[TR] Dealer vs Factory Options

[John Macartney]

I wouldn't disagree with anything in general terms in what Nolan has said. Perhaps the only query 
I'd raise (pedantic) concerns the hardtops. Cars ordered with them were shipped with them fitted. 
Hardtop kits (as identified by a part number from the Parts Division) were usually shipped as a 
basic steel shell in primer paint with all the necessary fittings - viz listing bars, headliner, 
glass, seals, clamps etc. If a TR owner wanted a hardtop, this was usually made up by the dealer 
bodyshop and painted in either a matching colour to the car or something entirely different. This is 
why they stayed in primer.

As for the transit damage issues, these were often major and from what Nolan has said, little 
appears to have changed. Triumph-wise, we're talking (mostly) of times when ordinary 
non-containerised cargo ships were used and not the Ro-Ro (roll on roll off) vessels of today. 
Because the boats took a range of cargoes and not just cars, it wasn't unusual for timber packing 
crates to go below decks in rope slings, with the cars going on open deck in all weathers. After a 
few weeks sitting on a flooded WW2 airfield transit park waiting for payment to be set up and then 
up to a week or ten days in the full force of a winter Atlantic storm, it can be reasonably be 
argued that the rust started round about then :)

Earlier shipments in the 50's and early 60's of sidescreen TR's, cars were usually shipped without 
windscreens, soft tops or bumpers and had only the normal factory tonneau to cover the cockpit. The 
front and rear ends had timber baulks fitted and these were ideal as pushers. I've seen several pix 
of new TR3's at Liverpool and Southampton, bumper to bumper along the dockside, with the last car in 
the row pushing perhaps 10 or 15 cars in front, so the clutch was 'well used' by the time the first 
owner got it. Movement was on a one-at-a-time basis as the car rolled on to a cradle and was craned 
up on to the top deck. Yes, sometimes they fell off - but they were always put on board, unless they 
actually went in the dock itself.  Mostly, really badly damaged cars (assessed by the ship's crew) 
were sited close to the ships rails and pushed overboard in international waters. Marine Insurance 
picked up the loss and usually by a note in the manifest of 'bad weather' 'freak wave' or 'broken 
deck lashings.'

Oh Happy Days

Jonmac