TR4 Rebuild

[TR 2100]

Roger -

 

The two longer studs are to allow the end of the hood webbing to slip over,

then the hood itself is fixed on.

 

Also, the 4 studs you mention on the back ledge - these are also a bit longer

to allow the soft trim (which should have eyelets) to slip over before you fix

the carpet (which then holds down the soft trim).

Can re-send photos if you wish.

 

The seat itself fits over two long pegs. Neither of my 4s had a seat as original,

so I don't have an example.

 

AlanR

[RogerH]

Hi Folks,

I have a problem. When I took the old (original) Lift the Dot fastener studs off the car a long time ago now I put them safely in a box.

Last month or so ago I got the box out and have been trial fitting the studs. Guess what, one is missing. It is the one that nobody is selling at present.

 

One of the two long LtD studs has done a runner.

 

The new ones from Woolies are very nice but the screw spacing is too big.

 

So my plea is - Does anybody have an old Long Lift the Dot stud (two screw fitting) - just the one.

I have money, beer tokens and IOU's available to pries it from you.

 

Roger

[rcreweread]

Roger

 

You are in luck! Just checked an old box of bits and found one - you can have it if you PM me your address details

 

Cheers

 

Rich

[RogerH]

Hi Rich,

PM sent.

 

Roger

[stuart]

You going for re-plating or patina then Roger?

Stuart.

[RogerH]

Hi Stuart,

I have a little shop around the corner that plates small parts - anything from Nickel to Gold (Hmmm).

 

Either chrome or bright Nickel will do. Nickel may be better.

 

Roger

[stuart]

Bright nickel looks fine for that sort of fitting, I have door catches and strikers done in it.

Stuart.

[RogerH]

Hi Folks,

guess what !!! no not that. The Blue Racer has emerged from its winter hibernation. It only went to bed 6 months ago.

 

After six months of being idle the battery was up to the job.

I spun the engine over to get the petrol on the move. Cleaned the plugs and put a squirt of 'Start You Bast**d' down the plug 'oles and she burst into life.

 

And then stopped.

 

After a little fiddling it started more convincingly and kept going. After letting her warm up I drove from the garage around the corner to my drive way - all of 100 yds.

 

I now have to get myself back into gear from where I left off last autumn.

I remember that I was having tremendous fun with the 'chromed' hood fastener mouldings. Most of the holes in the body work were too big for the attachment screws for the 'lift the dot' pegs. I resorted to fitting M3 rivnuts in the rear deck. However many of the holes were well out of alignment. Head scratching time again .

 

Anyway, we are on the go again. Hopefully this will be the last Summer of the '3 month' rebuild.

 

Roger

Edited May 20, 2017 by RogerH

[cvtrian]

I have missed your updates, so - Keep going Roger, only up to page 53 on the forum, can you make 100 before finishing it?

Cheers

Ian

[RogerH]

Hi Ian,

I seriously hope not as that would be apprx 14 years for the 3 month rebuild..

 

At the moment I'm having a battle with the weather. Every time I take it out of the garage it comes over all dark and 'orrid and then starts to rain.

 

I'm looking at the upholstery - namely the rear seat cover that drops over the hood frame.

Somehow it doesn't look quite the right shape. May be it will be a better shape after the rain !!

 

Roger

[RogerH]

Hi Folks,

apart from the rear seat back cover I was having a tussle with the two side covers.

I went for the John Skinner kit some time ago and only just getting round to fit it.

 

The two side covers are significantly different form an original side cover in that they are to long.

This can be easily sorted but the curve over the wheel arch is not good at all.

Where the side covers attach to the sidewall the whole thing goes out of shape. Not good.

 

I will call them tomorrow to see if I can get some oversized covers knocked up but without the edge binding.

 

Roger

[stuart]

Another reason why I wont use them Im afraid.

Stuart.

[PYU940F]

Good Morning Roger

As I have only recently re-joined the register after many decades of absence I only picked up on your epic voyage of the blue racer last night. I enjoyed your saga, histoire or whatever you want to call it immensely. There was nothing good on telly last night so I spent 2 hours pissing myself with laughter. If only you had videoed yourself you could be presenting yourself at the Cannes film festival.

