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Triumph TR6 - Body removal

Hi everyone,

I know that this subject has been covered fairly extensively in the archive, however I would appreciate it if someone could clarify the following point for me.

Is it necessary to brace the door frames or is it sufficient to leave the doors in place if the the body is in good condition? Seems that the consensus is to brace the doors but is this due to the fact that most frame off restorations are because of extensive rust. The body of my car is in excellent condition but I need to get to the front suspension mounts.

Also if there is anyone out there who has a check list of what has to be disconnected/removed prior to "lift-off" I would appreciate a copy or any references where I could get such information.

Cheers. Neil.

N.T. Peniston

Neil- What mounts?
don
DON KELLY

Neil - unless there is something unusual you want to do, the front suspension mounts should be accessible without taking off the body.

I lifted mine (with no doors) by the seatbelt mounting points on the wheel arches and the hood hinge mounts, - but the body was completely stripped. While there was probably some distortion that may have caused (say) chipping of the paint on fitted door edges, it was not noticeable or permanent.

From (failing memory), the basics to be removed are:

Front and rear bumpers

Gear shift knob,

Brake, clutch and fuel lines (incl servo vac)

Steering column (in engine bay)

speedo and tacho cables

heater pipes

engine bay electrics body to ignition, battery

gearbox electrics (o/d)


I'm not sure if you have to, but I suspect removing the inlet manifold and carbs will make the job easier - I'm sure someone else can chip in what I've missed!

One tip though... check the doors/hood/trunk for gap alignment before you start. Then make sure you record (configuration / overall thickness) and keep the mountings in exactly the locations that they were removed.

Mine had slightly different packing config's at a couple of points and I replaced them with new ones - a bit of an ordeal as the old ones were very compressed.




Roger H

Neil
Roger is correct. The entire front suspension can be worked on with body on. This includes the top bushes. This also means it can be removed.
Rick C
Rick Crawford

Thanks for the comments. The reason that I think I have to remove the body is that on the driver side, the front wheel has excessive negative camber.
There is no room for adjustment as all the shims have been removed.
As far as I can see there is a crack developing in the front mounting point of the lower wishbone. This lies under the steering mechasism and seems to not be accessable without removing the body.The rear mounting point of the same wishbone also appears to have been fiddled with. The whole picture is getting more depressing by the minute!
I had the fulcrum pin off this weekend to check the orientation. It was correct so there is no adjustment there.

I suspect that someone in the past did a poor job of repairing accident damage.
What buzzes me off is that I had the car inspected prior to purchasing and was assured that nothing serious was amiss despite pointing out my concerns regarding possible damage to the suspension.
Any suggestions as to other possible causes would be appreciated.

Cheers. Neil.
N.T. Peniston

Neil - what is the camber of both the front wheels? - before you go pulling it apart, you can run the car with quite a bit more neg than the factory specs.
I have mine at 1.5 deg neg which is about the max the standard bolts will support. I found that the cornering improved however the trade-off is slight 'tramlining' under full brakes - not enough to worry me on the road, but at full brakes down from 90mph looking at a 90 deg corner, it keeps the concentration up on the track!! tire wear is not noticeably affected, but that could just be the way I drive ;-)
Roger H

Hi Roger, I dont know what the exact negative camber is. However is very noticeable. What makes matters worse is that the off side wheel is correct so it looks odd. Funny thing is that it steers well! Not that I have tried any stunts at ninety miles per hour. That may prove to be interesting.

The guy at the garage also said just to accept it. Unfortunately I cannot live with how it is and will need to correct it.

Regards.Neil.


N.T. Peniston

This thread was discussed between 11/07/2006 and 13/07/2006

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