TR2/3/3A About to strat a full restoration TR2 / TR3 ?

[TRo8son1]

Hi i e,mailed and never recived a reply from Kilmartin,
earlier in the thread i metioned the heritage cert , and the colour being White with red interior ,
would it be a silly thing at this point to go for a full colour change , i quite liked the idea of british racing green , if in the future i was to sell the car would this affect the value ?

 

[DavidApp]

It is worth sending another e mail. I found that they can be a bit erratic with e mail answering. Do not know if they have limited office staff if any so e mail falls by the wayside.

I see you are moving along with the rebuild.

David

 

[TR3driver]

earlier in the thread i metioned the heritage cert , and the colour being White with red interior ,
would it be a silly thing at this point to go for a full colour change , i quite liked the idea of british racing green , if in the future i was to sell the car would this affect the value ?

Depends on the level of restoration, IMO. If you are trying for a 100% correct show winner, then paint (and trim) color becomes an issue. But for a "resto-mod" or driver, any attractive color will be worth about the same.

There is also the personal enjoyment factor. I drove a lot of years with a TR3A in a color scheme I didn't like; repainting in colors I did like made a big difference. And although I chose colors that the factory never offered, no one has ever complained (to me anyway) about non-original colors.

In other words, it's your car, it should please you! Assuming it is "your car" and not just something to sell.

 

[CJD]

+1. For the vast majority of buyers, color does not matter, and they will buy a color they like whether original or not. As the car gets more expensive, then original color matters more.

 

[sp53]

Yes I think the color matters most at the end of high price spectrum, although I always appreciate originality. One thing to watch is to keep the color consistent whatever you use. If the trunk or engine compartments are different colors than the body, that effects value not matter what the color.

 

[RJCOX]

Great thread! Just what I was looking for.

I am doing my first restore, though I was given a bit of a head start as mine was sort of abandoned as well. The body of mine was cut in two (front and back) and one sill, and floor pan already installed. Drivers side sill, and pan are loose. Original PO was in the middle of a frame off restore and suddenly passed away. He had bought a bunch of parts and there even is an extra cowl. The car was passed onto his friend who put it on ebay where we got it.

Body was dropped onto the frame but not bolted down. The gearbox cover is there, but the drivetrain tunnel (that was originally attached to the rear shelf) went missing. I am in the process of finding someone to fabricate one for me.

Otherwise, We've got brand new sills, pans rocker panels and a complete interior kit. Front fenders need some work, but I've seen worse. Hood, doors and boot lid are in original state and look good. They may have come from a donor car since the locks don't match the ignition key, but it could be a replacement ignition as well. Not counting the fenders or welding the sills and pan back in, I've got very little body work to do. Problem is, the underside of the car is basically unpainted, so it's gotta come back off of the body for a few coats of something to shrug off road junk. Might start investing in this one step stuff I tried on a small project (vape mod). I hosed the paint job on that up, and a friend who used to paint cars (now works in a Vape shop) had the worst time stripping that off. I think it was rustoleum. I am sure it was never intended for an automotive finish, but it is made for protecting bare metal and giving it some color (well black will suffice since I haven't decided on a color yet. I might use some as a base layer in the trunk, engine compartment and interior as well as the spare tire well. This stuff really bonded to the metal My Dad found a pretty close match to his BRG and did his trunk and interior of doors and trunk with it
Rattle can paint doesn't require specialist equipment at least

 

[DavidApp]

For the underside one of the best products is POR15. It is brushed on and sets up very hard. If you use POR15 be sure to wear gloves as it sticks to you as well as it sticks to the car. A colour coat is needed as POR15 should not be exposed to UV.

David

 

[Graham H]

With the underside paint,the body looks like it has red lead undercoat?which will only need primer and a topcoat which should be body colour and will outlast us all.

Graham

 

[RJCOX]

Nothing is attached to the frame, just the steering, brakes and rear axel (and tires to that obviously). Frame is done, and there's a new kit for it in packages waiting for me to figure my next move. I'd pick it up to paint it, but it's almost cut in two (floor pan and one sill are all that is attached). I may just have to eyeball it (well, a little bit more than eyeballing it) and weld that sill in. Then test fit the driver's door and if all is well, brace it and lift the tub back off for paint of some form, oh after installing two new rocker panels of course.

It currently has the same coating that comes on the parts from Moss and TRF (well I'm guessing about Moss, I'm already a TRF guy). Actually some of it looks brushed on, but maybe a trick of the light. Tub is smooth (tag light area could have been done a bit better but it's further down on my list).

Interested in POR15. Please enlighten the un-enlightened. Can I apply it in the cold? What kind of prep? As far as gloves, I keep boxes of Nitrile gloves with me and each of my job sites. Box in the garage and one in the Kitchen. I used them for food prep for Turkey day this year. Harbor Freight has the 9 mil ones for $5 most of the time. I stock up. Hated vinyl and have a mild reaction to Latex (think it's the powder in them).

