TR2/3/3A TR3A tub assembly

[CJD]

Very neat and clean. In the close ups I notice you did not sand blast. How did you remove the old paint and rust so well?

This car is very fortunate that it found you. I do not think there are many...including "professional" shops...who could have saved it like you are!

 

[Frank Canale]

Thank you John but I have to give a big thank you to you, Lionel, Randell (RIP)
David App, Steve, Graham, and all the others that follow and contribute advice to my project. I am fortunate that at work we have an old blasting cabinet. I use old worn out glass bead to do the paint and rust removal as well as blasting the welds for inspection. I use this to try and preserve as much of the remaining metal as possible. I also like the way it looks. Frank

 

[Frank Canale]

It seems to happen all the time but I got the cart before the horse again. The passenger side inner wing flange was tacked in place and there was a small section still to repair.

This is the section that still needed to be repaired.

This is a paper template for the repair to be cut to.

I missed a photo of the repair in place clamped so that it can be scribed and cut out. I don't cut away the old until I have the repair cut and ready to replace the damaged area.

The entire flange has been replaced on both sides, the other side is already done, not really sure why I left this side tacked but all welded and finished now, Still have the cage nuts to install before the B post goes on. The B post is prepped and ready to be welded as soon as the cage nuts are installed. Frank

 

[Frank Canale]

The driver side scuttle had been sanded on so much from multiple paint jobs that when I started cleaning all the paint and bondo guess what I found.

I have been putting this off as I normally clean both sides of what I am welding. No such luck, the inside of this area has a sheetmetal inner panel so no access to clean the weld area and no way to get a dolly in there to hammer and dollie this area after welding.

I am about 75% done and it was not as hard as I thought. I used a piece of sand paper to clean the back side as good as possible. Tacked it about every inch. A few tacks had to be cut and hammered closed to correct the arch shape. I expected that as I knew there was no way to close it up without a little correction along the way. The edge is having to be built up with weld metal because it had been sanded and hammered on so much that it was really rounded over but when finished will match the other side that this sanding and hammering was not done. A little shrinking with the shrinking disk and I will be really happy with the outcome of this area. It was pretty rough to begin with and has turned out pretty good. Frank

 

[Graham H]

Hi Frank, good work as usual but I have a question for you that has bugged me for years. Can you tell me what the rearview mirror fixing screws screw into ? When I reassembled my 3A there wasn't anything with a thread in the holes, after all the twisting blasting and painting whatever was in there was long gone so with great difficulty I managed to get normal nuts on the screws to mount the mirror.

Graham

 

[Frank Canale]

Thank you Graham, I went out to take a look, it had me curious. My car just has 2 holes with no threaded plate or any sign of cage nuts. This is a great question because it will make this easier for me. I can dig out the mirror and put some type of faster in place while there is access. I will post what I come up with. Frank

 

[Tr3aguy]

Looking great Frank, I really enjoy the way you just dive in and tackle it with the “I got this” attitude…. Then you do it!!

 

[Frank Canale]

Thank you, I tend to over think things, spend way too much time analyzing repairs but so far it is worth it. This is my first car to restore so I expected the learning curve to be steep and it has not disappointed me. Biggest lesson learned is pick your project carefully. Easy to see why projects never get finished. Frank

 

[DavidApp]

Nice work on that repair.

I presume the wing mirror Graham was asking about is on the wing not on the parts in the photo.

If I could do it over I would have welded up the holes for the wing mirror. It is all but useless. Hard to get adjusted and a very small view.
I mounted a mirror on the windshield bolt which works well and you can adjust it from the drivers seat.

David

 

[Frank Canale]

I was thinking about the mirror that mounts in the center of the scuttle. 2 holes that would be hard to get to once heater, wiring, and such are in place.

 

[Graham H]

Yes, Frank, that is the mirror I was talking about, David what did you find to screw the mounting bolts into? My car had the mirror mounted when I got it and I took the screws out and only found there was nothing to screw into when reassembling the car?

Graham

 

[DavidApp]

Some how when I was reading the thread I missed the scuttle rear view mirror bit.

Graham
My TR3A has the large screws holding the wind shield stanchions. I found some Stainless steel button head bolts that I used to hold the stanchion and mirror bracket. Not sure where I got them. googled button head screws with the correct thread. Need one I got 10 or 12 in the packet and used 1.

David

 

[Graham H]

Sorry for the confusion David, this is the mirror I am referring to.

Graham

 

[CJD]

There is a nut plate that the center mirror screws into. The details of the plate changed when the dash edge of the scuttle went from wood to all metal.

Frank, the stanchions were held by either a dzeus plate (early), or large chromed screws (late). Both should have nut plates behind the scuttle metal to provide a backing. I think your car is all later, isn't it? I'll look for the applicable pics.

 

[Graham H]

Thank you John, it's a shame I didn't look at it before I had everything back together.

Graham

 

[Frank Canale]

Yes John you are correct, the stanchion plates are held on with 5/16-24 bolts into a nut plates mounted in the scuttle. The plates are in place and the threads have been chased so that has been taken care of.

I will have to find the rear view mirror and see if the mounting plate is with it. How is the plate attached to the scuttle? Frank

 

[sp53]

Spot welded Frank, I believe the screws are 3/16 fine. I think you might be able to glue or just float something (thin plate) in there because once the 2 screws are in place at the same time they would lock each other and pull up tight.

Steve

 

[CJD]

OK...later car. This pic is the only one I could find of the later nut plate for the mirror. You can just make it out above the gage and to the far left. It is not easily seen unless you put your head fully under the scuttle. It's a rectangular plate welded to the dash frame with 2 nuts spot welded to the plate. On the early cars it is removable from the wood dash frame, but on the later, all metal scuttles, it is integral with the dash frame.

 

[Frank Canale]

Thank you Steve and John for the information and the picture. Now I know what I am looking for or what I have to fabricate. You guys are the greatest. Frank

 

[DavidApp]

Hold it in place with Gorilla glue. That stuff sticks to anything. Once the mirror is in place you will probable not have t remove it again.

David