Triumph TR4A V8 -re-restoration

Beautiful car!  I've always loved the TR-4.

Thanks, I always thought they were really good looking cars, especially with wider tires and bumperless.

Almost done with the rear suspension. So impressed with the Good Parts kits, can't recommend them enough. Finished putting together my rebuilt rear axles with new u-joints last night, with the new rebuilt hubs, happy to get this all together. Bolted easily to the R200 adapters on the diff, looks like it is all factory. I also took my old roll bar and with a few tweaks should be able to mount it on the shock tower, like the Ratco and Remington kits. Mocking up the sway bar link lengths, suspension is at full droop. I'll have to weld up some bar mounts to fit the shock tower, but pretty clean and uses the old shock mount locations on the semi-trailing arms for a clean look. Need to paint the bar, and modify the brackets, but really pleased with how this all fits together. Waiting on new larger brake cyliinders to compensate for the Toyota 4 piston front brakes and I can wrap this all up and work on the front.

That looks really nice. My dad had a BRG TR4a IRS when I was pretty young. I don't remember much about it other than being it in when it had a carb fire. 

In reply to dherr :

This is moving quickly...

Yes, moving along quite nicely. Finished the rear suspension and brakes today and installed the rear sway bar except for the end links that are coming tomorrow or Tuesday. Ran new brake lines for all the different IRS setup differences from the solid axle lines and then ran a new line down the frame so it is now all connected again, just needs to be bleed after the body is reinstalled. This week will be focused on the engine compartment, motor mounts and steering supports. I'll also detail it, painting and then hopefully installing the engine and transmission by the weekend. I need to install the transmission temporarily so I can measure for the drive shaft as it needs to have the Nissan yoke installed and likely will need to be shortened.

Looks great.  What did you use for paint?  Primer first, or just hit it with top-coat?

That looks amazing 

That cant be british, it doesnt have the half inch of petrified grease coating every suspension part...  

(can you tell I am rebuilding my sprites suspension?, heh)

Apexcarver said:

That cant be british, it doesnt have the half inch of petrified grease coating every suspension part...  

 

(can you tell I am rebuilding my sprites suspension?, heh)

That is the difference between restoration and re-restoration. The first time we had to remove the 25 years of petrified grease and then cut out all the rust. 30 years after the restoration, it still leaked oil everywhere but living in the garage, it all just wiped easily off my painted frame. Painting was just a matter of wiping it down with solvent and then putting on a top coat. I did sandblast the IRS parts and paint them. So much easier and faster the 2nd time around!

TVR Scott said:

Looks great.  What did you use for paint?  Primer first, or just hit it with top-coat?

The frame was originally sandblasted, painted in primer and then top coated with Rustoleum semigloss. That was 30 years ago, so all it needed this time was was to wipe it down with solvent and top coat it again. It is amazing how well it all held up,

In reply to dherr :

Nice.  That was pretty well my plan too.  Did you spray that primer and paint or just roll it on?  I've done both, and it seems that the roller can look pretty good if you don't glop it on.

First time it was sprayed with a HF gun using my compressor. Now just spray cans :-)

Looks great!  Quick question, why use u-joints on the inner drive axles instead of CV-joints?

Primarily cost. The kit for CV axles from Richard Good are close to $1,000 and I was able to get two TR6 axles, rebuilt hubs (done properly with magnifluxing, new bearings, new u-joints) for under $400. I can always go back and install the CV axles anytime as they are just a bolt-in. Trying to do this right, but that was an area I was able to save a few bucks. Trust me, I'll spend it somewhere else on this project. 

A lot can happen in two days.... not necessarily on the car. So Monday the end links came and I quickly put them on the car, that completes the conversion to IRS and the R200 which was the major change to the car.

So on Tuesday, I started on the front. Work here is mainly cosmetic as I need to touch up my engine compartment where a previous leaking fuel pump caused some paint to fail on the inner fender well, weld a bracket for the steering and detail the engine and reinstall. I also found a matching Rover valve cover to match the one I had so I can put the old school style valve covers on the car. I may polish these if it is not too big of a hassle, or just paint them.

So back to Tuesday, I had a quick hour in the garage and wanted to prepare the steering bracket for welding to the frame. Just needed to cut off a few pieces to make it fit. So instead of putting it in a vise, I was holding in my left hand and cutting with my right. Done this a million times, but this time it grabbed and the cutting wheel went deep into my thumb..... So spent the next 4 hours at urgent care, hand surgeon and to get a brace so I don't use my thumb for the next two weeks. No major damage except for two muscles and nicked a tendon. Lesson learned, used the vice to finish the piece and welded it on the car yesterday. 

