VIN Number: SATPV4589BA406998
Color: Bordeaux Red.

    I could have spent a small fortune restoring my other ’81 Bordeaux Red TR8 and this one came up for sale not too long ago.  It’s had the interior replaced but the fuel injection is still in place, the body has no rust on it and the whole car is in great condition.  My current plans are to try to put the car back to stock.  This means finding and installing an original Golden Tan interior, putting the stock alloys back on it etc.. 

Here are photos provided to me by the previous owner

Nov 23rd 2006

And so the work begins.  My first goal for the car is to put the interior back to stock.  To accomplish this, I need to pull the biscuit leather interior out as well as the carpet and put in the original tan velour interior and chestnut colored carpet.  I’ve tracked down very good condition original interior pieces which I will use for now.  I’m currently in the process of seeing if I can have the velour fabric remanufactured and then I can have new seat covers and door panels made.

I’ve searched high and low to find original interior pieces.  I’ve put in the original square speakers – I’ve color matched the golden tan color and sprayed up a set of arm rests to match.  I’ve installed new sun visors which I picked up from Brad at Wedgeparts.  The carpet is on it’s way as well as most of the rest of the interior panels.  I am currently looking high and low for an 80MPH push button speedo to complement the interior restoration.  If you know of one for sale, please contact me.

Passenger side:

Drivers side:

Dec 10th 2006

The interior now has been completely stripped – I have replaced the biscuit colored vinyl trim around where the soft top bolts to the car with golden tan.  I’m now just waiting on the carpet and interior panels.

Interior Stripped:

Passenger side:

Drivers side:

March 10th 2007

I picked up the car from the upholstery shop this week.  Randy at Accel Auto and Marine Upholstery in Kirkland, WA custom made a carpet kit for me in the closest color match we could find to the original carpet that would have been fitted to this car.  All I can say is that it looks absolutely awesome.  Anybody in the Seattle area who needs upholstery work done, give Randy a call!  After I got the car home on Friday, I started to slowly install all the new interior panels that I purchased last year.  Vicky Brit also had a winter sale on interior panels so I picked up some stuff from them.

Radio I’m planning on using (with old Triumph faceplate):

Drivers side being assembled:

Passenger side being assembled:

Rear cockpit panel installed:

Original seats for installation:

March 18th 2007

More of the same this weekend except I’m a little stuck.  I’m still waiting for the shifter bushings I ordered – I don’t want to install the center console and shifter cover only to just remove them again to replace the bushings.  Hopefully they will arrive during the week so that next weekend I can finish assembling the interior.  It’s pretty much done now and it certainly looks the business.

An original (Ebay special) drivers seat installed – center console is screwed down with the new armrest cover attached.  Also installed is the new handbrake gaiter.

Picture of the installed, yet seldom used seatbelt clips:

Another shot of the drivers seat, Man I love the red/tan combo:

I fabricated some mounting brackets and now have the old shaft style radio installed into the center console:

March 24th 2007

Finished installing the interior this weekend.  I replaced the shifter bushings with a set of nylon units – the original rubber ones were shot and the shifter was contacting the driveshaft.  Not usually a good thing.  I’ve included some photos here of the finished interior, I hope everyone likes it.  It’s as good as it’s going to get unless that fabric mill actually gets a sample to me so I can redo the seats.

Shot of the drivers side:

Finished and assembled center console – radio is all working with the triumph faceplate:

Rear shot:

Both seats installed:

To evaluate the condition of my chassis and to start the rebuild process, it’s time to strip down the chassis and take a look at everything.   I started with the front suspension and then worked my way to the rear of the car.  I made up a spring compressor for the front suspension which worked really well and after everything was all stripped, I took a close look at the front lower wishbone mounts.  The PO had welded new ones on as well as the gussets for strengthening – but I don’t think it turned out very well.  I’m of the opinion I should cut them off and redo.

Chassis all up on jackstands:

Front left being taken apart:

Front left suspension all removed:

Caliper from front right removed:

Front Right suspension, Hub removed:

Custom spring compressor in place, ready to remove the spring

Spring removed, upper a-arms removed:

Rear differential removed:

Front right lower rear wishbone mount.  this one concerns me the most since the smaller of the two reinforcing plates has been cut and bent to allow the wishbone to move freely, We’re going to have to fix this.

Here are some pictures of the spring compression tool that I built to safely disassemble my TR250’s front suspension. this tool would work just as well on a TR6.   I’m not quite sure how all the official tools from Moss or TRF work but I designed mine to use the bottom spring tray that ends up being attached to the lower a-arms.  This just allowed me to very safely remove all the energy in the spring and remove it.  The hole kit cost me around 5 bucks.  The threaded rod, washers, and nuts from came from the local hardware store.  The rod is 2 ft long, 1/2″ threaded rod & the aluminum plate was a scrap from a friends machine shop.

Individual parts of the tool:

Aluminum plate resting in the lower spring plate:

Tool constructed showing it’s relation with the lower spring mount