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The Study => Show and Shine => Topic started by: Blueprint on Oct 18, 2025, 03:17 PM

Title: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Blueprint on Oct 18, 2025, 03:17 PM
Long story short: life got ahead of me this season and the TR6 stayed put in its storage location  :'(

I paid her a visit today with a gigantic HR-V to air-up the tires and roll it a bit to avoid flat-spotting.
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: RRocket on Oct 18, 2025, 07:20 PM
Quote from: Blueprint on Oct 18, 2025, 03:17 PMLong story short: life got ahead of me this season and the TR6 stayed put in its storage location  :'(



Bummer...that's very sad, eh?
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Blueprint on Oct 18, 2025, 08:22 PM
Quote from: RRocket on Oct 18, 2025, 07:20 PM
Quote from: Blueprint on Oct 18, 2025, 03:17 PMLong story short: life got ahead of me this season and the TR6 stayed put in its storage location  :'(



Bummer...that's very sad, eh?

Yup. Away all of August - and we lost a week thanks to Air Canada stranding us abroad, crazy workload, health issues with my Dad and the MIL being a /$%?& as always (her dust-coated, dead battery Rogue blocks the TR6, and moving it involves too much PR at the moment...)
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Revelations on Oct 18, 2025, 09:52 PM
Think on the bright side, nothing had a chance to go wrong mechanically. Old cars, if they're not being driven they have zero chance to malfunction and leave you on the side of the road!

Looks like it has a nice spot to sit in though.
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Firm on Oct 18, 2025, 10:26 PM
It happens, hopefully you put some stabilizer in the tank last time you ran it....That's really the only issue with these 100% analog cars sitting, fuel goes bad and gums everything up. It sure looks pretty, and has a nice well protected spot.
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Gurgie on Oct 21, 2025, 05:12 PM
Man, I wouldn't be able to do it, I'd prioritize getting that thing running before everything else  ;D
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Blueprint on Oct 22, 2025, 10:14 AM
Quote from: Firm on Oct 18, 2025, 10:26 PMIt happens, hopefully you put some stabilizer in the tank last time you ran it....That's really the only issue with these 100% analog cars sitting, fuel goes bad and gums everything up. It sure looks pretty, and has a nice well protected spot.

Full tank of premium with a can of Seafoam  ;)
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Blueprint on Oct 22, 2025, 10:19 AM
Just got a notice from the condo managers and they need to clear the garage to clean all the a/c compressors in early November. That means I have to get a new battery for the dead Rogue, and kick off a strategy to get rid of it as MIL lost her driver's licence last year and it won't come back. Mediation has begun its negociations  ;D

It also means I will have to fire up the TR6 and drive it home - shucks, honey, I have to take my toy out  :P
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Gurgie on Oct 22, 2025, 10:28 AM
Quote from: Blueprint on Oct 22, 2025, 10:19 AMJust got a notice from the condo managers and they need to clear the garage to clean all the a/c compressors in early November. That means I have to get a new battery for the dead Rogue, and kick off a strategy to get rid of it as MIL lost her driver's licence last year and it won't come back. Mediation has begun its negociations  ;D

It also means I will have to fire up the TR6 and drive it home - shucks, honey, I have to take my toy out  :P

Bring it home for the winter & park everything else outside :) Then work on it as much as you can so she's ready for the spring :D
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Blueprint on Oct 22, 2025, 01:25 PM
Quote from: Gurgie on Oct 22, 2025, 10:28 AM
Quote from: Blueprint on Oct 22, 2025, 10:19 AMJust got a notice from the condo managers and they need to clear the garage to clean all the a/c compressors in early November. That means I have to get a new battery for the dead Rogue, and kick off a strategy to get rid of it as MIL lost her driver's licence last year and it won't come back. Mediation has begun its negociations  ;D

It also means I will have to fire up the TR6 and drive it home - shucks, honey, I have to take my toy out  :P

Bring it home for the winter & park everything else outside :) Then work on it as much as you can so she's ready for the spring :D

