Engine Bay Paint Stripping January 08

Having finished stripping the entire interior compartment, I decided why stop there? So the engine compartment was next. There were a couple of places where rust was an issue, but generally speaking the metal underneath was, like the interior, in very good shape with just a few exceptions.

 

A shot of the fire wall, stripping pretty much complete.

The worst area in the entire engine bay is seen here,

caused by damage from a leaking battery.

A shot of the passengers side foot well.

A better view of the damage to the battery tray area.

A shot of the drivers side foot well. The brake and clutch

master cylinders mount here, damage below caused by

leaking brake fluid. This damage looks worse than it really

is, mostly just surface rust.

The same area as above now stripped. Visible here also

is the body mount reinforcement.

A closer shot of the body mount reinforcement. There

are one of these on each side and they proved to be

another area of weak engineering design. The body

underneath in the valley was cracked on both sides and

the spot welds had failed on one. We designed a fix that

greatly strengthened the area without using welds.

More on this later...

The passenger side just behind the fender.

Almost done with the drivers side.

The rather substantial bracket with the large whole in it,

we assumed, was used by the factory during assembly.

We fabricated a lift bar that used these holes to lift the

body from the frame. More on that later...

A shot showing the valence and part of the driver side

headlight enclosure.

A closer shot of the valence.

 

A tighter shot of the valence showing the bump out for the

front bumper bracket. Some rust here.

 

 This is the passenger side headlight, part of the valence

and inner fender. Just visible under the headlight enclosure

is damage sustained long ago.

Here's a closer shot of the damage, not too bad, the

valence was apparently straightened out but the entire

right side wing (fender) was replaced.

The entire drivers side complete.

A tight shot of the brake and clutch master cylinder area.

A tight shot of the windshield wiper motor mount bracket

area. The pedal box is mounted from underneath using

all of those holes.

Same area on the other side.

The body mount reinforcement bracket all cleaned up.

Some views of the complete job.

From the left.

From the right.

The finished fire wall area.

The battery box shelf with all of the rust removed. The

dent at the front still in need of some attention.

A better view of the dent. I eventually intend fabricate

a stainless steel plate to cover this area.

Interior Paint Strip December 07

I decided to strip the footwell floorboards to bare metal as they were the only area with serious rust. I ended up stripping the entire interior, go figure.

The floorboards have already been stripped by now,

couldn't find any pictures of that. This is work being

done on the driver's side foot well in the area of the

accelerator petal.

The forward part of the passenger side foot well done

except for sanding. It was really, really tedious and difficult

work in these areas.

Passenger side foot well again, this time showing the

firewall and part of the plenum. You can see the the red

primer coat here as well as the black seam sealer which

was used quite liberally through out the entire car. I have

admit the seems to have worked very well, it just looks

really bad.

You can see part of the floorboard here as well as the

foot well.

The firewall area just under the plenum has been stripped

here.

Yup, I even stripped underside of the top of each foot

well.

The area behind the seats, the differential bridge and

drive shaft tunnel everything was stripped using Jasco

chemical stripper and a lot of elbow grease. I evenually

had to buy a one gallon can!

Another shot of the same area, again very little rust.

A close up the diff area, note the boot just visible here,

I eventually got in there too.

A close up of the behind the seat area.

 

This is about a month later, stripping is complete!

The rear area, complete.

A closer shot of the foot wells.

And the drive shaft tunnel.

The floor boards again, from the other side.

And the drive shaft tunnel from the other side.

Some Before Shots December 07

I thought it would be interesting to document just how nasty the TR was under the carpets and the bonnet.

This is the front of the passenger compartment with

the dash board removed, the engine and tranny are

also gone.

Here's a shot of the drivers side footwell, this is where

most of the rust resided. Note that really awful looking

black stuff is actually just seam sealer.

A closer shot of the mess.

The passenger side footwell, not quite as bad.

The area behind the seats. Really very little rust on this

California car, relatively speaking!

The engine compartment right side.

And the right side.

A close up of the truly horrid looking area around the

brake line junction. This is at least partly caused by the

brake master cylinder throwing up fluid from time to time.

Another close up this time of the infamous rear lower

A-arm bracket. I came darned close to getting rid of the

TR because of these hideously engineered things! You

got any idea how hard it is to fix one that has been ripped

up? Two words, it sucks!

A shot of the other scum sucking bracket, yeah both sides

broke!