Nut and Bolt rebuild - sensible mods

Nut and Bolt rebuild - sensible mods

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Pete Mac

Original Poster:

755 posts

136 months

Tuesday 14th January 2014
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Body came off the chassis today:



Lessons I learned:

  • You may think you've undone all those bolts but there are always a couple you didn't notice. The two I didn't notice where the ones under the dash. I managed to lift the whole car on those two (only by a couple of centimetres) before I realised - what a plonker
  • However hard you look, there are always one or two things you didn't disconnect (wires mainly although it becomes clear as the body goes up)
Road debris including a small boulder on the outrigger



I was surprised. A lot of surface rust but chassis looks in better nick than I expected. Anyway I'll have it stripped down in the next few days and off to be blasted and that will tell me how good or bad it really is.



I have copious photos of the strip down and as I take the car apart, many of those things that weren't obvious, now become obvious as you see the car in its full glory.....


Tell me if you are interested and I will keep posting progress.

carsy

3,018 posts

164 months

Tuesday 14th January 2014
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Good work Pete, Definately keep things updated, all interesting stuff. thumbup

chris52

1,560 posts

182 months

Tuesday 14th January 2014
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Yes please keep your progress and pictures coming .
Looks as though you have a pretty solid chassis there
Chris

natben

2,743 posts

230 months

Tuesday 14th January 2014
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We'll done so far and yes please keep us updated with your progress.

Podie

46,630 posts

274 months

Tuesday 14th January 2014
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Another interested in updates and progress!

danielrok

3 posts

122 months

Tuesday 14th January 2014
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And another very interested in updates as seriously considering a body off to refurbish the chassis

Pete Mac

Original Poster:

755 posts

136 months

Wednesday 15th January 2014
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I have taken copious photos so if anybody wants to know 'what connects to what' I might be able to help.

Just about to go out and take the engine and gearbox out, strip off the suspension and extract those two rusty chassis bolts that sheared off.....!

More photos and commentary to follow.

Rob_the_Sparky

1,000 posts

237 months

Wednesday 15th January 2014
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Thanks, keep the updates coming. I'm busy taking notes smile

Pete Mac

Original Poster:

755 posts

136 months

Wednesday 15th January 2014
quotequote all
Didn't get as much done today as I wanted to. A few domestic chores then had to nip to Swindon Machine Mart to pick up a Load Leveller. Anyway got back, load leveller on engine and engine out. No real hassles:



Lowered engine down to basement dungeon/workshop:



And stored on table ready for splitting engine and gearbox at later stage for rebuilding:



Body safely stashed above the 'Green Meany' again for another day.



Focus is on the chassis for now, which I put up on stands ready for tomorrow:



Tomorrow will be stripping chassis, especially suspension ready for blasting. I have soaked all the nuts and bolts in copious quantities of penetrating oil, which I have to say I am not a huge believer in but why do I think tomorrow is going to be a right scensoredt of a day when it comes to undoing those wishbone bolts.

Although chassis looks better than expected, I am not so sure about the wishbones. Anybody got a spare set they want to sell me, front and back?

Anyway out for a well deserved beer tonight. Unfortunately none of my mates are petrolheads, have to find something else to talk about .......

Pete Mac

Original Poster:

755 posts

136 months

Wednesday 15th January 2014
quotequote all
Rob_the_Sparky said:
Thanks, keep the updates coming. I'm busy taking notes smile
Rob, as you are a Berkshire boy I am sure I can help with tools etc. Pete

TJC46

2,147 posts

205 months

Thursday 16th January 2014
quotequote all
Pete Mac said:
Didn't get as much done today as I wanted to. A few domestic chores then had to nip to Swindon Machine Mart to pick up a Load Leveller. Anyway got back, load leveller on engine and engine out. No real hassles:



Lowered engine down to basement dungeon/workshop:



And stored on table ready for splitting engine and gearbox at later stage for rebuilding:



Body safely stashed above the 'Green Meany' again for another day.



