On Wed, 25 Oct 1995, TeriAnn Wakeman wrote:
> 1. Is the center of your front apron above the grill smoothly rounded or is
> there an "upper lip" just above the grill
>
> 2. How certain are you that this is the original front apron?
>
> 3. What is your commision number?
TS71909L; ribbed letters, lip, original (quite certain)
TS80315L; smooth letters, no lip, original (pretty sure)
TCF1564L; smooth letters, no lip, original (gotta believe it!)
TSxxxL (early pre-60000 TR3A); ribbed letters, lip, original
> Over the years I have been listening to people arguing about the TR3A front
> apron. Some say its supposed to be smoothly rounded down to the grill and
>those
> that aren't have been damaged. Others say there is an "upper lip" and the
>ones
> that are rounded are bondoed.
>
>
> My working theory is that the original front valance tool had the "upper
>lip".
> It broke or got worn out somewhere in the production run and was replaced by
> another tool. They built a tool with a single simple curve because it was
> cheaper than a compound curve. I think that this tool change was never
> documented because it was the same part number.
>
> From my small sampling of 6 or 7 TR3s it looks like the changeover
happened
> somewhere around TS64000. Unfortunatly, I have no way of knowing if any of
>the
> front aprons had been swaped out at some time. Who knows maybe the apron
>change
> was an undocumented part of the TS60000 changes?
I think I'm mostly with you on your theory. I noticed a later message
seemed to peg it somewhere not too far after my own TS71909L. It would be
a pretty expensive piece either way; if the older tools wore out, say,
mid-1960, it might well have made sense to come up with a new, slightly
cheaper-to-make apron. I also suspect that this is when the smaller,
smooth letters came to be placed on the apron, to commonise with other
models (such as the Herald) using the same letter set. This theory is
borne out by my own small sample, but I wouldn't stake my life on it.
Along similar lines, people for years have also argued about front aprons
with NO letters. I know some people swear this is how their cars came
from Coventry, but I tend to suspect that a no-letter apron more likely
was the "standard" spares condition by the mid-1960s, perhaps to
accommodate either set of letters -- ribbed or smooth. The holes for each
set, of course, are quite different. Ribbed letters have pairs of
horizontal holes, except for the "T" and "T". Smooth letters have
somewhat more "random" hole patterns, depending on the letter.
The only reference point I have to back up the non-original "no letters"
front apron is this: my ex-brother-in-law's TR3B (TCF1621L, I think) had
no letters on the front apron. However, when he and I first went to look
at it, we looked it over very closely, as the semi-metallic
not-quite-apple green color was definitely non-stock. As I recall, it was
rather easy to find the reddish primer color on the underside of the
apron -- the same color used to prime replacement sheet metal for so many
years.
So, there you have it. Hope that helps.
Andy Mace
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