TR2/3/3A TR3 WINDSCREEN

[habaneronut]

I need to replace the windshield in my 58 3A, but the glass I received from the parts house has too much of a bow to it to fit in my frame. At the center, the bow is 11/16 inch, and the glass man working on this says no way will that fit in the frame without cracking the glass (didn't think to measure the frame bow, and it's down at his shop). Does anyone know what the correct bow is supposed to be? Is the glass wrong, or could I possibly have a frame from another model/car? It sure looks like a TR3 frame, but then this car is pretty much a hodge podge of parts. Can any of you other TR3 owners tell me what the bow of your frame measures in the center at the bottom. I measured the glass bow by taping a taut string at each corner and then measuring how far the string was away from the glass in the very center.

 

[Don Elliott]

I had my hood over the engine compartment fly up when it was overheating in traffic and it wasn't down on the safety catch. That was about 1962 or so and I was in traffic on my way to the Canadian Grand Prix at Mont. Tremblant. The frame looked OK but the glass was cracked. A week later, I bought a new glass and had to force the frame to fit the glass. I put it all together and the glass cracked immediately. The impact of the hood on the frame had "flattened" out the original curve in my frame. So I bought another glass and had to put the curve back into the frame so it wouldn't happen again. I did that by applying manual force with it protected by wood blocks in my 6" vice.

I don't think your glass has too much bow in it. I think your frame is too flat. Bend your frame to fit. You will know when it has enough bow in it when you use the glass as a "gauge" and you can slide it in nicely.

As for the rubber seal that goes around the glass where it sits in the frame, I used 4 layers of black electric tape over the edge. I determined this by measuring the thickness of the glass and subtracted this from the dimension of the groove in the chromed frame. Four layers of tape means 4 layers on each side since it was taped over the edge. 8 layers at 0.004" each is 0.032" total. Then I slid it all together, screwed the corners, etc. and using a sharp knife, I trimmed off the excess tape. It looks great and is much easier to do than the thick, stiff rubber that is avaiable for supposedly doing this.

 

[habaneronut]

Yeah, Banjo, I measured the glass outside the frame. Stretched a string tightly from side to side near the bottom and then measured the distance from glass to string in the very center. Was right at 11/16.

Holy Cow Batman! What happened to you Don is exactly what happened to me! Had the front apron off for working on the radiator so didn't have a safety catch. Thought for sure I had the bonnet fastened down and just had to go for a little drive to the bank on a nice day and you know the rest! Same as you, the bonnet flew up and hit the fasteners and cracked the glass. The frame sure doesn't look bent, but sounds as though looks can be deceiving when this happens. Will try your fix on the frame and see what happens.

Would still appreciate a measurement, though, Banjo, just to be sure.

 

[Geo Hahn]

Thanks Don for that tip about using the elctrical tape. I assume this was the plastic style tape & not friction tape?

A local friend had the bonnet come over on him (and his daughter)... didn't damage the windscreen frame though, it was back home in the garage. Got 2 dents in the bonnet and a couple of nasty headaches.

Saftey catches were fairly pointless on TR4s but absolutely necessary on the TR3.

 

[Banjo]

I don't think they changed the curve of the glass through the production. They did change the fasteners along the top and the mounting screws at the cowl. I can measure my TR2 this evening (off to work right now).. I'll let you know soon. did you measure with the side pieces removed, and I think you meant corner to corner criss cross style, right?

 

[Don Elliott]

Geo - I remember that not only did I get the impressions from about 8 pegs from along the top of my windscreen frame embossed into my "bonnet", but the hinges broke off and the whole thing became airborne. It flew about 20 feet into the air and came crashing down between 2 other cars that were also creeping along in the traffic. I'm convinced that it was all due to the 25 MPH headwind that caught under the hood and flipped it back. The hood was dented as well when it landed. But the shop did a nice job to straighten it back then (circa 1962) and it still looks like it was when it left Coventry. See below. BTW, thats still the same frame for thew windscreen too.

Don

https://www.britishcarforum.com/ubbthreads/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1919/ppuser/4127

 

[Banjo]

OK took my measurement.... Right near the bottom. glass still in the frame. I laid a known straight board across the back of the frame. took a depth measurement at edge of the glass, and another in the center. Subtracted the first from the second and came up with... drum roll please....
3/4" (or 12/16) 1/16 difference from yours... Sounds like yours is the same as mine.. Could just be the difference in measuring meathods for the sixteenth....
Good luck getting your's right.Mine is gonna need it before it hits the road (oh boy!)

