SHOMWAY@aol.com wrote:
>
>
> >>
> The area behind the grill should be black and should extend to the curved part
> of the side edges where the grill meets the body but not beyond that point.
> The body color should not be seen when looking straight into the grill. This
> section was painted with a brush so dont worry about some perfect paint job as
> you really dont notice it thru the grill.
>
> Gordon Swart
Gordon & Frank,
Sorry this dosen't help answer things, but raises more questions....
This is a point of interest for me too (even though I own a TR 250). My TR
250
had black paint on the upper valance panel as well. The car was wearing its
original
paint when I bought it, but the engine bay was spray painted gloss black- which
I
know was a DPO act to cover up rust from the battery and brake fluid. The black
in the engine bay paint was painted over some wiring, and not very thouroughly
covering
evrywhere else. I was unsure (and still kinda am) about the black on the
valance- because
I noticed it was brushed on as I was DA sanding it off..
After asking about four or five owners of restored TR 250's, I got answers
ranging
from "The car was restored when I bought it" to "...yeah, I remember some black
paint
there", to "I've taken apart five TR 250's, and never seen any black paint on
the upper
valance...yada, yada, yada"
But in Ian Clark and Steven Rossi's excellent book "The Triumph TR 5/250 and
TR 6
Companion", in describing the TR 5, Ian wrote (pg17, column 1) "The radiator
grille
moulding (sic) was pure TR 4a but painted mostly black with only the horizontal
areas
being brightly polished." ...but most importly the next sentance reads..."The
area behind
the grille was also given a black finish, making the frontal aspect look
altogether more tidy"
The final clincher was when I was chatting with Mr Dennis Day, proprieter of
Classic Auto
British Car Parts, in Safety Harbor Fla.(Near Clearwater) Dennis was a TR 250
guru, who
claims he has in his possesion the Bob Tullius #44 TR 250, which he intends to
restore soon.
Well, while trying to stump him on TR 250 trivia- which I was unable to do- I
asked "What
about the upper valance, was that supposed to be painted body color?" I
carefully worded
my question to not give anything away. He replied "No, it was painted black.
And painted
with a brush." When pressed for why he thinks they didn't use spray, he
reasoned that they
just held a piece of something to mask off the lower valance, and brushed away,
without ever
having to mask the whole car.
Suffice to say that was enough for me, and I've repainted mine black, by
brush, after I repainted
the entire body in the original Triumph Racing Green
JOE IV
TR 250
WALLINGFORD, CT.USA
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