Rebuilding TC5560

[stephen stierman]

Herman,
My car was probably worse than yours, had to build and skin an entirely new tub.
Keep in mind that the chassis does flex a bit with the engine and gearbox sitting in it and with the wheels on the ground, so what you get now may not be exactly what you will have them. Obviously the time for door fit is prior to painting, but it looks like everything has been nicely painted. So you can place shims or washers or whatever under the body mounts to correct some fit issues, you have to experiment some. You can also pack the hinges out a touch to move the doors around in the opening if you have to. Anything is fair game here to get a decent fit and it still won't be perfect and you know that it will change over time as the timbers will move around a bit.
Steve

[SteveW]

My tub is bolted directly to the chassis mount at the A Post (Door lock area) and solid to the chassis at the side screen area, but I have about a 12mm Half an inch gap to the mount under the B Past (Door hinge) area. I have read that you should be able to insert spacers at the side screen area to close up your door gaps. Clearly I have no chance to ever do this. Could it be that my side screen box is too low??

If your side screen box is too low, as you say, it could have the effect of raising the body irons at the back a little. However, as the bottom of the rear plywood panel sits in the bottom of the box, this would only be the case if the rear of the body irons were also bolted to the rear panel higher than they should be. I found the hole positions on page 168 of TC Forever to be correct (they are the pairs of holes about half way up), so that's a good reference for this.

A good check would be to make sure that the chassis is sitting level and then check to see if the diff cover frame is sitting horizontal.

[Herman 5560]

currently my chassis is on wheels and I am attempting to bolt the tub back onto the chassis.

The door was set 100% at the panel beater because the tub was cracked through underneath the door hinges. that is why I went to fetch the tub with the chassis to prevent this of happening again. that is why I knew about the shimming to correct the door opening.

I am following TC'sF page by page. This is my page 175. Does the steel part of the sidescreen wrap around the rear wooden panel or does it come up on the inside. Steve all your pics are from the front. anybody with a pic from the rear without a fuel tank showing this detail.

[SteveW]

Does this show you what you are looking for. You can see where the black steel side screen box lips over the bottom of the rear wood panel.



All of the pictures that I have resized so far to store on line are here:

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/photos. ... er=MG%20TC

[SteveW]

One further thought. Point C in your diagram only appears to be lower than the chassis. In fact, if you look closely at the chassis, you will see that the 'C' section chassis rail is thinner at the rear that at B. i.e. the top bit of the chassis rail gradually tapers down from just behind the rear axle (from memory).

My problem is that I'm supposed to be writing a report as part of my job at the moment, but this is much more interesting! Must try harder not to be distracted...

[Herman 5560]

Ha Ha Ha

Thanks, that is perfect. If I have to modify the side screen box I can just as well do it right...this time.

Here is the pic in Jpeg. Painful to wait for it to download.

Any body on that "Floor Board Packing" question.

[Herman 5560]

Think I have the problem.
My cars rear panel measures 630mm. According to TCForever it should be about 600mm. The weird thing is that this rear panel must be original because it has so many layers of paint it has the same gloss as the steel parts. The only give away is a few long cracks in the ply. So it should be pretty simple to take out the steel side shield storage part, cut down the bottom of the rear panel to 600 and then refit the side shield steel rack.

TCforever does not give the exact height of the diff ramp. Only the distance to the 3rd mounting hole.
1) What height is your diff ramp?
2) Does the floor fit in underneath the diff ramp or does it buff up against the diff ramp.
3) How is the floor attached to the diff ramp?

I can fabricate just about any steel part...
4) Can somebody supply more details of the captive nuts to secure the diff cover.

Lots of questions

[SteveW]

Have you allowed for the top rail in your measurements? This lips over the top of the rear panel and this adds about 27mm to the overall height. By the time that you have also allowed for the fact that the rear panel is sitting in the side scree box, you are probably close to the overall height from the chassis being 230mm.

My copy of TC forever gives the overall dimension of the diff ramp as 11 1/2" (292mm)

The following is a picture of my original captive nuts (but newly painted) The threads on mine were rusted so not sure of the original thread, but I re-cut mine to 1/4". If you don't have these, I guess that you could make some by welding a 1/4" nut to a bit of steel plate. They just recess into the wood and are held in place with a couple of panel pins.

[Herman 5560]

This was the pure measurement of the ply part making up the rear panel. I will trim 30mm off and re fit the side screen rack and hopefully she will humor me and settle on her mounts.

