Paul,
Question 1
The idea is to maintain a couple of points of reference to keep things
straight. I found it to be very difficult to remove the floor pans without
addressing the sills too. After all, you need to be able to weld to
something solid along the outside edge of the floor pan and I would think
you weren't considering welding the floor to your bad sills.
Question 2
I have no idea how a TR3 goes together in that area but on the TR4 and TR4A,
the sills are way too flimsy by themselves to install just one at a time.
When they are welded together, they become a very rigid piece which is very
important. I ended up grinding off the paint along the mating surfaces and
spraying them with weld thru primer. Then clamped them together with vise
grips and plug welded them along the top and bottom. Go slow and jump around
a bit to spread the heat around so you don't warp anything.
Question 3
As to the powder coating, you will still have to grind off some of the
powder coating where ever you end up welding things together. Kind of
surprised that you are seeing rust at this date. Are they stored outside?
Even so, I thought the whole idea of powder coating was to stop rust. Maybe
they weren't prepared correctly prior to coating? Although some of my fine
Home Depot metal deck furniture seems to be "going Triumph" on my lately and
it is powder coated.
Question 4
I purchased end caps for my TR4A but they didn't fit worth a crap as you
could see from my website. I ended up trimming them to fit. After brazing
them in they fit OK. I can't remember where I found them. After receiving
them, I would have rather started with a cardboard template and my trusty
tin snips. Do you have your old sills to determine the shape of the end
caps? I would definitely install them.
Dave Connitt
'67 TR4A
http://home.fuse.net/davestr4a
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