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Painted or unpainted?

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Simon TR4a

Simon TR4a

Jedi Knight
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The outer panels, bonnet (hood), boot (trunk lid), doors (doors!)and all four wings (fenders) on the TR series are all bolt-on panels.
I assume they would originally have been painted separately from the inner body, then bolted on. This means the fasteners would have originally been UNPAINTED.
Pages 63-68 of the Piggott book show cars with both painted and unpainted fasteners, but he does not comment on this in either captions or text. Old black and white road test photos of new, unrestored cars do not show this detail clearly, but I cannot imagine they painted the bolts before use.
Any original owners able to confirm this?
Simon, (rebuilding TR4a and wanting to get it right.)
 
Simom, I have taken apart many TR4's and the bolts have all been painted on the inside area in the trunk (boot) and bonnet area as well. The outer bolts were painted before they were undercoated, so they must have come back with an air brush of some kind. Anyway that's what I do as the washers need paint also. Wayne
 
My TR4 has the original paint and the assorted bolts, bonnet latch, etc. are all painted. I would say they were fully assembled when painted except there is that stainless steel wing beading. Darned if I know how they did that.
 
Took two 4As apart and built one back, one was totaly original and the hinge hardware, bolts, and front inner wing panel screw heads were all painted the original body red. This car did not have any second paint covering, trust me, hope this helps in your quest. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/canpatriot.GIF
 
According to Mr. Runyan at TRF, the entire body, including the fenders was painted at the same time. He goes on to say that the splash panels between the inner and outer front fenders were installed after the body was painted in the hopes that some of the finish paint would get up in the area behind these panels. Take that info as you will, however, two of the TR6's I have dismantled bear out his statements (my wife and her brother were the original owners of both cars ). I would assume that this was done on the TR4 also, but . . . .
 
Thanks for your advice, Don, Larry, Geo and Wayne!
I can only guess, then, that perhaps the stainless trim came with shrink wrap plastic protecting it which could be peeled off after the paint booth.
Simon, still some way from painting!
 
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