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Triumph TR3 - Body removal

In the MG circles, they talk of welding in bracing when removing the monocoque shell from the suspensions to keep from having the body fold up.
I have never taken a TR-3 body off of the frame; the outfit I bought the first 3 from was split 50-50 as to whether I should add bracing prior.
Looking in the manual, there is no mention of bracing prior. So. Can I safely remove bodies (lifted from the rafters) from frames without collapsing the tubs?
TIA,
chris
chris

The TR3 body will be even more prone to buckling up, in that it's not of uni-body construction. I have only heard that one should brace it prior to removal.
I braced mine, and it still ended up crooked when I set it back down, requiring significant tweaking from the bodyshop.
I bolted lengths of conduit fore and aft, and diagonally, between the hood and trunk hinge bolt holes. If I were to do it again (no thanks!) I would weld something in the door openings. I was leery of this, thinking it would be difficult to deal with grinding off the remains of the welding effort, but it would be nothing in comaprison to the rest of what goes on.
Where I really ended up with trouble was with the inner fenders. They both ended up too much to the right. Absolutely no idea how that happened!
Anyway I would say err on the side of caution and brace it "too much".
Jim
J. S. Wallace

Thanks for the comment.What if someone left the door on and shut?
chris

I don't think the door offers any significant support. What if, for example, the body wanted to droop at both ends? The door wouldn't be any help then. And if it decided to sag in the middle, it could stil move a bit, until the door got nicely stuck.
Shortcuts now = regrets later.
Jim
J. S. Wallace

I used two pieces of 1" angle iron from the scuttle bonnet holes to the boot hinge holes. Lots of spacers and washers to distribute the load at each end. I made sure the doors fit properly before tightening everything down. I installed an "X" of 1" angle between the two fore and aft pieces. I removed the transmission cover, repaired it, painted it and reinstalled it. I removed the doors and and all the hold down stuff. I replaced the inner and outter rails on one side at a time and before welding the new rails in place made sure the door(s) still fit properly. I lifted the body off the chassis at about the center of gravity point with a hoist, rolled the chassis out from under and placed the body on the flat floor. I installed braces at the angle attach points in the engine area and at the front of the front inner wings. At this point I rotated the body to one side, worked on the body with each side resting on a dolly that I built out of wood just so it made the body easy to move around on either side while doing repairs etc. Finally, after painting the bottom of the body with POR-15 with the body upside down, I rehoisted the body, rolled the chassis back under the body and reattached it. Everything fit just fine! All the above took about 2 years working on it in spare (retired) time. Hope your body has less rust holes to repair than mine.
hjr

hjr

When I did my TR3A from 1987 to 1990, I repaired all the front clip. Then I did all the rear clip. Then I placed these onto the frame and welded the front to the new floor pans, then MIG welded the rear clip to the floor pans using the frame as the jig. At the same time, I did the inner and outer sills. The doors and fenders went on at least 5 times each to get the fit and the gaps right. At this point the body was solid and I didn't use any reinforcing bars. The whole tub went to the paint shop and came back 5 months later and all the gaps still lined up nicely.

On the one I'm doing now, I welded 1" angle from under the front dashboard just in front of the "A" posts at the top to inside the rear wheel arch, on both sides. The tub for this one is still at the paintshop.

See the sequences for my first one on : -

http://www.rucompatible.com/triumphmtl/member_cars.htm#TR3

Don Elliott
Don Elliott

Wow! And I thought I was stepping in it! That is some great bit of work Don! Both of the shells here are more substantial than what you started with. Thanks!
chris

This thread was discussed between 21/11/2005 and 29/11/2005

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