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According to Piggot... the smooth letters were introduced at TS 60001 -- but you will probably want to go with what matches the holes in your bonnet.
[/ QUOTE ]And I'm afraid Piggot is just plain wrong on this detail. My battered, but dead original, TR3A with commission number TS71909L had ribbed letters, and I've seen any number of post 60001 cars with same.
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Moss also states in their catalog that the actual changeover is unknown. I always though it started with the TR3B's, as this was the time that the smooth letters appeared on the TR4.
[/ QUOTE ]This theory is probably closer, but I'm not sure it was quite that late. The TR3Bs began to be assembled in calendar year 1962, well after the introduction of the TR4. Of course, the "smooth" letters used on the TR4 from its introduction date back to 1959 and the introduction of the Herald.
Meanwhile, there's been discussion amongst us Triumphal anoraks over the years about wide-mouth TR3 aprons. Most everyone knows that the TR body was retooled, and those retooled bodies started around commission number TS60001 (although I've seen at least one car, supposedly with its original commission number, with a late body and a pre-60000 commission number, so...?). The new tooling came about reputedly because the old, original body tools were wearing out. But remember that the wide-mouth apron had been introduced only a couple years before (and almost five years after the original introduction of the TR2), so it seems likely that the tooling for the wide-mouth apron still had some life in it at the introduction of the post-60000 cars. (Still with me? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif )
By now (TS60000+), Standard-Triumph was still cranking these cars out at a pretty good clip, so it seems reasonable that, at some point (perhaps around the time of the Leyland takeover?) the front apron tools had to be redone. At that point, it only would've made sense -- as much as anything in the auto industry, especially in Britain, ever made sense -- to "commonise" the lettering with the undoubtedly less expensive and plentiful smooth letters off the Herald and the soon-to-be-introduced TR4.
Over the years, some folks have observed a slight difference in the shape of the sheetmetal from the top of the grille opening back on later aprons with original smooth letters. But then there are also the very late aprons, some possibly having been fitted to TR3Bs, but most certainly being offered as repair panels; these aprons had no letters at all. I believe that was also the case for the Tasker Metal Products aftermarket apron that was available for many years through J.C. Whitney and probably other vendors as well. I've no knowledge of what might be available currently, but I'll assume that any available "new" replacement front apron has no holes for letters!
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazyeyes.gif
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