 

An offer of help. I recently bought covers and foam for my 4A seats. I started on the driver's seat and at first was completely overwhelmed and daunted at the task but eventually completed it with what I feel are pretty good results. Tips

1/ The long horizontal spring is no longer available to buy as a spare so you have to re-use the one you have got.

2/ The bottom rubber stops and the clip are no longer available.

3/ The rear board attachment looks like a Chinese puzzle. (It is but I have unlocked it)

4/ The foam kit is probably not beefy enough, so simply cannibalise the old one to supplement the new

5/ Make the 4 webbing straps really taught

6/ It takes two to put the covers on. A woman's eye is good because of dressmaking/curtain skills

 

I then started on the passenger seat and discovered it was a TR5 seat. I have wondered for 42 years why it looked slightly different but the 4A kit will not fit it. I eventually bought a 4A seat at the Coventry spares meet which was in pretty good condition so I have not refurbished this one yet.

 

I would be delighted to come over and I am sure we can crack your two seats in a day. I have loads of the various spare clips and I am happy to disassemble my passenger seat I we get stuck as to how things go back together (just to refresh our memories)

 

I will wager the seats were made by apprentices in the sixties so re-making them by a supersonic engineer and a subsonic pilot must be a doddle...... err....um.

 

Cheers

 

Smon

[RogerH]

Hi Simon,

thanks for reading my drivel - you must have been really bored to do that. I hope you have not been left traumatised.

 

Regarding the seats; Autumn 2015 I started the rebuild saga of the seats and then stopped for the winter. I restarted last Summer but soon realised that time was running out and I needed to get the car itself sorted so I sent the seats off for a little holiday.

They eventually emerged from the upholsterer In early Feb this year.

I like them (the seats, not the upholsterers).

They cost a lot of money and look good.

It's annoying really as in the 90's I reupholstered the 4A seats and to mu mind they came up better than these last pair.

But time is precious and other things take priority.

 

Yesterday I started to fit the rear decking brightwork but realised I had many other parts to fit before that.

So I decided to fit the side panels that fit over the wheel arches. But stuff goes under it

So I decided to attach the strips of material down the 'B' post. But, there is that little triangular infill panel at the base of the B post.

 

I bet you haven't got a 1" diameter steel tube welded at 45' from the B post to the sill to strengthen the tub - see, I told you it was a race car.

Anyway this means that the supplied bit of trim does not fit. I will have to weld a skin over the hollow that it makes and then put trim over that.

New piece of trim needed Mr.Skinner.

 

Every day is like journey.

Most days, when working on the Blue Racer, is like a journey through our great city - Brixton, during the riots.

 

Roger

[RogerH]

Hi Folks,

I have found another query.

The brightwork moulding on the right & left side decking has an inner flange that fits the 'B' post area quite well with no upholstery fitted.

With the trim side panel that fits above the wheel arch the brightwork moulding is very tight to fit over the panel.

 

Question - does the brightwork fit over the trim panel to show the moulding inner flange or does it sit behind the trim panel out of sight.

 

Roger

[stuart]

When you have the covers that make up the rear seat all round fitted the trims cover the top edge of them.

Stuart.

 

 

 

[RogerH]

Hi Stuart,

Thank you - you have answered my query.

On the second pic I can see the white beading of the trim panel at the top of the B post.

This shows the Britghtwork moulding between the B post metal work and the trim panel.

 

That makes life a little easier.

 

Roger

[RogerH]

Hi Folks,

not many reports recently but believe it or not I have a been a very busy bee.

I've been trying to get the upholstery into place. Annoyingly the upholstery has had second thought.

 

The upholstery kit I have has required a few adjustment to the shapes/sizes. Because of this I have become a dab hand at stitching and sewing

The side flaps that cover the hood frame have required quite a bit of adjusting.

The pictures below show the curved cut out around the front of the frame. The original shape is shown in pic 1

The second pic shows the final finish of the edge binding.

For this I placed a thick gauge O ring under the edge binding - this gives quite a neat 'full' finish

 

The holes in the decking that hold the hood pegs were very tatty and oversized. This was overcome using M3 rivnuts.

