TR6 I'm back!!! As of five hours ago, I'm again a TR owner!

[sammyb]

It's been so long, y'all probably forgot about me. I sold my TR3 over a year and a half ago, but my other cars had me spending time at ferrarichat and unfairly giving my BCF friends the cold shoulder. (My TR3 was restored and my third one of the decade, so I didn't have many questions.)

BUT TODAY...I picked up a '74 1/2 TR6. I feel like it's a moral victory for me, because I've owned a 3, 250, 7 and 8, but never a 6, 4 or 2. This car was a daily driver for a guy who had bought all the parts for it to restore, then had to sell. The guy had broken a spark plug off, so it didn't run. He sold to a guy in the neighborhood who figured he could flip it for a few bucks. This guy couldn't get the spark plug out with his limited tools, and he got sick of all the Craigslist flakes, so I picked it up for what he bought it for.

The car is totally rust free with the exception of one easy to address hole behind the driver's door. (My buddy and I just replaced a whole section of my 308 GT4 with complex curves, so this will be cake.) It's a Signal Red car with brown interior (yuck, but I can live with it.) The car needs to be repainted and the interior is pretty much totally shot, BUT, there is every single part required for restoration already sitting in boxes: complete interior (panels, seat upholstery, foam, webbing, top, carpet, column stalks), grills, bumpers, top, tonneau, Crane electronic ignition, radiator, rubber seals, lenses...it basically looks like the Vicky Brit catalog hurled into my garage! Still haven't done a complete inventory, but that will come with time.

Already fitted to the car are new suspension bushings, a shiny new starter, and new Redline tires.

And did I mention it is an O/D car!!!???!!!

I already tried getting the broken spark plug out, but it was pretty seized. Tried some heat, but it wouldn't budge. My failure was not thinking to use a flute extractor (used a screw-type)...I think I have a flute extractor somewhere. It will be out tomorrow. The goal is to make it a runner ASAP then take it from there.

I'm excited, because my first "collector car" was a TR-250, but I sold it in '99. It's nice to be back among the TR ranks...this time back with a six-cyl.

 

[NutmegCT]

Welcome home!

Congrats on the 6. First thought: drip a 50/50 mixture of acetone and ATF down onto that plug so it slowly seeps into that plug hole. Let it sit overnight. Then if you can, slightly *tighten*, then slightly *loosen*. Repeat a couple times. Might help get it loose without damaging the socket.

Got any pictures?

Tom

 

[sail]

 

[DNK]

Nice to hear from you again Sam
But I digress
View attachment 27970

 

[sammyb]

All I have right now are nasty cell phone pix from when I got it into the garage last night. BTW, don't hold the '79 Ranchero next to it against me. It's my friend's car. Since the last time I was on BCF, I built a 40X80 shop, so now I'm holding onto stuff for friends.

 

[DNK]

Did you change who you write for since you left??

 

[sammyb]

I'm doing less and less standard journalism. Unfortunately, the niche has collapsed under the weight of too few advertisers and too many bloggers willing to write for free. I'm getting too old to work for free for people who aren't friends, relatives or a charity...especially those who attempt to make a profit from others' free work. Some online sites actually are "paying", but for $20 for 1000 words, I'd rather just sit on my deck and stare at Mt. Rainier. It's sad for readers, because they're getting a bunch of hobbyists who don't have the research background to dispel rumor, myth and misunderstanding...or the connections to actually drive the cars about which they write.

I've done some other interesting projects, including helping with a book adaptation of a car-related movie, as well as serving as a technical consultant on another fiction book with car-related material.

 

[DNK]

Cool, thanks for the answer

 

[mrv8q]

Welcome back! Why are you calling this a '74 1/2 car?. As best I know, 74.5s had turn signals under the front bumpers, not on the valance....

Nice looking car!

 

[sammyb]

The guy from whom I bought the car called it a 74.5, and since in the back of my brain I thought I might have recalled that the big rubber overriders came in mid '74, I just went along with it. It wasn't until I actually checked the commission plate that I actually saw the build date: August '74. It's CF25661UO.

 

[sammyb]

I just checked the VTR site, and it claims that '74 ended at 25777 and 74.5 started at 27001. Still, this car has rubber bumper overriders. It is always possible that a dealer installed them to make the car look new when it was sitting on the showroom floor when the '75s came out. On the other hand, Triumph was notorious for crappy record keeping and "throwing parts" at cars as they went down the line. A friend of mine had a TR3 that he bought new and it had both dzus fasteners and a locking handle on the boot lid. Every Triumph expert at every show would tell him "that's wrong -- it should have one or the other", but he'd explain that the factory built it that way, and he had proof.

 

[tr6nitjulius]

Welcome to the "Last of the Hairy Chested Man's" TR6 Roadster Lifestyle. Perhaps will see you @All Triumph Drive In 2014 in Tacoma, Wa hosted by Washington State's TYEE TR Club. Enjoy!

Mid-Late '73-'76 TR6:
'74-'76 Black Overriders on bumpers/Radio antenna on driver's side
Vent Lid Plastic Black/Hub Trim Silver
Grill Center Bar & Surround Silver
Oil/Gas/Temp/Amp Needles point up

Pics of 69-76 TR6
https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/carsforsale/triumph/tr6

 

[GBRandy]

Once you own a Triumph, you must always have one in the garage. Welcome back

 

[NutmegCT]

Once you own a Triumph, you must always have one in the garage. Welcome back

And if you're lucky, eventually it'll be *out* of the garage.

<ducks and runs>

Tom

 

[DougF]

Looks like a nice, straight, clean car. Congrats!