T.R.:Written off 1983, Returned to the road 2006

Bertroex · Post by **Bertroex** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 11:22 pm

Barry,

I take my hat (and head) off for that. Fantastic work!

Bert

MdR · Post by **MdR** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:04 pm

I've said it before, & I'll say it again. You amaze me. Awesome work.

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:08 pm

Thanks everyone.

There'll be a bit of break for a month or so, as there is a paying job in the workshop for a while, although I might do a few TR parts during the evenings to keep it ticking along.

Even so, it still is not beyond the realms of possibility that the car could be done for either the May or June TR club meeting: at the very least I want it finished within a year of arriving

.

Ian Donkin · Post by **Ian Donkin** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 9:45 am

Tip-top as always Mr Carter

.

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 2:28 pm

Right, time for an update.

As it's nearly a year since the car arrived, I thought perhaps I'd better get it finished before it's anniversary, or at least have the finish in sight.

The last photo's show the painted shell, but the wings and doors have also been painted now, just leaving the bonnet and boot to do. There's a good chance the whole of the exterior will have two very thin final coats of paint applied just prior to trimming, to really bring up the gloss.

There's still another car in the workshop at the moment, so I thought I would progress things by ordering the interior and organising the re-chroming work.

Chrome is going off to be triple coated (copper, nickle then chrome: just about the most expensive way of doing it). Repro parts are often just chromed, which is why it doesn't last.

What's more tricky is the interior. Originally I was going to copy the show car in the earlier picture (what I thought was Conifer Green with beige/biscuit hide). I got the various samples through, and they looked terrible. Then I found that the show car wasn't in fact in a Triumph colour at all, but their own version of Jaguar Racing Green: exactly what I had considered, and then rejected as it was not original. Therefore I thought I would go back to my car's orginal of Conifer Green exterior (as per my pictures) with red interior (leather seats, wool carpet), piped white with red binding on the carpets. Just for info, the TR4 can either have a white painted dash, or a wooden (usually walnut) dash overlay.

That was fine, so I bought some matching red four point harnesses (the car has a Surrey top, and in rear accidents if you are not firmly belted in, the seats distort and you ride up the seat and split your head open on the cast aluminium roof surround

). Now I've just spoken to the trim suppliers (the top one in the country, 20 yrs experience and TR owners themselves), and he's not sure that it will look right

.

So samples are on their way again: red with white piping or stone, grey, biscuit and beige with either dark green or matching piping. Any thoughts anyone??

Ian Donkin · Post by **Ian Donkin** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 11:49 pm

Pictures Mr Carter?

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 1:09 pm

I will, when there's something to show: hopefully fairly soon I will be able to start to assemble the full kit of reconditioned parts to be ready to build up the car as soon as the workshop becomes clear

.

Waiting for those interior samples to arrive: hopefully later in the week, when they do I'll post with the options ....

Ferry Man · Post by **Ferry Man** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 10:24 pm

I paid a visit down to Barry today and the work on his TR is very impressive.
Take a look at the quality of the paint.
Mind you that interior colour is playing on the mans mind.
He's really struggling with the colour combination.
I'd go for tan with a green car (but I'm biased!).

Ferry Man · Post by **Ferry Man** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 10:25 pm

That man's got projects lying around all over the place.
Tell us more about this Barry.
Oh and, where's your Red 911?

Bazaar · Post by **Bazaar** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 6:12 am

I think I would go for a lightish green leather with a dark (practical) carpet
That porsche looks interesting.

Dyno Soar · Post by **Dyno Soar** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 9:23 am

Barry your the MAN!

How did you strip the 911 back? Did you have it blasted or the old wire wheel in the drill method?

Man you have skills. Top man well done. Its a shame you couldn't do my Beetle like we spoke about.

three of those for Mr Carter.

PS... can we have more pics of the TR the paint looks great

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 6:07 pm

Thanks for the pics, Paul: great to see you, sorry the workshop wasn't very presentable!

Bazaar: I did wonder about light green hide, piped dark green, with dark green carpets (matching binding). I'll wait until the samples arrive: if I just can't make my mind up I might do a DDK vote

.

Thanks for the comments Paul/Dyno: always nice to get soem feedback.

The project in the workshop is a fellow DD'er's. It's being backdated, and having some rust issues resolved. Basically the shell is in excellent condition, except for the sills, O/S/F inner wing and driver's floor. There have been a number of smaller jobs, most of which are done. Curently the front is being backdated, with the bumper mounts removed, and replacement sections made and let in. The angle iron is a small part of a jig I made to make sure the new suspension pan/fuel tank support went back in correctly. The jig was very successful: it was easy to tell whether the new panels were right or not, certainly to .5mm or so.

Hopefully will finish the front tomorrow, and re-support the car ready for the N/S sill, centre sill, A-post repair and kidney bowl.

My red 911 is still in storage, waiting for a workshop slot. Plan remains to see if it run, if it can have some quick welding, if it would pass an MoT, if so, it may come up for the Northern, and be used/assessed for the rest of the season, prior to a bare shell resto (this winter).

As for the TR, the chroming was dropped off today, and I've reserved a production slot for the interior. Also put in a (hopefully) final order for all of the final parts I will need to complete the car. I'm hoping to finish the kit of reconditioned parts by the end of the month, so that when the workshop becomes clear the TR can be fitted up. I suppose at some point I'd better see if that engine runs

.

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 6:15 pm

Forgot to say: the rear wings are stripped on the 911 so we could check their condition. Because I need access to the rear of the sills and the kidney bowls, I will need to remove the front of the rear wings (the B-posts have gone anyway.

Had the wings been poor, we would have simply replaced them. As it happens, they are in near perfect condition (other than the leading 4ins of one having been removed once). Therefore I'll cut the leading 5-7 inches out, and let in repair pieces afterwards. It's the sort of stuff we were taught on the Contour couses (I've just done a 2nd one), so I'm fairly happy that a accurate result can be acheived, with some help from the TIG welder.

As for the stripping; I started with stripper, but it didn't want to touch all of the paint, so I ended up using a ZIP wheel. The rear wings will have a quick coat of etch primer just to keep them nice until we get a bit further.

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 7:04 pm

Barry,
Very nice work as always. Liked the front end jig idea, works great.

saintcm · Post by **saintcm** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 7:28 pm

Go, Barry, Go!!!