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Hi all I am doing the vinyl work around the cockpit and dash on my 61tr3 and I am a little intimated by the dog leg capping. I saw, I think, a post by Geo where a wooden frame was made to hold the dog leg. Does anyone have that link? In addition, I noticed the speedometer trip reset on the later 61 tr3a does not go throw the hole in the bottom of the dash, and I thought I recalled someone saying they had to reach up under the dash a little to find the knob. Is that correct? On the 61, the knob comes out of the speedo at an angel that looks to steep to fit in the hole. My 58 has a slightly different case on the speedo and that knob comes straight down and out the dash. Thanks in advance for helping.
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TR2/3/3A tr3 vinyl work
- Thread starter sp53
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MGTF1250Dave
Jedi Knight
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You are correct, Geo is the one who made a jig to hold the dog leg cap rail. There are four photos in his post. Try this link to a previous post:
https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcforum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/89119/site_id/1#import
The date of the post is 11/10/04, #50591 is the beginning of the topic.
https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcforum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/89119/site_id/1#import
The date of the post is 11/10/04, #50591 is the beginning of the topic.
CraigLandrum
Jedi Hopeful
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A note on those dogleg cappings - make darn sure they fit your car before you go and cover them. The replacement ones I got were fiberglass and require significant reworking to fit. I eventually had to saw them in half lengthwise on a bandsaw, clamp the resulting two sides into place on the car, and fiberglass over the gap using two layers from a cheap fiberglassing kit I picked up at the local home store. That actually worked quite well - the result was much stronger than I expected, and I was able to sand them down and tidy them up and cover them fairly easily, although I admit it took some stretching - and I was using 41mil vinyl which is about twice the thickness of the stuff you get from Moss or VB.
Using the quick wood forms clamped to a bench to help support the doglegs while you stretch the vinyl over them is a good suggestion.
Take your time with the contact cement and do a little at a time and you should be good to go.
I actually had more of a problem with the door tops and the rounding pieces toward the back of the cockpit. On the door tops, the end vinyl needs to go into a button recess. You glue it in, but you also insert a chrome button into the recess and its a tight fit with thick vinyl. A clip on the back of the button goes through a hole in the middle of the recess and holds the button in place. Those caused a bit of colorful language on my part...
Using the quick wood forms clamped to a bench to help support the doglegs while you stretch the vinyl over them is a good suggestion.
Take your time with the contact cement and do a little at a time and you should be good to go.
I actually had more of a problem with the door tops and the rounding pieces toward the back of the cockpit. On the door tops, the end vinyl needs to go into a button recess. You glue it in, but you also insert a chrome button into the recess and its a tight fit with thick vinyl. A clip on the back of the button goes through a hole in the middle of the recess and holds the button in place. Those caused a bit of colorful language on my part...
For my dogleg cappings, I used the same technique of a wood jig to support them while covering with leather. I don't see how you could do the job without it. Before trying the doglegs, be sure to do other cappings first to get a feel for how your material responds to less challenging curvatures, and then proceed to the doglegs. With the doglegs, I found that I had to do each one in multiple stages, where I tackled the upper 70% of the capping first and started the bottom curve and then allowed the covering to dry for a few hours. Then a little more and a little more, basically stetching a little further each time to smooth out the bottom curve. Plan on a few hours and some tired fingers before your all done. For mine, I didn't worry about wrapping the covering around the back until the exposed side was done.
Two points -- For me, I found working with the leather was much better than the vinyl. I found the vinyl less predictable. Also, when applying your contact cement, be sure to let it tack dry to both sides for 5 minutes or so before starting the covering process. This will greatly help with the initial "grab".
Regarding the speedo -- mine was built in late 59 and has the knob that comes straight out of the bottom, and goes through the hole in the dash.
Two points -- For me, I found working with the leather was much better than the vinyl. I found the vinyl less predictable. Also, when applying your contact cement, be sure to let it tack dry to both sides for 5 minutes or so before starting the covering process. This will greatly help with the initial "grab".
Regarding the speedo -- mine was built in late 59 and has the knob that comes straight out of the bottom, and goes through the hole in the dash.
PeterK
Yoda
Offline
I recovered the door tops and across the dash piece in leather, so we're surrounded by leather and left the doglegs and rear cap in vinyl. TRF sells the rubber that is glued to the door cappings. I glued thin upholstery foam around the rubber and let it dry before stretching the leather over them.
As Craig mentioned, the button cap folds took some preplanning.
The rear side pieces just behind the doglegs were also recovered in vinyl but I found after I put the top frame on, the vinyl got a little bit scraped. So don't look.
I also found, after I was done, that the new door caps make putting the sidescreens on a little more difficult because of the renewed thickness. But they fit with a little fiddling.
Before the recovering though, I spend many hours beating and reshaping the aluminum rear capping to get it to fit properly and be able to get the hardtop brackets and chrome covers line up. So spend a little pre-fitting and do a dry run before recovering.
As Craig mentioned, the button cap folds took some preplanning.
The rear side pieces just behind the doglegs were also recovered in vinyl but I found after I put the top frame on, the vinyl got a little bit scraped. So don't look.
I also found, after I was done, that the new door caps make putting the sidescreens on a little more difficult because of the renewed thickness. But they fit with a little fiddling.
Before the recovering though, I spend many hours beating and reshaping the aluminum rear capping to get it to fit properly and be able to get the hardtop brackets and chrome covers line up. So spend a little pre-fitting and do a dry run before recovering.
