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TR2/3/3A TR3A Bonnet Brace

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CJD

CJD

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Today I noticed the braces that run under the front and rear edges of the Bonnet are loose - as in - not attached. They are spot welded where they meet the bonnet sides, but are otherwise not attached to the skin of the bonnet. I assume there must have been an adhesive used between the brace and the skin at the factory.

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I would apreciate it if anyone can give me an idea of what, if anything, was used to bond the braces to the bonnet skin.

Thanks,

John
 
I could be wrong ( and I know that others will correct me if I am), but I think what you have there is correct. However, I believe that there is supposed to be a thin strip of felt under there to keep it from rattling.

Cheers,
M. Pied Lourd
 
I recently removed that rear brace from a damaged hood that Mallards wife had run over with her car and he gave it to me to see if we might save it. The brace is junk, so I removed one from a hail damaged hood. There are 3 or 4 spot welds right at the rear edge of the hood, you have to look close to see the spot welds. I used a large, long putty knife to cut the spot welds. There is felt under the brace and it will trap water and rust your brace and sometimes the hood. Good Luck, Bill C. Mesa, Az.
 
Here are a few pics.

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Cheers,

M. Pied Lourd
 
Excellent info...thanks for the pics! It looks like the trick will be to get the paint under there, and then add the felt. Or, never drive in the rain!?!

Thanks for the quick and detailed responses...!

John
 
M. It looks like you've got some work ahead with those sills in the background...
 
Fascinating! David, you have come a long way...it's looking great. Good luck with the rear valence. After I looked mine over closely I was very glad I did not have to take it apart. It looks like you have had a lot of practice getting ready for it, though. I'll be watching for more pics!

John
 
Hey John I thought about the same issue with there not being paint in that gap and figured the piece is high up and the oil vapor from the engine might help. However, when I pulled the felt out it had some rust on it. I went ahead and put the felt back in with some wooden wedges and I might squirt some of that wax oil in there or just leave it. I have never seen a tr3 rusted there, but time marches on. Perhaps someone can slice one open that has been ran over and show how evasive the rust is.
steve
 
Steve the rust under the brace can be quite surprising. This is the replacement bonnet for the one that was run over. It's hard to see in the pictures but some of the pitting is very deep on both the outer skin and the brace. Also the pitting was very close to the edge so some paint blistering may have occurred after the car was painted. This was a time consuming repair but I'm glad I did it. That felt strip that came with the car was a rust producer. It all depends on the type of restoration you are doing. You decide if it needs looking into or not. I needed to fabricate the original rivets that help hold the brace on so I removed the brace.
 

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Hmmm. That's a very informative pic. I think I'll look it over again and see if it's feasible to take it apart for a coat of paint...or at least a walk through the yellow pages to see if there are any companies that can dip the whole thing in primer.

I'll let you know what I find.

Thanks again...!

John
 
Very cool Keith. I wanted to do that, but figured I needed to keep moving ahead. It looks like I am now going to wax oil the gap the best I can. Do you have any history on that hood? Is that an Arizona hood?
steve
 
The bonnet in the picture was from the midwest. The one that was run over was an original AZ bonnet. They both had about the same amount of rust. It used to rain more often here, and the car was a daily driver for many years.
 
Believe me they do rust out along with the top of the hood. Had to have a new brace made and replace the steel in several places above where the brace was.
 
John
TR2's and early TR3's have two brass rivets in the brace. There should be two 1/8" size, round rivet heads showing on the top on the hood to the inside of where the hinges go. I'm at the beach for two weeks or I would send you a picture of the hood with rivets. Sounds like the hood has been replaced. BUT don't see why you can't install two that would make it look correct. Also the vent holes are different. Can't remember right now the configuration. Some early TR2's have four vents.

Marv
 
If you're not too bent on originality, you could do what I did. For the bonnet and boot lids (early style boot lid), I removed felt and had panels blasted. I dribbled and dripped some rust fixer in all the brace locations to fix the rust. Then, I primed. I used Tiger Seal (UPOL product) adhesive sealer to partially fill the gaps between the bracing and the panel skin. It looks great and I'm happy that the rust is fixed in place. For the boot lid, I did remove the lower bracing and replace. That was a huge amount of welding and patch panel fitting to get it right. I can provide a photo if you'd like.

Pat
 
The TRs left the factory with a dark blue or black jute-like material behind the reinforcing sections. I tore mine out and still have a piece just like the photo above. This was between 1987 and 1990 during my restoration. I never put any back in. Ever since 1990 when it was back of the road, the *&!!@#))* blasted bonnet over the engine compartment would vibrate something terrible at any speed between 400 RPM and 1200 RPM. Of course that's when I would be stopped at a traffic light for say 2 to 3 minutes and everyone around who wanted to admire my TR3A were thinking it was about to explode. This past winter, I designed a mod for the hood spring assembly so that it would be nylatron running on nylatron. Also I found some vinyl coated jute about 1/16" to 1/8" thick and stuffed it into the crack behind the support. Problem resolved. Now it's as quiet as new.
 
Thanks guys...this is an old necropost, though. Just as a follow up...I shot as much primer into the joint as I could, and I never replaced the jute. So far no rattling and all is well.

On a side note...Marv, I'm starting to get scared of the TR2! The more I look into it, the worse it looks. I was excited about using a TR3 donor, but I'm learning how many body differences there are between the 2 and 3. I think the balance is tilting towards parting it. I'll either take the donor...or give you a great deal on a lot of 2 parts!?!
 
I'm not so worried about the work, it's mainly finding the parts. I can muddle through most of the differences in the TR3 tub, like the scuttle vent, inner fenders, firewall and brackets. My biggest worry will be the spare tire bucket and a matching rear valence. I have not had any luck finding these two parts, even from sources in GB. Leaving the large spare bucket would make it obviously a TR3 tub instead of a TR2.

I'm still looking, though!
 
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