TR2/3/3A TR3A tub assembly

[Frank Canale]

This is a quick update on the progress, slow as it is. At this point progress is slow going but I think I am back on track. The middle of my car was mostly rotten and so there are no references as there were on other areas of repair.

The back half has been on and off several times and goes back on and lines up easily. The rear body mount bolts line ou as well as the rear over rider distance tubes line up as well. These mounting bolts have no stress on them so I feel pretty confident that the back is in place. The floor pans have been adjusted and some stretching of mounting holes as well as completely filling holes that were off too much to stretch. ( I am not a fan of stretching holes but this seems to be an accepted practice in this area soI am OK with it to a point). The prop shaft tunnel was fabricated long ago and finally get to put something that I made on the car. The fit at the vertical panel where it fits over the flange is a little tighter than I planned but it goes together with a couple of taps with a rubber mallet. Kick board ( not sure if that is the right term ) is clecoed to the floor pans. The driver B post is original and seems to fit well and the door frame closes well so I will leave it clamped for now. The passenger side B post is from a doner car the PO planned to use, Original B post did not come with the car. This was the one I had to do some repair to and seems I need to make an adjustment to make it fit better. The B post sticks out a little too much so more measuring and looking at that to form a plan of attack.

Transmission cover Fits and lines up well. All of the alignment is based on a string running down the center of the car.

Door gaps are not great but ok, very early for that but must be check to be in the ball park. Front and back gaps roughly 3/16" area at the scuttle 1/4"+. Not sure how I am going to close that up. Later down the road.

Much happier with driver side, front and back also 3/16". Gap at the scuttle a little tight like the other side early to be deciding about door gaps. Door closes nicely. For a quick reference I have a level app on my phone. I dont use it to determine the angle of something but to compare angles. bottom edge of door frame compared to the inner sill both are the same and both sides are the same . As before mentioned I feel I am in the ball park but progressing slowly before we start to think about tacking or welding. Any comments are appreciated as I am in uncharted territory for me. Frank

 

[Graham H]

Hello Frank, do your floor panels have the captive nuts for the seat runners? To fill the scuttle to door gap on the passenger side will depend on how the door skin fits but you can always add a bit of weld to the edge to build it up. Looks like it's time to get serious about joining her together, looking good.

Graham

 

[Frank Canale]

Thank you Graham, Yes the floor pans have the captive nuts for the seat runners. I think the floor pans came from TRF and were made in England. The PO seemed to get his parts from them and they came with the car. I think this started as a project and they realized the car was too far gone and dumped it on me. I am committed to bringing the old girl back to life how ever long it takes. Frank

 

[sp53]

Frank fits better than my car on the inside floor. Your shifting tunnel fits perfect on the floor and firewall at the same time. The kick panel and the straight edge of the inner sills stay true as the sills goes from front to back, nice. This puts you well in the “you got this” weld it up camp. It looks great Frank; I understand the amount of work you did ---that is very nice job with a complicated beginning.

Steve

 

[CJD]

I like what I see. Can the passenger "A" post be coaxed into coming down 1/8"? I think that would even up the scuttle to door spacing. The driver side may actually be a bit close, but you can make it up when the skin goes on.

 

[Frank Canale]

yes you are correct the passenger side needs to come down and the driver side is a little tight. The driver side scuttle arch needs some repair to it. It looks like during this cars multiple paint jobs the edge of the arch has been ground so thin it is mostly separated from the under side flange. This will be looked at as a way of even up that gap area. The down side to this area is the limited access to the back side to do any hammer and dolly work or to clean it in preparation to be welded.next week should be a little cooler and hope to get more time to work on this area. Frank

 

[DavidApp]

To check to see if the scuttle needs to come down on the passenger side check the alignment from the rear. See if the front and back line up. If I had done that I may have spotted that the drivers side is a little high.

David

 

[Graham H]

The highest point of the driver door frame where it is almost touching the scuttle looks to have more metal where the skin will bend over than the rest of the curve. Have you had the lefthand fender fitted with the door to check the gap, it just looks like it may be a little tight?
My door gaps finished at about 1/8" which I think is as tight as you can get them any less and they would bind on the fenders at the front.
I lost count of the number of times I put them on and took them off. Plenty of fun to have yet.

Graham

 

[Frank Canale]

Yes the left hand fender has been on and front and rear gap is ok at roughly 3/16". I need to play with the fenders some to get a better idea of what can be adjusted and what will need to be added to or taken away. Yes I am getting used to putting on and taking off the door frames and the fenders. This is just part of learning how all the panels work together to get it to look right. I have to saw much more fun than repairing rust. Frank

 

[CJD]

Compared to the rest of the car, the front fenders don't have the built in adjustability that the other panels have. The for/aft spacing of the front fenders is set by the line of bolts in the front door jam area. You can hammer and bend to get 1/8" of for/aft adjustment, but not much more. The up and down has a bit more, but is still limited to the alignment with the scuttle for height. The front of the fenders is much more adjustable compared to the back.

