Triumph Sports Cars

My experience with British cars, and Triumphs in particular, dates back to May of 1962 when I took delivery of my new BRG TR4 as I graduated from college. I loved that car and put 53,000 miles on it the first 52 weeks I owned it. I sold it 2 years later with a family on the way and went back to really old cars (model T Fords, one cylinder Cadillacs - 1904, 1906, Stanley steamers etc) strickly as a hobby.

Fast forward to 1998 when I decided to get back into '60's sports cars again. I bought a '64 Morgan +4 which uses the Triumph engine. I still have that car and thoroughly enjoy it. However, I still wished I had my old TR4 back again, so I searched for the best car I could find. I ended up with '64 TR4 with only 17,569 miles on it which still sported the original tires, fan belt and radiator hoses. It looks and drives like a new car. A true survivor, it had spent most of its life in two large air conditioned collections in Ohio relatively undriven. I've now owned that car for 3 years and feel bad every time I drive it because I am putting additional miles on it and can't even put a spin on oil filter on it without hurting its originality.

So to satify my need to create and modify I have put my time warp TR4 up for sale and have recently purchased a '63 TR4 surrey with a 302 350hp Ford engine and T5 gearbox from San Jose, California, I saw advertised in Hemmings Motor News a few months ago. I have been working on it constantly since it arrived early in October, tweaking and tinkering and making small changes to make it "mine". I still have a long list of things I would like to do to it over the winter months, but am throoughly enjoying every bit of it.

The big thing that bugs me is the carburetor. I has a Speed DeMon carburetor that just doesn't give me the driveability that I want. After reading Larry Shimp's article on carburetion in a recent issue of the Newsletter, I'm thinking of changing to a Holley Street Avenger as he did for the 302 in his MGB. His engine is nearly identical to mine, and hopefully I can draw on his experience and duplicate his Holley set up for a jump start toward a better combination than I have now.

Here are some photos taken by the previous owner

Hi Art,

Welcome aboard and welcome back to being a "British enthusiast". Once you get a feeling for British car's it is very hard to get it out of the heart and pumping blood...I can vouch for that myself.

To bad you couldn't just hold onto the 64. I have driven a few TR4's in my time and found them to be really fun car to drive. With 350 HP in your 63 should be an "adrenalin rush".

I grew up in San Jose around the Winchester Mystery House about 1/2 mile away. Was your 63 TR4 at a car lot or a private owner in San Jose? Your 63 if a CA car should nice and rust free.

I do miss the bubble my TR-250 had on the hood. I loved to look at it while is was driving it.

Thank the man upstairs for you buying the 64 Morgan Art in 98 (see what happens folks hehe). I love it. Just do it.

Dream big, little dreams have no magic.

Calvin

Tonight I uploaded Art's gallery page.

Check it out here: [www.britishv8.org]

Beautiful car!!!

Looks like a very nice car, welcome aboard.

Calvin,

Thanks for the comments. The car was taken in on trade by Showroom Sales and Leasing at 960 S. Bascom Ave. I spent the summer of 1961 near San Jose staying in an apartment at a place called Alum Rock Apartments while I was working for Lockheed in Sunnyvale as a draftman on the Polaris Missle project. I can't remember the address but it was on a road that lead up into the hills to an observatory. Too long ago......

Thanks all for the welcome!

Art

Art,

I know right where that is 960 S. Bascom. The next street east of Bascom there is a high school there, (Del Mar) small world...that was my high school.

Did you happen to know Malcom Chisholm at Lockeed?? He also worked at Lockeed on some high secret at the time stealth hydrofoil 2 man machine. It was made out some stealth material that couldn't be detected with radar. I heard it was real fast on the water. Kind of looked like the stealth plane.

Hmmm, the observatory probably Mount Hamilton or Mount Uminum (sp). Mount Hamilton was on the east hills of San Jose on Mount Hamilton Rd, had a 120" telescope I recall. Mount Uminum was between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz on Hwy 17 at the top and on the east side.

