TR3A sidescreen fitting

[PhilJane]

I am pressing on with general refurbishment of my 1959 TR3A and have got to the sidescreens. I have a refurbisher lined up to recover the sidescreens and replace the perspex, but have been advised that it is far better to make sure the sidescreens fit well before having the refurbishment, all of which makes sense.

The issue is that when I bought the car, I was supplied with 3 sets of sidescreens(!) but none have ever been fitted to the car in my ownership. I have looked at offering up a couple of sets and none seem to fit in the slots in the doors precisely, while also meeting the windscreen, and also avoiding the fixings on the door for the tonneau cover.

Do any members have any recommendations on how to fit the sidescreens and generally how to check for a good fit and make adjustments, as necessary? Appreciate any advise.

Phil.

[sidescreen]

Quiet simple Phil, undo two of your best side screens of all their upholstery and try to fit them into the slots.

If they won't fit cut them loose of their frames, or better cut the whole frame loose and adjust it in a rather horizontal position.

Very impotant as well is to check that both front lines are parallel to your windscreen stanchions. If so weld the whole again together and start re-upholstering.

 

Send you some pics in a second mail.

 

Good luck !

 

Raymond

[sidescreen]

As promised hereby your pictures Phil.

 

Raymond

[stuart]

The other option is to remove the brackets from the doors and affix them to the frames then move the frames around until they are an acceptable fit to the windscreen and the hood and then screw the mounting brackets back to the doors. You will probably find that you need to bend the front corner of the frame into the car a bit to fit the scuttle as well as the main fixing bars to bring the top into the hood better.

Stuart.

[Richardtr3a]

Fi9rst fit the hqard top and then move the brackets so that you have a neat fit to the roof and the windscreen.

Cut ,bend and weld the frames and then proceed to the recovering shop.

Finally adjust the hood to fit the sidescreens.

You will need to bend the frames to clear the lift-the-dot studs and also a bend to keep the leading front edge away from the new paint on the scuttle.

Good luck

[billg]

Fi9rst fit the hqard top and then move the brackets so that you have a neat fit to the roof and the windscreen.

Cut ,bend and weld the frames and then proceed to the recovering shop.

Finally adjust the hood to fit the sidescreens.

You will need to bend the frames to clear the lift-the-dot studs and also a bend to keep the leading front edge away from the new paint on the scuttle.

Good luck

 

 

Hi There,

 

This is the hardest job on the whole car! I know my pal and I have spent weeks figuring out how to make the best possible sidescreen and how to fit it! Arguing the whole way!

 

We started with two pairs of brand new Moss sidescreen, unused, plus one older set,. The new ones failed to fit by a mile! and are not easy to bend in either of the six directions you might need to push and pull them

 

We ended up buying a second hand set of original sidescreen frames and threw away all the trimming, perspex etc as already suggested by other posts. These old frames were easily bent to fit, again with the door DZUS mounts in situ on the door minus

the door card. We too had a hardtop and had this fitted as a guide, bolted down on the screen and to the rear body. So you then have a fixed aperture that your sidescreen frame must fit, especially the leading edge., which when trimmed must have a small flap on the inner face of the sidescreen. This then locates in the machined slot to the rear of the stanchion and alongside the tenon plate.

 

As if this was not hard enough I wanted blue mohair covers on these sidescreen , plus also wanted solid sliding perspex on both bits of the screen, front and back.

 

To achieve this I bought all the 6mm alloy U channel from B&Q I could get( I think I cleared out two stores!) , lined the U channels with self adhesive soft fuzzy (female) VELCRO, which made the very clear plastic I bought, shaped and polished slide nicely and tightly. I used the U channel alloy right round the whole frame, 1) small straight single section at the front, with one section reversed and covered in velvet 2) a long straight dual section on the base for the plastic to slide along 3) a roughly L shaped dual run which went up the back and along the indside of the top of the frame.

 

The TR3A sidescreen frame will accommodate two 6 mm channels side by side in the steel U channel and also allow a stitched cover over various bits of the frame to be sewn up off the frame and tucked in at various points.

 

Final assemby may involve a very small amount of handstitching front and back. Rather than keep the rigid lower metal strip which defines the outer lower bottom of the sidescreen, I'm afraid I cut this off! and will instead use the outer 4 liftadots to hold down the bottom of the sidescreen flap. A kind of mix and match of all the variants on sidescreens. All non standard but between us we have spent many happy hours arguing about how to do this! Some of the works sidescreens in some of my books look a bit like this variant we have come up with.

 

So far all the alloy sections and plastic are now cut and the frames all bent and fitted to suit ( NB the front especially dives in a little in at the front. as was seen on several untampered old frames. New frames did not have this bend.

 

Will take lots of pics when I do finally assemble, working out just now how to tell the trimmer exactly how I want the frame cover stiched as it needs flaps of various sizes at the back, front and top, as well as my custom designed lower flap.

