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TR2/3/3A 1960 TR3A engine compartment color

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TFR

Jedi Trainee
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Two years ago I restored my TR3. During the restoration I painted the engine compartment the same color as the car which is Pearl white.
Now after two years there is a lot of discoloration and peeling paint from a leaky slave master cylinder.

My question is: What did Triumph use for paint the engine compartments? Did it vary or is it owner preference.

I was thinking of painting it with black POR 15. This would reduce the discolotaion and if something leaks it won't hurt the paint.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Larry
 
my understanding is that most -- though not quite all -- TR3s were painted one color, over, under around & through. It is not uncommon to see re-painted black engine compartments, however. I just painted my car recently. "Originality" is not a huge concern for me, so I painted the engine bay WHITE! I want to see what's going on in there and benefit from all the reflected light I can get. The rest of the car is blue...
 
Or switch to DOT 5 brake fluid, which won't harm paint ...
 
The bodies were entirely painted one colour before final assembly started. So the engine compartment should be body colour if you are planning to enter a judged concours.

It's your car so you can paint it any colour you like, but when you come to sell it, it will be much harder to get anywhere near the price you're asking. If you paint it with POR-15, no one will ever get it off to correct any small body errors that they might see and want to correct. And I don't know how well anyone can re-spray over a coat of POR-15.

I had the problem you are discussing wherethe brake fluid peeled all the paint off. That was between 1960 and 1972. It started to happen about two years after I had bought my 1958 TR3A brand new.

I solved the problem when I restored my TR in 1990 by changing all the rubber hoses and rubber seals in the brake and clutch systems and then switching to silicone fluid. It does not attack paint. My brake reservoir area is still like it was back in 1990 with 100,000 miles driven during the last 18 summers.
 

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Thanks for all the information. I'll go ahead and put the white back. No big deal.

Thought it was the right way to go.

Can I mix Dot 3 with Dot 5?
 
TFR said:
...Can I mix Dot 3 with Dot 5?
Click to expand...

No, not quite that simple.

Or as my English teacher would have pointed out -- yes, of course you CAN mix them, but you should not.

To change over to silicone you want to get rid of as much of the DOT 3 or 4 as you can. How you do that and how much farther you go (flushing the system, replacing all the 'rubber' bits, etc is something of a matter of opinion.

The most conservative approach is to renew everything and start with a clean dry system and introduce the DOT 5. At the other extreme some have just added DOT 5 and bled all around until the purple fluid comes through.

I took the latter approach about 7 or 8 years ago and have had no problems but, as they say, YMMV.
 
Geo Hahn said:
I took the latter approach about 7 or 8 years ago and have had no problems but, as they say, YMMV.
Click to expand...
Ditto, except the first time was more like 20 years ago now, and I've done it with multiple vehicles.

The downside of that approach appears to be that you may still have little pockets of DOT 3 in places where it's not forced to move (like the dead space at the bottom of the rear brake cylinders). Although compatible, the DOT 3 will not mix with the DOT 5, and tends to gather up any contaminants (water, dirt, wear particles, etc.) as well as continue to deteriorate (as DOT 3 does). When I did eventually change the seals, I found some black goo that I believe was the remains of the DOT 3. Didn't seem to hurt anything at all, just looked ugly.
 
Mulliners of Birmingham painted the entire tub before they shipped it "accross town" to Banners Lane in Coventry. So, all sidescreen cars were one uniform colour.
 
Well I painted the engine compartment the same color as the car. Looks great and fresh. Now to install the rst of the stuff.

Going to change over to DOT 5 and bleed the entire system. Thanks for all the posts and opinions.

Love this sight.
 
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