TR2/3/3A Question about bad welds on frame 57 TR3

[Beerzz]

I am down to the bare frame and trying to decide what route to take. The welds have a lot of splatter and are rough. I want to blast the frame and detail it but In the past I have made mistakes like grinding away original low quality workmanship and loosing points. Any suggestions? I can make this frame as nice as I want but dont want to grind away the wrong stuff. Thanks
BEN

 

[Beerzz]

Example...In 1976 I bought a 69 427/435 Tri Power vette. The first ting I did was toss the factory radio, put a super tuner in, covered the entire underside and engine compartment with rubberized undercoating and took off the factory side pipes and covers and lost them and..... pulled all the original engine trim and replaced it with aftermarket. Chucked the originals years later. Still own the car and wish I knew then what I know now. Oh yea, I took off the tri power and had to replace it 15 years ago. I don't want to make the same mistakes. Thanks
Ben

 

[prb51]

Ben,
What do you want to do with the car, show it? Concours...
If the welds are solid you could clean up a bit but all TR3 frames are rough looking as they were when new.
If you do a smooth, modern look it won't look 'correct' but who know's if it will cost you points in showing and would only cost you dollars if you tried to resell to a show guy/gal that was very specific about a totally correct resto.
I do like a nice clean underbody but do spend more time with the topside putting miles on the car so for me wouldn't be worth the effort beyond cleaning and painting (if structurally sound).

 

[Don Elliott]

The frame under my 1958 TR3A has a lot of unnecessary and unwanted excess weld splatter. It came like that new in 1958. By that I mean the frame has many areas where the welder who "welded" it left a lot of tiny metal spheres all over the frame. During the restoration from 1987 to 1990, I now wish I had chipped, scraped, filed or ground them off. It would be a lost easier now to wipe a rag wet with white spirits to clean the frame other than "bumping" the rag into all these tiny spherical protrusions.

In 20 years of TRA & VTR judging, no judge has ever seen or commented on the main parts of the frame under my TR. The rules for judging are to put one knee down onto the grass (or asphalt parking lot) and judge what you can see from there.

Not much really when the judge's knee is aching from all the other TRs he had to judge. Or if the judging is on a lawn, the knee is in the grass (or mud) and his pants are getting really soiled by now !

 

[Banjo]

Ben,
Just some food for thought. Many restorers try to stay away from sand-blasting TR frames. They were kinda thin to begin with. If you want to blast it, try Going with an alternative media like soda, or walnut shells so as to remove as little of the metal as possible in the process.

 

[Beerzz]

The frame is solid enough to finish by hand. No problem. I thought sandblasting might be harsh. I think I will leave the spatter. It can always go later. Thanks

 

[mallard]

When I restored the frame on my 56 TR3 I cleaned it up by just knocking of the splatter with a hammer and screwdriver. Most of them will just pop off when you tap them. Also the factory left alot of slag on all kinds of parts and just painted over it. The problem with that is the slag can pop off any time leaving the bare weld to rust. The slag can be removed by light tapping with a welding hammer so you don't put dents in the welds.