New Heritage TR4-6 Outer Sills

[Richard Baines]

https://www.tr-register.co.uk/article/2021/04/0265/British-Motor-Heritage-announce-new-sills-for-TR4-6

has anyone had a chance to try these yet, or inspect them for accuracy?

 

[stuart]

Not yet though they are supposed to be good.

Stuart.

[BlueTR3A-5EKT]

As they (should) have the original factory drawings of 88-850281 & 88-850282 ( from the days of making TR6 shells) and the facilities to inspect to drawing I would hope they are pretty near correct.  
They may be excellent but the repro end caps from other world sources might not be good fits in them, as they are poorly produced, in fact to fit badly made sills from the same other world sources.

Peter W

[stuart]

15 hours ago, BlueTR3A-5EKT said:

As they (should) have the original factory drawings of 88-850281 & 88-850282 ( from the days of making TR6 shells) and the facilities to inspect to drawing I would hope they are pretty near correct.  
They may be excellent but the repro end caps from other world sources might not be good fits in them, as they are poorly produced, in fact to fit badly made sills from the same other world sources.

Peter W

The Moss deep pressed end caps have been a good fit previously, I know the others were rubbish.

Stuart.

[Richard Baines]

Thanks both thats really good info. We are thinking to pick up a pair to keep a good set of spares.

I was thinking about their drawings, as I noticed on the BMH site they are talking about a project to digitise them and make them available. They could be a boon to restorers as its often guesswork trying to get pattern panels to fit, or to get a previously restored car back to factory tolerances.

[Chris Mountford]

Hi all,

I may be able to shed some light on this although I have yet to see the sills 'in the flesh.

Some time ago - (just pre Covid) I loaned the MD of BMH Ltd some original 'British Leyland' sills that I had owned for years. I think I had 3 for one side and 2 for the other albeit someone had cut off the front 200mm of one to use as a repair panel. Having said that, the parts you can see when the wings are in place were still untouched. So, effectively there are 3 sills from one side and 2 for the other as patterns.

I confirmed that they were for 'non destructive' or damaging pattern making before I let them go. I was told that whey were to be scanned and a tooling press made from the data. 

The communication was all done through the 'Equipe GTS' racing fraternity with which my family is involved. Sadly I've not had any direct feedback as Covid has also disrupted that activity.

So, I've not seen them as yet (although I've been promised some) but they were made from my original sets and they were undamaged, dimensionally correct, 'brown' BL originals still carrying the original stickers. They should have the 'dimples' in either end that act as a 'stop' for the end caps. Fingers crossed.

To my mind some of the most important pressings for years, as the fit of the sills on many restored cars leaves a lot to be desired, and in turn then compromises all the adjoining panel fit, such as doors and wings. I really hope they are good ! 

Chris 

[BlueTR3A-5EKT]

I did all this in the 1980’s.

I took original panels with associated end caps, door posts and floor plus the original factory drawings to a company in Reading that had a copy mill (Keller?) and digitising facilities to trace and transpose the drawings.

The aim was to improve/re face the Cox and Buckles kirksite press tools that worked in a big rubber press.

The outcome was an excellent pressed panel, albeit within the capability of rubber pressing, so not as sharply defined.  I heard the company with the rubber press went out of business and that was the end of that.  Where the  tools went I do not know.  You’d have to ask Moss.

Moss used to supply Heritage with sills ( along with a lot of other repro panels) for the production TR6 shells.

[Richard Baines]

I feel like we owe you both a debt of gratitude then as like you say Chris some of these panels are particularly important for restoring these cars correctly, and availability of parts is the main thing keeping them all on the road.

I wonder how much appetite they have for doing other new tooling. I have a few Stanpart panels knocking about for the Spitfire that could be put to good use like that, though none as important as the TR4-6 sills.

[stuart]

42 minutes ago, Richard Baines said:

I feel like we owe you both a debt of gratitude then as like you say Chris some of these panels are particularly important for restoring these cars correctly, and availability of parts is the main thing keeping them all on the road.

I wonder how much appetite they have for doing other new tooling. I have a few Stanpart panels knocking about for the Spitfire that could be put to good use like that, though none as important as the TR4-6 sills.

You could talk to Heritage about them as they are under new management now and by all accounts they are more amenable to getting things right as opposed to the previous regime who really werent that bothered.

Stuart.

[BlueTR3A-5EKT]

18 hours ago, Richard Baines said:

I feel like we owe you both a debt of gratitude then as like you say Chris some of these panels are particularly important for restoring these cars correctly, and availability of parts is the main thing keeping them all on the road.

I wonder how much appetite they have for doing other new tooling. I have a few Stanpart panels knocking about for the Spitfire that could be put to good use like that, though none as important as the TR4-6 sills.

In my years of walking round press shop die parks there were two pairs of part numbers that were indelibly set in my mind.  850281/2 TR4-6 outer sills and 908356/7 TR6 inner front wings.   I still dream of finding them but I suspect they got weighed in for scrap years ago.  Seeking out tools with an 88- prefix to their part number was my priority. These denoting Triumph.  My colleague sought Austin Morris, MG etc.  The creamy tools to find were Jaguar but they had long gone to the pirates.

Fun came when you found Jag tools being refurbished and notified the owners that you had seen their tools at so and so being repaired.  If that repair was not sanctioned, a very rapid tool reclaim would happen.

 

[ianc]

The Spares Development Fund (SDF) acquired genuine Stanpart TR4/6 outer sills  850281 & 850282 from Bob Butson in 2009.

The SDF holds quite a collection of panels and other parts, and these could be made available to trusted agencies in order that reproductions might be produced.

Ian Cornish