• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.

    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

TR2/3/3A Removing windshield stanchions?

karls59tr

Obi Wan
Bronze
Country flag
Offline
I have the bolt type stanchions not the Dzus type. I assume that there are captive nuts on the inside of the body where the stanchions attach? Looks like a real pain to free up these bolts. I've allready started soaking them with PB Blaster. Is it worthwhile to drill access holes in the metal cover that hides the nuts. Any advice on removal most appreciated.:grumpy: Also ...anyone have a spare set of "tenon plates" mine have gone missing.
 
The nuts are part of the cowl. Don't. The bolts should come out with a large square shank screwdriver that fits the slot tightly and is twisted with an open end wrench on the shank.
Bob
 
Don't know what your commission number is but I believe that later cars did not have tenon plates.

Let me correct this comment.....later cars did not have stanchion plates (between the stanchion and the body) but did have tenon plates (between the stanchion and the windshield frame). Thanks to Geo Hahn for clearing the fog from what's left of this old brain.
 
Last edited:
Yes those bolts can be a real challenge. Like all that stuff patients and days of soaking is good. I did not try any heat and that is probably not a good idea unless you have a total re-due. I agree the best bet is an impact screw driver with a tip that fits perfect even if you need to grind a tip to fit. When you hit the hammer, remember the bolts are caged in the cowling and the cowling can dent. I would go around and see if I could get at least one out to get an idea about the rust. On a 1961 I did I got 3 out with the impact driver and had to drill and tap the 4th. Like you thought maybe drill out some holes in the back if that does not bother you. If I did that, I would drill then sand blast the rust off from the back and let that soak as I moved on to other stuff.
 
That's a good tip about using an impact screwdriver bit. I couldn't find a regular flat tip screwdriver with a wide enough bit. Besides that the bolt head slots have been messed up by a PO trying to get the bolts out previously. I just might go with drilling holes in the back as I think there is a severe rust issue with the captive nuts.
 
By using a Dremel type tool you can "reform or deepen" the slot for the screwdriver. Use the small circular cutting head to deepen the slot. You would consider the screw a throw away anyway so this is not going to hurt anything worthwhile, as long as you do not cut into the stanchions. I usually keep used cutting discs that are rather small to use in cases like this where a large( 1") disc can not be used up next to the stachions.

Charley
 
Don't know what your commission number is but I believe that later cars did not have tenon plates.

Let me correct this comment.....later cars did not have stanchion plates (between the stanchion and the body) but did have tenon plates (between the stanchion and the windshield frame). Thanks to Geo Hahn for clearing the fog from what's left of this old brain.
To confuse the issue a bit more, there were several styles of stanchions on later cars and some did have stanchion plates in spite of the screw fasteners. Most but not all later cars had no grooves for the plates. There seems to be no specific commission number breaks with the various non-dzus stanchion choices. I put the plates in my post 60k windshield, which had the grooves but not the plates, for a much better fit.

Tom
 
Back
Top