Focus is on the chassis for now, which I put up on stands ready for tomorrow:



Tomorrow will be stripping chassis, especially suspension ready for blasting. I have soaked all the nuts and bolts in copious quantities of penetrating oil, which I have to say I am not a huge believer in but why do I think tomorrow is going to be a right scensoredt of a day when it comes to undoing those wishbone bolts.

Although chassis looks better than expected, I am not so sure about the wishbones. Anybody got a spare set they want to sell me, front and back?

Anyway out for a well deserved beer tonight. Unfortunately none of my mates are petrolheads, have to find something else to talk about .......
Love the pics, and also your garage.

Double width garage, 4 post lift, and an opening in the floor to the workshop below.

Its like garage porn.

I think i have garage envy.weeping

carsy

3,018 posts

164 months

Thursday 16th January 2014
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I WANT I WANT I WANT THAT GARAGE. Very envious. thumbup

Pete Mac

Original Poster:

755 posts

136 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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carsy said:
I WANT I WANT I WANT THAT GARAGE. Very envious. thumbup
Thanks guys, your praise much appreciated, concept and execution was very much mine, Berkshire Planners wouldn't allow me to go outwards so the only way was to go down in the ground. I have to say the whole lot has worked beyond expectations.

This is not a 'trinket' as you see I am making real use of the garage. I am not sure I would like to undertake the body off without my 2-post lift (not a 4-post lift) as I seemed to be constantly in the engine bay and then below the car and then using it to lift the body was faultless (I followed the Edd China method from Wheeler Dealers for the Cerbera). I am not short of mates but I don't have many 'petrol head' mates so I would have struggled to assemble 5-8 sturdy blokes who would have been happy to stand around whilst I undid all the last bits and pieces.

As for the lift, have a look on Automotech site, they are not expensive (£1,099 plus VAT) very easy to install but all you need is the head height.

Unfortunately there is not much room for the day to day cars although I did stack the Griffs and put the Disco next door, before I started the strip down.



swisstoni

16,844 posts

278 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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I'm also impressed with garage. Care to name-check the architect / builders? I live in Berkshire too so would be helpful to know for future ref.

Pete Mac

Original Poster:

755 posts

136 months

Saturday 18th January 2014
quotequote all
swisstoni said:
I'm also impressed with garage. Care to name-check the architect / builders? I live in Berkshire too so would be helpful to know for future ref.
Hi swisstoni, Not wanting to hi-jack this thread with the garage but most important were the builders, I brought in 3 guys from Suffolk, who have worked for my brother off and on for the last 20 years. I paid them by the hour plus b&b and managed the work myself (cheapest and best way),I bought all the materials myself and 'managing' the boys basically meant making sure all the materials were there when required. I would recommend them anytime and execution of the job was fantastic - 3 months start to finish and I am not the biggest fan of builders.

Structural engineer next. There was a lot of steel and the details for the 2-post lift were very important, although in the end I more or less told him how I wanted the rest of the steel and he did the calculations.

Architect was fine but the whole concept was mine so he turned it into plans and submitted it for planning. Planning was a nightmare, partly due to me initially cutting corners on the architect.

I pretty well knew what I wanted, I used my own tanking (waterproofing) system (Firestone EPDM) - highly successful as I didn't want a pump in the basement. I started off by thinking all I needed was a hole in the floor to make a 'pit' and then very soon realised that a 2-post lift was a very viable idea as well, which led to the idea of lowering stuff into the basement.

