TR2/3/3A My Reassembly journey

[M_Pied_Lourd]

If you are talking about the rear brace on the inside of the bonnet David it is not spot welded. There should actually be a thin pad under the brace....I am not sure what is is made of but it looks like black felt. I have a picture somewhere if you would like me to dig it out.

How does your bonnet match at the sides where it meets the body tub? I was going to suggest some gentle persuasion to push that rear lip of the bonnet down but it tends to flare out at the sides if you do that.....

Cheers
Tush

 

[DavidApp]

Hello Tush

Thank you.

The sides match up well. I feel I may be in the situation where it is best to live with it as it is and not try to Gild the Lilly.

I have had that on one of the front wings. Real close just a touch more and then it is round and round getting slightly worse each go around. The Bonnet is in real good shape so I will not mess with it anymore. May look at building up the scuttle a bit.

David

 

[Graham H]

David,
have you tried pushing the rear of the bonnet down gently to see if it improves the fit,when i did my bonnet i found the fiber filler was long gone so i used some urathane between the skin and the renforcement to hold it together which is the way the modern bonnets are held together.may be worth a try.

Graham

 

[sp53]

The hood gap looks like a normal hood to me. Down the road you might want to put something between the 2 in case it starts to rattle. The hood holder rod, the hood hinge, and the hood buffers all start to rattle after time, but I would fix them later as you get the bugs out. I have put the felt in later after the hood was painted with those nylon tools. But again that felt piece has rusted out many trunks. Your car has the rubber for the trunk, but would have had the felt on the hood. The engine heat probably dried out the engine felt, so you can find something for there. I remember John looking all over for some felt, not sure if he found any.

 

[DavidApp]

Hello Graham

Yes the fit improved if I push the skin down. When you say Urethane do you mean the foaming glue? I had considered that because I thought that at least it was nondestructive and reversible.
Also considering adding thicker hinge spacers under the bonnet side.

David

David,
have you tried pushing the rear of the bonnet down gently to see if it improves the fit,when i did my bonnet i found the fiber filler was long gone so i used some urathane between the skin and the renforcement to hold it together which is the way the modern bonnets are held together.may be worth a try.

Graham

 

[DavidApp]

I can see that doing the fixing after painting would be a good thing as getting paint in the gap has to help the life of the panel. Would a closed cell plastic foam strip be better than felt as it would not retain water?

I have the rubber pads for the boot lid cross braces. The Roadster Factory sells them.

David

The hood gap looks like a normal hood to me. Down the road you might want to put something between the 2 in case it starts to rattle. The hood holder rod, the hood hinge, and the hood buffers all start to rattle after time, but I would fix them later as you get the bugs out. I have put the felt in later after the hood was painted with those nylon tools. But again that felt piece has rusted out many trunks. Your car has the rubber for the trunk, but would have had the felt on the hood. The engine heat probably dried out the engine felt, so you can find something for there. I remember John looking all over for some felt, not sure if he found any.

 

[CJD]

I am almost certain the original felt used under the bracing was from horse hair. Horse hair is naturally water repellant, so it allows moisture to pass through, and is so coarse that any that remains can evaporate quickly. Most plant based felt absorbs water and retains it., so that eliminates cotton felts. The urethane foam would be water proof, but would trap moisture if it was not completely glued well enough to seal out all of the water. If you could find a coarse, synthetic felt, that would be perfect. I couldn't locate any, and I eventually just re-used the horse hair that came out, by slicing it into two thin strips instead of the one thick one.

 

[M_Pied_Lourd]

I wanted to say horse hair but I didn't think anyone would believe me

Cheers
Tush

 

[Alfred E. Neuman]

I wanted to say horse hair but I didn't think anyone would believe me

Cheers
Tush

Would a strip of old padding from a seat work? Isn't one of the layers of the seat padding a horse hair or very similar material?

 

[malbaby]

I like the "Graham H" suggestion...use "sikaflex" or similar product.

 

[Graham H]

"sikaflex" is the one i was trying to remember,I did both sides of the renforcement and the front one as well with seam sealer across the front to make sure there were no gaps for moisture to get in. Also make sure the spot welds on the outer corners are well attached, good luck.

Graham

 

[DavidApp]

So you used it to seal the gap between the bonnet skin and the reinforcement member rather than to hold the skin closer to the reinforcement?

I will probable lightly sand blast the inside surface of the bonnet. Sanded the outside surface.

David

 

[Graham H]

Yes but in your case if you use a sikaflex you could add some weight to the skin to hold it down or do it on the bench upside down to get a neat finish the sikaflex will glue it all together.

Graham

 

[DavidApp]

Hello Graham

Thank you.

Hope mine looks like that in a few months or sooner.

David

 

[sp53]

What I have learned over the years is to let the water get out, make a hole if you have to if the case requires. I mean look at the fenders and rocker the water runs through them on a rainy day; I also live in Washington. Anyways, I would consider if you cannot find the horse hair, and I think it is a fine horse hair, is to use some of those rubber body shims and stick a couple in there or something like that. You just do not want to trap water. I have heard of people filling the back section with foam only to find out later it encouraged rust.
steve

 

[DavidApp]

Hello Steve

I presume both the horse hair or body shims are to prevent rattling. I was hoping to hold the skin down a bit but think I will wait and see when it is painted.

David

 

[CJD]

The skin was never held down originally. The padding was more “anti-rattle”, rather than support. You can bond the two, but you will have to find a correct thickness filler to make it work. The thickness may need to vary to hole the bonnet shape correctly.

 

[DavidApp]

A question regarding the vacuum advance tube. How critical is the bore diameter of the tube to good operation? I have a small section of steel tube that came with the car and picked up some oil pressure gauge tube as the smallest tube I could find locally. It is slightly larger bore than the steel tube.

David

 

[sp53]

The originals were copper and yours ran through a rubber block on a bracket under the thermostat housing with the fuel line. Usually you can find the copper tubing at auto parts places. My guess on that fuzz bigger hose it would not matter, but call that dizzy rebuilder guy I forgot his name, and I bet he can give the long explanation. IMHO it is good to have the line hooked up tight because it helps hold the advancement mechanism and I guess moves it some, but again IMHO most of the timing advance is done centrifugal
steve

 

[CJD]

I got mine from the speed section at Oreilly’s. It’s the 1/8” copper tube that comes with the oil pressure kit...probably the same tube you found.