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Triumph TR6 - Collision clues?

Hallo,

I am at present negotiating to purchase a '73 TR6 which appears to be in very good condition. However the one worrisome feature is that the hood and front quarter panels seem to not fit correctly i.e. the spaces between the panels is uneven. The present owner has had the car for six years and I know for certain that it has not had a hit in that time.
Any advice ?
Regards, Neil.
Neil Peniston

My advice would be to take the car to a good body man and ask him what he thinks. Like "How much would it take to make the panels fit right again?" (if you can't live with it) or "Does this poor panel fit mean the car has been in a wreck, and if so how serious was it?" I've found that people are willing to share their expertise with you as long as you don't try to take them away from something important. A second opinion probably wouldn't be a bad idea, either.

Tom

Neil
Check the main chassis rails behind the front suspension mounting points, for any ripples, distortion or signs of repair even quite a minor bump tends to cause problems there. If that looks OK the bad panel fit is probably down to poor restoration work, but remember the fit wasn't all that good to begin with.
Ron
R. Algie

Neil, To a certain extent Ron is correct is saying that the fit was not that good to begin with and the fact that the car has had over 30 years attached to a chassis that had little torsional strength a few odd gaps can be expected so long as you are not talking 1/2 inch or more! Do a visual check by standing in front of the car and seeing how level it sits and how paralel the windscreen frame looks to the boot (trunk) Then take a look at the Chassis (frame) for kinks or repairs, body panels can be made to fit easily but not the Frame.
Clive P


I'll just add my two cents since I had all of my panels, doors, rockers, etc... off the car. Many of the panels started out with poor fit and bad gaps. As part of my restoration I spent a couple of weeks just attaching the bare metal panels and lining everything up and checking gaps. I never did check the frame and I suspect it's not perfect since it's 30 plus years old and who knows what has been bumped or whatever. There is ALOT of room for adjustment. In fact so much that it can drive you nuts because one adjustment most likely affects something else. For instance the two rear most body mounts have shims in them. Removing a small shim from one of them twists the body enough to affect the door gaps. I did play with these shims to get better door gaps. The hood has plenty adjustment as well...up, down, sideways,back and forth...etc. The front fenders can be loosened and moved enough to fix gaps. As stated above, unless the gaps are really big you can most like fix it by adjustment.

HP
HP Henry Patterson

This thread was discussed between 29/03/2005 and 03/04/2005

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