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Restoration Squared or how to align panel gaps.

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Tabcon

Tabcon

Jedi Warrior
Offline
Well, I finally figured out a way to align those pesky panel gaps.

Restoration Squared has now officially begun!

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Next week I have a soda blasting company coming to my house to blast the tub. Since the frame is cockeyed, bent up and looks like it was sandblasted to within one inch of oblivion, I'm talking with Tony at Ratco about a new frame.

I've never really seen a true concours TR4, so I have no idea exactly how the tub was painted/coated at the factory. I plan on just painting the entire tub the same way the rest of the car will eventually be painted. I also plan on installing a sound deadening material like Dynamat in the same locations the factory did and probably in a few areas they didn't.

Instead of restoring the car as it was, totally original, I'm thinking of doing what they refer to now as a "tribute" car. I'd like to try and replicate my version of a Triumph works rally car. No bumpers front or rear, a "towel bar" on the front with vintage rally lights mounted, air vents on the front fenders, upgraded suspension, engine, etc. Today I ordered a steel replica of the front lower valance with a hole in the center for the oil cooler. Limora has them for only about 100 bucks.

I'm keeping all the bumpers and stuff just in case I ever want to bring it back to original one day.

I guess the whole point of this exercise is to have fun, and so far it's been great working on a car again. It will be wonderful to finally finish it one day, drive it a bit, sell it and then start over on another one;-)
 
Wow! I'm real sure I have never seen a restoration look that good at the beginning of the process. Look forward to seeing where it goes from here.

The 'tribute car' approach is interesting. Will it be light blue? Seems like there was someone else (here or on the TR list) that was planning something along those lines.
 
No, the "baby blue" color scheme is not in the plans. I'm going with black. Frankly, I could never understand why Triumph would have used this color. It's so "feminine"...lol.

They do a lot of these type cars in Europe. Very similar to the early 911 owners converting their cars to RS specs. I'm not really looking to do a true replica type car with all the rally timers and huge rear reverse lights, but there is just something about a TR4 with no bumpers and slightly more aggressive tires that make it look mean. I never really cared for the big bumpers on the early cars anyway.

I hope to do the interior in red with a nice burl dash, so it will be fairly standard, but should be a nice contrast to the black exterior.

works32.jpg


Picture this in black.
 
I looked over several of those rally clones when I lived in England, and was close to going the same route as they do look very nice. If you go the surrey top route, Revington has a nice fitting rollbar for the setup. They also can sell you the lamp bar, as well as other rally bits.

Randy
 
Tab, you should make a trip over to Erath, La, to visit my friend Dave Hayden's house. Dave has a sweet TR4A (67) that he restored to concours condition with all period updates (headers, etc.). He is currently restoring a TR2 to same condition. Body is off, etc. Dave has done 8 or so British cars over, and still has them all!
 
Man! Talk about "I might as well..."

Reminds me of a T-6 I saw at Oshkosh. Fixing cracks in the spinner became a total restoration.
 
Ah, this is normal for me. I've never washed a car before, just started over with a rebuild when it got dirty...lol.

Bill, I'd love to see his cars. I still need to join BMCNO and I'm sorry I missed the last event. Hopefully, I can go next year.

What I'd really like to take a look at though is a completely unrestored original low mileage TR4, preferably a '64 model. Even though I'm not striving towards a 100% factory original rebuild, I'd still like to get a baseline for the restoration. I'd like to have a look at all the original hardware used, paint finish, etc.

Does anyone know of such an animal?
 
Have an original in my garage, but since I've already pulled the wings, checking panel gaps might be a little challenging! Seriously, from the pictures of the car you purchased, it looked to me like you had a very good baseline.

Randy
 
Yea, all the metal is in great shape with absolutely no rust, with the exception of a little surface rust I found under the sound deadening material in the jump seat area. A drill with a wire wheel would take it of in no time.

Right now, I'm not concerned with panel fit. I can work all that out. I'm hoping that with a new straight frame, everything will line up better.

