Although I had no intention of painting the Triumph, I couldn’t let the nice looking engine reside in squalor. So, the I painted the engine bay and also the trunk, which got a new floor. The color – which I bought from TCP Global, was meant to be the original color, Carmine Red.

As you can see, it is much darker than the exterior of the car. I’m not sure if that is due to the age and condition of the original paint or because the formulation is just off. If I decide to paint any part of the exterior (and I am thinking of painting the hood) I will head down to Meza Paint in Escondido and see if they can match my weathered exterior color.

With a little help from friends we dropped the body onto the chassis. In retrospect I should have measured the height of each mounting point on the frame and adjusted with the spacers as needed. Instead I reinstalled the same number of spacers that were on the car when it was disassembled. The right front corner, measured at the top of the headlight ring is just slightly higher. It is hardly noticeable but perhaps one more spacer at the front would have been perfect. On the other hand, the doors fit nicely and work well, so maybe it shouldn’t be messed with.

Since I was going to be producing a little more heat with the added power, I decided to use an electric fan and build a shroud for it so that it would draw air through the entire radiator core. I bought the shallowest fan I could find and it fit, just barely. At the end of these TR6 rebuild articles I will make a list of all the parts I bought, and total cost for the project.