TR2/3/3A Tr2/3/?

[NutmegCT]

Am I missing something here? Isn't this a TR3?

https://boston.craigslist.org/bmw/cto/4032236292.html

Tom

 

[sammyb]

Since he doesn't have any engine pix, I'm guessing that someone put a TR3 grill on. The center of the dash appears vinyl covered, which would indicate a 2 if memory serves. I sent an email and asked for commission number.

 

[TR3driver]

Hard to say. Possibly some percentage is TR2, but certainly not the grille or trunk handle or temp gauge. Door pulls seem to be missing, and the speedo is in the wrong place for a TR2 as well. I could be mistaken, but those look like later seats to me as well.

 

[Andrew Mace]

The seller went to some effort to give history of the TR2; only thing he left out is the actual commission number of this car. After 58 years, that's often about the only way to determine what this car really is. Since it's obviously nowhere near original, I wouldn't go by much of anything you see: grille, seats, gauge position, etc., all of which could have easily been changed over the years by necessity, carelessness, preference or ???

 

[sammyb]

I just keep waiting to see if it has the early water outlet housing.

Yeah, I never go by temp gauge (since they usually break at some point) or speedo placement (since someone inevitably takes out the speedo and tach and puts them back in incorrectly based on a TR3 pic). Seats and panels are obviously redone -- and someone probably went to an upholsterer with a pic of a tr3.

 

[TRTEL]

It's got the late TR2 partial grill surround (last 1000? cars). Somebody just stuck a grill in it.

 

[TRTEL]

Thought of a couple things post posting. The early thermo housings stop at engine #1201 (probably all 1954). The quickest visual ID would be the carbs (if original) which were the two stud (instead of four) holding the carbs to the manifold. That arrangement lasted through engine #8997 or the first few hundred TR3s. Guess that's how many were on the shelf in the parts department at the 2 to 3 model change over. And what's also interesting is that the grill appears perfectly flat. Which is how the factory made the grill for the first 1500 or so TR3s, as near as I've been able to discern over the years. After that point they started putting a slight curve in the small mouth grills to conform to the overall contour of the front end opening. (With no part # change.)

So could this be a very late car, that after purchase, the owner sees the new grill and goes to the dealer and says 'Hey I want one of those!'..!

 

[sammyb]

Seller sent me an email. Photo of the commission plate which shows TS6832L-- which according to my book puts it at June '55.

The grill is an original TR3 which I bought after the fact but yes is the only
thing not original to the car outside of the tires and brakes that were redone
earlier this year. Rus is the usual places in rocker panels and the two hind
quarters. Really should be a frame off rework but you certainly could drive it
for years before it became critical.

I'm not sure he realizes that there are other things that are not original (interior), but it at least solves the mystery of being a TR2 or TR3