• 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 Scuttle uneven on one side

Share this page

D

DennisT

Senior Member
Country flag
Offline
I have about a 3/4” difference on the pass side of my scuttle which is enough that it causes the windshield to slope down on the pass side , it is noticeable when looking at the front end dead on. The rear deck is perfectly even. I took some measurements and it appears that the dimension from the floor to the tip of where the scuttle ends on the side of the vehicle, (by the uppermost top of the door). I was thinking of taking the outer sill off, raising the portion of the body tub just back to the forward mounting bracket of the inner sill. I was thinking of doing this with the door attached to make sure I can still get a good fit. I am open to suggestions as to how to approach this problem.
 
Yeh that is a difficult one. How does the windshield bottom rubber fit the cowling? I have seen cars with a 3/8 inch under the cowling on one side where you could put your fingers under it. In that case the windshield frame itself was bent. I think a combination of the upright and the bottom piece holding the glass which sounds wrong, but it was the case. How about the interior kick panels is either side dented from accident damage? Does the windshield slide off? Some pics would be good.

steve
 
The car I am presently working on also had an uneven cowl. I subscribe to the theory that to straighten the cowl you need to only work with the cowl. That is from the top of the doors and up. I recall that I was able to improve my situation by lifting the low side with a jack between the floor (which was bolted to the frame) and the underside of the cowl. Note that there is a reinforcing piece under the area where the hinge sets. I used that point under the dash
 
Sure the cowling basically cantilevers out from the tub, so it is weak. The inner kick panel is the support for the cowling, so the arc stays the same. Taking off the outer sill IMHO will not let you change that opening or let you lift a specific spot. These cars settle over the years and couple of times I have seen the sheet metal rip on the lower part of the cowling letting the back corner come down, but usually the door settles down and leaves a larger gap at the back tip of the cowling. It sounds like the door works fine without hitting the cowling, so that is cool. If you have the carpet out, take a mirror, if it is an early car, and look around through the hole on the PS side. It might be the low side is correct and the other side too high.
steve
 

Attachments

  • carpet clips.jpg ds.jpg
    carpet clips.jpg ds.jpg
    66.8 KB · Views: 184
Thanks for the responses, I will try to post pics, I did try to jack the cowl but I chose the garage floor and the rear edge of the cowl underneath where the grab rail mounts, I fashioned a curved piece of wood between the ram and the underside of the original wood stiffener. I realized it would not budge due to the inside metal stiffener by the curved part of the cowl, maybe I will check to see if there is a support under the hood hinge holes on my car, not sure if I have that piece , my serial # is about 1900.
 
Another piece to this puzzle is that the pass side door/cowling gap is tight and the door sticks out about 1/8 “ from the cowl. It appears the there is a slight flat spot at that point right above the door. It must have been hit hard right there because that is where the metal stiffener is and I can’t get behind the cowl to work the metal
 
Hello Dennis

When you have your post ready then go to the row of icons above where you are typing. Click the third icon from the right hand end. That should bring up a box with From computer and chose a file. Follow the directions to add your image.

David
 
Very hard to tell in a single pic...but in that one the rear scuttle looks low on the left. I can’t see the problem with the front.
 
Dennis, if you are using an iPhone to take the photos you need to hold it so the volume buttons are facing up so that they come out the right way up . This forum uses windows so it will not rotate the photos, I have had the same problem.

Graham
 
Back
Top