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TR2/3/3A TR3A Headlight questions

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tmc

tmc

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I'm restoring a 1959 TR3A TS45911L. I'm waiting on parts for the wiring project mentioned earlier, so I took a look at my headlight assemblies and have some issues.

The assemblies that were on this car appear to be from an earlier version, as they have 3 adjusters and split type chrome rims. The car had been in a front-end crash long before I bought it, so not surprised if the "wrong" parts were put on for the rebuild.

With some cleaning, repainting and new gaskets, etc. I can refurbish these and use them. However, I don't care for the split rims. Will the newer snap-on chrome rims work on the older assembly?

Whilst musing over this, I noticed that VB has a plastic headlight body assembly, which makes some sense but isn't "authentic", of course. Anybody ever use those?

Would the snap-on chrome rims work with that?

I'm trying to avoid 2 "correct" headlight assemblies at $138.95 apiece! The plastic doobers from VB appear to come with everything but the headlight, the wiring and the chrome rim for $29.95 apiece.
 
tmc said:
With some cleaning, repainting and new gaskets, etc. I can refurbish these and use them. However, I don't care for the split rims. Will the newer snap-on chrome rims work on the older assembly?
Click to expand...
I'm not certain, but I believe they can be made to work by adding a clip to the bucket. Check with them, but I believe TRF P/N RFK1288 or Moss 156-020 is the clip. (The clip is actually designed for a 'convertible' replacement bucket, but I think it will also work on the split ring buckets if you drill a hole in the right place.)

Or you could probably find someone with the later assemblies that would like to swap them for the earlier ones. Those split rims are really scarce.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]
I'm trying to avoid 2 "correct" headlight assemblies at $138.95 apiece! [/QUOTE]FWIW, TRF has the later assemblies on sale for $95. AFAIK they will accept the earlier 'wide' rims and look identical to the late 3A headlight assemblies.
 
Check your P.M.
 
I haven't messed with my headlights yet, but if you need to compare notes on assembly, my 3A was just a few cars down the line from yours: TS45936L..
 
TR4nut said:
I haven't messed with my headlights yet, but if you need to compare notes on assembly, my 3A was just a few cars down the line from yours: TS45936L..
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I was born in Wharton, less than a 100 miles southwest of you.........but that was many years ago.

I'm working on the wiring, etc. now, so sorting out how the wiring harness is laid out in the car, under the dash, etc. and labeling all the wires, determiing what pigtails, etc. I need. My car was rebuilt from various parts many years before I bought it, so it has been a total rebuild, to say the least. There are several TR3As here in Northern Colorado that I can go look at. I think that'll do it for me.
 
I think you will find that your three screw adjusting head lights are stock and perhaps the split ring is also, however, I do believe they were aftermarket. I would clean up the old stuff; it will most likely be better quality than what you can buy new. And I think the 3 screw type are getting rare. Many of the snap on rings will cross fit on LBCs. Many years ago I was at a Seattle junk yard that specialized in British cars (Aurora I think) trying to find some nice rings. Anyways at that time they also sold a lot new stuff too. The counterman opened up a bunch of boxes and I think I left there with a new set of Lucus rings for an MGB that fit perfect on my original 58 tr3. Over the years I have gathered many rings off tr3s and found many variants in the light rings.
Steve
 
All the older TRs - TR2s, TR3s and my early TR3A (TS 27489 LO) left the factory with the round or curved chrome headlight rims. At some point they changed to the clip-on style where they stick out more like a tube than the curved ones on the early TRs.
 

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FWIW, here's a vintage photo of a 'split' trim ring on a TR3:
 

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The split rings had a VERY short run (TS22014 thru TS32584)
No one repros them so you can probably recoup part of your
new parts investment by selling them.
A prior owner had installed a split rim bucket on my Post 60K
3A (one side only) and as Randall mentioned, I just bought the clip,
copied the hole location from the one on the other side and my
new snap-on worked fine.
After all that, I kind of liked the look of the split rings, so I
found a mate to the one I took off and went back to splits on
both sides. Not right but neither is my body color, upholstery color,
and a whole bunch of other stuff.
Frank
Owner of a Helms Bread Truck yellow TR3A with Jaguar Sherwood Green
upholstery.
 
If I have this right, there were at least 3 styles of headlight rims, the rounded clip on, the screw type and the tube type (as Don calls them) which clipped on but were much wider (approximately 1 1/2 inch vs 7/8). The wide ones seemed to be for American market primarily. I don't have any of the screw type but it seems that they looked just like the screw type except for the clip and, of course, the screw. The odd ones were the longish "American" rims. Is this right? Tom
 
Here is a photo of the split headlamp rim on my 58TR3. The two on the car are original to the car. I read somewhere that split rims were only supplied with the 58TR3, but I haven't confirmed that.

BTW. The headlamp shown is a Xenon lamp. They put out great light, but I don't like the looks of them and I don't like the fact that they can blind oncoming drivers. If I had it to do over, I would stick with standard lamps.
 

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Don
You have a beautiful TR.
 
I can snap a pic later to show I'm not crazy, but I have a couple split rims and the ones I have are 'handed' - one screw is pointing to the left, and one to the right. Never checked to see if that was needed to mount on the front cowl.
 
They probably were "handed" The design of the screw allowed it to be
inserted either way. I wouldn't want to have a screwdriver trying to tighten it up from the apron side (scratch-scratch ding-ding!)Lots of clearance from the fender side.
FRank
 
The trick is to use one of those screw drivers that is set on the end of a stiff spring. You can work on a screw "around the corner." Or a small screwdriver that is set at right angles.
 
Now I'm confused.... Randall's old photo is a 56 or 57 and has screw type rims. But the info from 6TTR3A seems to say they went on the first 10k TR3a cars. Since I have only disassembled cars the the small point is important to me.
 
AEW said:
Now I'm confused.... Randall's old photo is a 56 or 57 and has screw type rims. But the info from 6TTR3A seems to say they went on the first 10k TR3a cars.
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My apologies for the confusion. The photo I posted was from an article published in Road & Track in 1976, so very likely the ring had been replaced at some point with the "wrong" one. As Frank said, the 'official' range was only from 22014 to 32584 (although I don't doubt that at least a few cars were delivered with the 'wrong' rims).
 

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