I think leaving the skins off the doors is going to pay off with reduced time in the end. Most of the front door to fender gap has to be done by adding or removing metal from the door edges. By leaving the skin off you should be able to adjust that gap as the skins go on...a good thing!

 

[Frank Canale]

Not much time to spend out in the shop tonight but just a few minutes with the hammer and dollie and found that the door frame is pretty easy to adjust. Scuttle to door frame gap now pretty consistent 1/4" so it was pretty easy to close that gap by an 1/8". I believe the door frame to fender gap will also be easy to get it a little wider. I believe I am going to go ahead and tackle getting the passenger B post adjusted where it needs to be before any more work on door frames. I feel a little better about this now. Frank

 

[CJD]

Still like what I am seeing!

 

[Frank Canale]

It is so helpful to have others looking and giving input. Thank you to all.

 

[DavidApp]

I see you have filled all the previous trim holes. Wish I had done that.

David

 

[Graham H]

It looks like you have moved the passenger door forward to reduce the gap with the scuttle but now the fender gap is too tight. After allowing for the thickness of the skin and the bend to fit it and the paint I don't think there will be any gap left.
The main marker of the door aperture gap I found was how well the outer sill fits between the A and B pillars, the aluminium inner sill finisher must fit in there as well and that is a predetermined length. The upside of all that is, with your panel skills I'm sure you have a plan so keep at it.

Graham

 

[Frank Canale]

Yes David, I fill any screw holes I find in hopes that I will have a blank slate to screw all the trim on when I get to the interior.
Graham, the front gap may have closed up slightly as I played with loosening the hinges but really did not see any improvement as it doesn't seem to move as the screws are tightened up. I feel that i can manipulate the door frame to get the gaps like they need to be once I get to that point.

The B post needs a little adjustment as the top needs to go in at the top about 1/4". I think the 1/8" gap where it fits to the inner sill will take care of the adjustment. The bottom of the B post is correct.

This shows the pie shaped cutout, !/8" at the top and down to zero at the bottom.

The back side of the B post gets the same cut. Clamped back on the car to check alignment, tack the flanges, unclamp the B post weld up the seams, reclamp it on the car. Alignment is very good, measurements from centerline now match the driver side as well as angle measurements match the driver side so feel like the B post is good now.

Now the passenger side B post fits the inner sill and the alignment seems good. The flange that fits over the floor pan flange was cut off so still have that to replace. So far pretty happy with how it is coming together. Frank

 

[CJD]

Something just to eyeball, since the doors are not skinned, is that the angle of the "A" and "B" posts are compatible. In other words, just stand forward of the car and sight the posts to make sure the in/out angle of the posts are close, so the door skin will not require too much "twist" to line up with both later.

 

[Frank Canale]

Thank you John for that idea. I had not thought of that and was worried that I adjusted the good side. Had to go back out and take a look. Pretty amazed at how well they line up. Sorry tried to take a picture but did not show much detail. Seems like we are still on track. Frank

 

[Graham H]

Talking about door skin twist, remember to get the twist and shape where you want it before you go too far with your tack welds.

Graham

 

[Frank Canale]

I ended up doing a little more repair work to the B post.

The doner B post was cout where it meets the floor pan and they cut the flange off. The scribe line is where the repair will be added. I missed taking a picture of the repair Z shaped flange that I ended up hammer forming as it is a difficult piece to form other wise. I guess you could do it with a brake but the radius of the bends is difficult to match and you would have to take the apron off to get that tight a bends back to back.

Notice I did not cut on the scribe line. the repair piece was laying on the damaged flange when I scribed the line so I have allowed the thickness of the metal off the scribe line so the repair flange will line up where the original one did.

Repaired flange welded and finished.

The inner support had 3 areas that were like lace and it probably would have been fine but like the weld joints that would not have been seen in Chef Tushes video, this just bugged me and so went ahead and fixed it.

Here is the patch. it would have been easier to cut a strip and shrink it to form the curve but this is the better way. No stress on the repair.

Repair tacked in place. I spend a little extra time fitting the repair but I more than make up that time because the welding and finishing is easier.

B post back in place. The flange holds the floor pan.

End view of the B post with repaired flange. The B post has been on and off several times and I make minor adjustments as I go. At this point I feel it fits really good and is time to weld it to the back half.

A little more work on the door frame. Looking better. I will need to shrink the curved area in the middle of the door just above the upper hinge as it sticks out too much. I will give that a try and see if it helps or not. Still trying to get a feel for how all the pieces work together before I start tacking. I still have the driver side scuttle to repair where it arches over the door. Frank