One of the constant requests I hear as a long-time member of many British car clubs is that someone wants to buy a “driver-level” car that they can refurbish or restore as time goes on. Buying a car like that makes sense, because then one can still enjoy driving the car while gradually improving it. Rarely, however, do cars like that show up–but this car is a 1975 Triumph TR6 listed for sale here on eBay that fits that description perfectly. The seller will take $8,200 for the car now but offers are also being considered. The car is centrally located in Auburn, Kansas.
The clean, rugged lines of the Karmann-penned TR6 (from the original Michelotti center doors & windows) attract many folks of my generation. The seller has owned the car for almost 40 years and does a very good job of explaining their history with the car in the eBay listing. It has never been restored and has been garage-kept throughout current ownership. The seller has included links to seven short videos as well, giving a distant buyer a pretty good idea of how solid this car is. The only non-stock item I can see on the car is the black wheels; they were originally painted silver. Eastwood Warm Silver spray paint works really well!
Not that it’s without faults; the seller mentions a door crease that has also bent the fender slightly (a replacement white door is included) and a “crunched” area around the driver’s side headlight shown above. Depending on your willingness to complete body repair, it might be easier to purchase a new fender (still available from factory tooling thanks to British Motor Heritage) or find a suitable used one. Thankfully, as all four fenders unbolt relatively easily from a TR6 this repair is perfectly feasible for a home tinkerer.
The seller even includes pictures of the frame. The really vulnerable parts of a TR6 frame are the rear trailing arm mounts and the differential mounts; the seller states they have hundreds of additional pictures, so I’m sure they could send you pictures of those two spots. Nothing I see in the pictures that are shown in the auction scare me in the slightest.
The interior of the car looks original, but a bit tired in spots. Again, this is something you could live with for years, and since high-quality reproductions are now available, replacement of components could come in bits and pieces. Surprisingly, the wooden dash looks pretty decent; that further boosts the validity of the indoor storage claim as the sun can wreak havoc on the original finish and veneer.
Mechanically, the car seems pretty solid and the seller recently rebuilt the carburetors. They do mention that the tapered pin that holds the release bearing carrier in place on the transmission cross-shaft is probably broken and that they have temporarily spaced the slave cylinder with washers to compensate so the car can be driven. While this is a transmission-out job to replace (and it comes out through the interior), it is a one-weekend job and parts are pretty inexpensive. I would replace the clutch and examine the thrust washers while I was there, however. If you complete the job yourself, you are still looking at less than $500 spent. In my opinion, even if you pay the buy it now price, you are getting more than your money’s worth with this solid near-driver. And if you are thinking seriously about this car, why not pair it with the overdrive transmission from this 1969 currently being auctioned here! Yes, you will have to convert the mount from J-type to A-type, but that is easy to do and directions can be found online!
Good car, good price.
Wish it was in green and in better shape. Would be a great stablemate to my MG.
I ran a shop that specialized in TR cars 2 thru 6.
That driver’s door is in that condition because the door opening check rod failed, allowing the door to open too far. Once that has happened, it’s best to replace the front fender as well, as the fender must come off to access the edge from the back side, and once repaired it’s often difficult to get the fender to line up with the replacement door.
This looks like a decent deal! And yes to adding the Laycock overdrive, it’s money well spent, and the original trans has to come out anyway.
We have repaired many British cars with door damage like this. Pretty easy to do and on the TR 6 a lot easier as the factory door seams never seemed to look right. A replacement door is likely to be more difficult to align than fixing the dent. A lot of the cars cars had leather or fabric straps which always rubbed through and broke causing the same damage.
Bob, you are so right when you talk about the factory body panel fit, especially the fenders to doors.
In this case, since both the door and fender need to come off, and because of the additional multiple damage points at the front of the fender, the amount of time trying to make this fender like new again, plus with the new BMIHT fenders being fairly reasonable in cost [around $600 last I checked], I still think replacement is a better idea.
The Tr4 thru 6 door checks were poorly designed at the attachment point with the door post, having a small hole at the end of the flat check bar where a steel pin was installed, connecting it to the post. Problem was, the pivot hole is too close to the end of the part, and the end typically fractured, allowing the pin to fall out and the door would then open too far, striking the fender edge. Instead of replacing the check rod with a new one that would fail the same way, we would weld a washer over the broken end, solving the problem.
Concerning the leather & fabric limiting straps, most were worthless, especially when they used a couple of 1″ wood screws to secure them at each end, anchoring into wooden body supports, not steel. We had a Beardmore taxi in limo/wedding service, and those damn door limiting straps required replacing on a regular basis, even after installing longer screws.