I am happy to share contact names, drawings, costs. I have all the construction photos (surprise, surprise) etc. E-mail me and let me know what you want. We can discuss on the phone or you can come and have a look if that suits you

Pete Mac

Original Poster:

755 posts

136 months

Saturday 18th January 2014
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This is were I was last night, although diff was actually removed:



but I now have a plan as follows:

  • I am planning to galvanise the chassis, chassis cross pieces, the wishbones, the 3 diff mounting brackets and the chassis plate that sits under the gearbox
  • Once I have fully stripped the chassis, extracted the 3 sheared bolts and pushed the bushes out of the wishbones (there is also a bush in the chassis holding the diff. I haven't worked out how I am going to push that out yet....!), I am going to get all the pieces aggressively shot blasted to get rid of all the surface rust as well highlight any required repairs (fingers crossed...)
  • I will bring the chassis back, offer it up to the body and weld in a cross piece for the battery box and cross pieces for seat runners. These are going to be a bit more complicated than I originally envisaged as the seats sit on recesses in the glassfibre so the cross piece will need to have raised 'top hats' on them (don't worry I will take measurements and photos to explain later)
  • I will drill the chassis tubes for the galvanizing and then get the pieces galvanized
  • Once galvanized I will fettle the chassis (chase all the threads and grind off all the zinc snots) and then prepare the chassis for powder coating by de-greasing it (apparently galv has a lot of tallow)
  • I'll then get the whole lot powder coated (probably white) not so much because it is original colour but more because I can hang nice coloured bits off it
For the blasting and powder coating I am using a company called Professional Powder Coatings Limited (Procoat) in Thatcham, near Newbury. Tel: 01635 200017. Procoat is owned by a guy called Aston Martin (yes really). He is a complete petrolhead and yes, he does own an old Aston Martin (older V8) as well as a Lamborghini Countach.

So far Aston has been fantastic in helping me through the blasting, galving, powder coating process, I'll let you know how he does when it comes to doing the work but I have high hopes.

I asked Aston about 'Nylon Coating', mentioned earlier in this thread. He reckoned it was OK but because it is more of a 'plastic' coating, once chipped it was very difficult to repair. I suppose on a galvanised chassis this wouldn't matter. I will almost certainly go the powder coat route as it is purely cosmetic and would be much easier to repair.

I haven't selected a galvanizer yet but when I do I will let you know. I anybody has any suggestions then let me know. If you are interested in chassis galvanizing then you might be interested in this thread:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=28&...

I did quite a bit of research on it.

This is today's work:



However it is elder daughter's 21st today so I think my mind might be elsewhere this weekend

TJC46

2,147 posts

205 months

Saturday 18th January 2014
quotequote all
Pete Mac said:
..............(there is also a bush in the chassis holding the diff. I haven't worked out how I am going to push that out yet....!),


  • I will bring the chassis back, offer it up to the body and weld in a cross piece for the battery box and cross pieces for seat runners. These are going to be a bit more complicated than I originally envisaged as the seats sit on recesses in the glassfibre so the cross piece will need to have raised 'top hats' on them (don't worry I will take measurements and photos to explain later)

  • I'll then get the whole lot powder coated (probably white) not so much because it is original colour but more because I can hang nice coloured bits off it
I will almost certainly go the powder coat route as it is purely cosmetic and would be much easier to repair.
First point its the old fashioned way im afraid. I tried various ways of pushing

out the diff bush but in the end, its burn out the rubber so the centre tube

falls out and then carefully cut with an hacksaw blade and tap out.

2nd point. Not my chassis. just a pic showing someone elses idea of securing the seats to the chassis.



Peter seriously consider painting the chassis after galvanizing.

Yes powder coat looks a great uniform finish when done, and although you will not have corrosion problems because of galvanizing, the powder coat can still chip
easy.

It would be far easier with paint to touch up any stone chips.

Like my car, im sure your Griff will be a"keeper" and ongoing maintenance over the coming years is obligatory.
Since my bodyoff i have removed the diff for a refurb ,removed the front wishbones for bush replacement, rear wishbones for welding in a new antiroll bar fixing plate, and many other jobs i cant remember.

Point is, if my chassis was powder coated, then whilst doing any of the above jobs it would have been very easy to chip and damage the powdercoat.

Welding in new antiroll bar plates would have meant shotblast and repowder coating of the rear wishbones.

