TR2/3/3A Wooden piece under scuttle with dash

[jfcdo]

As I continue with the restoration of my 1955 TR 2, I find that there is a wooden piece under the scuttle where the dash mounts.

This piece follows the curve of the scuttle from side to side.

This piece is not in good shape and it would be quite a task to reproduce this piece.

Is there a good workaround for this or are these pieces available any where?

As always, any advice that anyone can offer is appreciated.

Thanks, JC

 

[CJD]

No work around that I know of. If you have a belt sander and a few other basic woodworking skills you can fab one pretty easily. Skip down to post #251 here and you will see how to do it:

https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcf/showthread.php?102796-Beginning-the-TR2-Bodywork/page7

 

[jfcdo]

Yes! Thank you. This is just what mine looks like.
Thanks for the link/post/photos/instructions.
Looks like I'm gonna be a carpenter for a while.
Thanks again, JC

 

[DavidApp]

Hello JC

Post photos of your progress so we can see how you are getting on. You may get advice from the carpenters on the forum.

I did enjoy following John as he worked through that section of his rebuild.

David

 

[CJD]

Hope it helps. I have been thinking about any other "work arounds" like you asked. I suppose you could use a composite (read plastic) material so you could fashion the initial block in a single piece. But either way you will have to spend a while with a sander to shape the ends. I also reviewed the build, since it's been about 5 years since I did mine. I see I also used a table saw and router...as additions to the tool list. You could live without a router by using the table saw and a daddo blade, but I think the table saw would be hard to do without.

After doing so much metal and greasy mechanical work on a restoration, I remember I enjoyed taking a break to do a week of woodwork. It's a nice diversion.

 

[jfcdo]

Thanks again for the support.
It seems that I will not need to fabricate this piece of wood.
The piece of wood came from under the scuttle of the original body.
As that original body was in pretty bad shape, I had to replace many of the pieces, including the scuttle.
I see now that the new scuttle does not need this piece of wood.
I had already begun to fabricate a new piece, or I should say I had someone begin to fabricate one.
As I was not confident that I would be able to do this myself, I brought a good piece of wood, hickory as I recall and the old piece to a local high school wood shop teacher and asked if he, with his students could reproduce this piece.
This project made for a great teaching/learning experience for all of them.
They got pretty close to completing this project and left the "fine tuning" of the project to me.
I remember the teacher saying that he was amazed that this piece had been part of a car and that so many of them had likely been produced, but we also observed that this was all done back in the 1950's.
Anyway, I put this story out there for those who are like me, who do not have a lot of wood working skills. I have a hard enough time with body work, although I have learned a lot from Frank Sargent's book "The Key to Metal Bumping".
Again, thanks to all who have chimed in on this thread.
JC

 

[sp53]

The tr2 shuttle is what makes the car because it does not have the pull vent. Triumph used the wood up until 1960 and the 1960 and up had a different hood with raised hinges and sheet metal to hold screws, so try the hood fit before you get to far. I am not sure and it might work out especially if you use the newer hood.


I saw John’s pictures on making a new wood frame basically all around the car and was impressed, and I am a carpenter. Anyways, the wood gets hidden, so a work around might be to just jig saw or band saw some ¾ high density plywood, and stick a couple those together for backing/ something to hold screws. Do you have an original tr2 hood?

steve