In a message dated 98-04-03 09:55:41 EST, johnw@wrq.com writes:
<< or should I move to the "one-side, then the other-side" method?
Second question is much more involved. The car has about zero body
rot, but I still have a solid gap between the door and the rear body
panels, especially at the top. One would have to imagine a "V" to get
a picture of the gap from bottom to top. I am told this condition can
be corrected by replacing the worn rubber between the body and the
chassis. I can also reduce this gap to nil by raising the rear of the
car. Is the solution as simple as shimming via new rubber at the rear
end, or am I looking elsewhere?
Thanks mightily
John >>
Hello John
Welcome to the list.
Q 1: One side then the other works best for me and poses no risk to
diff mounts.
Q 2: The reason jacking up the rear of the car closes the gap is that
the frame is flexing as you jack it up. Frame flex is a fact of life in these
cars. You can also watch the (v-shaped) gap close by putting the car
on 4 jack stands if you put the front ones in front of the front wheels and
the back ones in back of the back wheels. You can make the gap look
worse if you put the car on 4 stands with the front ones behind the front
wheels and the back ones in front of the back wheels. This will happen
on any solid TR6 in really good shape (i did it to my first TR6 when it
was only 3 yrs old) and you can break a really rotten one in half this way.
The reason you have an uneven gap may be as simple as that
each tub was individually fitted to each frame at the factory with a lot of
fussing and fixing to make each one fit - this may also be why the
reproduction body tubs mostly never did fit right without a lot of work -
ie maybe NONE of the tubs ever fit right - without a lot of work.
So you MIGHT fix the gap by replacing rubber between body and frame
IF you made it a multi-step process - but do you really want to fix it bad
enough to take the body off the frame - maybe more than once ?
If the gap isn't causing a leak and isn't TOO bad looking - you might
want to leave well enough alone until you you need to fuss with the
tub for some other reason - it WON'T be simple.
Cheers !
Jack Mc
73 TR6
69 GT6+
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