This worked quite well except for the most forward position on each side as there is a big steel rivnut in place for the surrey top (where used). For this I inserted a 5/32 Ali pop rivet and punched out the end nipple. I could then tap the rivet with M3 thread and insert a screw.

 

Having sorted the side flaps (nearly) they looked a little baggy. The top panel of the side flap needs some support above the folded frame. So I put my Blue Peter hat on and started whittling the sponge.

Not sure if Pic 3 shows it well but the top panel of the flap is laying nicely horizontal with a layer of sponge between it and the frame.

 

Tomorrow I will continue to fettle away to get the white piping lined up - more sponge I fear.

 

Roger

 

 

 

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

Edited July 14, 2017 by RogerH

[bob-menhennett]

Roger

It's looking good ! Well done.

Bob

[RogerH]

Hi Folks,

I have two questions.

1 - can anybody supply the dimensions from the tip of the lift the dot fastener stud at the rear to the screw holes (screw heads) on each of the three frames.

I need this to attach the strap before even considering putting the roof on.

 

2 - How is the rear end of the strap terminated.. I'm sure I have fitted the old termination ad that is a LTD fastener.

However this pops down to the stud spigot groove and stops. It is a long stud spigot.

If this is correct how/where does the roof cover itself fit.

Should the LTD fastener on the strap go beyond the groove and slide to the bottom of the spigot.?

 

Roger

[RogerH]

Hi Folks,

the above questions have been answered by Richard(RAHTR4) and Alan (TR2100).

 

Whilst twiddling my thumbs (they can't touch you for it) I had a look at the windscreen top cap.

The side sticky down bits appear to stick down at too great an angle.

So just like that I whipped it off.

After a bit of pressure from a G clamp and the table top I managed to bring the sticky down thing up a fair few degrees and they look much neater now.

 

Another problem was that the gap, under the cap where the roof fabric sticks under, was too tight.

For this I placed spacers at each rivet position. I found that the spacers had to be apprx 0.1" on the off side increasing in depth to 0.2" on the near side.

During driving I have a triangular rubber section wedged in the gap to reduce wind noise - this looks fairly uniform when inserted.

 

Roger

Edited July 17, 2017 by RogerH

[stuart]

I hope you applied plenty of sealant under the capping Roger or you will find the water will pour in over and find its way into the base of the screen frame.

Stuart.

[RogerH]

Now you tell me !!!!!!

 

Hi Stuart,

when I finished riveting the cap down I stood back to admire my work (it did look good) and then spotted the sealant gun on the rear deck

 

Today I will mainly be doing front suspension on the 4A followed by new rivets and refitting the cap

 

As a novelty - when I first fditted the cap, two years ago, the end fasteners on the cap ended up at 1/4" pops.

So for this re-incarnation I have installed M4 rivnuts. I shall turn up a fancy M4 screw to hold it all down.

 

Roger

[RogerH]

Hi Folks,,

isn't it odd! you think you have finished a job, turn your back for a moment and realise - oh dear.

It took quite a few days to actually finish the frame capping so the the hood material sat nice.

TRying to get the gap right was a bit of a pig. As in the pics above I had to use spacers to make up for the slight pressing problems of the new cap.

 

Anyway onwards and backwards as they say.

The new hood looks very nice but there are a few differences compared to the very original vinyl hood.

The first pic below show the front edge fit - nt pulled tight yet but I like it

The second pic shows a tab hanging down at the screen frame - where does this go and what does it do - not on the original.

The third pic shows the area where a popper stud goes in - as we know there is not enough metal on the cap - is it a case of make do and mend ?

The fourth pic show the old hood with a metal clip that attaches to the screen frame - does the above tab replace this and how?

 

The fifth pic shows my aerospace skin pins - they are stunningly brilliant - far better than automotive items. And they can pick up on some quite thick sections.

 

Roger

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 29, 2017 by RogerH

[stuart]

The idea with that strip is taken (Mistakenly) from the 4a hood that would go on a popper on the header rail. That hood Im afraid isnt right and also looks to be too narrow across the front as in there isnt enough material to come out far enough on the end to fit that popper that would normally be on the end of the capping. Not a good one Im afraid.

Stuart.