Don Elliott
Obi Wan
Offline
On my early 1958 TR3A, the re-set for the trip odometer comes straight out the bottom, a little over to one side (off center). My speedometer casing is a whitemetal casting and the re-set knob lines up nicely with the hole in the bottom flange in the dash. The casing in back is round in shape.
In the late TR3A (TS 81551 L) that I restored, I think the owner, or some previous owner had a problem because the re-set did not come down through the hole. It was wedged in back of the flange. This speedo case was a sheetmetal stamping and was rectagular in back.
I assumed that at some time, someone had switched speedometers and maybe this one might have been from a TR4 or maybe an MG ? We took it apart and filed the hole in the sheetmtal casing till we got it to line up with the hole in the flange.
In the late TR3A (TS 81551 L) that I restored, I think the owner, or some previous owner had a problem because the re-set did not come down through the hole. It was wedged in back of the flange. This speedo case was a sheetmetal stamping and was rectagular in back.
I assumed that at some time, someone had switched speedometers and maybe this one might have been from a TR4 or maybe an MG ? We took it apart and filed the hole in the sheetmtal casing till we got it to line up with the hole in the flange.
Thanks all for the help and Don you guys actually got that thing through the hole. I am 90% sure that I have the right speedo in there because the tr3 has two dash lights in the case and I am guessing that a tr4 only has one, but I do not know for sure. In addition, the early tr3 speedo case uses a rigged trip counter and the later uses a flexible trip counter. However, I could not get the counter shaft to go the through the hole without fear of breaking the rod. I was hoping that someone would chime in and say, oh yes the 60 and 61 tr3 did not go through the hole in the dash, but one had to reach up a little behind and feel for it.
6TTR3A
Jedi Warrior
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When Triumph changed to the stamped speedo case they made a change to the horizontal bracket(s) that run from the dash to the battery box in order to accommodate the trip reset stem on LHD cars. They partially widened one of the slots to a circle shape. Here's the catch. The brackets (or stays as Triumph calls them) are symmetrical, so if they've been removed, you stand a 50-50 chance of reattaching them with the hole on the wrong end. If you used brackets from an older parts car they won't have the rounded holes. Also, they never did eliminate the hole in the dash for the earlier speedo, so don't be fooled by that. If you haven't installed the heater, it's a simple matter to remove & reverse the bracket. Hope this clears it up for you.
FRank
FRank
CraigLandrum
Jedi Hopeful
Offline
Like Peter, it also took me a while to beat the aluminum capping piece in the back into shape. The car had no existing capping when we got it, so I bought the fiberglass doglegs from Moss (which I had to saw in half and refiberglass to the correct width as mentioned above), and I also got the aluminum side pieces that fit just behind the doglegs from Moss. These were pretty much OK, although I had hammer a bit to to fit and drill mounting holes. I manufactured the long aluminum capping piece from scratch from sheet aluminum, beating it into shape by rounding off a two inch wide piece of 3/4 inch thick oak, clamping it in a bench vise, adding a screw on one side to show me where the bent-over edge ended, and having my son feed me the aluminum as I rounded it over the wood shape with a body hammer (I put the edge of the aluminum on the screw and used the hammer to bend the aluminum across the top, doing a bit of the bend at a time. It took 3 or 4 passes until I had the whole length bent over correctly) Spent a lot of time going back and forth test fitting the piece between the bench and the car until I was happy. I kept telling myself that the minor hammer dents I left would be invisible under the vinyl and that has proven to be pretty much true.
After shaping everything I drilled the mounting holes in the capping to match the previous capping mounting holes, then screwed everything down. I then marked up any edges that needed to be trimmed using tin snips or a grinder, removed the capping, and finished the edges. Finally - and this was simply my own preference and probably not recommended practice - I mounted the long back piece and epoxied it to the mounted side pieces, let everything dry, and removed and recovered it all as a seamless whole, beginning from the middle of the back around to the sides. As I recovered, I was very careful to mark where I drilled the holes in the pieces so that it will - hopefully - go back on the car easily. I'll be testing out that theory tomorrow
Oh, and FYI, the speedo knob on my 59 LHD goes straight down through the existing hole in the bottom of the dash. They even put a similar hole in the bottom of the tach area in case I ever wanted to switch them. My speedo case is round.
After shaping everything I drilled the mounting holes in the capping to match the previous capping mounting holes, then screwed everything down. I then marked up any edges that needed to be trimmed using tin snips or a grinder, removed the capping, and finished the edges. Finally - and this was simply my own preference and probably not recommended practice - I mounted the long back piece and epoxied it to the mounted side pieces, let everything dry, and removed and recovered it all as a seamless whole, beginning from the middle of the back around to the sides. As I recovered, I was very careful to mark where I drilled the holes in the pieces so that it will - hopefully - go back on the car easily. I'll be testing out that theory tomorrow
Oh, and FYI, the speedo knob on my 59 LHD goes straight down through the existing hole in the bottom of the dash. They even put a similar hole in the bottom of the tach area in case I ever wanted to switch them. My speedo case is round.
That makes sense Frank. I think I see the light. What I did was recover the dash and then punched out the hole for the trip meter thinking it was the same as the 58. However, now I see that if I left the hole covered and went through the brace then everything would work out. I will check the braces when I get home.
Thank you
Thank you
Geo Hahn
Yoda
Offline
CraigLandrum said:
Indeed, Triumph did switch them. The early (RHD) cars had the speedo on the left. They moved it to the right position to give the navigator a better look at it.
If your 'navigator' isn't really navigating and gets nosy about just how fast you were going when you overtook that Porsche... you may wish it was back on the left.