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Body Alignment - Restoration


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Hi all.

 

This will likely be a lengthy post, so here is a quick scope of the post before I start to ramble on:

 

I am restoring my TR6, and have panels temporarily held in place by screws (no permanent welds as of yet). I am here to ask for your opinions, experiences and warnings when it comes to making sure the body is aligned before I start welding. This post will have pictures to explain my questions and I will be checking this every 10 minutes or so whilst working on the car, if you need more information please ask as I have the car next to me and can easily take measurements, pictures etc.

 

I have posted this in general chat because I believe the body is very similar across the 4A-6 cars and hence would like a broader scope of opinions. If this was incorrect on my part could a moderator kindly move this post!

 

Right, down to business.

 

Background -

This is my first full restoration, after having changed sills, panels and welded in various things on other cars. The car in it's current state lies in 3 parts:

 

Front - The front includes the entirely original bulkhead, footwell panels, A posts, front inner wings along with all the smaller panels that come attached. The A posts have bits of rust, but I feel I can repair them without having to replace the largely intact panels.

 

Middle - The middle is all mostly new panels, the 2 new floor pans, both L & R inner and outer sills and sill caps are all new. The gearbox tunnel is the original as it was in worthy condition

 

Back - The back is a bit patchworky at the moment. It was in the poorest condition out of the 3 sections. The B posts are largely corroded at the bottom. I the new 'front' panels for the B posts which join onto the sills to complete the door frame shape. I am going to keep the rear panels as only the bottom inch is rusted away, and the inner structure which was part of the inner wing has been replaced from a panel I made myself.

 

 

This perhaps is a good time to get onto my personal backstory for the car, and the way it is being done for the most part. I myself am an engineering student, and hence have little funding for building this. I am manufacturing a lot of the panels myself with help from a metalworker business connection. As such some of the panels are not perfect, but then again when was BL ever perfect. I am trying to limit my purchases to items that are absolutely necessary. The panels I am fabricating myself are mostly flat and simple, whereas curved panels I have to purchase as my panel beating skills are not good enough to match some of the more complex curves.

 

 

The Questions!

 

1 - Door edges sticking out. We have all seen the classic picture of a TR6 (or other similar) where the bottom corners of the doors stick out from the wings. Obviously there are less perfect fixes to this such as padding out the wings etc.. I have been led to believe the cause for this is the A/B posts splaying out at the bottom, leading to the door being at an angle.

 

What is the remedy to this before even welding the panels in place? If I can sort it out without having to play with hinges to the extreme, I would very much like to.

 

2 - Door to Sill gaps. Should the gap between the door and the sill be uniform in size? I have some door seals to give the correct padding, but as it stands I cannot get the gap to be either small enough or uniform in size. Is this a problem with aligning the doors to the sills, the sills to the floorpan or what?

 

IMG_0167.JPG

 

3 - B Post Angle. The angle of the B post has given me a different angle to the doors. As shown in this picture, you can see that the door and B post move apart as you go up. I believe this is a problem with the back not being the correct height where it joins the sills, and is hence 'jacking up' the B post.

IMG_0160.JPG

 

I will likely have more questions as I go on.

 

One final note, if you have any opinions or ideas, please just throw them in the comments. Any help is appreciated as I would very much like to get this alignment sorted before I go back to work down south!

 

Thanks,

Sam.

 

 

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Very wise of you to enquire on the forum. I've just answered to ensure you know it's up and running.

 

I've not yet done repairs to the bodyshell on my TR4 but as you say lots of similarities, however one of the problems with the IRS cars is the gaps between rear wings and the rear of the door skins about the B post area. Depressingly unless you can confirm the chassis is sound (especially on what is referred to as the "T shirt" area) you may find that needs sorting before entering alterations to the rear packing which is what we all would think is the way forward.

 

I shall retire now and read the posts as given in the near future to help you with your build.

 

Mick Richards

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I understand this is a difficult subject, however this bit should be easy!

 

If anyone has a TR6 that they consider to have 'decent' body alignment, would it be possible to get a measurement between the very top of the B post (technically the front of the deck) such as shown in the two photos? I have compared them to my fathers TR4A and mine are about 1cm out, but that might be a model difference.

 

post-13088-0-14601100-1437576880_thumb.jpg

 

post-13088-0-19777500-1437576890_thumb.jpg

 

Going from the inner face to inner face my measurement (as seen in the photo) is 1124mm

 

Hopefully someone can give me something completely different so I can be certain this is wrong before I change it to fit.

 

Sam

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Sam

I recorded that measurement of my TR6 , my car is undergoing a full body restoration , but the body had never been messed with so hopefully its right, All panels lined up pretty good,

Len

post-9050-0-48526700-1437579221_thumb.jpg

Edited by len1
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Sam

I recorded that measurement of my TR6 , my car is undergoing a full body restoration , but the body had never been messed with so hopefully its right, All panels lined up pretty good,

Len

 

Thank you very much Len, this matches what the TR4A gave too, it appears my B posts have been moved. Further inspection shows that there is alot of patched over panels near the B posts which could explain it!

 

I would hate to be a burden so if this is not possible please say so, but would it be possible to ask you for further measurements if I need them? This would help me a lot in terms of alignment as it does appear my body has been twisted about a bit.

 

Sam

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Sam

measurement's not a problem, any time, glad to help, but do take notice of the possible and almost definite chassis issue. It was grateful advice given to me at the start of my restoration and I did have to get my chassis sorted (CTM)

len

Edited by len1
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Sam

You going to the IWE?

I am, I will be there Friday evening to Sunday morning.

 

Sam, as Mick said above, best make sure your chassis is straight before trying to align the body panels.

There's a dimensioned drawing of the chassis in the workshop manual.

 

Pete

 

I am pretty certain the chassis is straight, I rebuilt it a few months ago and made sure it was square and matched the measurements on the diagram. I also left the body alone whilst doing the chassis and it slotted back onto it pretty neatly without too much fiddling.

 

Also, Len, I thank you in advance for any help you give.

 

Sam

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Hi everyone,

 

Right, after lifting the rear off the floors, it was clear the B post was being pressed upwards. What had happened is that the sill was a different shape from the original.

Having fixed that, the body now lines up pretty well.

 

Thank you all for the help,

 

Sam.

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I wonder why CTM new chassis do not come with this mod?

They do.if you ask, they dont really need it unless you are going to drive it hard.

Stuart.

Edited by stuart
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Some tips that might be of use when rebuilding the body onto the chassis to help alignment, that perhaps have been mentioned before.

1) Fit the fuel tank into the rear

2) Fit a hardtop.

3) If using a spirit level . Make sure it is accurate.

Wellsy

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