TC running board position

[timandgerda]

Hi all,
I am trail fitting panels (1949 TC) and could use some advice about positioning of the running boards. What is the gap between the bottom of the door and the top of the board (I guess this will vary but ballpark figure)? What is the gap (in board and outboard) where it meets the rear wing (again ballpark)? Concerning the rear wing what is the general consensus for where this should be with reference to the tub - should it be flush with the body or up or down a bit - TCFE example seems to have the wing sitting about half an inch above the body at the front position looking at the photos - I guess how far out it sits is determined by the rear part of the running board? My replacement running boards are about 1/4 inch boarder than the one original I have but I don't think this will be an issue.
Thanks in advance.
Tim.

[ROGER FURNEAUX]

hi Tim - the important point about the running boards is that they join the rear of the wings in a continuous curve, and you might have to modify your new RBs to achieve this (I had to). Wings vary in shape (they were after all hand-made) so the way that they sit on the chassis will affect the height of the RBs slightly. But around 1" below the door edge is normal. At the rear, the RBs should have a curve to match the wing (many are straight, and again, my new ones had to be modified.) and have a small gap of at least 1/2", but no bolt and rubber bush as is often seen. Underneath, the brackets need to line up with the holes through the wood and the outer chassis rails (angle iron). Once again, my new ones had to have the brackets moved!

Regarding the rear wings, their position is determined by the shouldered bolts which go into the sides of the tank. Put these in and push the wings up into the inner wheel arches. Where the front end finishes will depend on the wing, but is usually just below the end of the RB. Make sure that the wings are parallel with the centre line of the car, the front end should be just outboard of the end of the RB

BTW these bolts were NCA at Moss a while back, so I made a small batch if anyone needs them.

Roger Furneaux
Devon Olde England

[antijam]

hi Tim - the important point about the running boards is that they join the rear of the wings in a continuous curve, and you might have to modify your new RBs to achieve this (I had to). Wings vary in shape (they were after all hand-made) so the way that they sit on the chassis will affect the height of the RBs slightly. But around 1" below the door edge is normal. At the
Roger Furneaux
Devon Olde England

As Roger says, obtaining a smooth continuous line between the wing and running board is important and crucial to the final appearance of the car. In my restoration I was fitting new Moss wings and running boards to a new Hutson tub. The Moss running boards are flatter than original and I found it impossible to achieve the desired line if adhering to the original fitment. I had no tooling to modify the curve in the running board and decided that form was more important than originality so ended up lowering the rear of the running board to achieve best fit with the wing. This necessitated dispensing with the rear two fitting brackets and manufacturing a new bracket from a scrap of steel angle to attach the board rear under the body of the car.

These two piccies show the new bracket fitted to the running board....

...and this shows the fitting to the car - you can see the original brackets have been partially removed ....

The final effect is not quite perfect.....

.....but a considerable improvement over what would have been achieved if retaining the 'correct' fixing.

Incidentally, the new bracket provides a much more robust attachment than the original - they could almost be used as 'running boards' now!

[timandgerda]

Thanks for the pointers. The problem I have is that I have re-skinned the tub, have new rear wings (no holes) and new front wings (no holes) so nothing to work from. I have stepped bolts and one original old rear wing that has the hole referred to so I will use that as a starting point. I have looked at as many cars on-line as possible to get an idea about the correct curves so will let you know how I get on. Thanks again. Tim.

[antijam]

You do have my sympathy Tim. The only original panels on my TC prior to reassembly were the bonnet and bulkhead - everything else was new. As you point out, with no holes, where do you start? I'd suggest you have a collection of 'G' clamps and some assorted baulks of timber to hand to use as props before you start. I had new front wings so these had to be aligned first to provisionally determine the hole positions for the wing stays and side lights.

Even after best fit was achieved I had to swap the headlamp mounting brackets side to side to avoid the foot of the bracket distorting the wing when clamped up - the giveaway is the chrome bolts fixing the bracket to the rad had to be fitted from behind so the nut shows on the front.

Running boards went on next and aligned for best fit as mentioned before.

The position of the rear wing is determined by the end of the top spine being just clear of the tub .

This in turn determines the rotational position of the wing in the wheelarch. Two things to keep checking while trying to align the wings. Firstly check the height of the tips of both front and rear wings from the ground. The actual dimension is less important than that they should be equal side to side.(I could give you the dimensions I achieved but they won't be much use as the engine and transmission were not in and my car is on 16" wheels) Secondly keep in mind that the profile of the car in plan view should ideally be a rectangle. Place a straight edge or batten in contact with the wing tips and check that this is visually at right angles to the axis of the car. Ensure that outer edges of the front wing, the running board and the rear wing when looked at from above should form a straight line and be parallel side to side. I found that to maintain this I had to use two rubber spacers between the rear wing and the tank rather than the original one. With just one the wings were pulled in too far. It took many hours of continual adjustment of wings and running boards to achieve a visually satisfactory alignment.

Another problem I had that I think is not uncommon with new tubs and/or new rear wings is that the form of either the wing or the tub is incorrect and it's impossible to fit the wing without a localised gap.(shown by black arrow in above piccie) I had to re-form the tub and let in new metal to improve the fit to the point where the wing piping would ultimately disguise any misfit.

(I haven't mentioned the packing under the tub mounts I had to do to get the bonnet sides to follow panel profile of the tub - that took many hours, but if yours is the original tub you shouldn't have that problem.)

All you have to after all this is take it all apart again for painting!