• 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 is this a bent tr3b frame?

Share this page

B

Bruce100

Jedi Trainee
Country flag
Offline
this is looking down. my son in law is pointing to here it appears to be bent in. there is other evidence of a front end collision
 

Attachments

  • 27847.jpg
    27847.jpg
    38.1 KB · Views: 437
Certainly looks mildly bent to me. Not a critical area really, but I would check the rest of the frame carefully. The workshop manual gives a bunch of diagonal measurements; or it might be worth calling around for a "frame" shop that has the info on a TR3.
 
I am planning to replace the inner fenders altogether. Not only are the welds messy, but the one on the drivers side is not aligned correctly. Neither are on so that the fender mount holes are correct.
 
Randall's right about measuring according to the manual but that's hard to do with the body, engine and suspension all in place. One quick test you can do(mine failed) is to see if the frame will sit on four jackstands of equal height. This assumes a level floor, of course. A 1/4 in or so out is "normal", less being better. Mine was out 2 inches. Another, test, particularly for cars hit in front, is to measure the center of the tops of the spring towers from a center point on the frame.
If you do find things bent, don't despair, my experience is that they are quite easy to fix.
Tom
 
Can u fix the frame do it yourself?. The tub is not bolted down and easily removed. was looking at the manual which has u use a plumb bob and mark key points on the floor and measure from there. Don't have to remove engine that way
 
Depends on what it needs. If there is a crack or break, it will need to be reinforced and welded. Personally, I don't trust my welding skills all that much, so I'd take it to someone else.

If you're certain there aren't any cracks, then it's just a matter of finding a way to apply (and control!) enough force in the proper direction to bend it back into shape. Chains, heavy timbers, jacks, maybe some big anchors in the floor; that kind of thing.

I'm a little gun-shy, as one of my previous TR3s had one of the A-arm pivots broken loose from the frame before I got it. Even knowing there was a problem, I didn't spot the break, and neither did the alignment shop I took it to. Just sitting, the crack was almost invisible (hard to see that area, plus it was somewhat hidden under the accumulated grease and dirt); but under hard braking it would spread and the car would absolutely insist on turning left, no matter what you did with the steering wheel. Someone pulled out in front of me once and I wound up straddling the median ... scary to think what if there was oncoming traffic and no median.

We had a local frame shop give a presentation to the local TR club a few years back. ISTR the usual price was $250 to pull it to within 1/8" of "perfect". Not sure if that included welding or not, probably not.
 
If it's bent, a frame machine is the way to fix it. They have chains and hydraulics to straighten a pretzel if they need too. I can't imagine trying to get the leverage in an average shop.

If you are just worried about that thin front tube, that's not a big deal to straighten at home. I believe it only mounts the starter guide using adjustable rods...but no important suspension components.

John
 
Back
Top