Need a heater?

[Rodbr]

This looked interesting as an alternative to the Revington box type. Seems to be much more compact and easy installation. Possibly invisable unless viewed from well below dash level. Good price too!

 

http://www.t7design.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=65

[Menno van Rij]

I would really consider this when I had to replace the heater! The smallest heater looks to be up to the job in the small TR cabin! Perhaps the use of a relay in the electrical system is a good idea, too.

Menno

Edited October 2, 2011 by Menno van Rij

[TR Man]

Well done Rodbr.

 

This is excellent, especially the price.

 

Things have become very expensive for TRs when compared with Austin Healeys, MGBs etc.

 

We need a new cut price supplier!

 

Martin

[BlueTR3A-5EKT]

TR Man,

 

Cheap and Spares certainly can go in the same sentence assuming you only want the same stuff from everyone without any investment in reintroduced or remanufactured items.

 

At times, like this heater supplier, there is genuinely a route to an adaptable item for our cars. I know I have done enough of it over the years when functionality over originality is preferred. Be aware though that not every TR owner is capable of creating fitting kits and adaptors to make bits from other cars work on their TR.

 

TR's do not exist in the same volume as the MG range and the 'race to the bottom' (less my owner's club discount) attitude to spares purchase by the MG world has brought about some truly nasty items. Aftermarket MGF leather seat cover kits where allegedly the dye ran when they got wet was perhaps one of the most awful. The leather used was described to me by a representative of one of the world's biggest curriers as 'skin dyed cheap Italian hand bag leather, not designed to be sat on'.

 

Years ago we at C&B could not work out how a certain scouse MG specialist was undercutting the price of our TR4A to 6 front suspension bush kits. We were losing trade sales at a high rate and were pressured to review our suppliers and pricing.

 

I ordered one kit from the scousers and discovered you got only half the items you needed to do the job and none of the parts were to Original Specification. Most importantly their supplied big trunnion bolt (OE 139835) was something you could buy at the local iron mongers to hold your garden fence up, not the high tensile steel fastener with a tolerance ground shank and special short threaded section we had remade and supplied in our kit! Very good on price poor on quality. So when your parts from 'Blogs the Cheapest Specialist' and it is junk you say, "Glad I did not pay 50% more for the one from a real TR dealer" Trouble is you are left with a sour taste and probably go out and buy a Ford Fiesta.

 

The general public is too trusting of adverts - Years ago every week in the Exchange and Mart there was an advert for 'Factory made sports car car sets - £9.99'

 

C&B's German trade customer demanded we reduced our carpet set price from £29. to match the ones he had seen advertised or we lost his business. He duly ordered a set of Factory made carpets for a TR and was pleased when he received £9.99 worth of flock sprayed foam rubber sheeting cut vaguely to fit the footwells of a TR (the giveaway was the one part number to fit all TRs from 2-6) He kept a piece of that carpet set to demonstrate the quality of the items he would supply.

 

As the 'pile it high sell it cheap' trader may tell you, " these parts are for selling not fitting"

 

On a different tack. Years ago the compiler of The TR Register Spares News, one Pete Buckles, did a price comparison of the TR spares he sold to then current car spares. one item - TR brake pads were £8.00, Ford Sierra were £27.00, the list went on in favour of TR spares pricing against Euro Boxes. Has any one done a similar modern comparison?

 

Cheers

Peter W

Edited October 3, 2011 by BlueTR3A-5EKT

[ianc]

An admirable exposition by Pete of some of the hidden dangers of assuming that cheapness is always a good thing.

 

If you are a skilled DIYer and really know what you are about (someone like Pete), you may be able to select an item which is of good quality and can be adapted it to fit - back in the 1960s we were doing this for our TRs all of the time!

 

However, many owners of TRs are not as handy as Pete, and that is where a kit produced by one of our reputable suppliers (and we are so fortunate to have such a large number of these) is the answer. That way, you'll know that the item will fit, all the odd bits and pieces will be included (brackets, clips, nuts,bolts etc) and there will be fitting instructions to guide you. And the supplier who has gone to the trouble of putting this lot together (often producing special items in the process) deserves to recoup his costs of design and testing when selling his kits. If he did not, he would soon go out of business, and would we benefit from that in the long run? I think not.

 

Those who were not around in the 1960s may not appreciate how fortunate we TR nuts have been to have had Buckles, Cox and then Revington and others sourcing the equipment which has enabled so many TRs to survive, to be kept running, to be restored to better than new condition and to perform better than when they left the factory gates.

 

Ian Cornish

[Bald Rick]

An admirable exposition by Pete of some of the hidden dangers of assuming that cheapness is always a good thing.

 

Ian Cornish

 

 

I couldn't agre more Ian, unfortunately price is no indication of quality either.

 

As many on here will be aware, my TR6 has recently undergone a no expense spared restoration. This meant buying the best parts from well established TR suppliers. Unfortunately the quality of some of the parts left a lot to be desired:

 

The trunnion bolt kit, bought from a well repected source and not cheap, suffered from the same faults as Peter referred to from the "scousers". Eventually I cleaned and reused the old bolt.

 

A set of stainless steel caliper pistons which went rusty before I was able to fit them.

 

Rear light assemblies (very expesnive) which did not fit well at all with lenses that had to be filed and sanded down before they could be assembled the fit was so bad.

 

An expensive high quality mohair hood that fitted like a carrier bag. Ditto the tonneau cover. No blame attached to the excellent trimmer.

 

Furflex door seals where the furflex is rubbing off after a few hundred miles. Expensive wool carpets where the pile is coming out. Stainless steel nuts for the wire wheel adaptors that fouled on and damaged the wheels.

 

An expensive dashboard re-furbishment which was not good at all.

 

Silicone hoses which did not fit properly.

 

The list goes on and on........

 

There are also examples where less expensive items have proved excellent:

 

The heavy propshaft and drive shafts with Rislan coated splines and sealed for life heavy duty U/Js which were about half the price quoted by TR suppliers.

 

MX5 seats recovered in leather at less than £400 the pair.

 

Hand made stainless steel bumpers from Vietnam made and shipped for around £450.

 

Just my experience.

 

I would add that the service I have had from most well respected TR suppliers has always been good. Even when I have complained!

 

Tony

[james christie]

It is difficult to add to what PeWi has said so well above !. In 40 odd years of Tr ing I have learnt to buy from the smaller guys, those who have the most to lose if they supply poor quality products and /or services.

I am lucky enough ( it wasn't always so) to be able now to pay a bit more if I have to and be sure that the product is good. A small guy's reputation earned over several years of hard graft in a topsy turvy market, can be lost overnight. I am still smarting for having been light fingered 15 years ago by someone who ought to have known better. But I have had my revenge - I still try to discourage folk from patronising him.

 

james