> On TR6's, I have always seen body color behind the grill. Same with
>4's but I haven't seen enough different 250's to speculate otherwise.
> However, using period advertising to determine accuracy is just
>plain wrong. To start with, there were no guidelines for truth in
>advertising then. Many gray areas were stretched.
Grey areas may have been stretched but I really doubt that anyone
retouched paint visible behind the grill on a PUBLICITY picture in
1969. I'm not talking about adverts. I have seen studio and outdoor
publicity photos in which shut lines, paintwork reflections, even the
cross shadows on a white studio floor have not been retouched, yet
there is no sign of body colour behind the grill. If using period
photos is plain wrong then what is right about using 40 year old cars
to determine original appearance?
In truth, the most likely reason body colour paint is not visible in
many photos is that this area is usually poorly lit - there must be a
fairly low light striking the front of the car for the paint to be
clearly visible on film. For this reason I can't say there definitely
IS black paint, except in a couple of period photos, one of which is
in a magazine review. Low angle close up of part of the front of the
car, light paint, black behind the grill.
Its a long story why I looked into this subject in the past, but I
have had a close look at a well known TR6 recently, the Pimento car
featured in Piggot's book; this car's complete history is known and
it is in incredible, un-rebuilt condition, with black paint behind
the grill. Although this may still be a grey area, all the hard
evidence I have found suggests this area should be black, (and it
looks right!)
> Secondly, they didn't
>use "hero" products (a "hero" product is a "perfect" example used
>specifically for advertising and not pulled off of the assembly line.),
>instead they used cars from the press fleet for advertising. So these
>cars can not be counted on as accurate.
I seem to recall that Triumph had different grades of finish for show
cars, but I have no idea if this was also done for press cars.
Bearing in mind the poor condition of some of the TR6s featured in
press articles I can only guess they did not. I also don't know if
these grades covered things like altered paint schemes, or just the
level of optional extras on display.
> Especially when details could
>change depending on who was at what station during the assembly process.
>
>
>Shawn Loseke
>1972 TR6
>Fort Collins, CO
Perhaps the level of finish did change on a day to day basis, but
also cars were damaged in shipping and at dealers, perhaps some cars
left the showroom with a different level of finish than they had when
they left the factory???
--
William Davies
1975 TR6 PI
CR6157-O
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