• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

TR2/3/3A TR3 Floor Boards

Share this page

mountainman

mountainman

Jedi Trainee
Offline
My floor boards are rusted through in the front and up the front foot well about 4".
I am not restoring the tr3 to Concorse standards and was wondering if the one's from Moss are woth the price or should I just try to replace the bad areas with sheet metal? What would be the easiest way to go?
Thanks
Greg
 
Guess it depends on how much metal you have to replace. On the one hand, since the body and frame are separate, the floor doesn't bear too much "real" stress. But if there's a lot of metal missing, the replacement pans make sense.

However, seems to me that the "easiest" would be to pop new pans in and be done with it, and replace the metal in the foot wells, since the replacement pans don't include that much, if I recall.

Mickey
 
The other benefit to the replacement pans, as Mickey pointed out, is that they can be trimed as needed for the area that needs to be replaced.

Having just fabricated new patch panels on the TR8 I can tell you first hand that replacement panels are a <span style="font-weight: bold">wonderful</span> thing...
 
Replacing the floors is a huge undertaking; and I don't believe the panels from Moss include the vertical part at the front (which is part of the bulkhead). I "got by" for 20 years on a combination of fiberglass, roofing tin and caulking compound. Now the car is totaled, and I'm still not sorry I never got a "round tuit".

OTOH, I have a brief article written by a friend who did his, and he says he's sorry he didn't do it sooner, so make your own decision. He estimated 50 manhours per side, not including repainting, putting the interior back in, etc. so maybe it also depends on how much free time you have.

PM me your email addy if you'd like a copy of Bill's article.

There's also an article on Mark Macy's website about TR4 floors. Not exactly the same, of course, but reasonably similar.
https://www.macysgarage.com/myweb6/TR4_floors.htm
 
A lot depends on how you "replace" the floorboards. If you cut out along the sides leaving about an inch around the sills, rear, and trans tunnel and then trim the new floors to drop in, the job can go pretty quickly.

I opted to replace the whole floorboard as it was originally installed, and that is alot of work. However, I know that 50 hours/side is much more then it took me. I would think it was more more like half that, as I did it in about a week spending time after work...a few hours a night. I also replaced about six inches up the front bulkhead. I also have an air compressor and I bought a load of air tools for this kind of work, so maybe that's where the time savings came from. This was all on the driver's side. For some reason, the passenger's side needed absolutely NO work at all. Now the boot (trunk) floor was another story altogether. That took a lot more time then the floorboard. I remember spending the better part of a month working nights getting that in. :wall:
 
Aloha Greg,

How you do it is up to you, but that area is covered by carpet in the cockpit and between the inner and outer fender so mostly concealed. I suggest that you explore some more to make sure you know how far and how deep the rust extends.

I recently discovered some small rust holes in the same area you describe. Digging a little deeper, the tin worm and rust had devoured a large portion of the front of the inner sill and started rusting the inside of the front fender. I believe the cause is because of the bonnet drainage system. The lip on the front of the bulkhead that directs water from the rear of the bonnet to the sides of the car drain down between the fender and the foot well side panel, then out of a hole in the bottom of the fender. Road grim getting passed the rubber bulk head seal can collect in the fender and then rain, etc can create a breeding ground for rust or plug the drain hole further aggravating the problem.

Good luck in killing of the rust.
 
Re: TR Floor Boards

MGTF1250Dave said:
My MG has had termites and also dry rot.
Click to expand...
Floorboards in my buddy's MGA actually caught fire!
 
Re: TR Floor Boards

TR3driver said:
Floorboards in my buddy's MGA actually caught fire!
Click to expand...

Boy, did that statement bring back some memories. A friend of mine had an MGA when we were just both just out of high school (mid '60s). We were traveling along the Long Island Expressway at a pretty good clip when the smoke started wafting into the cockpit. We pulled over, pulled up the carpet, and sure enough the plywood was smoldering from the heat of the exhaust. :sick: BTW, at the time, I had a TR4...we didn't have those sort of problems. :laugh:
 
Re: TR Floor Boards

Greg - here's a couple links for you on how I "dealt with" my rusty floor panels.

What I found.

What I did.


Hope this helps.
Tom
 
Re: TR Floor Boards

Just got 2 panels from the UK $111.00 (65 pounds) each plus $115.00 for shipping(ebay UK), The exchange rate has been coming in our favor (got here in 4 days).

Paul
 
Re: TR Floor Boards

Thanks everyone for your responses. Tom, I think I am going your way with the por-15. The job you did really looks good, and there is a lot of listings for that product on Ebay.
Thanks again
Greg
 
Re: TR Floor Boards

His POR15 job will last a lot longer than next fall. I did this to a car and it looked 'just done' without any further rust for 5 years...sold the car so no idea today.
 
Back
Top