TR2/3/3A TR2/3 bumper vs TR3A bumper [front]

[Adrio]

Don,

Thanks for that picture from Ottawa. From that it looks like my bumper has too much curve. For sure it is not parallel to the apron profile. Do you remember if the straitening you had done would have damaged the chrome on a slightly over arched bumper like mine.

I notice in your before picture that your grill was curved inwards. Mine was like that before my front end accident on my honeymoon in 1988 (my car was parked and the wife of the local paper editor in the small town I was having lunch in miscalculated her parallel park). Did they all look like that from the factory?? I have always wondered if my apron was deformed or if I was wrong in asking the body shop to "fix" it so that the new grill would be flat.

 

[Don Elliott]

Adrio - You are right. This was 1963. The grille was pushed in after the accident. About 6 inches. The valance too. I was coming over a rise on this gravel road at speed and the headlights were aimed up into the trees. I went over the top and then the lights came down again to illuminate the road. It had gone - the road turned to the right. I drove straight into a fencepost and it was only the tightness of the wire fence that kept me from going down about 20 feet into the raging white waters of the rapids in the white water rafting Rouge River. That photo was taken at the finish where everyone was having breakfast. My brother was there and he took the photo. That's his new green 1963 Volvo 544 which he had just bought at Carling Motors.

After that, the grille opening was too small to fit a new one, so for years I had no grille. When I did my restoration, I bought a new grille and used a small hyrdaulic jack and pieces of wood to push up the opening till the new grille fit perfectly. After the car was painted, I was easily able to fit the new grille into the opening so it was flat. It's been flat since 1990 as you see in the 2005 photo.

Here's the repair we did to get the grille opening correct. The grille on my 1958 TR3A was flat when I bought the car new.

 

[Don Elliott]

And here is a top view.

 

[Adrio]

Don, thanks for the top view photo. That shows me my bumper is too curved and too far out both. I will have to do something when I am reassembling my car. iam sure it will not be fun to solve but I want the starter handle to work.