Jamie Hart - TR3, TR6, TR4

1956 TR3 

This is a long term project for a complete rebuild that I acquired from a well know car enthusiast in Fish Hoek! Gerhard Vorster was thinking of buying it but decided (very wisely) that it was going to cost too much time and money to fix up, so yours truly bought it. 

I had been on the lookout for a TR4 or 4A for some time but all the ones that I had seen were either very expensive, or needed major work doing, or both. The reasoning behind the sidescreen was that the price was right, quite a lot of work had already been done to the bodywork and DR was around to give me advice. At the outset I had decided that it wasn't going to be a concours restoration but that I was going to fit a steering rack conversion and many other modifications that would enable it to be a pleasant car to drive rather than historically accurate. The car was also one of the first TR3s to be fitted with disc brakes so it had the advantage of being able to stop. 

We brought the car home on a trailer last February and immediately it was here the body was taken off for chassis repairs to begin. There was a lot of accident damage to the driver's side front end that had been very badly repaired. We took the chassis up to our factory in Gauteng where a local engineering shop effectively rebuild the whole front end and checked the chassis for distortion. On return to the cape at the end of last year we have fitted new suspension and brake components, had the springs re set and renewed the brake piping and handbrake components. 

I managed to find an overdrive box off a Triumph 2000 so that is with Arthur being sorted out once I had located all the parts in the UK. The engine is waiting to be rebuilt into a TR block, the crankshaft is with Graham having the oil seal mod done to the back so it hopefully shouldn’t leak. 

There is obviously still a major amount of work still to be done, but hopefully I have set a practical completion date for mid 2003 and by then have a car I am 100% confident in... 


[Ed.]The update below was taken from the July 2006 newsletter, so you'll see that Jamie did not quite make his 2003 completion target...

Nationals have come and gone and it is time to do a lot of the jobs that were not properly done in the rush to get the car there. Time is a great healer and the disappointment of the concours results is behind. In a nutshell, brilliant organisation (well done to Geoff and his team) but the quality and fairness of some of the judging left a lot to be desired! Nuff said.

Isn't she a beauty!


Most people were very complimentary about the car and it was great fun to lead the convoy to the school but the fact that the furthest the car had ever been was on the drive to Hermanus showed up lots of small problems that needed working through. The biggest problem leading up to Nationals was the water leak from the cylinder head caused by sheer incompetence in the machining of the valve inserts by a former member who should have known better! That cost a lot of time which should have been better spent sorting out all the other snags and finishing off areas such as trim. Many thanks to Gerhard for the loan of the cylinder head from his car, and to every one else, particularly Tim Cruise, for the help and practical support for the project. We got there in the end!!

On the way there it became clear that the overdrive did not always disengage, going in reverse is NOT good for them in these conditions! The car went really well otherwise but on the way back the electric fan did not cut in and the car started to boil at robots. This was later traced to a fuse which looked OK but had no continuity through it. We had had a couple of problems with the radiator previously so as soon as we got back the car was on axle stands and the re- rebuild was started.

The opportunity was taken to put in a re-cored radiator as although the original had been supposedly overhauled, I was not happy with it. The head seems OK so no damage was hopefully done but getting the nose cone a TR3 is a pig and I did a few other cosmetic jobs while it was off. The big job was the overdrive and much research went into this. I had used a J type overdrive off a Chicane that was overhauled but unfortunately the chap that did the job went to the great workshop in the sky just before the finish and so the box was finished off by yours truly.

The J type unit has fewer mechanical parts than the A type and relies on hydraulic valves to do the job. Getting the hydraulic pressure of the unit is very important so a test pressure gauge was made up and the unit put to work. The problem in this application is that the exhaust pipe goes through the centre of the car and makes access to the overdrive filter and other areas very difficult. Enter the multi fingered double jointed gnome and the job was eventually sorted out. Problem was multiple but one of the solutions was to give the cone clutch a good klap with a soft mallet as the new clutch appeared to be sticking. Such is the use of old technology!

Checking things out prior to convoy


The next area to be tackled was the non working fuel gauge, a strip down was called for and all the parts tested. It now works but the wrong way round, E is enough and F is finish. Much head scratching till next time but remember to check the earthing contact on English cars!


A TR6 was added to the Hart stable in early 2004:



And then in 2007, a TR4:

Thanks to the good offices of Peter du Sautoy and Tim Cruise, we found a late series TR4 in Simonstown. The car is in a tatty condition and needs lots of body work repairs, but is essentially complete with a sound chassis. Tim and I went over to Simonstown after the holiday rush had left and the car is now in our drive way and our wine cellar full of the smaller bits.

This particular car has been around (literally). It was made in March 64 and shipped to Beira and onward to the then Rhodesia. It then reappeared in Durban before going to the old Transvaal where the previous owner, Keith Alcock, took it on to Botswana before bringing it to the Cape about a year ago. It has an overdrive with a Surrey top and according to the Heritage certificate was finished in Signal red with black trim. Although I like to keep cars in their original colours, I have always thought the pale blue of the works TR4's suited the lines well, we shall see!

Advertising: please support our sponsors, since they support us:
-----------------------------
Go to Tesco for cheaper car insurance
-----------------------------

Back to members