FHC resto nr. 15; More Speke woes

Although the car is putting up quite a fight the body work is progressing steadily. But as mentioned in my last resto-post it is clear that quality control wasn't high on the priority list at the Speke factory. Biggest problem we encountered this time were the fill panels between the front of the sills and the inner wings. With the outer wings and doors fitted there was no way we got decent shut lines. The outer wings wouldn't go back far enough resulting in rather large gaps between the wings and the front of the doors. Not to mention the alignment with the nose panel. The left hand side was fairly easy to correct. Removing the spot welds between fill panel and sill enabled the rear of the wing to be persuaded with a hammer to move backwards enough for a proper fit. After which the rust holes in that area could be dealt with properly. As there are three panels joining there we cut out a piece of metal from the inside of the A-post for decent access to the rear of the inner wing ...

Also the top edge of the inner wing was adapted slightly. The anoraks amongst you are invited to tell me what we changed here ...

The right hand side put up a bit more resistance. But as there were some rust holes hidden underneath the battery tray, and it would be rather difficult to remove the tray, it was decided to remove the inner wing together with fill panel mentioned earlier.

At the time of writing this is still very much a work in progress, together with the passenger foot well.

In an earlier post I mentioned that the right hand rear wing, were it meets the sill, was also pretty badly aligned. Did some more work there to get a better fit. It is much better now but the rear is still not as it should be, to be continued ...

Luckily these were the only manufacturing faults we found this time. But those who follow my ramblings here will know that the previous owner decided to attack the transmission tunnel to fit a Dolomite Sprint gearbox with overdrive. Looked fairly easy to rectify, but needed a few card board templates (CAD) to get it right.

Next items on the to do list are the doors. Some problems there too ...

New MOT for the DHC

Dropped of the DHC at a friend's workshop early this morning, for its biennial MOT. Or APK as it is called here. As expected there were no issues. The brakes were fine and well within the maximum margin between left and right of 20%. Same could be said of the engine with all emission parameters being spot on. And as ever it was a good opportunity to inspect the car's underside properly. Found some oil drops underneath the rear of the gearbox. At first I thought it originated from the engine. But that turned out to be completely dry ...scary. So the gearbox was inspected a bit closer. And as expected the adapted seals from the rear flange and selector shaft also were completely dry. Turned out that the connection for the speedometer cable was the culprit. Strange as I did renew the O-ring and oil seal there when I rebuilt the gearbox. On the other hand glad it is there as it is easy to reach. But as the leakage is fairly minor it has no priority yet. There are other priorities ...

With a new MOT for the car and because I received the cloth for the seats early this week, I also paid a short visit to the guy who will re-trim the interior. Although he is a pensioner, he's still very busy. But he nevertheless suggested I bring all the stuff over to him as soon as possible so he can use it as stop gap work. Very happy with that and something to do this weekend. And after tearing of two of the mud flaps while reversing the car into a parking lot, cutting new ones and fitting these, it was time to enjoy the fine weather. Added bonus was that there was hardly any traffic in the early evening. Probably something to do with football. Was nice to drive some great roads in the area which usually are so clogged up with tourists that I tend to avoid them. One of my favourite spots, looking over the valley of the river Maas ...

FHC resto nr. 14; Don't Speke to me ...

One lesson learned so far with this restoration is that next time I restore a TR7 I won't use a Speke built body shell as a basis. Why I can almost hear you ask? Well fairly simple, because they are so badly put together in the factory. Instead of repairing rust holes, most time so far has been spent rectifying badly fitted (read aligned) panels. I already mentioned the right hand chassis leg, the rear-light-panel, the rear edge of the left  hand rear wing and the rear deck. But a few other panels can be added to the list.

By far the worst so far was the right hand rear wing, were it meets the sill. If fitted correctly it should sit flush with the sill. On this car the  rear of this joint stood out from the sill, while the front where it meets the B-post stood slightly inwards. The difference between front and rear was about 5mm. Not good when you are looking for decent panel gaps. Only way to rectify this was by removing some spot-welds giving some room to manoeuvre. After which that part of the wing was fastened with some plug welds.

But also the nose panel is affected. Although the front chassis legs are pretty much where they are supposed to be, the nose panel itself was fitted almost 5 mm out to the left. Or maybe we are just too much of a bunch of perfectionists :-). At least when finished this car won't win any prizes in a concourse, as the panel gaps will be far too even in comparison to the original factory tolerances! And hopefully this will be the second to last TR7 restoration. The last one scheduled at the moment will be 't Kreng, and she has much better panel fitment. But not that far yet as with the paint and all filler removed another little problem emerged. What is there on the right hand A-post is the imprint of the front of a door.

No wonder the door I choose to use on this side didn't fit. But with the door out again the alignment was quickly rectified with a 5 kg hammer. This was used to good effect on the hinges' mounting points. Added bonus is that the shims used on this car to align the doors can now be discarded.

And to finish this post, another problem that reared its ugly head was the original left hand door. After paint removal it became clear that some work had been carried out on this door, with some nasty dents around the edge of the door skin. Probably caused by improper or incorrect use of tools. So the skin was only good for the bin. Which was a good thing as with the skin removed it became obvious that more bodge repairs had been carried out. Expertly hidden from the outside but immediately clear ones the skin was of. The lower frame edge is badly affected over its entire length, either badly fitted repair section or only a very thin strip of metal remaining.

And as repairing the damage properly would be fairly time consuming, we opted for a rather different approach. To be continued.

FHC resto nr. 13; Dent removal

With the welding of the boot area complete, it was time to rectifying the dents on the roof and right hand rear wing. As ever with the proper tools and someone who knows how to use them, it was easy. And it immediately looks much more like a car again 😎

Also the small panels between rear wheels and bumper needed some fresh metal welded in, as the original metal was rather thin in places. Luckily they have a pretty simple shape, so easy to carry out some patch repairs. CAD as in Cardboard Aided Design springs to mind ...