What is the paint quality of your original underneath the carpet, in the trunk, the underside, etc. For instance, is the paint beneath the carpet on the floor boards shiny or dull? Is it the same color as the rest of your car? Can you see the color of the mastic used to seal the panels, or is it painted over? What is the color of the underside of the car? Are all the snap fit fittings applied with rivets as opposed to screws? Do the bolts on the car have markings on the heads and what are they? Are the markings different for different parts of the body?

I'd like to try and use original manufacturer type hardware if still available and not the rebuild packaged hardware sold by Moss and others.

These are the type of things I'm looking for.
 
Tabcon said:
...What I'd really like to take a look at though is a completely unrestored original low mileage TR4, preferably a '64 model...
Click to expand...

My 64 is fairly original with about 70K miles and the original paint. Not convenient to stop by but I can send photos as needed.

Probably best to line up a couple of sources or run details past experts here and elsewhere to be sure though.
 
If you are interested in originality the Complete Original TR series of books would be helpful I am sure, lots of color pics and specs, I believe the first edition covered TR2-6, then the split up the publication and come out with a more detailed version for the TR4-6 and TR2-3, these books are hard to find and expensive because they are out of print now, but a very useful reference if you can find one, but unfortunately asking prices seem to range from $100 on up.
 
I almost bought Bill Piggot's book, "Original TR4, 5 & 6 Restoration Manual" on ebay the other day for $136.00. I should have. Amazon's price is $196.00. I'm going to put my name on the list for the one Randall linked. It's most likely at least as good or better than the $200 older version. I need to save all the dough I can going into this restoration...lol.

Frank, even if I lived in Holland, I still would not paint my ride baby blue...LOL!

I need to get the body off the frame and on to some type of rotisserie to strip and paint it. I've looked online and most of what I see has been too expensive. At 895 to about 1,200 bucks, I've decided to make my own. I don't need one made of steel. The body is light enough, so I'm going to try and make some type of disposable set up out of your garden variety dimensional lumber and galvanized pipe. I think I can build the rotisserie for about $100+/-. At the very least, it should be a hoot trying, and if it doesn't work out, maybe we can roast a cow on it or something.
 
On another list I saw where someone took a plywood sheet and cut an opening in center of it for the shell to fit through. The outside was had a 45 degree and a 30 degree corner. It looked simple and cheep. He said it worked good.
 
Loved the pictures of the TR3's and I think that is a car that looks good in powder blue. My future restoration project is currently powder blue. :smile:

Scott
 
Rich, I'm trying real hard to picture that, but I just can't figure it out.

Do you have a photo of how he did this? I'd like to see it if you do.

Thanks
 
Tabcon said:
Rich, I'm trying real hard to picture that, but I just can't figure it out.

Do you have a photo of how he did this? I'd like to see it if you do.

Thanks
Click to expand...

You'll find pics and construction info in this thread.
 
FWIW --
Tabcon said:
...some type of rotisserie to strip and paint it. I've looked online and most of what I see has been too expensive. At 895 to about 1,200 bucks, I've decided to make my own...
Click to expand...

I recall seeing a homemade rotisserie built from 2 Harbor Freight engine stands, one on each end of the car. Thought it was a creative way to use (relatively) inexpensive equipment for the guts of the system.
 
LOL!

I love that plywood rotisserie. Sometimes the most complex problems can be solved with the simplest ideas. Unfortunately, I spent most of my weekend trying to come up with a better mouse trap and I doubt my homemade rotisserie will work any better, if not as well as his.

Since I'm contractor, I have access to plenty of leftover materials, so I tried to recycle what I could and bought the rest of what I needed at Lowe's. I have to hoist the car today to try and get it on the rotisserie to see if it actually will work. I'm fairly certain it will work fine since the tub for the TR4 is so light. I was amazed at how light most of the body panels to this car are. Are the aftermarket fenders made of a lighter gauge steel than the originals?

Anyway, here is a link to the sketch I did on sketch up for my homemade "Restorotor". I'll post some real pic's of it later, hopefully with the tub hanging from it.

RESTOROTO
 
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