• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

TR4/4A Your thoughts/value of this TR4

Share this page

Nice car and the right guy got it.
Now a bit of interesting paint history with Triumph. The Roadster's were some of the first production cars painted with metallic paint. The one I had in England and this one were so highly metallic that it looked like I was taking off the aluminum when I stripped them. NOTE: Roadsters body shells were pretty much all aircraft aluminum, with the front wings being the exception. The rear window part that stands up was cast.
Schools out.

Wayne
 
OK, maybe you guys will forgive a newbie question.

My heritage certificate only lists "Blue leather" for the trim. I've looked around and assume that this is Midnight Blue as opposed to the later Shadow Blue. However, I see both leather and vinyl options for the seat covers. Were all early cars equipped with leather, or was it an option over vinyl? I will probably go with leather since that's what the cert lists, but just want to make sure that's the right thing.
 
My recollection is that leather (or 'hide') was standard for TR2s & 3s but became an option to vinyl (or Vynide) later on in TR production.

In my experience, the leather available for our cars wears very well -- the leather I installed in my TR3A 23 years ago still looks great (though the vinyl piping not so much so).

When I replaced the dash pads on my TR4 they were of course vinyl - but it was a modern vinyl made to look a lot like leather, whereas the original dash pads looked more like plastic. I went so far as to add a coat of sheen (some SEM product) to the vinyl on those to get closer to what it would have looked like originally.
 
Hey, Mr. Mink, those are cool wheel chocks / ramps....

What are they and do you like them? How much higher is the car off the ground?

Your car looks great!

Thx!
 
mrv8q said:
Hey, Mr. Mink, those are cool wheel chocks / ramps....

What are they and do you like them? How much higher is the car off the ground?

Your car looks great!

Thx!
Click to expand...

Thanks! The rear ramps are just your standard cheapo plastic ramps you can get at any auto parts store, I think they are a 6" lift. The ones at the front are 2-piece Race Ramps, with a 10" lift and removable ramp section. They are great to work with.

https://www.raceramps.com/2-piece-67-inch-race-ramps.aspx
 
Those are nice. I just had a situation where I needed to raise the car all around (rear suspension work) but didn't want to buy something I might not need often, so I used an idea that was recently posted here on the Forum. I built ''cribs' from 2x4s to hold the front wheels, rear was held by jackstands:

Crib2_zps180a0dd8.jpg


Made a very secure lift that raised the car 10.5 inches. Cribbing has been around a long time.
 
Great idea. I think I'll build a set for the rear to match the lift of the front ramps. I'll even use PT lumber and exterior screws to facilitate outdoor storage! Thanks!
 
Nice cribbing Geo. I don't however, see any oil on the floor, have you bought a new car that isn't British?
 
It's British and it leaks.

Those cribs are each assembled in two parts with the 2x2s forming keys to keep the halves together. I did it that way so I could lift the car in two stages (front, rear, front, rear).
 
Great idea! Thanks, Geo and Mink!
 
trrdster2000 said:
Nice car and the right guy got it.
Now a bit of interesting paint history with Triumph. The Roadster's were some of the first production cars painted with metallic paint. The one I had in England and this one were so highly metallic that it looked like I was taking off the aluminum when I stripped them.

Wayne
Click to expand...

Wayne I assume you are talking about the Triumph 2000 Roadster? I had thought my old Healey Blue Healey 100 had to be one of the early examples of metallic paint, but the Triumph Roadsters predate the first year for the Healeys (1953)) by a few years. What color(s) did they offer the metallic in? Greg
 
glemon, The colors were what we call a Dark Green, Pea Green, Silver, and Red, like Bergsuron (SP) that I recall, in the metallic. We did one in the Jaguar baby blue in England, but it didn't suit the car as the chrome did not show up. Mine is a deep burgundy and lots of others have been done in or near it since then (2003). Bert Harold, one of he founders of the Triumph Roadster Club had the deepest black one I ever seen.

Wayne
 
Last edited:
Small update. I reworked the left door, which was ill-fitting, had shimmed hinges and filler in it. Got things back the way they were supposed to be and everything lines up real nice now. Also got the dash out and it's sitting on my bench now. I think the engine and trans will come out next week. I'm not doing a frame-off resto on this one but am going to repaint the engine compartment. Plus I want to replace the main seal and clutch so it just makes sense to pull it.

IMG_0768.jpgIMG_0769.jpg
 
I loved Geo's cribbing post so much I built my own set for the rear. Thanks again for the idea!

E9gyhnq.jpg
 
Last edited:
I owe it all to you! ;)

So in preparation for pulling the engine, I ran a compression test and got the following:

1: 156
2: 159
3: 152
4: 154

This was a cold engine, all plugs removed, throttle wired open. These seem like really strong numbers to me. Maybe I can get away with just doing some seals and gaskets. It does seem to run pretty strong.
 
Those number do look fine. If you get to the point of having the oil pan off you might consider replacing the big end bearings -- not much extra work and, short of having x-ray vision, not easy to know their condition or how many miles they've run. Of course you'll want to see them before ordering replacements as they may be okay or they be other than standard.
 
Engine is out. Found "CT10092" stamped on the bell housing. I'm assuming this is the original transmission, since it's very close to the engine number of 10042E and the VIN of 9796L. As you can see, the engine compartment is going need a bit of work to make it presentable.

F4d6cuC.jpg

DL9ZE5h.jpg

IDlKqOa.jpg
 
Last edited:
Mink, Looking good. I see you have some disassembly fluid, not my brand but works fine.
I didn't see the signs of a ground strap from the engine to the frame on the drivers side down near the engine mount. If you don't have one, it's important to get one.


Wayne
 
Back
Top