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TR2/3/3A TR3 bonnet fit question

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gsalt57tr3

gsalt57tr3

Jedi Warrior
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My TR3 is undergoing a light restoration: mostly body and interior. New paint and some body work, including corrosion control. I am installing a TR3 small mouth and will be offering the 3a wide mouth for sale.

Anyway, my bonnet seems to be about a 1/2 inch to narrow. I don't know if it is because of a known front end collision, or if after said collision, someone grabbed an undamaged bonnet and slapped it on.

Would any TR3 and TR3a owners measure the width of their bonnets and let me know if how wide it is at both the front and near the hinges? Please include the model so I can figure out whats going on?

Thanks
 
One thing you'll find about TR2-3s is that all the panals were somewhat variable. The differences aren't necessarily from model to model, but car to car. This makes restoration a nightmare if you're using parts from different cars.
The nose piece is what may be causing the gap in the front. Make sure the flanges on the sides of the nose and the fenders (where the beading goes)are both flat. If there is any distortion there it can spread the bonnett gaps, and sometimes the rear can be "fooled" by tweaking the curved sides of the bonnett out.
I bet everyone who gives you a measurement will be slightly different.
 
I am expecting everyone to give me different measurements. The flanges are straight and true, as were the flanges on the wide mouth nose.
 
Both my TR3s are absolutely hideous in terms of bonnet fit. I think you just need to fiddle with them as best you can, then just live with it...To quote the guy in town who sold TR2-TR6s new: "These things looked horrible when they got to the dealerships -- panel fit was terrible and we called the paint 'primer coats' 'cause you could usually see right through it to the metal."
 
Banjo and Sammy are right - my '57 bonnet had huge (by present-day standards) gaps on both sides. One good thing: you'll never worry about chipping the paint due to being too tight!

Mickey
 
Heh, I've got the opposite problem with the bonnet. When I got it painted, put the fender bead on and tightened all the bolts, I was left with a very tight squeeze to get the thing closed. Maybe we can get 10 TR3's together and swap bonnets!
 
Do you by chance have the wing beading removed? W/o that beading the gap does look way big... but then alright when the beading is in place.
 
Hi jay hawk it has been my experience that when fitting a bonnet you may have to also loosen the front fenders and probably remove the doors to get at the bolts. My front-end fits very nice; however I had to work at. The bolt holes for the fenders are slotted under the front fenders and on top this will give you an easy ½. More problematic is inner fender metal fatigue. You will probably have to loosen up the body from the frame in the front and push and pull that around there are just a couple bolts. These cars are very malleable and unbolt into very basic components. With your specific problem and if like Geo says the beading does not fix it, (the beading is trim to hide flaw) I would loosen the inner fenders and loosen the outer fenders then put some tire wire spindliest on it and pull it where you want it. One tip is try not to use the captive nuts too much when pulling the bonnet together. Leave the head lights and grill out and work through there and pull it together with wire spindles kicked off the frame or something of that nature then cut them out when you are done. The captive nuts will strip.

Sp53
 
Sp53-- I'm sure that another coat of primer and paint were responsible for my too close tolerances... : )

In truth, you're probably right about mine. I probably tightened things up far more after the reassembly than they were originally. In the back, I had to find the original "mis-fit" to be able to get reasonable gaps between panels and still have the beading to sit up nicely from front to back.
Dunno about Gsalt's issue, tho.
 
Aloha,

My TR3A, TS28418E, registered as a '58 has the following bonnet dimensions, 46 7/8" wide at the rear and 46 3/16" wide at the front. I measured with it open an went from edge to edge on the underside. My car has about a 3/8" gap between the front cowl and the leading edge of the bonnet.

I agree with the suggestions that you can move the various pieces around to get the best fit and uniform gaps and reveals. Good luck.

Safety Fast,
Dave
 
I also have a bonnet fit problem... I've kinda gotten over it for the time being and plan to have it corrected when I change something that requires me to pull the front apron.. It closes securly and looks good to everyone that sees it but me!

Capt Roy
61 TR3A TS71469L
 
Weighing in with TS71909L, the only one I could get to tonight:

Rear 46 7/8" wide, which matches Dave's measurement, and Front 45 7/8", which is a bit narrower than Dave's. Maybe that's a pre- v. post-60000 thing? I will say that my car is very original in terms of panels and paint. There are minor dings in the apron and in both front fenders, none of which seems in any way to have altered the original positioning of the panels (which also appear never to have been disturbed. I know they haven't in the 34 years I've had the car). Further, the "arch" of the bonnet seems to mate very nicely with the "arch" of the front apron, and other panels line up nicely as well, with relatively even gaps along any given length.

Owing to the construction of the bonnet, any difference in width measurement at the front wouldn't surprise me...particularly if anyone ever (literally) sat on the front edge (no one here has EVER done that, right?)!
 
45 7/8" across my bonnet front. I'm assuming you are about to make your car correct with the small mouth (sub TS22014 commission #). If so does your car still have its original front fenders ie they hang down about a 1/3 to 1/2 inch lower than the wide mouth front end. It always seemed strange that it took (according to the parts book) the factory about five hundred cars before they started matching the fenders and the apron bottom again. I would follow gsalt's and others advice and loosen everything up back to the doors. Start at the scuttle / bonnet contact get that lined up to your satisfaction, while just lightly tightening hinge bolts, line up the bonnet dzus brackets, then horse the whole unit (apron loosely bolted to the front fenders) back and forth on the inner fender valences again, until the spacings look as good as you can live with. Then I like to snug things up kind of like torquing the head down, a bit at a time all over. It will definitely shoot a Sat. morning to heck. If I may ask, what are you asking for the 3A apron?
Tom Lains
 
Thanks all for the advise.

I guess the best thing to do is after I get everything stripped, loosen up the bolts and see how much play there is in the various componants.

Engine is coming out tomorrow so I can get the engine compartment stripped and replace the battery box.
 
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