Gee. If an "anonymous" TR buff here in the USA were to write a piece about
USA suppliers, I doubt it would read any different on this side of the pond.
Bob Kramer
Hill Country Triumph Club
Corinthians Vintage Auto Racing Club
TR3A, TR6, TR4A
rgk@flash.net
-----Original Message-----
From: CarlSereda@aol.com <CarlSereda@aol.com>
To: triumphs@autox.team.net <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Date: Friday, August 06, 1999 4:13 PM
Subject: TR info from UK
>
>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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