Hi Andrew,
Thanks for the reply.
I can't claim such a Triumph pedigree, but I was at the London Motor
Show in 1959 (as a tender 8 year old) when the Herald, Mini etc were
launched - although the car that sticks most in my mind at the show
was, I think, a Ford Fairlane which had an automatic device that
folded the hood (i.e.roof, not the engine cover) into the boot (trunk). I
was very impressed.
A school friend's father bought a Herald straight away, but I waited
until '72 for my first, a 13/60 convertible.
Anyway, to (not?) answer your question: It is difficult to say, but I do
soon hope to get to Gaydon with Mike Costigan (the TSSC archivist)
in order to examine the microfiched production records. However, I
believe that, in general, cars were produced in commission number
order. Bodies and engines etc. were taken from stores slightly more
at random i.e. they used the nearest one available, but their numbers
do rise more or less in line with the commission numbers. So your
car is probably the 14439th off the line but has the 92nd convertible
body that the body builders made. Even this may not strictly be true
because the body sections were made by different companies, so it
could be that either Triumph assigned the body number once the
sub-assemblies were bolted together, or that the bulkhead
manufacturer's number was used for the whole assembly.
Unfortunately, the whole thing is clouded further by the fact that some
cars were packed in crates as CKD kits for despatch to other
countries. If yours is one such car, then presumably it would have
been assembled somewhat later than the UK cars with similar
numbers.
I will try to check the references that you gave me tonight and write
again, but I hope you can see that there are many possibilities and it
is hard to get at the whole truth some 30 years later. My own records
only cover the 13/60 model, but I do have the odd bit of information
on the older versions.
'til then, best wishes
Phil
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