TR2/3/3A TR3 Hood Sticks Refurb.

[mountainman]

I would like to take apart my hood stick [ convertible top frame] so that it can be sanded and painted. Does anyone know where or if the large rivets? that hold it togehter can be found.
Thanks
Greg

 

[PeterK]

I blasted and painted mine without taking it apart. Came out like new.

 

[prb51]

Sounds like the hard way. I suspect you could powder coat everything with it still together.
If you paint as soon as you put it back together it will wear where it comes into contact so I don't think you'd be making any extra headway by taking it apart.

 

[TR4nut]

Had mine powder coated - they blasted it for me and it came out nice - just needed to work the pivot areas a little to free things up but it is very functional now.

 

[Mkutz]

I just did mine, in fact I put a second coat of paint on them last night. Didn't have to take it apart. I soaked each end in Purple Power for 24 hours each which thoroughly stipped all the pain around the pivot points. Sanded down the bow parts (read, the easy part) and then primed and painted it. Looks new if you ask me...

 

[tinman58]

Hoodstick! What do you need a hoodstick for?
I don't even have a real windshield!

 

[Perrymip]

One needs to use the hoodstick cover for something.

 

[toysrrus]

Howdy Folks,

What would the Orig. color be on a `57TR3?

Thanx, Russ

 

[Tinkerman]

If your talking about the hood sticks my understanding(without going to the judging manual) was that they were painted the same color as the body. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Tinkerman

 

[PeterK]

That's the concensus. On an early 3, they were painted on the body.

 

[DougF]

Dick is correct. The hoodsticks and mounting screws are to be painted body color, except for some late cars which were painted either black or buff.
There was a buff colored furflex strip glued to the top half of the front hood stick bow, which is not necessary if you are planning to show your car.

 

[martx-5]

Dick is correct. The hoodsticks and mounting screws are to be painted body color, except for some late cars which were painted either black or buff.

My car, TS23xxx had the hoodsticks painted red, the same as the body. When I put on a post 60k body tub, I painted the hood sticks black...of course, the car is painted black also, so I got it right no matter what!

 

[GilsTR]

My car is TS 74568 and Signal Red (original Red-Head) and the
original hood sticks were black. This year took them off and
had them powder coated...again black. Wonderful job. Think
they will wear much longer than regular painted bows.
On putting it all back together...found the only real challenge to be in getting the position of the webbing to be
so that each bow would close as possible match up with the
seams in the new Robbins top. Looks pretty good now.
Good luck, Gil

 

[ekamm]

I did the same hand sanded down the old paint without taking it apart. Wasn't too hard, primed and painted it. It came out great. I went black even though that wasn't the correct as my car is primrose yellow. Not too worried about correctness and I'm eventually going with a black top just thought that with the black webbing it would look better.

 

[DougF]

Another small point. My original webbing is a buff color. Unfortunately, I have never see anything but black being offered as replacement. Maybe a fabric store would carry it. Fortunately, mine is in good condition.

 

[tdskip]

Had mine powder coated - they blasted it for me and it came out nice - just needed to work the pivot areas a little to free things up but it is very functional now.

Good thread guys.

So "just" open it all the way up, blast it, and then powder coat without taping joints off? Is the idea that the joints kinds of seal themselves for the powder coat application anyway?

Any ballpark pricing on this? My local shops would be over $200 for this I bet.

 

[martx-5]

As nice as powder coating is, most times I just can't understand or justify the expense involved. An item such as the hood sticks is not subjected to any sort of harsh environment and paint will work just fine. My original hood sticks had a few chips here and there, but that was after 40+ years. I just sanded them down, primed and rattle can painted. Total expense...about eight bucks. And easy to repair in the future...40+ years from now.

 

[Mkutz]

During the course of stripping mine, I learned that the bows were painted the color of the car. The car's number is TS61641L and was built in Nov 1959.

 

[Tinkerman]

Doug, I got buff colored webbing from TRF their part# 551864/TAN.

Tinkerman

 

[TR4nut]

So "just" open it all the way up, blast it, and then powder coat without taping joints off? Is the idea that the joints kinds of seal themselves for the powder coat application anyway?

Any ballpark pricing on this? My local shops would be over $200 for this I bet.

I didn't get to see the actual powder coat operation, so can't say how they did it - but in Houston we have 'Allied Powder Coating' which is a pretty big operation handling commercial and private stuff. I pooled some parts with a couple of other club members to cut costs - and the club member who brought the stuff to Allied did qc by checking the hoodsticks - they needed to be taken back and recoated for a couple of bare places - mainly areas that were hidden with the hoodstick in one fixed position. $75 all in, blasting included - I was very impressed with both cost and quality given that the hoodsticks looked pretty grungy before application. I think we had in total about 3 valve covers, 2 hoodsticks, and a few suspension pieces and the total came to around $200.