Tiddly Fiddly TR6

Pinky White bought his 1971 TR6 in 2003, at which point it was a fairly standard car that needed a respray and a tidy up. It is fair to say that he has gone considerably further than that, building a beautiful car with a myriad of subtle tweaks (‘tiddly fiddly’ jobs as he describes them), plus one or two modifications that are rather more obvious.

This was my first TR, though I’d had other classics in the past. I didn’t really know how the TR community would react to the changes I’ve made, but I’ve met various owners over the years and some are very traditional and won’t even use two-pack paint, while others go over the top and stick a BMW engine in there. I am somewhere in between – I have made changes, but gone out of my way to make sure it doesn’t look over the top.

Some of those changes are fairly typical. For example the dash was plain wood, so I fitted a kit that had a more elaborate grain. I also took out all the instrument bezels because the paint was scratching off and repainted them black as per the factory, but fitted blue LED lights to the instruments – the original bulbs were useless, but the LEDs really make the dials stand out at night without hurting your eyes. The rheostat for the instrument illumination was pretty useless too, so I recessed the clock into that spot and to me it looks like Triumph could have put it there originally. I also changed the ammeter for a voltmeter.

I do like my music (rock music if you wanted to know, and it seems to suit the TR6!) and so upgrading the sound system was always on my list. However, I wanted to ensure that any changes I made were relatively unobtrusive and didn’t look stupid. So first I reinforced the panel in front of the fuel tank to allow 5in speakers to go in – Triumph put a reinforcing strap across that which restricts access, so I had to cut this out and reinforce the panel further back. There is an amplifier behind one seat and an electronic bass box behind the other, and nine speakers dotted throughout the car, though you can’t spot them too easily. This means I can hear the music as I drive along, even though at my age (63 if you wanted to know that too!) I no longer feel the need to share it with every passer by.