Researching the history of your car

[Besalu]

Bought Bill Piggot's Original TR and enjoying the read. I don't seem to have an original commission plate like shown in the book however i do have the attached aluminum plate numbered CTC 52376. The numbers underneath i assume are for Paint (32) and Trim (11). I believe 32 is Signal red but don't know what trim 11 represents. 

In Bill's book he states that the TR4A's ran from CTC 50001 to CTC 78684 which would make mine a fairly early one.

Can anyone suggest any further reading where i can research this a bit further. Also is there an accessible database online anywhere where i can research names of past owners? I enjoyed watching Paul Anderson's video where he took the car's original first owner out for a drive. Not that i intend to try and find any past owners but it would be nice to know anyway.

Thanks in advance for any input. Richard

[Besalu]

I should add that the car was brought to Spain in 1976 and converted to lhd. I do not know the original British reg number so it would be nice to try and find this out if it is possible to do that from the Comm. No?

[Motorsport Mickey]

1 hour ago, Besalu said:

Bought Bill Piggot's Original TR and enjoying the read. I don't seem to have an original commission plate like shown in the book however i do have the attached aluminum plate numbered CTC 52376. The numbers underneath i assume are for Paint (32) and Trim (11). I believe 32 is Signal red but don't know what trim 11 represents. 

In Bill's book he states that the TR4A's ran from CTC 50001 to CTC 78684 which would make mine a fairly early one.

Can anyone suggest any further reading where i can research this a bit further. Also is there an accessible database online anywhere where i can research names of past owners? I enjoyed watching Paul Anderson's video where he took the car's original first owner out for a drive. Not that i intend to try and find any past owners but it would be nice to know anyway.

Thanks in advance for any input. Richard

That's the original plate I think, after 50 years of underbonnet attachment. Looks like the residue of the original black paint of the plate around the left hand securing hole, and red paint of bodywork primer or top coat around the right securing hole. Don't loose it, if Swansea ever ask for that car to be inspected THAT'S the plate they'll expect to be affixed to the shell, not the shiny new replacement you'll probably fit. Swap them back after inspection.

Mick Richards

[RAHTR4]

Hi Richard,

What you have is definitely the original commission plate as with the passing of time all the print labelling has been worn away.

The top sequence of letters and numbers is the Commission Number and because nothing else is stamped on this line it confirms that the car was in RHD form and no Overdrive fitted.

You are correct in that the 32 is the paint code for Signal Red.

11 designates that the interior trim was Black, which would have been standard black vynide.

Had the car been fitted with a leather interior it would have been stamped H 11.

What I assume you are missing is the narrow rectangular aluminium plate, with rounded ends, which would have been stamped with the body number. This was fitted to the flat bulkhead on the offside of the RHD pedal box.

I think you are looking at “Original Triumph TR”, subsequent to that book Bill Piggott published “Original Triumph TR4/4A/5/6 which contains more detail and is laid out differently.

Have you obtained a Heritage Certificate from Gaydon, these contain a lot of information, my TR4 was exported to the USA and the whole specification of the car was found plus its destination in the USA, it even provided the numbers of the different keys....!

Yours being a RHD home market model might produce more information.

However you should be aware that the paper records were photographed at some point and it appears to me that this exercise was carried out rather too quickly which has compromised the quality and readability of the photographs and I believe there are also gaps in the records. Plus the Librarians at Gaydon have a hard task looking through this information as the files are not logically arranged.

I do not know of any other means of checking for past owners, the DLVA is definitely not the place to go....!!

Regards, Richard

[Ralph Whitaker]

It is strange that in this day and age we are concerned with data protection, which is why DVLA can no longer give out previous owners details, yet when we had the original folding log books it was all listed and gave a complete picture of the vehicles past owners. Even more recently the V5 used to list the previous owners name and address. I can understand it with regard to banking details etc, but it would sometimes be nice to be able to contact previous owners of a vehicle. In my case I recently bough a relatively new car, but the PO had only handed in the one key, and a spare was going to cost me £396. It would have been nice to make a quick call, or send a letter just to ask if they had the spare.

  If you are lucky enough to find a vehicle with the original folding logbook and send it to the DVLA as proof of reg no, do they still return it, or do they consider that because it lists previous owners addresses we cannot be allowed to have it, or because it is not held on computer it is OK for us to have it back.

Rallph

[mikej]

22 hours ago, Motorsport Mickey said:

That's the original plate I think, after 50 years of underbonnet attachment. Looks like the residue of the original black paint of the plate around the left hand securing hole, and red paint of bodywork primer or top coat around the right securing hole. Don't loose it, if Swansea ever ask for that car to be inspected THAT'S the plate they'll expect to be affixed to the shell, not the shiny new replacement you'll probably fit. Swap them back after inspection.

Mick Richards

Hoping to report on plate rivets at some stage, 'pop' rivets MAY not be correct, the case for TR2-3 but not sure yet about later cars, KDRBs or imports...blind strike rivets are available.

 

[mike ellis]

Hi Richard,

If it went to Spain in 1976 it is unlikely to ever have been added when UK records were computerised.

Suggest you contact the registrar of the TR Club Spain to see whether he has any information.  I will send you his contact details in a PM.

Mike

[Besalu]

Thank you all for your input. I have fired off an email to the Heritage center and will see where that leads.