I finally have my 3a's body tied up to the rafters (distortion prevention via
Buettner bars), with the frame and running gear sans engine on the garage
floor. Now the questions will really start flooding in, so in advance: please
bear with me! My initial examination/grunge scraping has revealed that just
forward of the axle, on both sides, the inside wall of the outer frame member
is thin. By this I mean that while I was scraping, quite a bit of flaky metal
came off there, and it sounds thinner than other areas when tapped upon.
Can anyone advise:
a) Is this area known to flex, or, prone to rust?
-reason being, I want to reinforce and need to decide how thick the patch
should be.
b) Any other areas that should be strengthened?
-I do have the GRM article on strengthening the TR4 frame already, so am
looking for words of wisdom (WoW) beyond that. My long term goal is to have a
car that can be rallied.
c) In the Haynes diagram for the 4 frame the X frame members are shown as
continuous and travelling through the centre box, but (hard to tell) it doesn't
really look that way as I peer in through the exhaust pipe hole. Any WoW on how
necessary it is to take the top off the box to investigate for rot?
Thanks,
Jim
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