>I'm glad to find that I am not the only obsessive panel beater out there.
>
>Yes, there is a "dip" in the nose of a TR3A, both pre and post 60000
>commission #s.
NO There were TWO sets of tools for stamping out the front valance. The
first tooling wore out somewhere around TS55000. TR3s built before then
all had the lip when they left the factory (some had replacements of the
other kind due to accidents when new replacement panels were available).
Cars later than around TS55000 were made with the later tool that did NOT
have have "lip"
Some cars during that period received panels from the repair stock during
manufacturing. I assume this happened during time when the stock of new
valences got behind manufacturing and they grabbed parts from the repair
stock. When the factory was scrounging around for parts to build the 3B,
some were built with old stock lipped front valences.
I first started looking into this when I took my TR3A (TS75519L) down to
bare metal. I had thought there was a lip there as well. Mine had no
lip AND no evidence that it had been reworked. From the paint, I am sure
that the valence came with the from the factory and was never reworked.
In the mid nineties I did a mail list poll asking lip or no lip and
commission number and checked every car at shows that I could get the
commission number from.
Almost every TR3A built after a little before TS55000 had a valence with
no lip. Almost everyone built before then had the lip. There were a
couple in either camp that was opposite.
In the early car with no lip class no one could verify that the car had
that valence from the factory. I had a couple of people with late cars
and a lip that were original owners and could affirm their cars had the
lipped valence from the factory.
TeriAnn Wakeman Marigold Ltd.
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