crease/dent in inner fender?

[59Rob]

The motor is out but what I thought was a reasonably easy job now looks like a full blown retoration. I won't be getting to it for a bit but I'll be asking a ton of questions so I know what to do when I start. I've restored many cars but none were British, most of my questions will be regarding the mechanical side but I will have others, such as this one.

The car was hit on the right side some 50 years ago, the inner fender has a rather big crease/dent that looks semi natural so I don't know if it's meant to be like that or not? I saw a couple restored TR3's in the summer and the inner fenders weren't excatly smooth as glass so that didn't help and hard to tell with the motor in.

Here's a few pics, the gap is about an inch although it's hard to tell in the pic.

looking straight down on it with a straight edge against it

 

[boxofparts]

I replaced the inner fenders on the TR3 I was restoring and ran into some outer fender alignment issues. Nothing fits like the original so metal work the crease out.

 

[59Rob]

I replaced the inner fenders on the TR3 I was restoring and ran into some outer fender alignment issues. Nothing fits like the original so metal work the crease out.

I can certainly do that, was just wondering if there was any sort of indent there to start with for carb clearance maybe? not that it appears to need it.

 

[Geo Hahn]

Sometmes that area gets 'massaged' when someone fits a different manifold or non-stock air cleaners, etc -- but I do not think that crease is natural.

 

[Tinkerman]

Certainly don't see anything like that on mine. Fortunatly it's easy to get to so I go with Boxofparts.

Good luck, Tinkerman

 

[59Rob]

Thanks guys, panel beating it is, I'll need to cut out and patch it further up where it joins the firewall as well, looks like it was fixed by a chimp