TR4A to TR5 surrey top

[Phil Read]

I want to swop my TR4A surrey top to my TR2500 which had a hood and visi versa. Is this a straight forward swap or are the vehicles different?

[stuart]

Nope its a straight swap but the 250 hood frame front locking will be your stumbling block as the 4a frame doesnt have the facility for the locks to engage in. Its doable but needs an engineering solution. You could get the Revington lock conversion kit though I have no experience  of fitting them. You would also need to swap screen frame cappings too.

Stuart.

[Phil Read]

I have had a good look at the header rails and they appear to be interchangeable the only difference I can see is that the hole in the top of the window frame is slightly larger on the TR250 and has a brass bush in it (which may be a bodge). What confuses me is on the 4A with the surrey top the rail on top of the windscreen is called a capping pt806189 and the TR250 with a hood its a header rail pt808355. I have attached a couple of photos

[jerrytr5]

Your main issue is the different fastening arrangements for the soft top frame. That 'brass bush' is not a bodge but the fastener for the pin type 1/4 turn header rail clamp as used on the 250/5/6. By contrast the 4A uses an 'over-the-centre' latch fixed to the screen rail at 90 deg to the capping.

Look closer at the capping, you will see that that the 4A is pretty well dead flat and the 250 has a dished area around the fastener.

In order to get your 250 hood frame to fit the 4A you need a 4A frame header rail plus the catches (I assume the frame would have the threaded inserts to attach the female part even if built as a 'hardtop' car). You may be able to fit the 250 style pin catches with threaded inserts but the plate fits in a depression which you would need to create.

Fitting the surrey to the 250 will be straightforward requiring the Surrey spec capping if you use the standard canvas section.

Jerry

[MichaelH]

Why not swap the hood and screen from the 5 to the 4 and vice versa? or am I being too simple?

MichaelH

[Phil Read]

The 4A has a surrey top where the hood part fits under a lip on the panel at the top of the screen, it has no latches etc for a full hood. Both panels look exactly the same down to the rivet positions. It could be the 4A has been modified sometime. I will take a photo when it stops snowing.