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MG TD TF 1500 - Straightening the Windscreen Stanchions

Some weeks ago, a member asked about straightening the window stanchions. As I remember he got a replacement set.
I just remounted my windscreen today after replacing the glass. I found my stanchions badly bent. As long as I have owned the car, 49 years, the bottom BA2 screws have never been in place.

When I went to remount I found out why.

I put together a montage showing my straightening process.
The top left frame shows what I started with. The 4 screw holes should lay along a straight line.
To me it looked like the stanchion was bent at the second screw hole from the top.

To straighten you want to unbend at the point of bending. The width of the stanchion is 1/2" Looking around I found some 3/4" ID square tubing. You want a good tight fit along the unbent part, right up to the point of bend. I did nit have 1/2 Id square stock so this would require a 1/4" shim. I found some 3/16 by 1/2 stock. (1/4" would have been better.) I cut a piece about 25" long. In the second frame you can see the shim lust sticking out of the bending tool by my hand. The straightening bar is 14" long. Note the stanchion is being held in the vice by soft jaws (Rubber) so as not to be marred. The third frame on the top shows the straightened stanchion. It was very close to being straight, close enough for the screws to take care of, but it had bent in the other direction. ( Bottom left frame)
I used the same tool and straightened that direction also. I needed to make a spacer out of a 2 by 3 block of wood with two holes to clear the screws.

This made the Stanchions totally usable.


JA Benjamin

Nice job. appears you didnt even crack the chrome.

Graeme
G Evans

Good work JA.
Were you tempted to use some mild heat?

Matthew.
M Magilton

Does mild heat actually work? I have allways had to get things pretty hot before they were soft enough to straighten. But I have found with brass if you over heat it will simply break as you try to bend it. With aluminium I have ended up with molten metal on the floor! I did, however, pick up a tip from a demonstartion at the NEC Classic Car Show. You waft over the item with a smoky acetylene flame to cover it in black carbon and then warm it with oxy/acetylene until the carbon just evaporates. You can start in one corner and "chase" the black away, across the part. Aluminium can be bent whilst at this temperature but will still be soft when cooled. I used this technique to bend the aluminium landing strip for the bonnet on my M Type. I am not so certain about brass though.


Jan T
J Targosz

Hi Jan,
the annealing point of brass is around the melting point of aluminium (aluminum), You can drag the aluminium on the brass to check temp.Fast annealing (Quenching) will soften the brass ready to bend cold.
Ray TF 2884
Ray Lee

Graeme:
I did not see any damage to the chrome.

Matthew:
I was trying to avoid a re-chrome job so I never thought of using heat,

I have used a similar process to straighten out bent feed screws on my machine tools in the past.

Thanks

Jim B.
JA Benjamin

This thread was discussed on 03/02/2014

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