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[thixon]

I'm working on a tr3 for a gentleman and have a couple of questions.  Original agreement was that I would fix some rust (battery tray, dog legs, and trunk lid), and then mount/fit up the body to the frame. 

As is usually the case, there was more to the story.  The car had been at a shop that had pulled the body, blasted it, and tried to fix rust issues.  They removed the old floor pans, and made a very poor pass at replacing them with new ones.  They did not brace the body when they removed it, and it appears they did'nt have the doors on the car when they welded in the new floor pans.  Hence, the door gaps are tight.  Because of the poor job done on the pans (hideous really), I'll have to re work a good bit of what was done.  No attempt was made to remake any of the flanges on the firewall in the floor area up front.  instead, they pans were just curled at the front, and tack welded in place wherever was convenient.  The result is a poor fitting floor that has nuerous areas for wind/water to enter the car inside the wheel wells. 

My plan is to release the pans at the front, re work the missing metal and flanges in the foot boxes, and then set the body on the frame before I weld the fronts of the floor pans back in correctly.  This should allow me the flexibility I need to get the door gaps right (by adjusting the pads at the mounting points) before I re-weld the pans.  If this work, I then plan to brace the body before I pull it back off the frame again. 

Any thoughts or recommendations will be much appreciated. 

Thanks,

Travis

[TomMull]

Travis,
First, let me say that I’m no pro but I’m doing this same stuff on my own car so take what I have to say with a grain of salt. You might have opened a fairly large can of worms. As you probably know, once someone screws up the body alignment, fixing it usually consists of cutting an awful lot of welds. Perhaps you are lucky and the guy didn’t touch anything but the floors, and luckier still that he didn’t weld the floors solidly to the inner sills. If you are that lucky, your plan is a good one. To complicate things, the reproduction door seals seem slightly larger than the originals, making tight door gaps a problem. The floor panel, the side “kick panel”, both door posts, the inner and outer doglegs, and the outer rockers, are all welded to the inner sill and hence, so the lower door gap will not move much. Again, if everything is original here (and solid) not to worry. You can pull it back pretty much by separating the forward floor connections and sitting it on the chassis. Shimming the mounts might not even be necessary.
However, if he has removed the inner sills, or re-welded the body parts to them (A and B posts for example), you will probably need a new plan. Putting the flange back on the footwell is a good idea for several reasons, but it will do little to affect alignment and door gaps if the bottom is all welded out of alignment.
Tom Mulligan

[tr3bGeorge]

Travis, you have our sympathy.

Your story should be made available to ALL of the CLUB MAGAZINES, ALL MARQUES.  The lead sentence should be "We want to show you owners why a $2,000 ends up costing you $10,000."

Good luck, Bro; it sounds like you're gonna need it.

[thixon]

Thanks for the comments guys.  I'll update on how it goes, in case it might help someone else in the future.  I've inspected it further, and its just dissapointing to see all around.  The attempt at putting in the floor pans is just laughable.  They've been cut, mangled, and just plain mis-handled all around.  It looks like I cans save them, but it won't look original.  I'll try to post up some photos so you can see what I'm dealing with. 

Thanks,

Travis

[herald948]

Travis, i have to wonder if you might not be better off in terms of time, effort and finished product to start with another (possibly better?) set of new floor pans?

[thixon]

Travis, i have to wonder if you might not be better off in terms of time, effort and finished product to start with another (possibly better?) set of new floor pans?

Beleive me, I've thought that myself.  I've popped the welds up front, and will be dropping the body onto the frame this weekend.  We'll see what happens.  I'm really unhappy with what they did with the floor pans up front, but I think I can work that out with a little trimming now that they're loose. 

Luckily, the owner is not after a concours restoration.  He's an older gent, and just wants to drive his car again.  Frankly, I'd be embarrassed for someone to think that what has been done to this car was done by me, so I'm not willing to just put it back together alignment be damned. 

I've worked on worse, so new floor pans or not, I'll get it done. 

[bobhustead]

Your description of the problem makes it sound like the fore and aft space for the doors is incorrect. If this is so, the "A" post (door hinge post) and "B" post (door latch post) will need to be re-spaced. These are welded to the inner sill. To fix this, you would need to detatch the floor pans as you described and remove the outer sill to gain access to the post welds. I suggest cutting the "B" post welds and repositioning that post only. Happy motoring.
Bob Hustead