So I am back at work on the car, but with a bag over my hand and limited use of it. Painting the engine compartment today and will be detailing the engine pieces over the weekend for reassembly. This slows me down, but still moving forward. 

Its been on my thoughts how much I DONT want to hurt myself to the point I need to see a doctor right now.  

Glad its not bringing you to a stop!

That sucks.  I always do something like that right as the little voice in my head says this isn't a good idea.  Hope you heal quick and no lasting damage.

Apexcarver said:

Its been on my thoughts how much I DONT want to hurt myself to the point I need to see a doctor right now.  

 

 

Glad its not bringing you to a stop!

We just built headers this past weekend for my friend's LT1 V8 MGB and made dozens of cuts all without drama, but it was a quick reminder of how it can all go bad quickly. I'll be more careful with this reminder on my hand and the two inch scar I'll have as proof in the future. It will slow me down, but definitely not to a stop!

dherr said:

A lot can happen in two days.... not necessarily on the car. So Monday the end links came and I quickly put them on the car, that completes the conversion to IRS and the R200 which was the major change to the car.

So on Tuesday, I started on the front. Work here is mainly cosmetic as I need to touch up my engine compartment where a previous leaking fuel pump caused some paint to fail on the inner fender well, weld a bracket for the steering and detail the engine and reinstall. I also found a matching Rover valve cover to match the one I had so I can put the old school style valve covers on the car. I may polish these if it is not too big of a hassle, or just paint them.

So back to Tuesday, I had a quick hour in the garage and wanted to prepare the steering bracket for welding to the frame. Just needed to cut off a few pieces to make it fit. So instead of putting it in a vise, I was holding in my left hand and cutting with my right. Done this a million times, but this time it grabbed and the cutting wheel went deep into my thumb..... So spent the next 4 hours at urgent care, hand surgeon and to get a brace so I don't use my thumb for the next two weeks. No major damage except for two muscles and nicked a tendon. Lesson learned, used the vice to finish the piece and welded it on the car yesterday. 

So I am back at work on the car, but with a bag over my hand and limited use of it. Painting the engine compartment today and will be detailing the engine pieces over the weekend for reassembly. This slows me down, but still moving forward. 

Boo! Hope everything heals fully & quickly. 

The suspension looks great.  The thumb, not so much.  Thanks for the reminder that I shouldn't take the same risk (which I do way too often).

Yes, do be careful as all it takes is one slip....

So I may have been using my grinder some more this weekend, don't tell my doctor but I got a lot done this weekend. I covered my bad hand in a bag to keep it clean and dry and was able to use it to a limited extent. Harder to work with one hand, but I got the body down on the frame, bolted it down including drilling and shimming for the new bolts for the shock tower, which did not exist on the solid axle body. Shimmed it so both door gaps are nice and the doors open and close easily. These old TR's are pretty flexible and you would be surprised how much you can mess up the gaps if the body is not shimmed level. All nice and tight now. I  also installed my steering column, with it raised with shims on the bracket off the frame to clear the headers better than it did previously. Nice and tight with no play as well. Finally, I took both motor mounts that I had built and added a piece that runs to the original motor mount locations. This triangulates the mounting and does not put all the stress on the cross member bolts, much happier with these stronger mounts. Next steps will be to clean up the motor and transmission  to get it ready to install later this week.

So I took a look at my tires today.... They have been on the car since it was restored and probably have 15K on them, but it has been garaged since it was restored and they are in excellent shape (or so I thought). I was thinking about exactly when I had purchased them and it dawned on me that these things are really old (like 1998 old). They were Yokohama AVS tires, a decent performance tire back in the day and the sidewalls are perfect. But the tread is cracking, which is scary, so I ordered new tires from TireRack today!

I feel you. My tores in the duster are from 2010 or so. And still almost new.....

Been there, done that, only mine kicked back, and got me in the knee. You could see my ACL working. We both got lucky. Heal fast and well, and don't push it too much.

   Yep, hand help grinders, only takes a second.

      I once nicked a finger, that was lucky, could have Easley been a lot worse.

         I used to work on ships, saw a guy get hurt, didn't have the little wheel guard on.  It kicked back, and it nicked him several times before it all stopped.  Lets just say he only showed the wounds to the medical people, and he wanted medical help quick.

    Be careful, any injury takes alot of the fun out of the hobby.