clarke of Clarke Spares and Restorations just emailed me. He does the embossed number tags for the BMC cars. Unfortunately he said his tooling is not correct for Triumphs. He did say he is looking into what would be required to do proper TR tags and will keep us posted. Sorry.

[ QUOTE ]
Mulliners was the firm that made the body shells.

[/ QUOTE ]
And NOW I know...Thanks.

[ QUOTE ]
...The upper brass plate was and still should be painted the same as the body colour and the lower brass plate should be brass...

[/ QUOTE ]

Don -- Which one (EB or body number) is uppermost? I'm thinking the EB plate was the lower.

All -- Could someone (or a couple of someones) post pics of decent plates? I would like to see the font for the numbers that should be on my car (need to see 1,5,6,7 & 0 in particular.

Seems like a crafty sort with time on their hands could work a piece of brass with hand tools to make a credible replica. I suppose it wouldn't even have to be brass if it is the painted one but brass works pretty well.

And yes Don, sometimes TRA forgets that Triumphs weren't built in Lancaster Ohio.

For a general & almost related item, here is how I made a commission plate...

https://www.geocities.com/tucson_british_car_register/tr4-commission.html

George: I must say that is a very nice commission plate. The problem with the body shell tags is that the numbers and letters are embossed, that is, they stand proud of the surface. I have been dickering around for a couple of years trying to find someone to make these. There is one US manufacturer of a hand operated embossing machine. They are Roovers Their model T-20 does the 3/8-inch font on 7/8-inch metal tape, which is what we need. However, I have not seen the font, so I can not be sure that it looks like our TR tags. This equipment is very expensive, approx. $3K. I need to find someone who owns one of these machines and get a sample made. One thought would be to get a sample alphabet and number set made to use as a master for casting a set of dies. These could then be used to make small runs of tags. Someone posted a comment about book binders making embossing dies out of bondo. If that person reads this post, could you please provide details on how this is done.