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PostPosted: Thu Mar 05, 2020 4:53 pm 
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Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2009 10:22 am
Posts: 290
Location: Bethel, CT
Hello Chaps...
To you brave souls who still play around with British Vintage cars, although y'all probably have learn't your lesson and that's why youZ have Datsun/Nissans in your garage...me too!
However if you like to consume beer and curse a lot you might have one of the wee beasties in your garage...me too!
My 1961 Triumph TR3A made the TR2-TR4 cover of the 2020 Moss Motors Parts catalog! If you do fool around with or did, then you are probably familiar with this purveyor of British car parts. I did a frame off, rotisserie/nut and bolt, ton of beer, skinned knuckles, I'm sure Arthritis, bad knees, bad temper are all a result...Did I mention quite a few years...Scroll down to the TR.
https://mossmotors.com/spring2020winners
But those cool early evening runs have away of putting that behind me, as our past great leader said "Enjoy the Ride".
Cheers...
Colin
the older one
1970 Datsun 240Z #2483


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moss tr catalog .jpg
moss tr catalog .jpg [ 318.82 KiB | Viewed 1928 times ]
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 05, 2020 5:55 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
Posts: 14779
Location: CT
Congratulations on having your perfect Triumph displayed for all the word to see and appreciate! Now we must work on Rock Auto to make us a refrigerator magnet. Yours was a well-written writeup, too.

It was either you or Neon John whose TR I saw spitted on a rotisserie in the side garage, with a spare car hiding behind the barn 10 years ago.

I was never very successful restoring Brits. Each time I broke an AH I just bought another one. They were all about 10 years old at that time and nearing the end of their useable lives, so you could find them for less than $200 or so. I bought a new set of Dunlop Road Speed tyres and kept swapping them from one old Healey to the next. They were equal to (or worth more than) any of the cars they rode.

I had better luck with my MGB, but the spoked wheels were a bear to keep balanced. Any of those cars used Lucas electrics, which was an experience in and of itself. Heck, you didn't even have to leave the driveway to have a Lucas adventure!

Q: Why do the Brits drink warm beer?
A: Lucas refrigerators.

I have to add, for the sake of those who may not know what you actually had to go thru while restoring an English roadster of the 1950s-'60s, that the electrical system is positive earth, 6 volts, runs on a generator, points and condenser, and none of the lamps are grounded to the frame; they each have a separate return wire running back to the battery fuse block. Picture it, folks; each tail lamp, license plate lamp or instrument lamp has two wires, one negative and one positive, which each need to be fully insulated their entire length so they don't ground anywhere along the way. The insulation of the day was cloth, not rubber. A simple week of rubbing against a sharp surface would break thru the cloth and short that circuit out. The shock absorbers on my Healeys were 'scissors shocks', rather than straight tube shocks. They pulled right off the frame of my first 100-4 when I broad-slid it thru the gravel at Watkins Glen.
The first time I drove my Healey thru a carwash, I nearly drowned, and some lamps didn't work for days. There is no such thing as a weatherproof English roadster.
The pedals were mushrooms which grew up out of the floor, rather than the handy pendulum pedals we are accustomed to today. When the 4-wheel drum brakes heated up, the brake drums expanded away from the shoes, making for a longer pedal push before anything happened. My pedal ran right to the floor many times. Plenty of fluid, just no brakes.

It takes a real man (or a masochist) to own, drive and restore a classic British roadster.

I look forward to the first day some of us can get together with you and take that beautiful TR3 and our Zs out on a cruise. I might bring a pocketful of fuses.

Frank

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1970 240Z


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2020 11:12 am 
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Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:16 pm
Posts: 1180
Location: Ansonia, CT
Excellent Colin! I love the old Brit cars and cut my teeth (and knuckles) on them back in the day. I got hooked on them when my 5th grade teacher gave me a ride home in his black TR3. My dream car back in high school was to own a Triumph TR4A (in racing green of course), but sadly that never happened.

Just last year I worked on my friend's '73 TR6 (see pic) to get it running again after sitting idle with bad gas for over 12 years. What fun it was to hear it finally crank over and to get it on the road again.

Thanks to you and Frank for your eloquence in expressing the British car experience. The smile is still on my face. :D


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TR6 reduced.jpg
TR6 reduced.jpg [ 445.99 KiB | Viewed 1912 times ]

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John Kish
1971 240Z - original owner
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 07, 2020 2:11 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
Posts: 14779
Location: CT
The TR6 was a better car than it got credit for. Unfortunately for Triumph, the 240Z was released about the same time. Bob Tullius raced them in Group 44 Racing against Bob Sharp. Tullius was a more experienced driver than Sharp was, but unless Sharp had a bad day, the 240 usually beat the TR6. Tullius blew up several pushrod TR6 racers trying to beat Sharp's OHC Datsun. If Sharp made a single mistake, Tullius usually took immediate advantage of it and won.
The bottom line was that the Datsun drew all the attention (and sales) away from the TR6, and Triumph eventually discontinued that car for US sales.

I personally prefer the old knuckle-dragger TR2s ad TR3s over the TR4 anyway. The disc brake, independent rear suspension TR3A was just the cat's whiskers.

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1970 240Z


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:56 am 
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Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2008 2:38 pm
Posts: 3411
Location: rhode island
8) It's cool, it's old classic and goes suck, squeeze, bang, blow :thumbs_up:


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