Registry: 1960 Triumph TR3A

I was 21 and my brother was 19 when we painted the car in the spring of 1971. We did a decent job and tried a paint scheme that we thought was "cool". Looked good from 20 ft.Then a month later, in July of 1971, we drove it out to Yellowstone National Park and back from Northern KY, in just one weeks time. The car was originally fitted with the stamped steel wheels and the "skinny" bias belt tires. They were worn and I needed a new set before we took off on this trip. I went over to the Triumph Dealer in Cincinnati, Ohio, to get a new set of tires. After getting there and describing my desires, they showed me a set of NEW CHROME rims, made by Rader. Needless to say I bought them and went to a tire dealer and had a set of radial tires put on. Those are what you see in the pictures. We camped along the way and were being as economical as possible (my money was tight after paying for the paint materials, new rims and tires),. We had 2 breakdowns along the way. They were both related to one of the carburetors flooding out, due to the float needle and seat having stripped treads. I had some gasket maker in the tool kit I took along, put some on the damaged threads and this worked for a short time. The final fix, that lasted the rest of the trip, was tearing a very small piece from one of my T- shirts and soaking this in the gasket maker, wrapping it around the damaged treads and screwing the seat assembly back in. One of the many creative things I had to do over the years in owning a LBC. On our return trip through Nebraska, the car started to shake and as we got closer to KY, it was shaking quite vigorously. After thinking about this, I think this might have started after we hit a really big pot hole around dusk. It was about 1 1/2 feet in diameter and about 4 inches deep. I had a trunk rack, that was held on by suction cups and a strap. After hitting this hole, which my brother didn't see, we were shocked at the "BANG" and then the trunk rack and the Coleman stove and other items flew off the car and skidded down the road, grinding off 2 of the rubber suction cups and we saw sparks as it skid across the road. We made it home, but found we lost the rear universal joint. There was a lot to do to go check out my car after such a fun and grueling 1 week trip, over about 3500 miles. A trip I will always remember, as my brother passed away in July of 2015.
After getting home I went over to the local, Cincinnati, Ohio Triumph dealer to see about getting my carburetors repaired. Back then, in 1971, as we all know, getting parts was horrible from the Triumph dealers. They didn't have any parts for the TR3 carbs. However they had a set of used TR4 Strombergs, which I traded (even up - no cost). Luckily they had the universal joints. I was able to get it back up and running with these 2 repairs. Being 21 at the time, along with the replacement parts issues from Triumph, I didn't have much choice in going this direction with the carb issue.
The Stromberg carbs, stayed on my car until 1986, when I took it out of storage from the garage, at my mothers house
Then in 1986, I wanted to go back to the original SU carbs. At this same time, I had a 1967 175CC Bridgestone Motorcycle and I put an advertisement in the Cincinnati Enquirer, that I wanted to buy a set of TR3A carbs. After someone called me about this, we got to talking and he said he had a set. He also had an original tan factory convertible top, which had a small tear in it (I still have this top and hope to see about getting it repaired someday) and other misc items. After telling him about my Bridgestone motorcycle, we decided to do a trade. Now I had a set of period correct carbs and I rebuilt them. We both went away very happy with our items.That trip, was the highlight of my ownership of this car to date .My car had been in a minor front end accident, prior to 69 when I bought it. Luckily, no frame work or front suspension damage. Passenger side front fender, however looks to have been replaced as it did not fit the car. I wonder if this was an oem fender or a repro. The problem is that it did not fit well at all. A lot of cutting, trial fitting & welding to get it to allign with the rest of the body panels. Front cowl, drivers side fender and inner fender had minor damage. A poor repair overall was made back in the 60's. I have been working through all of this. Also made repairs to the seat frames. Found cracks around the holes where they were bolted to the seat rails and twisted seat backs. Added stiffeners to correct this. See a couple posts where I addressed these problems.

PS - I am adding additional information to this description as I remember things and there will be updates.