1962 Triumph TR4 (restored 2011 )

So when I restored the white TR6 elsewhere on this site the owner got the bug and fancied an earlier model to keep it company. A local TR club member had a project for sale, a deal was done and this is what we got.

Described as a rebuilt chassis with rebuilt engine, rust free body with all Stanpart outer panels. Let's see.......

Is this the rust free bit then? You can see the mangled rear valance has been removed and boot floor repairs are ongoing. I've already fitted a new drivers floor and sill assembly which came with the car, and yet there were new bulkhead panels welded to the rotten original floors?!

The boot lid required brute force to pull back in to shape. It must have had a proper thump in the past but with the new rear valance fitted everything is starting to line up well.

Advertised as having been professionally converted to RHD. Well I let in the new metal you can see to replace areas that had been made up entirely of weld! These are common rot spots from battery acid corrosion.

Doors fitted with new skins (TR6) and modified to accept the TR4 type outer door handles. Each one had obviously been flipped around by wind and had massive dents with appropriately sized chunks of filler in. I was beginning to realise that Stanpart panels just meant 'old' panels. Never mind it's getting there.

With the body tub repairs completed I had a look at the 'rebuilt' chassis. This turned out to be very loosely assembled just to look complete. This picture is after all the remedial work which amounted to virtually rebuilding the whole thing. With the engine out the knackered clutch and cross shaft were replaced, all seals changed and an external refurbishment done on the engine itself. The rebuilt engine wasn't - it was a factory rebuilt unit, but from when? Fingers firmly crossed that it was OK as no funds for a rebuild.

Radiator leaked as fast as you could fill it so that had to be done too. All the kind of stuff you would do anyway but the whole idea was that the project was unfinished so you would assume something had been done properly.

What was certain though was that the body - now back from blasting and etching - was looking good. Here my glamorous Mrs is seam sealing all the joints and repairs before a coat of stonechip is applied. Then it's off to the paintshop.

I like these pictures of the finished tub returning home on the back of the trusty Volvo. It means clean reassembly work with results you can see every day.

New wiring harness going in, pedals and heater assembly.

What became obvious very quickly was that ALL of the parts were either broken, incorrect, worn out or robbed of components. The previous owner had been using parts from this car as a spares stock to maintain his other TR4A. This made reassembly slower, more costly and frustrating than usual.

Never the less, before long it's looking like this, which isn't too bad. Plenty still to do but the end is almost in sight.

Distinctive painted dash with convex gauge glasses is nice, really 60s.

That funny shaped bracket on the drivers' floor is a new throttle linkage bracket, one of three poorly made reproductions that I tried. After ages searching I took one from a customers car and made a copy of it. Perfect! Very pleased with myself until I found one in a bag of TR6 parts the very next day! Count to ten Tim.......

How long will it stay this clean? It gets used so I expect it will be pretty dirty by now but you have to build them right so that's just the way it is.

Chassis frame much different to the TR4A chassis.

Suspension too, there are some similarities but mostly it's all different. Many people don't like powder coating, but I do because I use a man who does it right. If it isn't done right it's a real pain but what you are looking at here will look this good in 10 years time and beyond.

And there it is. Still not keen on the alloys and they may have been changed by now but the car looks lovely in Spa White with red interior and Mohair hood.

The towbar isn't my addition, for a caravan apparantly!

A good build this, despite the problems, it just makes the end result more satisfying. This car was a well known long standing restoration project - I think it's safe to say in the hands of the previous owner it would never have seen the road again.

The new owner really got around in his Triumphs for a few years until a change of interests saw them both sold. Hopefully they are both enjoyed and still going strong.

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