The following information was taken from various articles that appeared in the TR Drivers magazine in recent years. The articles were written by Rex Holford with input from Paul Towle. Rex and Paul are current and past TR8 Registrars respectively, for the TR Drivers Club.

This is an area where no definitive data seems to exist. Eventually we hope to publish paint and trim information by year of manufacture, as not all colours were offered over the whole production run. However this will require a much larger data base than we currently have. The research goes on......

• Paint Codes
• Trim Codes

In addition to the paint colour codes Rex has also included the range of touch-up paints that were/are available. Unfortunately some of these are becoming somewhat hard to obtain but he has highlighted the ones still available from Unipart. A word of warning, if you find a tin of touch-up paint or an aerosol in an autojumble, make sure it has not dried out and gone hard.

The following heading definitions should assist in understanding the table.

COLOUR

The colour designation given by BL as part of the TR7/8 range

COMM PLATE CODE

This is the paint code found on the commission plate (located on the driver#s door or suspension turret)

BLVC CODE

This was the code used by BL to indicate the paint colour on the vehicle's body record.

GAP NUMBER

This is the abbreviation for G'eneral A'erosol P'aint part number which although obsolete for some years can still be found on the shelves of some garages/accessory shops.

GTU NUMBER

This is the abbreviation for G'eneral T'ouch U'p paint part number, also obsolete as with the GAP number.

PNM NUMBER

This is the current rationalised number for the touch-up and aerosol paints. The suffix letter denotes what it is - i.e. suffix A denotes aerosol, suffix B denotes brush in lid can and suffix C denotes the touch-up pencil.

ALT CODE

In some cases an alternative code has been used on the commission plate to denote the colour. The reason for this I have been unable to ascertain.

AV

The colours denoted by *A or *AC in this column are the only ones currently available on the Unipart price list and should be used in conjunction with the PNM numbers.

Example

         Platinum Silver Metallic:

         Paint code on commission plate.............................MCA

         Alternative paint code....................................NONE

         Additional BL code.........................................216

         Obsolete aerosol can number.............................GAP629

         Obsolete touch-up pencil number....................Not offered

         Current aerosol can number..PNM6093A.......- available 2.41ukp

         Current touch-up pencil number..PNM6093C...- available 2.17ukp

         Current brush in can number..PNM6093B........no longer stocked

One myth that should be dispelled, is that of the TR8 only being fitted with the Velour interior. This is not the case. From the start of TR8 production in 1977, its interior remained similar to that of the TR7. The velour trim was first introduced half way through production at the Canley plant. Later, with the different door lock buttons, it was fitted to all U.K. specification Solihull built TR8's and European export TR7's. In the same way many of the Canadian and USA spec TR8's, sporting this interior would have had it fitted as a factory option. A similar, but not identical material was fitted to the Rover SDl and in a number of cases has found its way into both TR7's and TR7V8's. Sadly this material would have been more widely available had not B.L. decided to literally dump it. Rumour has it that it was used as curtain material - what a waste!!

The object of the following chart is to give a guide to the interior trim combinations compared with their year dates. It is accurate for the main stream production cars, but some pre-production, prototype or special edition cars may fall outside the year dates. The major change from Red/Green Tartan to Blue/Tan Check took place in March 1980 for UK cars and late 1979 for USA spec cars, but for the sake of simplicity only the year date of 1980 has been specified.

Table Notes:
A "yes" in the Data Plate column highlights which trim codes will be found on the commission plate. In addition the following acronyms apply to the Application Column.

         AR......Arm Rest and Gear Lever Gaiter

         BT......Boot Trim

         C.......Carpets

         DT......Door Trim

         H.......Hood and Cover (Convertible only)

         PT......Plastic Trim

         RL......Roof Lining & Sun Roof (Coupe only)

         RPS.....Rear Parcel Shelf (Coupe), Rear Bulkhead Cover & Side Panels

         S.......Seats

         V.......Visors

One item that may not be familiar to many people is the dark grey boot trim. This is in fact a one piece item covering both the bottom and sides of the boot. It seems to be made from an expanded polystyrene type material and so far has only been found it in the experimental cars (X925 and X919). If anyone has any knowledge of trims not covered by the above (excluding aftermarket retrimming) we would be very interested to hear from them.

NOTE on Prefixes:
During the late 1970's, Triumph used prefix letters on the Trim Codes in order to indicate the type of material used as follows:

	No Prefix  -  Leathercloth (Vinyl)

	H          -  Leather (Hide)

        C          -  Cloth

An example would be 'CAAA' which indicates a beige cloth interior.