In 61, I was a just a little whipper snapper or curtain climber at the time.

I was thinking of purchasing an engine from the Engine Factory for my 6, but in my searching for an engine, I ended up with the Ls1 with a t56 Trans, drive line, wiring, computor, peddals and more. for about the same price as the Engine Factory (Engine only).

Great write up on your 63 Art.

Calvin

Calvin,

You have jogged my memory - it was Mt. Hamilton up the hill from where I spent the summer of '61. And I never met Malcolm Chisholm. Lockheed was/is a big company, and I was only there 3 months both the summers of '60 & '61.

The strange thing is that the 302 engine in my car was shipped from The Engine Factory in Lebanon, NJ, less than 1/2 an hour from my house here in Pennsylvania, all the way to San Jose and is now back less than 30 miles from where it was built.

Cheers,

Art

Art,

I hear the people at the Engine Factory also should know how to set up for your carb for what you want, since it is their engine, have you tried to call them? It is kind of funny how the car did end up close to where it's engine came from. Two thousand miles away then back.

Calvin

Calvin,

Actually since my original post a few days ago I have discovered that my carburetor problems were do to a loose distributor that was so loose only the spark plug wires were keeping it from rotating around in a circle. A timing light quickly showed that my maximum advance was only 24 or so degrees depending on how heavily I was breathing on the distributor! After a quick call to the Engine Factory I set it for 34 degrees maximum advance and it literally transfomed the car. Gas mileage took a huge jump, exhaust note became more mellow, backfiring through the carburetor disappeared even when cold, idle speed had to be set way down, idle mixture had to be leaned out. I now have more acceleration, no flat spots in the carburetor, a nice smooth pull when the secondaries open, and a mellow exhaust note instead of the sharp bark previously experienced. The car is much more drivable and just a delight.

To compensate for the retarded ignition, I now believe that for the engine to idle at 800-900rpm the throttle was open enough that the carburetor wasn't even using the idle circuit. This experience is just another example of what they mean when they talk about carburetor tuning and say to be sure the iginition is right on before you start messing with carburetion.

Cheers,

Art

Art,

Ah, a loose distributor can cause big problems. I'm glad you solved that before internal issues could have made an un-happy camper. The 63 was meant for you to find all the little bugs and get it fine tuned. Yes ignition, fuel, fire, and get it out as fast as possible.

I was wondering does your surrey top cut the wind very well on the back of your neck when you have the top off ??

That car of yours is a sleeper looking car until you hear it I bet.

Calvin

Calvin,

Unfortunately the fixed rear window of the surrey option results in MORE wind on the back of your neck. I believe it is so tall and just far enogh back that it catches the wind coming over the windscreen and funnels it back over the occupants. I'd really prefer the regular removable top over the surrey.

Cheers,

Art

Art,

I had a feeling it would, but it still looks good.

Art,

Nice dash..I like the looks of that wood + new interior. Very nice looking.

Did you purchase your dash from Moss also?

Calvin

Calvin,

No, because of the non stock gauges, the hole diameters for the tach and speedo (4-9/16" dia.) would have been wrong. Also if you notice I replaced the ash tray with an analog clock. This entailed moving the gauges on either side in about 1/8' each to make the spacing between all lower level small gauges the same as the two above.

The dash was custom made by Frank E. Lawson III (Antique Auto Woodwork), 31325 Ramblewood Road, Sophia, NC 27350. to my specs. He doesn't have a computer, but his phone number is: 336-861-1418. I met him at the Hershey swap meet where he had a nice display of LBC wood dashboards. He said he could make any changes I wanted and with any wood. I looked at his samples there and then he sent me more after we got home. We wanted something really different, so chose the burl ash from his samples. It is a thin veneer over 5 ply furniture grade plywood. My cost was $300 which may be somewhat higher than what he gets for a standard pattern dash for a TR4. The quality is pretty good. I had to open up some of the holes slightly with a sanding drum, especially the tach and speedo as I spec'd them slightly small so I could get a good push fit with the plastic housing on the instruments. There was no room to get the normal Autometer clamps behind the dash. So those two can be pulled out with some effort, by just grabbing under the bezel and working it back and forth, which is kind of handy actually.

