Listers,
First let me give a sincere thank you to Randall Young, Geo Hahn,
David Moag, Michael Marr, Jeff Scarbrough, Michael Ferguson, and
Warren Allen for their advise and comments regarding the installation
of the radiator shroud into my TR3B.
Now the story...
My sister-in-law lives in Kansas City and was flying into Baltimore
this past Friday for a visit. Her house is 10 minutes away from
Victoria British. I figured, I'd place a carry out order with her,
she could bring the items with her on the plane and I avoid the
shipping and handling charges which as we all know may be valid, but
why pay it when your sister-in-law can serve as the pack mule. Among
the items was the radiator shroud. I really wanted to get it in this
weekend, as my weekdays are rather filled with work, kids homework and
other activities (i.e. my weekly poker game on Tuesday nights). She
came in Friday night without the instructions, after VB had closed. I
called the direct Kansas City number but got the "we're closed" line.
The 800 number said it would be Monday or Tuesday before they could
get me the instructions.
Thank goodness for this list. As is now obvious, I had never worked
with pop rivets before. The guy at Home Depot was helpful with the
tool and instructions although he wasn't sure why they sent all those
washers.
The shroud from VB consisted of 3 separate pieces: each side piece
and the cross member piece. It was rather easy riveting the 3 pieces
together. When I went to the car to place the shroud in, I did notice
2 screws on each side on the pan in front of the radiator. I removed
the old screws and proceeded to put the shroud in place. It took
quite a bit of jamming, pulling and forcing to get it to fit right.
The best way I was able to get it in was to do one side at a time. I
grabbed the flap at the top and pulled out that part as I pushed in on
the bottom piece. You know it is in place correctly because there are
2 holes in each side piece. When the bottom hole lines up with the
hole in the inner wheel well, it is set. I then screwed that side
into the 2 holes and repeated the procedure on the other side. The
top of the shroud simply sits in place unattached. Once in place, I
did notice that the inner part of each of the side pieces blocked
about 1 to 2 columns of radiator fins. It was easy enough to use one
of my wifes good kitchen knives (she wasn't home) to make a cut at the
top under the cross piece and bend the flap out from in front of the
radiator. There is now room for the electric fan which I will order
from JC Whitney (12 inch fan with 1050 cfm) - the best cfm's in that
size I could find and on sale at 20% off. I did not paint the shroud
as the entire car will eventually need a paint job...later.
The one interesting finding was that the turn signal lights wiring
does not snap apart as the manual says they should. Rather, there is
a piece of plastic covering a metal joint holding both ends of the
wire. The way I found this out was by cutting the wires and taking
one apart when they would not separate. So instead of cutting all the
wires I simply tied the grille up out of the way. I'll deal with this
wire issue when the time comes.
Now that the grille is out (it was held in place by 2 screws in the
bottom), the area is rusted and will need to be stripped and primed
prior to reinstallation. In addition the grille is badly bowed inward
(concave). It will be interesting to see how to straighten it with
the signal lights still in.
Thanks Again for all the help
Erkan Hassan
TCF536
62 TR3B
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