Re-painting grill

[trchris]

Hi I’m about to re- paint the grill on my 250 fortunately it’s original but has, by the previous owner, already been spruced up  however not particularly well. Does the black cover the whole of the slat up to the bend ? at present it stops approximately 5mm short and l take it it’s matt black? not the gloss it is at present.
Chris 

[Tim T]

It is up to the bend and certainly not gloss. I did mine matt.

Tim

[trchris]

Thanks Tim

Chris

[trchris]

Does anyone know if there was a silverish finish applied prior to the black on the grill as by the looks of mine ,which has dulled,it looks like the base metal is showing through in places 

Chris

[Tim T]

I just keyed the surface with some scotchbrite and then sprayed with Hammerite and it has lasted about 5 years so far.

Tim

[Peter V W]

I think the base metal is silver looking, then the black is added.

Peter

Edited September 3, 2025 by Peter V W

[trchris]

Mine has the more rounded slats not the sharp folds like Peters above possibly because it’s the original 250 ? Anyway l can now do as Tim and use a silver spray before applying the Matt black after etch priming first of course 

Chris

[rcreweread]

I'm pretty sure the base metal silver colour is the silver anodising process which will have gone over the whole grill and then the black applied to the rear of the slats -I've got part of a genuine TR5 grill here and the black on the back of the slats looks to be satin black, not matt. The black also goes on the vertical strengtheners between the slats and also extends , on the top slat, all the way to the top of much beeper top slat.

As far as I'm aware, the rounded slats were only fitted to the earlier 4As, and then during production, changed to the sharp edge slat which was followed through on the TR250 and 5 - the only physical difference on the TR250/5 grill is the deletion of the starting handle hole - if your 250 has rounded edge slats and a starting handle hole, then its an early TR4A one which someone has swapped over in it's past

Cheers Rich C-R

[Tim T]

1 hour ago, trchris said:

Mine has the more rounded slats not the sharp folds like Peters above possibly because it’s the original 250 ? Anyway l can now do as Tim and use a silver spray before applying the Matt black after etch priming first of course 

Chris

Chris, I did not use any silver, just a light key and Hammerite satin black.

Tim

[trchris]

Hi Rich it has no starting handle hole and is as identical to almost all the 5s I’ve seen except the fold doesn’t look as sharp , it is a very early 250. I’ve since found out there were 2 different manufacturers?? 

Tim sorry mis-understood I’ll persist with a scotch brite and metal polish to get an reasonable finish on the exposed faces

Chris

Edited September 3, 2025 by trchris

[rcreweread]

31 minutes ago, trchris said:

Hi Rich it has no starting handle hole and is as identical to almost all the 5s I’ve seen except the fold doesn’t look as sharp , it is a very early 250. I’ve since found out there were 2 different manufacturers?? 

Tim sorry mis-understood I’ll persist with a scotch brite and metal polish to get an reasonable finish on the exposed faces

Chris

Chris - that could well explain it - one never stops learning - the difficulty is remembering what you should have learnt!

Cheers Rich

 

[stuart]

Very early 250s especially those built pre TR5 production do often have bits of 4a being used up. 

Stuart.

 

[TR4Tony VC]

8 hours ago, trchris said:

Mine has the more rounded slats not the sharp folds like Peters above possibly because it’s the original 250 ? Anyway l can now do as Tim and use a silver spray before applying the Matt black after etch priming first of course 

Chris

The rounded profile is actually for the TR4a. The angled grill as shown in Peter V W’s pick above was used toward the end of the TR4a production run from the beginning of May 1967 when the first TR250 and TR5’s were being assembled and tested via the prototype cars. All TR250’s and TR5’s had this later grill as far as I am aware.

Certainly easier to mark up and paint this later grill!

Regards

Tony 

[trchris]

Hi Tony indeed a lot easier to mask. I have found some earlier posts ( 2010) and some results from the USA and there is mention of slightly round slats on 250 and 5 grills, so l don’t think it’s uncommon and no real answer as to why. Once I’ve finished paint stripping, the previous owner used red oxide primer and heavy black gloss ,l will post a picture .

Chris

my theory is the early cars had grills modified using the old stock 4a grills or as the USA guy’s mentioned different manufacturers?

Edited September 4, 2025 by trchris

[stuart]

2 hours ago, trchris said:

my theory is the early cars had grills modified using the old stock 4a grills 

Thats a definite possibility as Triumph never had any money and used up anything they could lay their hands on.

Stuart.

[TR4Tony VC]

3 hours ago, trchris said:

Hi Tony indeed a lot easier to mask. I have found some earlier posts ( 2010) and some results from the USA and there is mention of slightly round slats on 250 and 5 grills, so l don’t think it’s uncommon and no real answer as to why. Once I’ve finished paint stripping, the previous owner used red oxide primer and heavy black gloss ,l will post a picture .

Chris

my theory is the early cars had grills modified using the old stock 4a grills or as the USA guy’s mentioned different manufacturers?

Normally I’d say that could happen but both the late 4a’s I had some years ago (one was very original when I got it) had the later grill and all of the various prototypes I’m aware of had the same later grill, so I suspect the one you have has been added later - the tell tale will be the starter handle indent in the middle - no TR5 or TR250 grill had this and it was a blacked off flat section.

Regards

Tony 

[trchris]

Hi Tony there is no starter handle hole and it seems a heavier gauge of aluminium as you say it might have been replaced before it got to the uk at some point in its life,  it’ll get spruced up and refitted. I will post some pictures and like I’ve said they don’t seem to be old ball as others have referenced them in past posts.

Chris

[trchris]

Here’s some pictures midway through paint stripping note scratches from previous owners original stripping of grill hopefully the etch primer will cover 

Chris

Edited September 4, 2025 by trchris

[TR4Tony VC]

Hers another one I’ve pinched from eBay - this is a late 4a grill, with the angular slat and the starting handle cut out.

[trchris]

After a hours of stripping , polishing then a morning of masking using a vernier gauge, coat of etch primer 2 coats of Matt black the grills back on and looks 100% better than before so worth the extra effort 

Chris

[Kenrow]

This article was written by Jan Steenbeek, TR Register Holland:

The Riddle of the Rounded Slat Grilles on TR250 and TR5.pdf

[rcreweread]

As far as I am aware. what I find interesting about this topic is that early TR4As, with the starting handle hole, had the rounded slats  and it was later ones which were fitted with the angular slats - I can say this with a degree of confidence as I have three very original and unrestored 4As which support this view.

One would have expected therefore that the carry over to the TR250/5 production would have been the later angular slatted version - incidentally, none of my original grills had any black paint on the rear of the slats as per the norm for TR5 ones.

Photos attached show the difference in the slat profiles if you look closely.

I will be taking some of these refurbished grills to Stoneleigh (Stand 330C in Hall 2A) so you can have a closer look and buy if necessary ( Bargain at £250 ono )- I understand the company who had started remaking these a few years ago has now stopped so the supply of these may get more scarce.

Cheers Rich C-R

[trchris]

11 hours ago, Kenrow said:

This article was written by Jan Steenbeek, TR Register Holland:

The Riddle of the Rounded Slat Grilles on TR250 and TR5.pdf 755.94 kB · 10 downloads

Thanks Ken for posting this article it looks like l have one of these earlier 250 grills mentioned it’s good to get a ending to the saga

Chris