How I got my TR4A
The Restoration:
The story began in Northeastern Pennsylvania in March 1967. My father, a long-
time British car enthusiast, former owner of an early '50s Jaguar Mark VII sedan
bought his Triumph Racing Green TR4A from the dealer "Motor Sports" near
here in Willow Grove. The car ran beautifully and was quite reliable. As a matter
of fact, my mother drove it daily for many years, which unfortunately also
included driving it in the salty winter. Despite this, the body held up well until the
late '70s, when rust spots began to appear. I did a little de-rusting, and re-priming
of the rusty areas out of sight, but the damage appeared to be minimal and not
much work was required. In the early '80s my father and I decided to do some
moderate restoration of the car, and attempted to get new steel fenders. Until that
time, only cheap imitation fiberglass fenders were available. By the mid-1980's
the rear fenders were available and the fronts were soon to be released. We made
arrangements with Bob Thiele, a talented body man in Scranton, to do the work
and took the car to his shop awaiting the front fenders any day. Well, weeks
turned into months and months into a couple of years and still no fenders were
available, and the project was on hold until the parts came. The car sat in the
shop's dry storage area because my father had since bought a pick-up truck which
occupied the garage space formerly owned by the triumph. As it looked like we
were in for a good wait, we took the car to a mechanic to have the suspension re-
bushed, new steel hydraulic lines installed, and other minor mechanical work. By
this time I was not at home, getting my education here in the Philadelphia area.
From what I am told, the car sat outside at the mechanic s shop for a prolonged
period of time, but it eventually ended up back at the body shop in their dry
storage. Based on receipts for gas and a battery, the car was last run shortly after
June 16, 1990. The car covered only 24 miles after the battery was installed.
Shortly after this time, my father bought another classic car (also British) and
brought it up to nearly concours condition. This took up the last little bit of space
in my parent's garage. Now we really had no place to put the TR when it got
finished. My father discussed selling the car, but my brother and I wouldn't hear
of it. With no good place to put the car, I think my father did not press Bob Thiel
to move on the restoration.
Finally all the necessary body parts became available and began the
apparently difficult process of finding a good person to do the sand blasting
(actually with crushed plastic buttons). From what I understand, this requires just
the right touch, or the heat of the blasting will warp the sheet metal, resulting in
unsightly and nearly impossible to fix waves in the metal. The search for the right
person took time. Finally somebody was found locally and shortly before the car
was to be delivered to him as a tub and frame, the bank kicked him out of his
business place. The search was begun anew and in August, 1997 the work was
begun. As the disassembly proceeded the extent of the rust became apparent. The
frame was thought to be nearly perfect but close inspection revealed that all the
suspension attachments needed reinforcement. The body was swiss cheese around
the areas of metal abutting metal, such as around the junction of the fenders to the
tub. The blasting revealed more areas. Except for the rockers which were a total
loss, as expected, the body had many small areas of rust-through. The damage
was not so bad as to require many new body parts, but it did require the
fabrication of many patches of metal the size of a silver dollar, or smaller, to be
welded into the defects. The fabrication of the patches has taken a few months
and is now (August, 1998) finished. As the reproduction rear fenders were being
fitted, we found that the quality of the pressing was poor and the size of the
stamping was 1/4" too short! The original rusty rear fenders will have to be cut
and patched with sections from the reproductions. The body man tells me that
once the body is ready to re-prime and paint, then the job will go fast. I hope it is
before the end of 1998. The joke in my family is that the finish date will be in
2005. I guess this is not an unreasonable guess since the project was begun
around 1986! My brother and I have inherited this project after our father's death
in 1996. We are following-through with the original restoration plan, but we are
making it more thorough than originally planned. We know that we would never
be able to get our investment out the of the car if we were ever to decide to sell,
but we plan on keeping the car, and maybe showing it a little.
The Mechanicals
Since the car was new, it has not required much mechanical work. When
the car was a couple of years old, it was parked in my family's sloped driveway.
My mother was unloading some groceries and my 4 year old brother was playing
in the car. He must have knocked the car out of gear and/or released the brake. It
rolled backward and took a dead-center hit on the rear by the only tree anywhere
in the vicinity. It did a surprising amount of damage. The bumper was bent, the
trunk lid was folded and the rear valence was wrinkled. The bumper and trunk
were replaced, the valence was mostly straightened. With the bumper in place,
the valence wrinkles were not apparent. It looked virtually as good as new.
