Listers,
One of our TR List-ers from the UK sent me this info about several questions
I had asked....may be something here of interest for you from this anonomous
but very accomplished TR buff ...
(UK suppliers)
Any way, you wanted to know about the UK traders - now I am about to
start buying from them again next year - so you have made me sit down
and thing really seriously !!
The first thing I must say is that every trader that I have dealt with
has let me down at some stage, and that includes Moss, TRGB,
Revingtons, TR Enterprises and TR Bitz.
I still deal with most of these because I have no choice -- but this is
what I do if I have to make a choice....
Moss - the biggest and probably oldest company. They have about 10
different sites in the UK going under various names, but still in the
Moss group. They can get most things for you, but beware not
everything is available, even if it is in the catalog. The clips you
mentioned - I needed some and sent them in on an order - but they said
they were unobtainable. I made my own, (pity the hood did not have the
relevant clip for them when I bought it !)
Moss tend to supply all the other dealers with products that they have
had made, for example the spin on oil filter kit that I bought from TR
Enterprises had a Moss sticker on it, the rear springs that I ordered
from TRGB came direct from Moss - London.
They are resonably expensive, and sometimes not at all helpful, though
it depends who you talk to. I find the Birmingham branch the best to
deal with, though I have not tried all of them.
TRGB - I tend to buy from this company most because on average the
prices are lower for the items I want to buy. They also have some good
second hand stuff ( I bought a body tub for my TR from them and the
owner, Gary Bates, delivered it to my house, about 100 miles away,
personally). The catalog is not so good as the others, and when you go
to the shop, they use a Moss Catalog to look up the part numbers !!
they have less stock than Moss, but can usually get the 'normal' stuff.
TR Bitz - very expensive, and I do not deal with them (got stung
once) - I visited them on my way back from holiday, when I could not
get a TR body tub - they wanted me to pay an enormous fee for them
restoring one- this wasn't what I had in mind!!
TR Enterprises - they are closer geographically to me, but I only go
there in an emergency - again I got stung when I bought my first lot of
spares from them. They could not even supply the correct set of nut and
bolts in a 'body mount kit' even when I send it back and they sent a
replacement kit I still had to buy the two long bolts that go through
the chassis. They are one of the main 'tuning' companies (the others
are Racestorations and Revington TR)
Revingtons - I have only dealt with them once, to buy my wooden
dashboard. I would have had the TR on the road much earlier if they had
kept their delivery promise ! They gave me a couple of excuses and took an
extra 3-4 weeks....
I have dealt with others - Rimmers have only just started supplying TR4
etc, parts, so all I bought from them was an overdrive part. They
look good and have a nicely organised trade stand. I was going to have
a chat with them about supplying the USA/Canada on Sunday but they
seemed failry busy so I didn't get a chance.
Suppliers that I may try are TR Shop in London - they have a good price
for pistons and liners at the moment, Robsport ( I did get a TR rear
'fender' and bootlid for 100 pounds each from them a year ago) who
could probably only supply second hand stuff. Maybe I will try North
Devon Metalcraft for other new wings etc ( I bought a TR fuel tank from
them that was a little 'off year' but I still got it to fit) - they are
supposed to be one of the best suppliers of new body parts.
So - the order for me is TRGB/Moss (pick the cheapest if paying out
a lot - otherwise go to the one who has the parts) then TR Enterprises,
then start looking in the TR Register magazine - depending on what I
want. Rimmers will come into the equation, if they have what I need,
probably before TR Enterprises. They are the second closest to me in Lincoln
(the real one). Moss are about an hour and a half away from me.
The TR Register have a list of approved suppliers - have a look at
http://www.pandora.co.uk/clients/tr/ (scroll down a bit when you get
there) - and the rest of the site.
(Here are the addresses of the shops I asked about);
TR Shop
16 Chiswick High Road
London
W4 1TH
Telephone (from the UK) 0181 995 6621
Fax 0181 742 1284
Open 9:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Monday - Saturday
They seem to sell a large quantity of spares for all TRs
Robsport International
Cokenach
Barkway
Royston
Herts
Telephone 01763 848673
Fax 01763 848167
Robsport will 'negotiate' and advertise 'world wide mail order'
They specialise in TR7s but do have quite a lot of spares for the rest,
including second hand stuff.
BTW If you are going for real racer stuff then use Racestorations,
Cambridge Motor Sport or TR Enterprises. their names are on the TR Register
approved list.
(on the cooling topic) ... I certainly don't get any overheating with my 4,
even last weekend when it was very hot - however there is an article in the
latest TR Register newsletter (called TR Action) that points out one or two
potential problems with TR4s onwards - it is mainly to do with the fact that
radiators without the header extension cannot be filled above the level of
the thermostat unless a header tank is fitted. Mine has the extension, but I
can see why
there could be problems, the system would not fill properly if it were
not for the extension. The article describes how to fit a header tank
as well.
Bye for now,
(the anonomous UK TR buff)
Thanks UK TR buff,
Carl
'64 TR4 since '74
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