• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

TR2/3/3A Any trick to removing TR3 doors?

Share this page

L

lordwestbrook

Freshman Member
Offline
Hola folks!

SO- I need to remove the doors on the 3 to get to some bodywork and the screws holding the hinges are frozen pretty good and wont budge even with liberal PB Blaster. I've already had 1 square nut backer thingy spin free of its backing so I dont really want to twist anymore on the screws... So the door pins- Is there a trick to getting them out? (They're pretty frozen as well)

Any advice of course is appreciated.

Cheers!

Jeff
 
I doubt you will get the hinge pin out, but maybe with a porto power, but a good chance of doing real damage to area. I have used impact hammers that you **** to loosen or tighten. And I have drilled the heads of the screws as well, leaving the stud part in the post until I had the fender and door off to hold the nut cage with vise grips on the A post. The impact hammer usually does it. Turn the impact tool to loosen and get a nice fitting slot headed bit and hit it with about a 3 pound hammer. The force of hitting the hammer and having the cam spin that little bit counter clockwise usually does the trick
 
As the screw/square nut will get plenty of water mud etc thrown up on them if the guard between the wing and firewall is missing they are often very rusty. Also depending on how long since they were installed and how much anti seize was used removal could be tough. The impact driver can help as the impact + turning can get the job done. I did not face the problem because the PO had done the disassembly for me.

Have you tried the door screws they may be easier? If that fails you may end up having to drill the heads of the screws. Can you get a pair of locking pliers on the nut that is turning. It is tight in there.

David
 
A screwdriver bit in a 1/4" drive ratchet may help as well. Give you more torque while you can apply pressure to hold the screwdriver in the screw head.

David
 
An impact driver is what I had to use to get mine loose. Though it is harder to remove the screws from the door side you can get to the back side with your choice of lubricant ( inside the door). On the front side I believe that you can also remove the splash guard and spray lubricant onto the nuts on the backside of the A post. Once the door and fender are removed you will also have access to the nuts / nut holders behind the A post to correct any damage you incurred in getting the screws out. Actually better access than the nuts inside the doors.
 
Thanks everybody- Good to know I have options, and I'm not beating the door pins to death to no avail. I'll just keep cracking away at it- Charley the fenders are off (well mostly on one side as I just cut the rotted fender off with a wheel) Persistence and more lube (there's a joke in there somewhere)
 
Drilling out rusted bolts is, unfortunately, part of the fun of working on these cars. On average, for the 14 screws you are Working on, about 4 of them will have to be drilled out.

There are 2 type hinges. The early design is all brass, while the later is a stamped steel affair. I haven’t had any luck removing the pins from either, even with the hinges removed from the car.
 
If you are actually trying to drive the hinge pin out, why don't you just use a cutting blade on a 4&1/2" grinder and cut the hinges at the pin? I would be concerned that you might deform either the door or the A post while banging on the hinges.
 
I think the hinge pins are riveted to hold them in, carefully drill the top of the pin and you can then drive them out but I would try the door side bolts first. Heating them is another option?.

Graham
 
Had the same issues with mine. All the screws had to be drilled out. the cages were total rust and got mangled. Now can someone suggest an alternate to caged nuts?
 
I think one of the reasons for cage nuts is to allow for some adjustment as you fit the door. Several vendors sell cage nuts.

David
 
JAJohn said:
Had the same issues with mine. All the screws had to be drilled out. the cages were total rust and got mangled. Now can someone suggest an alternate to caged nuts?
Click to expand...

Not a good idea. When you try fitting the parts you will see why. You have to loosened and tighten those bolts many, many,...did I remember to say...many times doing a door or fender installation. If you have to have a helper holding the nuts from behind it will delay the assembly a lot. The caged nuts allow you to do it quickly and alone.

The problem is not the cage nuts, but rather the fact the factory did not paint or use any rust preventative during the build. If you paint your cages and use a good rust preventer, like LPS3, it will be another 50 years before the nuts seize to the bolts.
 
I did find that some of the cages I bought were not a good fit for the nut. Some even allowed the nut to fall out. I got in the habit of reforming the cages for a better fit before I welded them to the car.

David
 
Back
Top