 

[TRTEL]

I've had success using butyl rubber caulking. Filling the channel, then squeezing in the glass and using a single edge razor blade to clean off the cured excess.
Tom Lains
TS58107 & TS8651

 

[habaneronut]

Thanks everyone! I guess I'll be frame straightening this weekend. Our experiences are so similar, Don, its amazing. My bonnet snapped the hinges, acquired four peg impressions as it flipped over the frame and landed in the road behind me RIGHT SIDE UP with no other cars in sight. Was a little bent in the rear corners and paint chipped off there, but with a little work I got that all straighted out pretty nicely. Now just have to do some paint repairs this winter. Most embarrasing part of the whole ordeal was that an old beat up barely running car full of real scroungy looking characters saw the incident and as I was gently laying the bonnet back on the car the driver leaned out and said "Hey Dude, your car's falling apart".

BTW, the hinge gaskets Moss sent me with the hinges are some cardboard looking things. Is that what the originals looked like? Assume it's not really cardboard but something else - anyone know what.

Thanks again for the help, this is a great forum. Wish I had asked some questions here before starting the work that led to the front apron being off in the first place. That's a whole different story I may post to the stories sometime.

Fred

 

[Don Elliott]

There are a lot of stories about our old TRs. But they just keep going - on and on. I've driven mine more than 94,000 miles over the last 16 summers.

The gaskets are black cardboard and they are shaped like thge hinges. They go between the paintwork and the bottom of the hinge. Careful with new hinges. The threads are not always threaded to the bottom of the holes. I take a bottom tap to make sure. Then I hack-saw a slot in the end of the new studs and I use red Loctite to make sure they stay in. I us a 7/16" and 1/2" open-end wrench to tighten the nut. A screwdriver in the slot helps too.

 

[jayhawk]

[ QUOTE ]
BTW, the hinge gaskets Moss sent me with the hinges are some cardboard looking things. Is that what the originals looked like? Assume it's not really cardboard but something else - anyone know what.
Fred

[/ QUOTE ]

I sent the gaskets for the hood hinges back to Moss for a refund. They were flimsey and didn't really fit. I went to Advance Auto and got some thicker/sturdier gasket material and cut my own. I used to do that with my old VW's for door handles, hinges, etc and it came out cleaner than a lot of the material they often used.

 

[Geo Hahn]

I agree... that black paper gasket from the auto parts store material is a nice weight and with little scissors and an Xacto knife you can make a better gasket for hinges, door handles, truck handles, mirrors, etc. I even used it for the o-ring seal between the speedo/tach glass & gauge.

 

[habaneronut]

Finally got around to working on my frame today, Don, and I couldn't believe how ridiculously easy it was to fix. I just wrapped it around a 4x4 wodden bird house pole in the back yard and gently applied pressure in about four places. Took about 15 minutes and the glass now fits nicely.

One last question, I can't find anything in the books about how to install the pegs for the hood. I think some of mine are just a tad too long and wonder what is a good procedure for sizing them. Do you just put them in the frame and hacksaw off any excess in the channel and then file it down so it is exactly even with the frame, or is there some better method? Can there be just a tad little bit protruding into the channel (like maybe 1/64 or something) and not hurt, or do they need to be exactly flush?

Fred

 

[Don Elliott]

Fred - Glad to hear how easy it was. And it won't crack all by itself now.

The pegs along the top of the frame need to be flush or short on the inside. If left long, and you screw them in after installing the glass, the long end will bear onto and into the glass and the glass will crack. Before putting the glass in, screw in a few and look in the groove as to how much you need to shorten them. Then cut or grind off the excess one at a time in your vice - use protection so you don't damage the chrome. Then you should be OK. Use my suggestion detailed above of the black stretchy vinyl electrical tape around the glass as the seal, unless you have the perfect seal that will do. My original seal was like a woven tape about 1.5" wide that went all around the glass. The tape was black and seemed to be impregnated with some other substance. It looked like the old style fabric electric tape we used to use on our hockey sticks, but it was wider and it didn't have a sticky surface. The second seal I used was from a TR supplier. It was stretchy foam. As I pulled it tight all around, it got thinner and cut through at the bottom sharp corners. When it was in and finished, I was out one day in the rain and found that the foam was "open-cell" foam. It would have been better if it had been a "closed-cell" foam. With the open cells, it absorbed the rain water and acted like a sponge and the rain came right through the foam "seal" !!! So I had to use a silicone sealer all around - like around the bath tub - to keep the rain out.

For the next one another TR supplier sent me a rubber roll that was so thick and stiff, it wouldn't let me slide the glass in and it wouldn't flex around the corners, so we used the 4 layers of black tape "over the edge" all around. I plan to do this on my own this winter because last year after about 85,000 miles on my windscreen, I had so many "crystals" from sand chips or whatever, that I changed the glass for a new one. That was before we tried the tape technique. The seal I used was the original one that I removed when I did my restortion in 1987 to 1990 and I had kept that seal. We of Scotish descent save everything, that's why I still have my TR3A after 48 and a half years.

https://www.britishcarforum.com/ubbthreads/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1920/ppuser/4127