In about 1984 I drove the car for the summer. I noticed a slight misfire
and loss of power. Compression testing revealed one cylinder with low
compression probably due to a burned valve. I pulled the head at my grandfather's
garage, and found that the exhaust valve from the #2 or #3 cylinder was not
sealing due to extensive carbon deposits on the back-side of the valve. The
carbon built up to the point where it bound on the exhaust port and prevented the
valve from seating. All the other exhaust valves were nearly as bad. I could not
decide whether the build-up was from the exhaust gasses themselves, or oil
dripping down from the valve guides. I de-coked the head, lapped the valves and
refitted the head. As I torqued the head, I felt one of the nuts (I hope not a stud)
seem to give as it reached 100 ft-lb. I left it there not wanting to find out the bad
news, and it never seemed to cause a problem. Now I have a new set of nuts for
the studs. I plan on slightly loosening each one individually and re-torquing each.
I hope to find the offending nut and simply replace it. I hope the head has not
warped during the wait for the nut.
Just before the car was put up for restoration, my brother was driving it
occasionally. The car always had trouble with run-on, and I dealt with it by using
100 octane low-lead aviation fuel that I got at a small airport. It was expensive
but the engine loved it! My brother did not have time to make the out-of-the-way
trip for fuel and refilled with the best gas then available (about 92 octane) The
dieseling returned. One of my brother's friends told him that he could get it to
stop by turning the ignition back on. Well, he tried it and bang! the starter
engaged and spun the starter gear into the turning flywheel. The gears clashed
severely, a tooth was knocked off the starter ring and the shaft of the starter was
bent. I fixed the starter by laying the shaft on two wood blocks and using a sledge
hammer with another block to flatten the high point of the bend. I got it straight
enough that there was hardly any binding in the bushings any more. I fished out
the broken tooth from the starter ring, and everything worked! There was a "tick"
every time the missing tooth passed the starter (when starting), but it seemed
good. Now, with the engine out, I decided to remove the transmission and
flywheel. I replaced the starter ring on the flywheel, the clutch, throw-out bearing
and sleeve, spigot bush, and changed the transmission oil. I checked the fuel
pump and found that the a valve was not sealing properly. It was an early
replacement for the original, which had obviously been replaced early on. This
pump did not have replaceable valves, so I switched the top half of the pump with
a modern reproduction. This way I could preserve the manual primer lever which
is not present on the reproductions.
The Future:
In the upcoming weeks I hope to clean and check the gas tank and
probably seal it with POR-15 tank sealer. The carburetors will be inspected, and I
probably will renew all the rubber. Hopefully the mixture adjustment will not be
thrown off too much by this. The radiator will be cleaned and re-cored if
necessary. I have a full set of hoses to put on the engine when it is almost ready to
go back into the car. I also have a new set of engine and transmission mounts, and
assorted ignition parts. When I get the engine back in the car, I will remove the
sparkplugs and spray a little light oil into the cylinders. I will then spin the engine
with the starter until I get oil pressure. After that I will put the plugs back in and
try to fire it up! I do not plan on driving the car all the way from Scranton to the
Philadelphia area fresh from the rebuild after such a long period off the road. I
will get a car transporter (not a dolly ) somewhere and haul it back home. Once
there I will make progressively longer trips until all the bugs are out.
Diary:
Aug 1997 Work begins for real. Body is stripped of all removable parts and
is removed from the frame. Inspection of the frame shows that it is
in good shape. Two areas appear to need simple repairs. The body
and frame are taken to Hawley/Lakeville for sand blasting (bead
blasting) and the damage to the body in certain areas is worse than
was initially apparent, but not worse than I expexted. The areas
under rubbery sealer were gone and the sealer was the only thing
holding the shape. Everything is primed. A cute yellow for the
body and black for the frame. Then the time consuming process of
fabrication of small sections of sheet metal to be welded into
cosmetic and structural areas of the bodyt tub and fenders.
Sep 1997 I replaced the clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing and spigot
bushing. I also removed the flywheel and replaced the starter ring
with a new one. Had to remember which way the ring went on. I
got it right (I hope). Removal of the ring gear was simple yet
difficult. Getting the transmission back on by myself was difficult.
I almost gave up. I removed the fuel pump and took it home for
inspection
Oct 1997 The fuel pump had a leaking valve. I had a repair/rebuild kit, but
this was obviously a factory replacement. It did not have
replacable valves the way the older one did. These were crimped
in place. I tried yanking them out and removing the crimp, but I
did not feel that the repair was adequate. I got a new replacement
that does not have a finger actuated primer lever. Since it was such
a close match to the original, I could use the new upper section
with the new valves and the old lower section with the lever. I also
used the original sedimentation bowl because it was larger. For
this I also had to use the original bowl retainer.
Oct 1997 I put the new/old pump on the engine. There were TWO gaskets
with permatex sealer also. I guess it was replaced by Dad and he
could not see the gasket that remained on the block. I also guess it
leaked a little resulting in the permatex form-a-gasket (maybe it
was prophylactic, as I used it too). I also changed the transmission
70w90 oil. I hope I got the plug in place without any crud on it.