I'm working on traction bars for the stock TR4 rear today and also machining Datsun 240Z brake drums to fit. Toyota 4 pot calipers in the front next week.

Cheers,

Art

Art,

Thanks for the info on your dash. I may call him up with specs on my dash when I get to that section of the resto.I may have some info on 240z brake stuff that might interest you. I will post soon (at work now)

Calvin

Hi Art,

I'm wondering what you had to do (machining ) on 240Z brake drum?

Here is a guy who converterd over to 240SX disks on his 240Z

[zhome.com]

Calvin

Calvin,

Very interesting article on that rear disc brake conversion for the 240Z car. Makes you wonder how difficult it would be to put that kit on the TR4 rear.

In order to put the 240Z drums on the TR4 rear you are very lucky that the wheel bolt circle exactly the same. You do have to open up the holes slightly. You will have to run a 37/64th reamer through the exiting holes to bring them out to fit over the shoulder on original the 7/16th inch wheel bolts for the TR. Use a reamer and not a drill for the reamer will follow the original hole concentrically but a drill will wander off. You also have to open up the larger locating center hole slightly to 4.750" .

So this means the 240 Z disc brake kit will have rotor wheel bolt holes that will have to be inlarged and the center bore also enlarged. The big question is will the caliper adapter bolt pattern be the same or easily modified and will the offset be correct or easily shimmed to center the caliper over the rotor. If you could return the kit easily it would be worth trying it out and see whether it could be done. However, other than bragging rights, it's really probably not necessary as the front brakes do most of the work. It's also ineteresting to note in that article that the 240z also uses the Toyota 4 pots front calipers just like the TR!

Getting back to the 240Z drums on the TR: You also have to modifiy the rain lip on the Z drums as it won't fit over the TR backing plate in the Z configuration. With a big lathe you can get to the O.D. of the drum and first face off all that sticks out beyond the fins. You really have to have a drum there to see what I mean here. Then go in with a parting tool between the groove that is already there and the fins and widen it out about 3/6" more all the way to the bottom. Its' all easy for anyone with a 16" or larger lathe. That's it and if you have power buffing and polishing equipment you can make them shine and look like dynamite behind wire wheels. see photo of this done on my '64 Morgan (bone stock).

I should also add that in my case when I was taking the wire wheel adapter off the stock TR rear I found the wheel studs were so short that the wheel lug nuts were only holding on by 1/2 the threads in the nut! Not good in any case and particularly trying to transmit lots of horsepower. I also didn't like the fact that there are only 4 not 5 wheel studs and that they are only 7/16" diameter. So I chose to move up to 1/2-20 studs and picked out NAPA # 641-2185 with #641-2026 nuts as the closest combination to hold my Dayton wire wheel adapters with dental drive in place. I shortened the wheel studs by 1/4" for my particular application. I should note that the original studs are threaded into the hubs and peened over on the back side. So I mahcine off the peened over part on the lathe. You could also drill and counter sink from the back to remove the peening. Then with a pipe wrench (crude but it works!) you can unscrew the stud from the hub. They will come out hard because the peening extends down into the threaded area which expands the threads making them very tight. Once they are out I used successively larger sized reamers starting with 7/16" in 1/32" increments to enlarge the holes to 33/64". Doing it this way helps keep the holes evenly spaced. Then it is a simple matter to press the new NAPA bolts into place using a hydraulic press. Yes, the new bolts have the serrated shoulder that presses into place like most American cars have.

I've rambled enough!

Art

Art,

Here is another article that talks about 240zx upgrades on braking. Well my rear conversion was using 240zx disk's(interesting yes).

[en.wikibooks.org]

Not good on the amount of thread being used on your lug nuts...that's very good that you caught that before something may have happened.

That picture of the wire wheel looks sharp...real eye getter.

Great information Art for others to see (keep posting your changes).

Calvin