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Anything I've seen Joe Alexander (ARE) produce is worth more than what you spend, on or off of ebay.
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Agreed! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/iagree.gif
I've been emailing with Joe about a couple other ideas, including one product that he's pretty excited about and feels he can produce very competitively, with his own special flair and improvements. I won't go into the details yet, until Joe has a chance to finalize something.
Joe seems busier than he's ever been, now that he's "retired". I think one or two of his sons are working with him to keep the production lines humming along.
I know of more than one TR owner who has been surprised to find an unsolicited package in their mail - enclosing this or that hard-to-find item that's been missing from their own restoration project - with Joe's return address label and his good wishes! No doubt pulled from his personal stash of spares. They'd had been asking around about the item on another discussion group, where Joe is a regular participant.
John, I wouldn't be surprised if the heat shields you see at Macy's Garage are produced for them by Joe. Especially since the Triumph combo wrench Macy's offers is another Joe Alexander item. The Roadster Factory has also begun offering a few of his items.
If it sounds like I have a financial interest in Joe's business, I don't. I just really like to see a fellow, long-time TR nut and hard working entrepreneur - especially one who has high standards and is a genuinely nice person - succeed doing something he really enjoys!
David, heat shields are a good idea even on otherwise stock TRs, due to the location of the exahust manifolds right under the carbs and intake manifold.
What you say is true, shields can't do much of anything about ambient temperatures under the hood, but they can reflect radiant heat away from the carbs.
But, don't take my word for it. Next time you're in the kitchen, near an electric range, hold your hand about 3" above a medium hot burner for a few seconds. Then repeat, but this time hold a metal pie tin or piece of aluminum foil in between your hand and the burner. Bet you'll see a big difference. So will your carbs, with a heat shield in place.
Anything that can be done to keep both raw fuel and fuel/air mixture cool as possible will help your car run better.
Also, tubular exhaust headers are worse than the original cast manifolds, when it comes to radiant heat. The thinner walls of headers allow more heat to radiate, which raises ambient underhood temps and increases radiant heat transfer to anything near by.
Other things that benefit from some heat shielding are the generator/alternator and starter, to help the internal wiring and such live as long a life as possible.
On many TRs, there are also some brake pipes that run fairly close to the manifolds and exhaust system. These are another place where a little attention might be a good idea. Some sort of reflective sleeving can help keep the pipes and hydraulic fluid inside them a bit cooler.
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