• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

TR4/4A Finally introducing myself and the TR4a

Share this page

D

Djoslyn

Senior Member
Country flag
Offline
My name is Dane Joslyn and I've been lurking for quite a few years and I'm finally getting around to introducing myself. :D I've got a 1965 TR4A that I inherited from my uncle that had been pretty big into triumphs. I wanted to make sure someone in the family continued his addiction :cool: His name was Mark Joslyn and I'm not sure that he was a member here but I'm pretty sure he has some friends that were or are members. He was well known in the Champaign Illinois area and I'm pretty sure he was the president of the Central Illinois Triumph Owners Association for a while.

I have a feeling he bought the car mostly as it sits now. We never found any paperwork for it other than the title. It seems to have been setup for some vintage racing or to at least appear like it has been. It is equiped with and E-fan, GM alternator, aluminum pulleys, it has the oil filter adapter to fit a modern filter. I'm guessing here but I think it may have a modified camshaft in it as it idles like it has one. I also have a paint matched half height plexiglass windscreen to replace the one currently on it.

Unfortunately it has a bent frame just behind the drivers side front wheel. So it likes to pull and wear tires a bit unevenly. But it is still fun as **** to drive.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll have some questions for you all but for now on with the eye candy.










Dane
 
Thanks for the welcome! Yes he did! The TVR is still around. It was the only one that didn't get sold at that auction and is sitting in my fathers garage right now needing a head gasket replaced.

I do plan on getting the frame taken care of at some point. Just need to find the right shop and the cash to get it done. We just had a baby so it is low on the priority list.
 
Welcome Dane!

I never met Mark but he was well known in the Triumph circles and it was sad to hear of him passing. I like the looks of that 4A, someone put some thought into how they wanted it to look - shaved door handles, 3A bumperettes in front, looks great! Enjoy it!
 
I thought as much too. Horns have been removed, windshield wipers and anything to do with climate control is all gone.
 
Please check the state of the brackets that hold the front lower suspension pan to the frame.

On a 4A these are a known weak part because they were designed with only one bolt to hold them on. Over here we all drill these and use an extra bolt.

As you have had a bang around here and this has been raced these are really suspect unless they have been uprated.
If it fails the wheel will fall off and you will have a wreck.
 
Welcome Dane,

That is an extremely handsome car with very clean lines. The color combo with the white stripes "pop". I really like the bumper delete and the 3A bumperettes. I have been considering deleting my bumpers as well. Also, very interested in the quad exhaust pipes. Do you have any info on those?

Cheers and look forward to your future posts

Bob
 
Bob, the exhaust Y's about 18" after the header and goes into what i'm guessing are glass pack mufflers which then dump right to the exhaust tips which are just a Y tip giving the quad look.
 
alanjohnturner said:
Please check the state of the brackets that hold the front lower suspension pan to the frame.

On a 4A these are a known weak part because they were designed with only one bolt to hold them on. Over here we all drill these and use an extra bolt.

As you have had a bang around here and this has been raced these are really suspect unless they have been uprated.
If it fails the wheel will fall off and you will have a wreck.
Click to expand...

I'll double check that area next time I get under the car. I was under there this past week replacing radiator hoses and the speedo cable. I did notice some sloppy looking welds where the shock tower attaches to the frame there but I never looked at those brackets. I'm assuming it was repaired after the frame was bent.

I'm curious as to why if the car was involved in some accident that bent the frame why they never bothered to straiten it... As good as the rest of the car looks it boggles me that it wasn't taken care of... Unless it was attempted and they couldn't get it any better than it is. Maybe I'll get some pictures posted of the frame later to get everyone's input.

Oh well, it is what it is.. Hopefully when I do get around to trying to getting a shop to straiten the frame they can get it reasonably close to where it should be.

Dane
 
That is just a great looking modified car. Don't know if you know, but there are alternatives for frames, for the next hundred years:
Rat-co.com
 
alanjohnturner said:
Please check the state of the brackets that hold the front lower suspension pan to the frame.

On a 4A these are a known weak part because they were designed with only one bolt to hold them on. Over here we all drill these and use an extra bolt.

As you have had a bang around here and this has been raced these are really suspect unless they have been uprated.
If it fails the wheel will fall off and you will have a wreck.
Click to expand...

I don't want to distract this great thread so I will start another, as I want to get some information on this fix.
 
Looks like I only have one stud on each of those brackets. Looks like I'll be adding this mod to my project list.

Oh, and I would love to get a rat-co frame but that is a project I am just not willing or can afford to start at this point. It's something I've definitely been thinking about in the event that the current one can't be straitened though. :D
 
You can get sections of bent frame out and fit new sections.

I had the repair sections folded up in a sheet-metal shop and welded the edges together to make square tubes.

The only critical bit is getting a really good join from new parts to the old. This needs some planning with how to position the joints.

Its easier with the body off of course but a single front side would be do-able with the engine out.
 
Dane,

Welcome! Always good to have another TR4A owner on the forum.

Scott
 
If the frame is bent just behind the lower control arm its a fairly easy fix for a good frame man.
The mild steel doesnt mind a fair amount of heating ,the bad news is the motor is in the way to
do a nice job.....
MD(mad dog)
 
Back
Top