1968 T/R - "Out Of Africa"

[68S_SK2]

Hi Tim,

It would be very interesting to know which kind of special gear ratio transmission your car has?
Gearbox No. 928xxxx could be
-901/50 special ratio on request
-901/51 hill climb
-901/52 airport
-901/53 fast race
-901/54 Nurburgring

If the stamps on the peen of the transmission case are unreadable, the following red number would tell us:
Gearbox No. 928xxxx

Claudius

[Bantam]

Thanks all for the feedback, learning all the time so please keep it coming. Any prompts to dig deeper in certain areas is appreciated.

davep....thanks for clearing up the numbers on the pull handles, makes sense as they certainly don't look as if they have any part number relevance.

Claudius....thanks for the information on the Nadella drive shafts and the comparison picture, very interesting, I was not aware of the weight difference.

Claudius/Dave.....I will try and get under the car to get more info this coming week but I can tell you that the gearbox is number 9281xxx. From your list does this make it "hill climb" or dosen't it work like that?

Thanks again for the feedback, anything else you can tell me would be really interesting; I get the feeling I have plenty more to learn!

Tim

[68S_SK2]

Tim,

Hill climb - correct! That makes sense!

AA-E-I-M-O

Claudius

PS:
One of the Nadella joints of your picture shows typical signs of wear! Hopefully the wear didn't affect the Nadella structurally so you could solve the problem by replacing the needle bearing.

[Bantam]

Claudius

Thanks for that.

Although I don't know much of its competition history I believe the car was used in hillclimbs near Entebbe in Uganda so that gearing would make sense. The car was originally supplied to Nairobi in Kenya and was of a more "Rallye" spec than "Racing" spec so again the type of roads/use would suggest a transmission for better acceleration rather than outright top speed.

Tim

[Flieger]

I think that the "z" stamp on the gearbox case denoted a limited slip differential. I am no expert, though.

[Gytis Kupinas]

The pics I posted are from my car.

[Bantam]

Raj

I think you are correct, the black on the underside of the roof looks to be glue....the headlinning was not present when I got the car, however, the rear view mirror ('68 year only breakaway type) has some black material trapped between the two halves so I think this would have been a cloth type headlinning rather than vinyl?

In terms of general paint finish I will finish dismantling the car and then get it to somewhere with space and a ramp so that we can fully understand and document what has been applied when and where. The later purple paint (and its filler type undercoat used in Uganda) is fairly easy to isolate so we can hopefully get a clear appreciation of the original finish.

The harness mounting points are one on each side by the roll bar feet, one in each corner of the rear shelf and two above the centre tunnel in front of the rear seat area.

Tim

[Flunder]

Tim:

I am wondering if the car might have had lightweight carpet in lieu of a headliner.

Can you determine the color and nature of the fibers caught under the mirror?

Could it have been black lightweight carpet?

Best,

Tom

[Bantam]

Tom

Managed to get the mirror off after a few choice words!

It is a carpet like black material that has evidence of being glued to the roof. Not the biggest sample but if you have any thoughts as always they would be very welcome.

Tim

[Flunder]

Tim:

Factory sports purpose preparation for TR and ST sometimes included lightweight carpet glued to the roof.

I think the carpet stuck under the mirror provides all the documentary evidence necessary to restore your TR accordingly.

What fun to find an unrestored car!