 

Regards

 

Bill G

 

~By now you can tell I'm a real anorak and need to get out more!

 

 

 

[stuart]

Bill the earlier type of sidescreen I think you are referring to had a triangular shaped section of wire sewn into the bottom section (Often referred to as the "Flappy bottom" type)This kept the shape of the bottom section and with judicious bending made it sit better on the door. So it may be an idea to accommodate that into yours. Your right about the current Moss frames as they arent even close

Stuart.

[BrianC]

We started with two pairs of brand new Moss sidescreen, unused, plus one older set,. The new ones failed to fit by a mile! ...

 

...you then have a fixed aperture that your sidescreen frame must fit, especially the leading edge., which when trimmed must have a small flap on the inner face of the sidescreen. This then locates in the machined slot to the rear of the stanchion and alongside the tenon plate.

 

I guess this is another example of current repro items not being as good as the early Cox & Buckles repros. My sidescreens were bought from C&B in the late 70s and were an extremely accurate copy of the originals and at least as good a fit as the original factory items. However, a better fit would probably be obtained by stripping and bending old frames as you suggest (and as recommended by MotoBuild who still remanufacture and renovate TR sidescreens). I especially like the idea of making both sections moveable and havn't seen this done before.

 

I don't think this is what you are referring to, but there is a flappy piece of vinyl with a saw-toothed edge attached to the bottom of the sidescreen and I've never understood the purpose of this. I can only assume it's a pitiful attempt at a draught excluder.

[BrianC]

You will need to bend the frames to ... keep the leading front edge away from the new paint on the scuttle.

 

Too late for me - I got the 'patina' contact marks at front and rear the first time I fitted the sidescreens after the rebuild. I suspect many new owners experienced the same when the cars were new as I'm sure the factory workers were not as diligent in bending sidescreens to fit as current restorers with time on their side.

[stuart]

 

I don't think this is what you are referring to, but there is a flappy piece of vinyl with a saw-toothed edge attached to the bottom of the sidescreen and I've never understood the purpose of this. I can only assume it's a pitiful attempt at a draught excluder.

 

Yep, it didnt work either.

Stuart.

[PhilJane]

Yep, it didnt work either.

Stuart.

 

Many thanks to all how have offered their pearls of wisdom. At the very least I am satisfied that it is not a straight forward operation and I should be prepared to 'wrestle' them into position. For myself, it seems to be a good idea to strip the frames down, check the condition of the brased(?) joints and then proceed to try and get the best fit possible.

Appreciate everyone taking the time to respond.

Phil.

[PhilJane]

Many thanks to all how have offered their pearls of wisdom. At the very least I am satisfied that it is not a straight forward operation and I should be prepared to 'wrestle' them into position. For myself, it seems to be a good idea to strip the frames down, check the condition of the brased(?) joints and then proceed to try and get the best fit possible.

Appreciate everyone taking the time to respond.

Phil.

 

Hi Chaps,

Have been out in the garage fitting the sidescreens this evening. (It's cold out there!) I am getting a reasonable fit EXCEPT there appears to be a gap at the front of the side screen where it mates with the chrome plate behind the stanchion. This gap is approx. 1.5" at the top and about 1" at the bottom. Any suggestions on the best way to take up this clearance? Do I have to cut off the brackets? I am pretty sure I have original sidescreen frames.

thanks,

Phil.

[BrianC]

Is that gap front-to-back or left-to-right?

 

If the former, then maybe 'adjusting' the rake of the windscreen stanchions plus tweaks to the positions of the sidescreen brackets might improve matters.

 

If the latter, then I suspect that bending or even cutting and rewelding will probably be needed.

However, part of the problem may be a result of trial fitting without the door casing and capping. Once these are fitted, the sidescreens will move a little towards the centre of the car and tilt slightly inwards at the top (at least mine did).

Edited December 3, 2010 by BrianC

[stuart]

Hi Chaps,

Have been out in the garage fitting the sidescreens this evening. (It's cold out there!) I am getting a reasonable fit EXCEPT there appears to be a gap at the front of the side screen where it mates with the chrome plate behind the stanchion. This gap is approx. 1.5" at the top and about 1" at the bottom. Any suggestions on the best way to take up this clearance? Do I have to cut off the brackets? I am pretty sure I have original sidescreen frames.

thanks,

Phil.

 

If that is with bare frames then bear in mind that when covered you have a flexible lip of material down the leading edge of the frame which will flex quite a bit and take up some of the anomalies.

Stuart.

[PhilJane]

Stuart,Brian,

Many thanks again for all your advise. I have had the advantage of being able to try three sets of frames and I believe I can get a reasonably good seal by adjusting the door brackets on the slots to nudge the side screen forward and "tip" the screen up slightly to close the gap at the top and keep it nicely parallel to the chrome plate on the stanchion. I can see how the trim will fill any remaining gaps.

Thanks all.

Phil.