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Body & Commision Number Plates

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What are used to attach these plates to the firewall on a TR3A?? Screws (what kind) or pop rivets?
 
Pan head, sheet metal screws, as I recall.

Mickey
 
There are two different sizes for these screws with straight slots as per the photos. They are small sheet-metal screws with round heads (not pan head) and the undersize drilled hole in the scuttle gets "tapped" as you screw in the screws. The screws you see are the original ones that came with the car when I bought it new in 1958.
 

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Hello Art. I make reproductions of the original plates. If you need some, send me a PM and I'll send you a set of the correct sheet-metal screws.
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According to the TRA judging manual the commission plate was held on with rivets, as indeed mine was. The EB plate and the chassis plate are fastened as Don and Angel so adequately described.

Regards, Tinkerman
 
Tinkerman said:
According to the TRA judging manual the commission plate was held on with rivets...
Click to expand...

And some MVD or BMV or DMV (or whatever they call it in your state) have been known to reject a acr because the commission plate was secured with screws rather than rivets.

They don;t much care about EB and Mulliners tags.

So which is more flexible... the Motor Vehicle Dept or TRA judges?
 
The rivets for the Comm. No. plate are not your typical pop-rivets. They are screw-together rivets and my neighbour who has a lathe made me 4 that are exactly like the original ones.

Four you ask ? Well my TR3A is an early TR3A (TS 27489 LO) and the four holes were left over from the punches for the TR2 and the TR3 when the Comm. No. plate was larger and about 4" square with 4 rivets to secure it. There are two rivets to hold my Comm. No. plate and the other two holes have rivets in them, just to close them.
 
Don Elliott said:
The rivets for the Comm. No. plate are not your typical pop-rivets. They are screw-together rivets and my neighbour who has a lathe made me 4 that are exactly like the original ones.
Click to expand...
That's interesting, Don. I've removed several original commission plates, and while I agree the rivets are not typical Pop-Rivets, I didn't find anything like the screw-together variety you describe. Just a simple aluminum rivet with a steel piece through the center.

Neither IN nor CA DMV noticed the pop-rivets though /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
 
You are right Randall. Your note jogged my memory. Remember this was in 1990. Because I wanted them to look "original", and all I could find were regular pop rivets, my neighbour turned the circular part that is visible to look like they were originally, but he tapped the center hole. Then he made a threaded piece that fits from up behind the glove box to secure them together.
 
Don Elliott said:
Four you ask ? Well my TR3A is an early TR3A (TS 27489 LO) and the four holes were left over from the punches for the TR2 and the TR3 when the Comm. No. plate was larger and about 4" square with 4 rivets to secure it. There are two rivets to hold my Comm. No. plate and the other two holes have rivets in them, just to close them.
Click to expand...

Don,
My 1958 TR3A TS 2969x L is also early and I've wondered why it has four holes around the commission plate. Makes sense.
So now I wonder why they changed the plate to a smaller one?
 
Geo Hahn said:
PeterK said:
...So now I wonder why they changed the plate to a smaller one?
Click to expand...

Saved them 5p?
Click to expand...

You mean 5d /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
My car is slightly newer, but only has 2 holes and (I think) the smaller plate. I know the car was painted green (twice) and am pretty sure it was originally red (awaiting production certificate) so I have no idea what is 'original' for the car. -It has neither of the other body tags, so I'll be looking to angelfj for some of those as soon as I know the numbers (perhaps he can also stamp the commission number with the same tools).

My TR3 also doesn't have the "blanking plate" for the (right) clutch/brake controls or a hole for the (right) steering column, but I can't see where any body work/repairs were done to cover them up. Were some cars built specifically for Left Hand Drive?
 
TexasKnucklehead said:
...My TR3 also doesn't have the "blanking plate" for the (right) clutch/brake controls or a hole for the (right) steering column, but I can't see where any body work/repairs were done to cover them up. Were some cars built specifically for Left Hand Drive?
Click to expand...

The blanking plates were eventually eliminated. Mine (TS47905L, built 4/15/59) lacks the plate. I did a rough survey once and it appears the elimination did not occur at a specific point, i.e. there were cars after mine that still had the plate.
 
Yes. George is correct. The Mulliners and Triumph body ID plates were always "embossed", that is, the fonts stand proud of the surface, not stamped or engraved. To my knowledge the commission number plates were always stamped. And, I believe the earlier cars had "hand" stamped commission plates because some original cars that I have seen had inconsistent spacing between numbers. Frankly, I think this adds a bit of "interest", when things do not look so perfect.
 
Exactly which embossed plate is which. I have the "EB" plate, but my car is missing the other one. Is there a relation between the two numbers, such as the commission number to the "EB" number to the engine number?? How can I find out what the other number is that I'm missing?? Is it on the Heritage Certificate??
 
angelfj said:
...To my knowledge the commission number plates were always stamped. And, I believe the earlier cars had "hand" stamped commission plates because some original cars that I have seen had inconsistent spacing between numbers....
Click to expand...
Someone once pointed out to me that the last numerical digit often was a bit askew of the others. The reason was, presumably, that it would've been easy enough to make up small batches of stamped plates with, say, TS 7190_ L, so the digits 7190 were all pretty well aligned. Then, as cars were about to get a commission number assigned, the last digit was stamped, and it usually was slightly off. George's photo of an original TR4 plate seems to bear out this theory!
 
George,The info. that you posted regarding the commission number plate was very helpful. The last DMV renewal that I have listed the vin number as Tc68lco76080L this number also matches the number on an insurance card that I located.Could the comm.# be 76080 and the rest of the numbers be/ the car has independent rear sus. Any insight that you can give would be helpful. I have a blank plate from Moss. Thanks Dick Portale
 
Could be that you have CTC76080L and the rest of the number being used as a VIN incorporates the fact that it was registered as a '68 and some other 'intelligence'.

That number would make yours a fairly late TR4A, built in sometime in 1967. These cars were often registered using 'model years' later than year of manufacture... thus yours was registered as a '68.

Of course this is all just speculation.
 
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