TR2/3/3A front body mounts

I had posted about the front body mounts before and had put it aside for awhile. I went back thru the comments from that post and went back and tried to pull the driver side mounting holes into position along with fudging the passenger side holes to try and find a happy medium. All I was able to do was move the problem to somewhere else. If I got the holes to work it threw the inner sills off along with the floor pans and the transmission cover.The driver side mount seemed to be twisted but there is no sign of the sheetmetal reinforcements having any damage. Pulling the driver side seemed to put some stress on the firewall. How ever much I moved the mounting flange is how much the firewall bowed. I decided to line up as much as possible without the driver side mounting bolts. The passenger side mounted up 100 % floor pan, inner sill, transmission cover, and front body mounts. The driver side is almost that good, There are a couple of holes in the floor pan that will need to be stretched. The stamping of the driver side is not as good as the passenger side. Inner sills line up, transmission cover is ok but the body mounts are what is off.
Passenger side body panels
Driver side body panels
Front bonnet , apron alignment
Rear bonnet , scuttle alignment
The wings and apron have only a few bolts , the bonnet is just sitting in place. All of the body panels will need repairs and adjustments.
This is the mis alignment
This is the template for the repair
Body mount flange removed
Body mount repair flange.
Body mount flange tacked in place.
Body mount welded and trimmed.
Body mount finished with mounting pads as per the service manual.
I don't know if this was a good decision but this way I only had one battle to fight. If down the road it is a problem I can easily cut off what I added and move the holes back to where they were. Frank

All your panel gaps look good so hopefully this won't come back to bite later on.

Graham

Looking great Frank yes all those panels look great. I went through that problem and did not try your method of re-holing it. I wish I would have. Heck I had sleever bars pulling and pushing and rotor files taking off metal what pain. Well the good news your trans tunnel looks nice in the picture. Maybe you will not need to remake that

Thanks Steve, I trust yours and John’s comments to my original post and that made my decision that much harder. Sometimes you have to get off the pot and make a decision. I have analyzed this repair to death. I remembered John saying the body panels are what matter and that led me to put the body panels on to get an idea where I was. I hope it works out. The transmission tunnel was probably the best part on the car. Only minor repairs to the bottom flange. Frank

That's what I like about your work Frank...top notch. When I got to that point I likely would have just opened up the original hole. Your way is much more professional, though. Keep up the good work!

Thank you John, this sure does put my mind at ease. I wasn’t to keen going against your advice but wasn’t having any luck trying to flex things in place. It will take someone pretty sharp to notice that the driver flange is a little wider than the other flange. Still looking forward to working on the body panels, but that is still a ways off. Frank

The way I did things is not the only, or even the "best" way. The goal is to accumulate enough techniques that you can work through to the end. Your techniques tool box is pretty decked out at this point! Don't worry about anyone noticing that mount, as the carbs totally hide the passenger side. The driver side isn't much better once the steering column is in place.

The gaps all look great.

What I did not do that was probable a mistake was at your stage I did not get it all bolted up like it should have been. I just put in a few bolts then later when I bolted the inner wings down at the front and the inner wings to the apron I had a fight to get it all aligned.
At that point It was painted so I was kind of stuck pushing and shoving to get it all aligned. It looks OK but it was a struggle.

David