As it was, i simply cut away the damaged plates, ground away the paint to expose nice shiney metal to weld to, and afterwards repainted the whole wishbone.
Job done and perfect colour match to the rest of the chassis.

As stated earlier, powder coating looks fantastic when first done, but I.M.O it is not a practical solution to live with, on a car that will always require ongoing maintenance.

carsy

3,018 posts

164 months

Saturday 18th January 2014
quotequote all
Sound advice that Tom. Couldnt agree more.

I went down the powdercoat route purely and simply because i was lazy. Couldnt face all that painting. Although mine is still like new you cant help but get the ocasional scratch chip etc when rebuilding or in future maintenance like Tom says. I have overcome the odd bit of damage with zinc primer and then dulux gloss same colour as the powdercoat. The gloss goes on supersmooth like the powdercoat and for the odd little chip you cant tell. Also stands up to time and elements much beter than you would imagine.

If i was to do another car i would definately do as Tom says and go with paint over powdercoat. 1 for ease of touchup and 2 it is better.

Pete Mac

Original Poster:

755 posts

136 months

Saturday 18th January 2014
quotequote all
TJC46 said:
First point its the old fashioned way im afraid. I tried various ways of pushing

out the diff bush but in the end, its burn out the rubber so the centre tube

falls out and then carefully cut with an hacksaw blade and tap out.

2nd point. Not my chassis. just a pic showing someone elses idea of securing the seats to the chassis.



Peter seriously consider painting the chassis after galvanizing.

Yes powder coat looks a great uniform finish when done, and although you will not have corrosion problems because of galvanizing, the powder coat can still chip
easy.

It would be far easier with paint to touch up any stone chips.

Like my car, im sure your Griff will be a"keeper" and ongoing maintenance over the coming years is obligatory.
Since my bodyoff i have removed the diff for a refurb ,removed the front wishbones for bush replacement, rear wishbones for welding in a new antiroll bar fixing plate, and many other jobs i cant remember.

Point is, if my chassis was powder coated, then whilst doing any of the above jobs it would have been very easy to chip and damage the powdercoat.

Welding in new antiroll bar plates would have meant shotblast and repowder coating of the rear wishbones.

As it was, i simply cut away the damaged plates, ground away the paint to expose nice shiney metal to weld to, and afterwards repainted the whole wishbone.
Job done and perfect colour match to the rest of the chassis.

As stated earlier, powder coating looks fantastic when first done, but I.M.O it is not a practical solution to live with, on a car that will always require ongoing maintenance.
Thanks, I've noted all your points. For the bush I was going to try some studding, two sockets and two nuts to try and ease it out but if that doesn't work, it looks like I will have to resort to burning out and the good old hacksaw.

Good one on the seat reinforcement. I planned to put them laterally but longitudinally makes a lot of sense, in fact I think I can do one better by using a narrow channel (stronger) just wide enough for the nut and washer to sit inside but narrow enough to fit into the floor pan channel (I'll do photos).

As for powder coating versus paint, I just haven't decided. If I wasn't galvanizing then I wouldn't touch powder coating as that was the downfall of the original TVR chassis, however because of the galv, I can safely touch up the powder coat without any corrosion concerns as even in the unlikely event of the galv getting scratched it is sacrificial and will self heal. Whatever I do, I will give it some real hard thought and keep you posted. To me the chassis is the absolute backbone of this rebuild, literally.........

EGB

1,774 posts

156 months

Saturday 18th January 2014
quotequote all
Suggest, have matching tyres on the front. If tyres more than 6 years replace with new. Will give ignificantly safer drivability. When I bought mine from previous owner it had 11 year old Firestones on front and New Nexens on the rear! Slippy front end was sometimes near lethal at speed on tramlines. Tyre fitter nearly had to resort to sawing off the old hard rubber FirestonesIt's. Now very different and a safer car to drive with new matching tyres front and rear.

Is your Green Meanie a Starmist Ocean Haze, like mine? Just curious. smile

Edited by EGB on Saturday 18th January 18:44