The underside of the transmission is really dirty.
Winter 1997 Ordered a bunch of new parts. Engine mounts. transmission
mount, water hoses of all types, (didn't get new PCV hoses, need
them, also need new fan belt), new plugs (2 types), Dist. cap,
points, condenser, wires (bubble bee!), wire caps, etc., gaskets incl
head gasket., head nuts, not new studs ($10.00 each!), looked into
inexpensive source of silicone hydraulic fluid, I forget what else.
Spring 1998 I start to lean on Bob Thiel a little (he is a nice guy). He explains
that the fabrication of the sheetmetal sections is an art. He can't
delegate that job, so he and his son are doing most of the work. He
says that it is not on the back burner, and is moving along. After
the fabrication is done, welding will go fast then the painting will
go even faster. He has the new real valence panel. The new rear
fenders are/have been sitting around for a long time. I am hopeful
for completion by the end of the year.
July 1998 I stoped by Thiel's to see how things are going. It is moving along
and he was planning on doing a lot of work over the succeeding
week. I am very encouraged. I discussed with him the gas tank.
He thoought a new one would not be a bad idea. They cost $600.
The new ones also have TR6-style fuel feed from the top rather
than the bottom. I'd have to replumb the pipes. Don't want to go
this route. Might be able to use the TR6 fuel pipe from the tank to
the body junction. Ordered POR-15. A highly reputed gas tank
sealer. I might try to get a replacement (used) take for this.
Hopefully in good shape to begin with and then sealed forever
inside.
July 1998 One week later. Bob Thiel calls saying that the new rear fenders
are crappy and new ones will not even help. He thinks that the
quality of the pressing is poor and the SIZE is WRONG! So, he
will have to cut and fit sections of the new fenders to the old
original ones which fit like a glove. Also the indented sections of
the rear valence are in the wrong places for the bumper mounts.
They have to be straightened and re-done. So much for British
Motor Heritage new parts.
August 1998 Bob called again. He has done some welding on the frame. There
was more rust damage to the frame than had been expected. The
attachments of the suspension were severely weakened. They are
now repaired. The left rear trailing arm (aluminum alloy) is also
corroded. It needs attention.
Sept 1998 I got a replacement trailing arm and shipped it to the shop. They
will install it along with new differential mounts. I also instructed
Thiel to do some suspension and differential reinforcement. I got
another gas tank from Nebraska. It is in pretty good shape. I got a
dashboard from the same place, but its veneer had deteriorated to
the point where it is unusable. I will try to re-veneer it with a cute
burl.
Nov 1998 Bought another TR4A driver. Needs a little work. Some
mechanicals. Will use it as a template for the reassembly of the
restoration.
Jan 1999 Went back and replaced the throwout sleeve. I did not know that
it is best to put a pin in the sleeve to prevent spinning on the fork.
I also found a great way to install the interference fit bearing. Heat
it! Directly on a 75 watt lightbulb for 20 minutes then drop it on
the cool sleeve. That transmission is a bugger to put back on!
Thiel says the painting will start as soon as a 57 chevy gets off the
rotisserie. Since it looked well under way, it ought to be soon. So
what else is new?
Jan 1999 Brian Schlorff (Power British) suggested that I strongly consider
transplanting the overdrive out of 64342 into 73336. He also
suggested that I simply rebuild the TR6 transmission in 64342
rather than do a complicated 2 way or 3 way swap. At the same
time as the rebuild, I'd put regular gears back in the TR6
transmission (out of my spare TR4 transmission?) and then sell(?)
the straight cut gears. I think that the gear set would be worth as
much alone as in a transmission of unknown (to the buyer) quality
(when shipping is included). This would preserve the original
transmission untouched. The alternative is to strip the original
transmission as well as the TR6 transmission and flip-flop OD
specific parts then open the spare and get the gears. Less work the
first way. Power British seems to do a wonderful job on
transmission work.
Mar 1999 Got the computer match of the paint from Brian. This came from paint
that I found in the garage dating from the repairs to the trunk lid
1968 or so. It is the closest to "original" racing green paint I am
ever likely to find. The mix is:
DuPont 2-Pack
Undercoat (primer) Valueshade #7
830J HS Fast Green 137.0
805J Jet Black 118.8
841J Yellow 88.6
801J HS White 41.4
150K B/C Balancer 500.2
Will pick up my spare transmission in 2 weeks and look at the innards
and see if it is possible to fix up myself. May need to borrow some
tools from Brian. It will be fun to look into. Will also compare the
paint I got from the touch-up reserve to the remains on the car to see
if the above match is adequate.