TRIUMPH TR2 RESTORATION

BODY REBUILD

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Summary

For those of you who are not interested in the detail I will summarise what the body rebuild process was. Essentially I took from early 2014 to mid 2020 to get the body ready for the paint process. In the process I cut the body in half so I could work on the rear half in the garage I had available at the time. This wasn't too dramatic as the floor from the firewall to the petrol tank required replacement as the car had been previously 'restored' and a new rear end welded on. If you look through the photos you will see how this was done.

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In the process I replaced the main floors with supplied panels, manufactured the floor from where these ended to the area under the boot and repaired a small section of the boot floor as well. Both sills were replaced, B-pillars and rear quarter panels. Both outer door skins were removed and replaced after attempts to repair the crumpled mess from previous owners and the lower panel of the front guard was also replaced either side. In this process I did everything myself except some heat shrinking on the front guards because I 'popped' the panels in the welding process (even while taking 2 hours to weld one of them!) and one door was reskinned by a panel beater. The process of checking and rechecking took a lot of time and trying to find solutions to problems created by the replacement panels that were supplied by various known suppliers for these types of cars. The whole body had previously been 'skimmed with about 5 - 6mm of body filler to cover the previous repairs (like welding a patch over rust on the external side of the panel!) and damage. There was also plenty of lead filler from older repairs. Despite all that I am happy with the outcome given my limitations as a panel beater and welder. The paint process took approximately another 6 months and is the subject of a whole new story!

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The Unabridged Body Story

The body repair started in early 2014 after the daughter was married off and I had some time and money to put into the car. This accelerated in one sense in July when I became unemployed and consequently had a lot of time to do the hack work. Unfortunately no money meant no parts However it gave me time to work on my panel beating skills as you will see.

 

The body is on the chassis and I have been stripping paint, sound deadener and body filler to get to the basics. The photos show the sad truth behind TS1852 as you will see it has had a different rear end grafted onto the back (note the different colour in the boot) with some ugly cut lines across behind the seat and behind the doors through the rear quarter panels. Why they chose to cut through the body and not at the sills and floor is a question I would love the answer too but it is amazing what can be hidden under filler and sound deadener which was literally plastered over the whole car. 

 

The images show the cut line through the body and behind the door which has been welded using oxy acetylene welder which means there is a lot of panel distortion and lumps of weld. The floor has been brazed around the inner wheel arch and is also pretty ugly. The body also appears to have been packed up at the rear as it was not sitting correctly on the chassis even when the chassis was bent. There is no major rust although both floors are pitted and have small holes as they were stitched in and then painted over with sound deadener. Consequently the water got in through the seams and brewed under the sound deadener and rusted the new floors nicely. They will both need to be replaced and the driver side floor is already removed. The drivers side sill is also rusted and badly repaired under the front guard and will need to be replaced. So far the rest of the sills look ok as does the rear end. The doors need some serious panel beating and I will need to remove the skin to do that which should be interesting. The rear inner guards have rusted out behind the doors but should be ok with a reasonable patch welded in. The rear wheel arches are interesting once the trim and sound deadener were stripped off to reveal the multitude of seat belt mounting holes, 5 is the current count including the one I put in there. Seems like every second owner put a new hole for the seatbelt and every other owner covered the previous hole up. Using the tree ring aging theory, this would make me the 9th owner. See the photos showing the 5 suns and multiple stars taken from the inside of the wheel arch. The seat belt will be replaced and a reinforcing plate fitted once the cheese grater section has been replaced.

 

2016 update

Work on the body is in full swing with the rear half removed and relocated to my garage for work. I have now welded the inner guards and cut out the 'repaired' floor in front of the fuel tank. I have one half of the replacement floor made up and the second part to be formed up this week. It should be all in place by the weekend. Then onto the more challenging section of the B pillar. I now have 2 new door skins which I will assemble once the rear is complete.

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May 2018 Update

I have repaired, blasted and etched prime the rear end and have bought new sills and floor panels. I have also bought new door skins as unfortunately my skills were not sufficient to save the original ones. I have cut the door skins to length and had to modify the curvature to make it match the front guard. I then had the bottom lip folded and used the services of a retired panel beater to refit the inner to the outer skins. The passenger door is done and I need to get the drivers door outer skin folded but have lost my source of expertise at the moment which is delaying things. (Note I later found that he had travelled to England to see the Goodwood Revival). Because I couldn't get in touch with Ray I ended up doing the drivers door myself. See the door section for more information on this. 

 

I have also managed to get the floor panels and transmission tunnel (front removable section only) in place so everything appears to bolt together nicely but I still need to get the foot well kick panels and firewall repaired and into place. i have added a few photos of this area for reference.

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I have also recently given up on trying to make the rear quarter panel and B post look like it belonged as both have been involved in considerable trauma and have bitten the bullet and purchased replacement parts. Unfortunately the B post in particular is not what it needs to be and I am conducting major surgery to get the shape and position correct. This is my task at the moment with the aim of getting the rear tub connect to the sills with doors in position in the next 2 months. Once I have achieved this I will have crosses a major hurdle in relation to having the body to the final stages in preparation for paint.

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June 2020

I have now blocked all the panels and primed all guards, doors and front and rear of the body. I now need to strip and block the bonnet boot and spare wheel cover before I start the final body paint process.

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End 2020

The car has been blocked and painted completely. I spent about a month alone on the bonnet to get the curvature to match the dash cowl and to regap the whole thing. Finished photos below.