[TR] bolts below taillights?, without cage-nuts ok?

[MMoore8425 at aol.com]

Paul,
As I recall, there is a metal strap with a tapped hole in one end, or  
something like that. better check a parts book. Seems to me like a nut and bolt  on 
each side would be just fine.
I will now philosophize a bit and tell you my thinking. I bought my TR used  
in 1963 and paid $400 for it. I was in my barely 20's at the time, and  
struggling. I did things however it suited me! My bent in that direction  was 
reinforced by the local Triumph dealer in Glendale NEVER having the parts I  needed, 
so I got in the habit of improvising.
My car was not very correct. As I got older and worked on the car myself, I  
got in the habit of trying to always do things as they were from the  factory 
if at all possible.
 
Over the years, I restored maybe half a dozen different British cars.  But 
one car really impressed me most after I bought it restored-sort  of!
 It was a short wheelbase 1970 XJ  (forerunner of the XJ6). I  bought it from 
the college professor who had spent years restoring it. It wasn't  a show car 
by US standards, but he had done everything exactly per the  factoryparts 
manual. Whenever I took something apart, there would always be the  appropriate 
washers, many were replacements. I loved working on the car because  even 
though the paint might be worn (it was original), it was clean and had  exactly the 
correct parts no matter how buried the location was. I even  wrote the 
previous owner (who became a close friend) a letter explaining  what a pleasure it 
was to work on the car in areas I knew he had been  previously (he took careful 
notes and had excellent records of the history of  the car). When the drivers 
side seat bottom wore out, he had just that seat  bottom replaced, not an 
entire new interior.
Anyway, ever since then, I have always had the thought that whoever works  on 
my cars someday understands the care i took in doing everything as correctly  
as I could. Silly, but that's my way of thinking!
Good Luck!
Mike Moore
59 TR3A
 



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