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TR2/3/3A It begins in earnest

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Mine is probably withing a few hundred of your commision #. Mine is TS5460DL (DL meaning it was assembled in Ireland).
The only things I'm really missing are the wedge mount sidescreens and the grill trim. I'll see if Macy has some sidescreen cores they're willig to sell, and I know they make a repro grill trim piece out of stainless that looks close enough for passing. I don't know if they'll sell that or only fab them up for cars in their shop.

Revington does offer reproduction sidescreen frames if I absolutely need to get them new. Expensive, but I have to have them.
 
Yes, our cars are not very far apart in number...mine is TS6661L. Interesting your TR2 was assembled in Ireland.
 
There's a picture of the car on the Ireland TR Register's TR2 page. It's the car with ORI 1 as the registration. You can see some of the car's original red paint peaking through in the pictures.
Ireland TR Register TR2 Page

I wish is was still in that condition now :oops:
 
Proceeding apace.
I have nearly everything off of the body except pulling the fuel tank and fishing the wiring harness out of it's various hiding places.
So far I have found no redeeming qualities of this car other than the fact that the dash and gauges seem to be in good condition and the steering gearbox feels surprisingly tight for a sidescreen TR.
Other than that, it's just a opening cans of worms all the way down. Every cage nut is useless and will have to be replaced on every...single...panel. The door hinges unscrewed from the doors, but had to be ground off of the A-Pilar.
The windscreen mounting plate screws were one solid piece to the nuts on plate behind the scuttle and had to be drilled out. I drilled and tapped the nuts on the backing plate for the 1/4-28 screws that will hold the mounting plate to the scuttle, but I'm not happy with it. I'll end up drilling the spot welds on the scuttle that hold the nut plate and remove the plate to grind off and weld on new nuts.
The sealer plates at the front fender/firewall were completely roached, along with the outer firewall behind it. I may end up having to take both kick panels completely out to make firewall repairs. Which will at least make it easier to repair the aforementioned windscreen mount nut plate on the scuttle. Small consolation.
I'm not discouraged, but overwhelmed. :flush:
I'll feel better when I can start doing some actual repairs instead of just uncovering more disasters.
I'll hopefully be able to grind off all the body mounting bolts and see what kind of disaster the frame is this weekend. There's no way a single one of those bolts is going to turn, so I'm not even going to try. If it's bad AT ALL I'm just going to get a RATCO frame. I'm not dealing with a roached frame for one second.
To make myself feel a little better about the tasks ahead, I've signed up for a 5 day 1-on-1 metalworking class with a coachbuilder to level up my panel beating skills. I'll end up with an entire metal shaping workshop by the time this car is done. It will be maybe 10% original TR2, 80% new metal, and 10% TIG/MIG filler :greedy_dollars:
 
Reached a milestone of sorts. 😥
Got everthing removed from the body, and got the body mounting bolts "removed".
It's way worse than I first though, and keeps getting worse the more I look at it.
Major points of repairs just to get it stable, from front to back:
  1. Both inner front wings are rusted/cracked where the front body mount plates back up to the inner wings. This is pretty common on the TRs since water from the wheels runs down the inner wings and down between the body mount and the wing are spot welded together. The right side has also taken a lick at some point and will need a bit of straightening. I'm thinking of making a buck of the front portion off of the better, right, side and simply making new front portions of the inner wings. I haven't decided.
  2. Both inner front wings are cracked at the body mounts where the two bolts hold it to the angled front suspension tower brace. Not a hard repair. Haven't decided if I'll just clean and weld up the cracks or cut out the section and weld in a single thickier piece of steel.
  3. The left inner front wing has a crack in the weld where it meets th top of the firewall. I think I can just clean and weld it back together.
  4. The battery box should be salvagable with some repairs. It's solid. Someone drilled holes to mount an aftermarket heater, and backed those up with a plate on the outside that let water collect between the two. Some rust, but only in a few placed. This is a repair rather than a replacement.
  5. The A-Pilar is either rusted or the weld is cracked off of the inner sill. I can lift up on the scuttle in the left corner and pick the left A-Pilar and kick panel up from the inner sill. I'm going to cut the outer sill away and assess this weekend. At least it still sits in the correct spot on top of the inner sill, so alignment isn't compromised.
  6. Which has led to a crack in the weld where the A-Pilar meets the scuttle. This crack is right through the weld along the face of the A-Pilar at the top where joins the scuttle. Luckily the kick panel also holds all of this area together so I just need to grind that weld out and re-weld it.
  7. Inner and outer sills, floors, and the lower aboutn 3-4" of the firewall and kick panel are toast. The inner sills aren't that bad, but they'll still go since the far forward and rear portions have some rot and those are areas the fender mount.
  8. The closing panels for the rear valence are shot. Completely. They were all coming out for repairs to the rear valence anyway, but I don't think any of them are salvagable enough to go back in. The valence is in pretty good shape other than some dents and dings. Even the lower flange where it rolls under the bottom closing panel is OK. It looks like all the closing panels took the rust hit.
  9. The rear valence itself has taken a few bumbs over the years and will require a good bit of hammer and dolly work, and some repairs around the bumper distance tube areas. These are bent and cracked from the bumpers taking hits over the years. I'll put in the new kits that replace the tubes with solid SS distance pieces. I don't plan on running bumber on this car since THIS is the exact build I'm looking to pull of on this car. But I'll keep the options to run bumper and the solid SS distance tube will remove the chance of water getting back in there through that area ever again.
  10. The seam where the rear valence and the tire well are spot welded together has been hit and split open in a few placed. No rust, just poped spot welds. I'll treat this area for any surface rust and get the flanges straigh and plug weld them back together.
  11. This is not taking into account all the bolt on panels, which are atrotious and will all require work.
I honestly haven't found anything positive yet. But that's just the overwhelm talking. The boot floors, spart tire well, and floors under the fuel tank are fine. The top of the car is fine other than repairs I need to make to the windsheild mouning plates and some hammer and dolly work.