I seriously need a double car garage  :'(  It is a formal requirement of mine once we're ready to downsize. Ideally one that allows a lift for the two dd to be warm and dry and the TR to sit on top (with diapers  ;D )
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Blueprint on Nov 04, 2025, 01:06 PM
The TR6 made it home with no issues, but it runs rough as it did last year. I suspect points and electrical, but the refresh will only happen next spring. I may attempt to install the backup hood release kit before storing it again while I wait for a sunny day to drive it back to the condo.
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Blueprint on Nov 11, 2025, 11:29 AM
So TR6's are noteworthy for hood release failures, the cable being frail. When it breaks, opening the bonnet requires, according to experts, headlight removal, a flashlight, a broomstick and lots of cursing. Thankfully, Moss developed a clever emergency release kit that hides a release handle up in the passenger footwell. It's a good thing Triumph engineers provided that little sliding tab for the new cam to hook into (see picture). Or perhaps it's a vestigial component that dates back to the TR3 days, who knows? In any case, the TR6 stayed home long enough for me to have time to install the hood release kit. I bought new drill bits to ease drilling through metal, and I solved what commenters said was the toughest part of the install - the rubber grommet - by using a disposable chopstick to push the thing in - plop!

Once that was done, with a short rain break, I drove the TR6 back to its winter digs, patted it goodnight, and closed its hood shut - with no hesitation for a change. Two days later, we received a bit of snow and lots of freezing rain, and overnight we just received 20 cm of heavy, fluffy white stuff. That was close!
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Tortoise on Nov 12, 2025, 01:23 PM
Nice fix!

It looks like that tab is used to limit the range of travel for the release mechanism.

Would it be hard to route a new brake cable from a bike to replace the stock one?
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Firm on Nov 12, 2025, 02:08 PM
Looks good, nice clean solution. C4 Corvettes are known for the same thing, except they have two latches, on my last one I just neatly looped a piece of bailing wire around each and tucked them up under the wiper cowl, nearly invisible, but critical if the main release cable ever failed.
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Blueprint on Nov 12, 2025, 02:16 PM
Quote from: Tortoise on Nov 12, 2025, 01:23 PMNice fix!

It looks like that tab is used to limit the range of travel for the release mechanism.

Would it be hard to route a new brake cable from a bike to replace the stock one?

It's a simple yet neat little kit! You see it a lot under TR6 bonnets on BaT. You're probably right for the tab's function, and notice that the kit included a bolt too to act as a stopper. It's optional, but sure enough my first test pull went too far and the drill came out again  ;D

Lots of projects for spring 2026: replace spark plugs, cables, cap, rotor and points, in that order, and see at each step how it runs before proceeding to the next one. Never dabbled in points before, I'll have to educate myself. All the parts are already here. If still rough then SU carbs, working my way up from the low-level fruit to the top, one bit at a time. Driving it will be part of the "cure", of course, to run that can of Seafoam through the system.
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Blueprint on Nov 12, 2025, 02:18 PM
Picture taken by The Mentor himself, back in AZ.
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Blueprint on Nov 12, 2025, 02:19 PM
This shot I took at the Mentor's place in 2012. Had it as my PC wallpaper for a bit. Little did I know that 8 years later...
Title: Re: Blueprint's 1975 Triumph TR6
Post by: Gurgie on Nov 13, 2025, 11:06 AM
Growing up, a friend of mine who lived a couple of doors down from us, his Mom had one of these. I think her's was a 1976 if I remember correctly, and she drove it 365 days a year, same colour combo as yours. We moved into that house sometime in 1980 maybe, hard to remember exactly when, but around 80 - 82 and I remember being a kid playing on the street and she'd come home from work & we'd hear that distinct exhaust note of the TR6. She had a removable hard-top for it for the winter even. I also remember it rotting out because the salt got to it, but they took it in & got it all fixed & a fresh re-spray, and it came out looking like new again... or at least it looked new again to a 12yr old  ;D

My older cousin had a TR7 at one point in his life, again I might have been 12ish when he had that, maybe even a bit younger. I only seen that one a few of times and maybe went for a ride once or twice in it.