Triumph Sports Cars

I have owned my 4A for nearly 15 years and during approximately 10 years of that time enjoyed driving it with a big bore 4cyl 4spd Triumph power plant under the hood. But about five years ago, it became evident that welding was needed to the structure, and so a project was begun. Once the body was off, it was clear that previous modifications had been done pretty badly - welds were broken, sub panel repairs were done with adhesive and in some places simply bedded in adhesive caulk and hidden with undercoating! After fighting the urge to cut the tired TR up for parts, a new plan took hold - do it right.

I spent a lot of time reading through British V8 write ups for every TR6 and TR4 302/289 conversion to look for inspiration and warnings. I knew I wanted old school, so EFI was out, no automatics would be considered, and it needed to look like it could have been built by the factory when it was done. The heart of the conversion came from an HO Mustang with a 5.0 Rocker engine and a T5 5 speed and was installed based on guidance on the site.

After considerable welding and cutting, the frame was repainted and the running gear was installed in preparation for resetting the modified body. As a backstory, the P.O. I bought the car from described it as a TR650 - or the transitional care that never was. From the doors forward it is a conventional TR4A. From the B pillar back it wears the panels from a 1971 TR6. The lines mesh well, and if you didn't know it was wrong, it looked right - sort of. But, the early conversion took place in a field in Alaska rather than in a proper shop - and the poor work was quickly revealed as we tore the poor thing apart.

Fast forward 5 years and it is back together, looks lovely, and is a treat to drive! I had planned to load a "How I did it" in the photo section, but it doesn't appear that any new stories are being added. A number of folks on the web have suggested that I share some of the how to solutions we used, so I thought I would start a journal page and see if anybody wants to know more.

So, here are a few pictures to get things started. I am happy to share more and answer any question other than why? or how could you? - To both, I simply offer that I probably should have parted it out rather than going to the level of effort to save it. And, since most of the abuse had occurred decades earlier, it had little to no value when I bought it.







Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2024 08:27PM by Triumphant4A.

Nice job Chris! Don't worry about justifying anything to anybody. My philosophy is build it the way you want, and drive it as much as you can.

Did you document some of the work on this car in in a you tube series call Darwin pasta or something like that?
The car looks great.
The back end of the car fits the front end using the round tail lights.

Byron

Yep, My son did document it on his you tube channel - He also did the majority of the welding!
Best father son experience ever!

Speaking of welding and my son's you tube documentation of the project - attached here are three pics that show the evolution of how we found the graft connection (TR6 rear clip attached to TR4 chassis) once we started to remove panels -
It starts with no welding at all!
Fast forward to the cutting, and
Fianlly post welding and painted final repair.

In addition to his humor, my son Eliot is a far better welder than I am.

I remember watching those videos and the banter between you and your son.
How well do you think that Triumph rear end will hold up to the torque from that Ford small block?
Maybe you should get a Ford 8.5 " rearend and start getting it ready...
Anyways you took a butchered car and made something good out of it.

Byron

Thanks Byron,
The stock axle (live) in my 4A has been reworked and appears to be up to the challenge of the 302. I was told when I had it set up, that the 4A used the same Dana as the Sunbeam Tiger, and while my later 302 is putting down a fair amount more power I think it can take it. I do have a Ford available that was removed from a Tiger, if I needed it.

One of the issues I found awkward with many of the SBF T5 conversions was how far back the shifter ended up being located - same in a lot of the Cobra kits. This can be solved by replacing the factory tail shaft and shifter with one from a T5 used in an AMC or a S-10 - I used one from an S-10 as it put the shifter in the factory spot for the H brace - warning, they are getting harder to find.

A couple of pictures to show how big the difference is.