I'm not even sure where to start repairing this thing at this point. I'm thinking get the A-Pilar stabilized and brace the body. Set it off to the side and see how bad the frame is. :wall:

Any suggestions from others who have tried a project this amtiotius are welcome.
 
The good thing is that you're almost through with the big shocks! Every project starts completely overwhelming. I usually set the body and frame aside to give me time to think about it. Then, just reach into the big pile and grab one sub-assembly at a time. Dynamo, differential,...it really doesn't matter. But work on the smaller parts and store them away for final assembly. I figure by doing that, if I give up on the project, I have rebuilt parts that are actually worth something on Ebay?!?

Doing the small parts gives you time to think about the body and frame, which will take some planning. Remember the frame must be solid and straight, as you will build the body on top of it. After a couple months of small parts work, you can decide if your frame and body are worth working on, or it may be better to find a donor car. I started my TR2 thinking it was "going to be scrapped"! But after a couple of months telling myself things like, "if the frame is bent I'm scrapping the project"...I reached a point where I decided that it just, might, be possible.

On a large project like yours, you will be in the "overwhelmed" stage for at least 80% of the build. It is always a milestone when you reach a point that you can finally visualize everything left to the finish line. For now, just turn the radio up and pick something to work on!
 
Oh...be sure to check with Marv and watch Craigslist daily. You never know when a great donor car will show up.
 
A restoration is a totally battle with the self. What to do next when I did not have the knowledge to do what I wanted, creates an inner honest dialog. The dialog has the full gambit of emotions combined with true facts and untrue facts. Just to keep moving dragging myself is a restoration. The answer is keep moving.

When I reach into the pile of parts to rebuild, I grab 2, one to work on, and one to think about when I am working on the other part. Really, it is a struggle to keep myself in line and only grab 2 parts.

I needed a parts car bad with this last resto I started. The good news is I think there are some good quality parts becoming available on the market, I found one.

People of my generation are getting less and less in need of a project car after many years of having one sitting. The projects are cheaper because not many people do resto anymore. Moreover, used parts can be bought reasonable. Seems to me used parts are not selling, but whole running cars are selling. Clearly resto is a hobby not a money maker.

Steve
 
Steve,
You have completely hit home on what I'm feeling right now. I know it's a hobby, and the challenge is the reason I chose to take on a huge project rather than buy a restored car or better original.

I've decided to start on the windshield frame and wiper motor and wiper assembly as my first small projects while I stare at the body and make a plan of attack. I may move on to the transmission and overdrive and steering gearbox before I tackle the bodywork. I'd like to get a block and start building a nice engine, but I don't want it sitting around for two years while I do all this bodywork. 😁

I'm going to take a metal shaping class in April to hone some skills in panel making. I'll come back rejuvenated for cutting/shaping/welding after that.
 
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