TR2/3/3A tr3 body tub color

[sp53]

Hi All, I am still blasting and scraping away on my 61 tr3 and noticed something. The bottom of the floor pans are painted with a glossy black. I am convinced it is original because of the area and type of paint. It is that flaky shiny black, like on the heater motor. The tub itself is British Racing Green with one coat of red aftermarket. The green kinda peters out as it goes down the firewall then turns into the black. In addition, they used a lot tar towards the bottom for seem sealer. The inner fenders and under the dash are green with a red primer. Under the spare tire was so dirty and rusty, I could not get a color, but I was surprised by the black on the bottom side. I thought under the tub would be body color. I think, I am going to paint the car black, so I guess the purity of the whole mission will not be affected. The guy at the neighborhood body shop supply company suggested. If I use black, I can just buy the paint right off the shelf and will not have trouble matching colors. (Yea right)

Sp53

 

[Tinkerman]

Hi:
The Triumph Register of America Judging Standards and Restoration Guidelines states that "The underside of the body tub was sprayed body color and generally not sprayed with masses of undercoater" Page CH-11, section VII, paragraph B.
If you are going to paint the whole body tub and all of the removable panels pick the color you want and go for it. I changed from Signal Red to BRG because the new upholstery kit that came with the car is tan. I thought it would be a better match, personal preference, but historic.
Any how, my thoughts, for what their worth.

Good Luck, Tinkerman

 

[Geo Hahn]

My TR3A is Signal Red (as original) but if BRG/TRG had been its original color I surely would have done that and liked it better.

If black is what you like then that is great, but I wouldn't pick a color based on what's on the shelf.

 

[Andrew Mace]

Hi All, I am still blasting and scraping away on my 61 tr3 and noticed something. The bottom of the floor pans are painted with a glossy black. I am convinced it is original because of the area and type of paint. It is that flaky shiny black, like on the heater motor....

Do you mean a "wrinkle" finish? That doesn't sound original to me. Anything on the frame near where the body shows this paint? Only thing I can think of offhand is that -- if this is original -- the car was originally assembled somewhere outside of the UK from a CKD kit. In such cases, bodies were sent out in primer, not in final paint color, and were painted locally.

Just a thought.

 

[YankeeTR]

Hi All, I am still blasting and scraping away on my 61 tr3 and noticed something. The bottom of the floor pans are painted with a glossy black. I am convinced it is original because of the area and type of paint. It is that flaky shiny black, like on the heater motor....

Do you mean a "wrinkle" finish? That doesn't sound original to me. Anything on the frame near where the body shows this paint? Only thing I can think of offhand is that -- if this is original -- the car was originally assembled somewhere outside of the UK from a CKD kit. In such cases, bodies were sent out in primer, not in final paint color, and were painted locally.

Just a thought.

Ok smarty pants...what's a CKD kit?

 

[Geo Hahn]

Completely Knocked Down.

For some reason (taxes?) TR3s were shipped as kits to places outside the UK (Belguim? Malta?).

 

[Andrew Mace]

Sorry...I thought the initialism was well-known! Yes, Belgium and Malta are two places where kits were shipped for local assembly, along with Australia, South Africa and other locales. Tax and other legal issues -- sometimes on both ends of the transaction, perhaps -- were a primary reason. And often such cars had some percentage of "local" content, such as upholstery, as well.

 

[Geo Hahn]

I've heard that they shipped so many TRs to Malta that one would expect the island to be overrun with low-mileage TRs... alas, I also heard that this was just an interim destination that the use of also had some obscure tax or legal advantage.

 

[sp53]

I am sorry for the lack of clarity. The black paint is glossy (not wrinkle) black. I will take some pictures of the project and show you what I mean.

Sp53