Triumph TR4A Trim
The original colour of the trim in our Triumph TR4A was Red. We are sticking to the original colour scheme. The only difference is that where there was once vinyl there will be leather. There will be a lot of reference on this page so scroll down as the complete interior will be here.
TR4A Seats - Strip Down
Seat Belts
I mailed my original seat belts to QuickFit who made new ones with new chrome parts. The total cost including all delivery charges was £296 (April 2016).
They sent sample webbing to us so we could get a sense of the colour matches. We have another car that has a red leather interior and the dark grey belts look great against the red and a little more subtle that the dramatic black. The new belt webbing all has a weave to it so in detail terms, they look great. Quite pleased to see that they have used the actual seatbelt they made for me in their advertising. Grey on red with a hint of chrome is such a classic combination. You can see the ad on the right. Below you can see pictures of the seatbelt as they arrived back from QuickFit laid out on one of the door cards. |
Trim supplied by Skinners
JOHN SKINNER (MANUFACTURING) LTD has been in the vintage classic car trim & upholstery business since 1980. They are a family run, independent Classic Car Interior Trim manufacturing company that manufactures after market interior trim & upholstery restoration kits for Jaguar, Austin Healey, MGA and Triumph cars. They purely manufacture interior trim & upholstery to Original Specification, or custom.
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The pictures above show how the kit from Skinners arrive in a few large boxes. At first glance the kit looks really high quality in terms of leather and finish. Also in the pictures you can see we have the powder coated seat frames, the reformed seat runners and all of the other bits and bobs. Jonathan Skinner is a very helpful chap and he will send out samples so you can get a real idea of what you are getting. I would recommend getting the samples as there are many different colours and finishes.
The Alan Turner Guide to retriming
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You can download the Alan Turner Guide to retriming TR4/TR4A here on the right. Don't start this task without reading it!!!!
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Re-trimming and Upholstery
The highly skilled hands of Mark and his team down at M&K Auto Upholstery are fitting the Skinner Kit for us. Mark has helped us with the crash pad and 'H' frame so far. We have gone with a Prestige hood. The original colour of the hood from factory was black but our car always had a red one when in our ownership?
M&K AUTO UPHOLSTERY, UNIT 5, YEW TREE INDUSTRIAL ESTATE , MILL HALL, AYLESFORD, KENT. ME20 7ET
Tel: 01622 715772. www.mk-autoupholstery.com. [email protected] About M&KWith over 50 years experience M&K Auto Upholstery pride themselves on giving the customer the highest standards of service and quality workmanship at all times. Their expertise and experience covers all eras, from Veteran, Vintage, Classic to Modern and Custom made vehicles. They can perform a complete or partial interior restoration and use the highest quality leathers, carpets and use quality leather machinery to achieve the highest level of detail, including a longarm sewing machine for hoods and stitching in rear windows. They also work for main dealers such as Audi, Porsche and Mercedes.
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Reprofiling the front seats. Mark and his team have reshaped the foam provided from Skinners to get a better fit.
Below you can see the seat bases fitted. Also gives a good look at how the seats are 'Handed' to avoid the hood frame mechanism.
Triumph TR4A Carpets fitted by M&K
Mark and the team have spent a bit of time ensuring the carpets all fit snug and as they should. If you were to do this as a DIY job it would take you quite a bit of time ensuring the fit was correct. There is a lot of opportunity to fit it badly - I don't do trim so that is why Mark is doing it - although I did fit the rear boot panel and seals, the door cards and the dash top - so maybe I do do trim?
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Tr4A Hood
The original hood for our TR was black as it is stated on the heritage certificate. However, we have only ever known the car with a red hood hood so we have decided to stick with that. The red is a deep red more of a burgundy colour and does not match the interior trim but we have never seen hood that does when it comes to red so we are going with the company Prestige that make vinyl hoods as per factory spec. They will happily send you colour samples. The hood arrived and we fitted it. Then after about a week the windows stated to separate from he rest of the hood. Prestige sent a new out no question asked but we had to refit the hood again. The irritating front seal had to be redone too but it only took 2 hours this time. Picture below show the new hood fitted but not secured down on the front rail.
Hood Issues
Seat Springs
You can't buy the seat springs for a TR4A so you really need to restore the ones you have. Here you can see ours before and after. We used the wire wheel on a bench grinder.
Triumph TR4A Hood Frame
Here you can see the hood frame after powder coat. The parts you can see are many of the final parts ready to refit to the finish body.
Fitting the door cards and door caps
The Door cards were part of the 'Skinner' kit. They fit really well but you need patience to get the clips lined up. It takes a while.
Triumph TR4A 'H' Frame
You can'r get a replacement moulded vinyl cover for the 'H' frame that has the raised lip. Ours had the raised lip and we wanted to use just a rubber boot as opposed to the vinyl or leather gearstick that is available. So, there is only one real solution to all of this and that is trim down the raised lip until the rubber boot fits perfectly. It does mean that the moulded cover has to be trimmed a little around the hole but this is fair straightforward compared to trying to make it fit without cutting back the raised lip. We used and angle grinder and if you are careful you can get a perfect hole following the shape of the aluminium mould.
Triumph TR4A, Installing seats, refurbing seat rubbers, fitting hood bag.
Triumph TR4A Hood Header Seal
Getting this seal in is no easy job. I managed to do it with a small flat blade screwdriver. It took 4 hours and your hands will ache at the end of it!!!!
Triumph TR4A Door Seals
Triumph TR4A Seatbelts Fitted
AMCO Triumph TR4A Centre Console
Another period TR4/4A aftermarket accessory that is almost impossible to find. The beauty of this piece of kit is the speaker and the 12v cigarette lighter socket. For modern driving it gives you a device charging point and the potential to mount a robust speaker - maybe a bluetooth one too.
Amco Triumph TR4A Centre Console - Pictures below are for MGB & Sprite.
I have not found an original advert for the Triumph Amco TR4A Centre Console - Plenty of MGB ads. You can see from the design that they used the same parts although the cigarette lighter is chrome not black plastic like the one I have seen. Speaker grill is the same as is the cushion arm rest hinge.