We are a few guys with 7 style cars here in PE and we go once a year on a RUN TO THE SUN. The wives join us and we go on a plus minus 300Km sleep over trip. Well one of my friends Bob, part of this 7s group, decided to be the Samarathon (how ever you spell it) and transform my two welded and screwed together flat bars in to a piece of round bar i will transform into the TC's bull bar.

Here is the first Whats App pic I received.

Thanks Bob.
Bob is also forever improving his 7, getting an Escort Mk1 back to life and then still finds some time to ride his 1300cc Kwakker.

[Herman 5560]

Side screen rack taken out and rear panel cut down by 10mm a time to ensure I do not cut off too much.
30mm was smack on, everything lined up and the tub was sitting perfectly on the chassis. I remade the sidecreen box side and these fitted first time 100% to the top rail of the tub. Only problem was the only way I could cut down the rear panel was using my angle grinder. I smell like somebody that was sleeping in a hut with a fire burning inside the whole night long.

Question time...
1) How does your side screen rack line up to where your steel part of your side panel joins the rear panel. See my pic with the yellow circle.

2) What angle is your diff ramp. I need to know this to manufacture the front member of the diff cover support. Mine measures 64Deg

The original one just has too many holes and nails in it for me to bolt the bull bar to. Going to make the bull bar in 5 pieces and just weld the corners. Bob did a fantastic job to create the raw profile.

[Herman 5560]

Question:-
what is the period correct fasteners for everything to do with the side screen box?

1) Steel to rear panel,
2) Steel to little side panels
3) Little side panels to rear panel
4) Steel to chassis frame.

All of these on my car was attached with very modern soft board screws.

Putting together the frame for the diff cover...do you glue the corners or leave it up to the fasteners?



Some good news, my car actually still had its captive nuts in place. What does the bolt look like that goes in there. Is it a normal hex head or something special?

[SteveW]

The angle of my diff ramp, as near as I could measure it was 65 degrees. The important thing is that the body irons where the diff cover fits should be horizontal, as should the body irons forward of the ramp, so the angle is what it is to meet this criteria. That said, within error, it sounds as though yours is the same as mine. Certainly they are the same to the accuracy you need to cut a slope on a fairly thin strip of wood.

The metal box to wood fixings on mine are 5/8" size 5 slot head screws and the sides to rear panel are 1" size 8 slot head screws.

WRT the bolt for the captive nut, I think that they are slot head, countersunk, but I stand to be corrected.

I think that the general advice for the wood frame is to not use glue as it needs to flex a bit, but again, this is hearsay rather that something that I know to be true.

[Herman 5560]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Good old fashioned Trigonometry reveled the same.

[Herman 5560]

I was not going to remake any wood for the tub, but here goes with remaking the Diff-Cover Frame Set..Page 163.

Philip, a mate at work, was forced into agreeing to cut the Front rail to the 66Deg angle as measured and calculated.

Question when fitting this frame set, does it not make more sense to first the 2 side rails and then drop the rear and the front in from the top as they only attach to the side rails with one screw right through the joint. that wil mean reversing the direction of the joint.

or do you just screw the whole frame together outside the car and the attach it to the side irons?

I am not cutting the front rail down at the back to give me a little more strength. Our grandson will definately be sitting on the diff cover when we go on Sunday drives. Never knows when I might end up in the dog box

[Herman 5560]

Did a quick search on the forum, but could not find any dimensions and specks to make my own oil can bracket.

Can anybody point me in the right direction or provide some sketches? surely this is not something I have to buy.

[stephen stierman]

I have made up many. Attached is a photo of an original, I can get you some measurements in the a.m.

[Herman 5560]

That will be fantastic. How did you make the wire bit at the top. I assume it it some spring steel. No need to reinvent the "oil can retainer clip"

[stephen stierman]

The vertical leg is about 9" add another couple of inches for the right angle under the round holder. Bracket is about an inch wide, maybe 1/16" thick, something easy to bend. The wire retainer can be heavy coat hanger wire easily bent to shape. It is one piece looped at the bottom and held to the bracket by a thin square of sheet metal shaped and riveted to the bracket. The holder is sheet metal, made to fit the can, edge bent at 90 degrees and hammered smooth with a bit of file work. There is about 5" between the mounting holes, assuming you have holes in your firewall they should correspond. The real eye catcher is the can you use as you hardly see the holder. Another photo attached.

[Herman 5560]

What diameter is the base of the oil can?

[stephen stierman]

3.5" and tough to find originals outside of the UK, although I think repros are available again.