BSA 3 wheeler rebuild carried over from introduction section

Nearside door skin reshaped 



Refitted to the frame 



Then back on the car I had to ease the door hinges out a few mm to correct the door alignment with the bulkhead 



Then correct the alignment in the top front corner 



With that done the rearward T section could be shimmed & fitted 



Then I spent a few fiddly hours rebating door stops & aligning the door catch with the striker plate 





Then the Sid my quality control inspector called in to view progress 



So that's both doors now fitting ok 



Its a slightly over wide gapping between the B post & the T section on the door but this will get corrected when I profile the panels 



I'm now awaiting delivery on a T section of reduced width for the front of the doors - so I moved onto the bonnet 



Rear aperture gapping is all over the place and requires scribing in & trimming 



Derek had already sourced a suitable rubber moulding to sit between the bulkhead & bonnet - I attached a sample length with a strong double sided trim tape for now - I will need to remove this to undertake the profiling & paintwork 



This will set the datum for the bonnet gapping / scribing in 



There is normally some minor adjustment available on the radiator shell on cars of this era - but not much - you need to ensure that aperture is not too tight otherwise both chrome on the rad shell & paint on the bonnet quickly gets damaged 



Bonnet scribed in & marked up 





Initial trimming back on the nearside 



Which I will complete truing up by hand in the morning 



More tomorrow 

Completed the fettling on the bonnet rearward edges



Bulkhead will require some minor reshaping when I undertake the profiles 



Next job is the mount the front wings - these are pattern wings - I'm assuming that the BSA club has had them made 



So far - so good 



But not really 



The wing should terminate flush with the radiator shell and the wing cannot be moved any further back 



Hence some modification will be required 



Derek had already made up some extension brackets to mount the wings to 



But everything still required trial fitting 



Clamped 



Then scribed in & marked up 



Prior to being drilled for the location bolts 



If you have a pair of wings to fit - its always a good idea to fit them together rather than completing them one at a time 



That way you can balance them as a pair & ensure symmetry between them 



Thankfully they both fitted within an acceptable tolerance of each other  



Derek had supplied me with a load of reference images & measurements taken from other cars which removed a vast majority of the guesswork 



There is however another problem with the wings and that is that they are incorrect in shape to meet the bonnet 



It would appear that there were some changes in front wing shape / style with certain years & bodies - this is not that unusual in the world of older vehicles  



The wings are the only ones available and without commissioning a panel maker to fabricate a new pair (at a vast expense) we will work with what we have - current plan is to fabricate a valance panel to bridge the gap between the wing & bonnet 



Wings drilled to the mountings & coachbolts fitted 



I will trim the bolts down when I remove the wings again 



But its coming together - Headlamp aperture hole drilled and wing stay thread tapped for the headlamp stem 





I think whoever made the wings up may have got distracted when they were running the swage bead in 



Its proper wonky - I give it a good fettle once I'm completely happy with the wing fit - more tomorrow 

Looks like you have managed to get the o.s wing to sit better as it had been bent about a bit, well done! it is starting to look like a REAL ONE!!!!
I think a lot of the bonnet/wing fitting problem is that the bonnet is to short, the sides are definiatly original but I think the tops have been remade at some point. As far as the bonnet sides are concerned the BSA club say they have never come across 2 the same. I think they must have been shaped to fit the original curves on the wings? I think as far as the valances are concerned they can stay in place behind the bonnet sides, with possibly a straight top to make it easyer for you? but they will have to be shaped to the wing curves on the bottom edge. Anyway I will leave it to you. I think once they are painted bonnet side colour you would have to look hard to see them. IT'S LOOKING GOOD

The workshop looks a lot bigger now after what has been in there recently.

It's getting painted - very fancy period paint job at that too 

First job today was to check against the original factory drawings that wings came within tolerance now that they are fully fitted to the mountings 



Near perfect !



Back to completing the spare wheel mountings 



A leather strap fastens through the loop retainer 


 
So that's the spare wheel mounting sorted 



On with playing with a bit of cardboard & some masking tape for a while 



Along with a pencil and some scissors



Template transferred to some sheet metal - some brackets formed & spot welded on the rear of the new valance panel 



A little strengthening added where required



Then a front mounting bracket made and bolted to a suitable existing location  



Pretty happy so far 



Plan is to fit a small rubber edge trim to the base of the valance where it meets the wing to prevent any paint damage 




The front will probably require a small strengthening rib spot welding to the inner face and a centre bracket fitting to the wing (the chassis is too far away to bolt a mounting to at this point) - I want to keep the fixings hidden to the rear or hidden under the bonnet if possible - I may well have to place a few buffers to the inner bonnet edge too to prevent the bonnet edge contacting the paint on the valance - looks like I can largely reverse the valance pattern for the offside too - although it will be need to be deeper on that side



The alloy trims got delivered today too - cope moulding for the bottom of the panels & the T section for the forward apertures on the doors - more tomorrow 

I don't think it could be done any better than that, very impressed well done Chris.

Alex - The body has been messed around with at some stage - what's probably happened is the that the two top leaves of the bonnet have been remade but with a shorter radius return to the hinge where the side panel joins - Although the new wings are based upon a factory drawing they were probably for a certain year / body type - wings similar in style & size were changed for different model years - hence the BSA club has had the wings remade to the most common style and each owner makes them fit to suit - to adapt the wings would be largely a major remake of the apron - time consuming / labour intensive - Make new side panels for the bonnet to suit the new wings - a lot easier said than done - the bottom edge is a wire formed beading - the upper edge is formed to make one half of the panel hinge - then there's a long row of inline louvers to cut & let in - again time consuming / labour intensive - Bonnet valance panels were common to many cars of this era - its a simple & effective solution - once painted you wouldn't have known that they weren't original - I would say that the valance panel is the sensible route to go from all points including that of cost. 

No apologies needed - questions like this is what we need on the forum to generate further interest / understanding 

I am the owner and I can only reiterate what Chris has said, I concidered all options and this solution had to be the only way to go. The bonnet sides
have already had extensive repairs which were done by a very experianced vintage car blacksmith, and he had a lot of problems trying to weld onto this 86/87 year old ally bonnet, so trying to remove the wire edge and weld on extra was an absolute non starter. Remaking of the bonnet sides with all those louvers would have been a non justifiabley costly job. To sort out the wing valance shape would have required a major reworking of it and even if that had been done the large gap would still have existed. BSA,s had a large bonnet wing gap anyway the club thinks for a couple of reasons, one was to make the bonnet easier to open as it is easy to hit the wing, and the other was again an attempt to get more cooling as the system is only has thrmo-syphon with no pump or fan. The body is a home made replica of the original which had rotted away in the 60,s and although it was acceptable it left a lot to be desired. Chris has done a great job getting things to fit properly, so to answer you questions it had to be a matter of compromise and as most vintage car have bonnet landing panels anyway it seemed to be the only cost effective way to go.