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I'm restoring a '60 TR3A #TS70506L. When I got the car, the door hings were
all screwed up. The driver's door had the later-type steel hinges and the
passenger door had brass hinges which were obviously not the original
hinges because they were a different color. With these hinges, the driver's
door has too much gap in the front and rubbed in the back (I didn't notice
that before I tore the body apart), and the passenger door dragged on the
bottom. After looking in the parts catalogs, it appeared that the steel
hinges were the correct ones for this model. So I bought a new pair for the
passenger door.
Well, with my new steel hinges, now the passenger door has way to much gap
in the front and wont even close because of clearance problems at the back.
The door also will not open all the way because of interference between the
lower hinge and the inner door skin. What's the deal? These are supposed to
be the correct hinges. The doors appear to be original, as they had the
same original paint underneath as the rest of the car.
I put the brass hinges back on the passenger door, but noticed that the
bottom hinge doesn't quite fit right. It looks as if this hinge was for a
drivers door, as it should be symetrically opposite and appears to be
exactly the same. My guess is that's why the door was dragging before. The
car came with an extra set of brass hinges for the driver's door, so I
tried them on. Now the driver's door doesn't have enough clearance in the
front, and I scratched my brand new paint when the door jammed under the
lip of the fender! After closer inspection of these hinges, it appears they
are slightly bent, which could theoretically cause a clearance problem, but
it's hard to believe that such a slight bend could cause such a large
problem. I tried to straighten the hinges, but those things are tough, and
now they have to be painted again! Tonight I'll try taking the hinges off
my '58 TR3A and try them on this car to see if the bend is really the
problem. I'll also compare the doors for differences.
Sorry about the long post, but all that leads up to two simple questions:
1) which hinges are "supposed" to be correct for this car, 2) what were
the differences between the early TR3A doors (pre TS60000) and the later
doors?
Jeff Williamson
Belleville, MI
'60 TR3A TS70506L
'58 TR3A TS36916L
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