TR2/3/3A Frame/body centerline

Hello all, I'm back ''on my 62 tr3a. I understand that in the 60's these cars weren't assembled with robots and lasers..didn't fit..seems the assemblers just bent it to fit..but, were there factory references for centerline..had to be. What is the tag on the forward cross frame member? I figured I could use the center of that cross member for one point. Can I use the transmission mount center for another? This lines up pretty well with the gas tank filler but not with the trunk floor (I have replaced the entire floor from the firewall back). Any help would be really, really appreciated.

Did you replace the floor with the body still mounted on the frame? Were he inner sills OK?

Don't know how the body was originally assembled but it must have been on some kind of fixture but now all we have to keep everything in alignment is the frame.
You can find a diagram in the handbook for checking that the frame is straight. Consists of leveling the frame and dropping plum bobs from various points on the frame.

David

Years ago, we had a guest speaker at our local club, who had visited the factory "back when". He talked at length about how they just slapped the cars together, and how there were hammers being used everywhere to make things fit. He also talked about a worker walking from frame to frame with a big drill motor, poking holes in them with no pattern, no measurement, not even a center punch.

I really doubt they referenced anything for centerline.

The other comment I'll always remember is the fenders (sorry, wings) sitting outside in the rain with no paint, "Pre-rusting". According to him, they just slapped primer right over the rust and went on.

First, if you try to use only one point for a reference, you will be disappointed with the result. No point on the body can be trusted. The frame is much better, though.

Next, I think you will find once you start that you will be lucky to get the body on the frame at all the first try!! Once you line up the mounting bolts (loosely), the body will be set. You will have to work hard to alter the mounts if you need to shift the body on the frame. The mounts are truly that far off most of the time.

The points best concentrated on are:
1) The bumper mounting bolt through tubes in line with the corresponding holes in the frame.
2) The very front mounts on the side of the radiator

I commend you for replacing the horizontal sheet metal. It is no easy task. And Yeh sure there is a centerline just like in the human body--- plus the tr3s where supposed to be a highly well-balanced car on the frame, like the battery in the center and gas tank and so on, but like maintained above all those body holes and shims to fit very; you will get what you will get after you do your best with the Chinese parts.

The vertical part is the real challenge; like the doors and front fenders. For example if you are off just an ¼ with the A post weld that is a ½ inch in 2 feet going up and now going down horizontally with the door as it meets the sticker latch that ¼ will be ¾ of an inch up or down of maybe better if a lot of car was taking when fitting the back to the front of the car after the sills are replaced.

Anyways my suggestion if you have not already done it and ignore this if you are millwright or carriage builder, is to mount the tub the best you can with the suggested amounts of shims from the Moss catalog and then mount the front fenders and doors and see where you are at.

Excellent advice. Speaking from bitter experience I wish I had done exactly that sooner in my project. That may have saved me days of struggling and backtracking when I came to fit the doors and front wings.

When I got everything to fit I welded braces in the door gaps so nothing could move while the body came off for the work I had to do on the underside.

David

sp53 said:

Anyways my suggestion if you have not already done it and ignore this if you are millwright or carriage builder, is to mount the tub the best you can with the suggested amounts of shims from the Moss catalog and then mount the front fenders and doors and see where you are at.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the timely responses folks. I will take this out to the shop to digest and think. (I do a lot of that) I haven't had the tub off the frame yet. When I first got into this, it was a matter not of 'is there anything bad, but is there anything good'. I'm at the rear apron now. Been giving me fits..hence the alignment question. I'll get back. Maybe some pictures if I can figure it out

Like mentioned, those holes that hold rear bummer brackets on also bring into line the tub of the car to the frame. The long bolt that holds the bracket is critical to the frame being straight because drilling a new hole there would be difficult. Keep up the good work as therapy to this cold cruel world; the garage is better than reruns
Peace out

If you have not yet removed the body from the frame. Then I suggest you STRONGLY consider welding braces between the door openings. I as well welded bars from side to side to those braces in the doors. This provides a much better support once the body is off of the frame. If you weld the braces inside the body from the door openings rather than in the actual openings then you can test fit the doors later on with the braces in place. I used 1" square steel for these braces and found that it worked very nicely. Those braces do the most good if welded near the top of the door openings.

I used some Industrial shelving braces that I had on hand. Also I made a lifting rig so that there was little folding force applied to the body. It worked well and the chains allowed me to flip the body on it's side by my self.

David