I live in Virginia, and we have a saying, if you don't like the weather, just wait a few minutes, it'll change. I'd rather not have this a trailer baby (not that there is anything wrong with that). My dad's 61 was his daily driver till some time in the 80s. He put it away after my brother put DOT3 brake fluid in it, and the brakes failed. I still can't believe he let him drive daily. Well when the brakes failed, there was a small accident and some damage to the cowl and bumper. She got pounded out, and was primed for paint and somewhere along the line Life happened. He retired from the Corps, took the weekend off and went back to work as a civilian. Us kids grew up, had kids of our own and before we knew it, he finally retired again, only to start finishing his "projects" like his train room and his garage. A couple of his projects put him into a position to pull his TR out of mothballs and be brought back to life. She's a long way from a beauty, but she's running.

But I digress (like usual), I'd love to take this to a show, maybe, but I'd rather drive it there. TRF is about 4 hours away from here and has a summer party that I'd love to drive to (don't think that'll happen this year, but you never know). I don't have really deep pockets, so paying someone to do the work for me is nominally, not in the cards. Oh, I'll most likely let a pro do the paint, but even though I know nothing of this engine, I've got someone with 50 years experience with this specific model living right next door to me, and all of the tools to boot. I'm not gonna baby it too much, but I won't be racing any Jags. Let's just say, I won't be driving it in the snow, and I can park it under roof all winter if I need to. I have no top currently (or tonneau) so that will have to be the plan at least till I get one. I do have a frame so I might ask for one for my birthday/Christmas, but there's a host of other things I'd rather have for the car.

I will make the investment on the rustproofing. Nothing worse than seeing that cancer eat away a beautiful fender/sill/rocker, except poorly executed bondo trying to cover it. At least with the rust, you know where you stand.

Sorry to hijack the thread. Keep up the good work, but please tell us neophytes about POR15 if you don't mind.

 

[DavidApp]

I had sandblasted back to bare metal and painted POR15 on with disposable brushes. I was working in Georgia in early summer so it was not cold. You can check their website but it appears that it can be applied down to 45 degrees.
https://www.por15.com/POR-15-Technical-Information_ep_62.html

As your drivers side inner sill and floor are missing you should use the frame to help you align the car. On my TR3A the PO probable removed the sills and floor with the car off the frame. I had a time getting the doors to fit. In fact when I got the car home I found the drivers door would not fit in the door opening by about 1/4"
Use the body spacers to get everything set to the correct position.

David

 

[RJCOX]

right now, the passenger side seems dialed in, test fit the door and it was perfect. I am considering welding just the sill in on the drivers side then bracing it and removing the tub. i checked the website on the POR, and it wasn't very clear on whether or not I need to strip the metal bare (of the coating already applied) before application. Will definitely use on inside of fenders (original paint inside and rust), rockers and sills. As I said, the rest of the car is coated, but only just.

If I don't need to strip it down, I wouldn't hesitate to coat the whole underside, inside the door panels, and the floor of the cockpit. If I have to strip it down before application, then I would probably go the other route, saving the POR for inside the fenders and splash guards and rocker panels.

Has anyone applied this over primer or the parts as they come coated from the big 3?

 

[M_Pied_Lourd]

I think the intent of POR15 is to go over bare metal.

Cheers,
Tush

 

[sp53]

POR 15 fame and to fortune was that it was designed to go over rust after just brushing off the lose rust, I mean heavy rust, and it worked. The stuff is bad aaaasss. My way of thinking tells me if you put it over paint, the paint could fall off along with the POR 15. I would blast the inner fenders or do it by hand with a wirer wheel or something like that then epoxy primmer and paint body color.

 

[TRo8son1]

Moved on a bit , shot blasted , mlords rust inhibitor , 2 coats of etch primer , stone chip , 2 coats of primer .and white top coat . i was considering a total color change to British racing green .but iv went with the heritage certificate

 

[sp53]

very nice

 

[DavidApp]

Looks great.

Did you do the shot blasting or have it done?

David

 

[TRo8son1]

yes did the blasting my self , but just about destroyed my 150L Clarke boxer compressor in the process

 

[DavidApp]

Blasting is very hard on compressors. Realized after one panel that my Sears 30 gallon one was not going to do it. The tank got so hot I could not touch it. Also I was getting a lot of water with my air. I could see the water being shot on to the panel.

David

 

[Got_All_4]

The only thing that is verboten to me is non-TR parts. So no 5 speed trans or diff swaps in an IRS car. But otherwise, I consider them a blank slate to make what I want.

Don't forget Miata seats!

 

[TRo8son1]

After a bit of research and a few visits to the local paint supplyers , i had no luck in finding an original pearl white ,so i thought if i can not get the original colour il go with a colour want ..Britsh racing green