My nightmare... errr restoration thread.

[pacman1]

Nice one Brap Brap
It's your thread and you're doing a great job. Take your time, get it right, and above all, enjoy what you're doing, else there's no point! We all have time and money issues, but at least you are blessed with the space to be able to restore your car, a luxury few of us have in the UK.
Looking forward to your next update.

[GV]

If only I had a garage....

[Brap_Brap]

Got back to work on the car the past couple of days.
I got fuel system and plenum back on the engine plus the various hoses.
Today I got the clutch on, mated the tranny to the engine and
then stuffed it where it belongs.

Taking a break now, having a beer then back out to the garage for
front brakes, leading links, aka tie bar aka radius arms, steering rack and ARB.

Will post more pics later, here's some for now.


All reassembled and ready to stick in the frame.


fuel rail, vale covers and injector hold down plates in matching gunmetal paint. The colour scheme I chose is starting to really pay off.

Edited by Brap_Brap on Friday 9th October 01:13

[Brap_Brap]

Got the rack on, new calipers on, and ran the nice shiny new stainless brake lines for the front. I damned near pooped myself trying to put the track rod joints in. I'd forgotten they came up from the bottom and thought for a few minutes I'd somehow had the wrong spindles upside down on the wrong side! Phew!... I got it right.

Called it a day... calling for -10C tonight and it's plenty cold in the garage already.


left side hard line and soft line both done in stainless.

[V8TVR1978]

Hello from Vegas. Really starting to all come together there Mike. Hopefully you are starting to get that special grin and I hope it grows bigger every day. Your doing a job that many would never attempt and doing your 390 proud. Keep up the good work.

Wayne.

[grahamw48]

Looking really good, and a credit to you and your hard work.

[Transmitter Man]

I'll second that.

Brap,

Did you get you headers coated when they were new or are they pre-treated then coated.

What is the process called?

I'm wondering if it's the same as a company over here offers: http://www.camcoat.u-net.com/Exhausts.htm

Phil
420 SEAC

[gavinv88]

please go easy on me if this is the dumbest question you ever heard !! is it possible to source or have built a galv (or other) chassis? i'm a self employed sparks and know that trade backwards but not engineering (nor common sense). I await ridicule by the bucket !! all this "body off stuff" is making me sweat and i don't own a wedge yet!

[Transmitter Man]

Gavin,

Source a new old stock or repro wedge chassis, probably not.

Later model repro TVR chassis' are available for one or more models.

Wedge's suffer from outrigger rust due to varying quality of factory powder coating and the fact there's no protection from stones being thrown up by the front wheels.

Once Henry's car comes out mine is going into for the same.

There are some nice condition both restored and non-restored cars out there at good money - but I'm a perdantic bar-steward and don't like 2nd best and like throwing money at my cars, without the bos finding out of course

Phil
420 SEAC

[grahamw48]

Anyone considered covering the exposed outrigger behind the front wheel (with some sort of rubber mudflap affair, or removable fibreglass panel) ? I thought about it.

[TVR_owner]

grahamw48 said:

Anyone considered covering the exposed outrigger behind the front wheel (with some sort of rubber mudflap affair, or removable fibreglass panel) ? I thought about it.

I had a stainless mud flap type arrangments on my last 390. Not as nice as these, but same idea.

http://www.tvrmonster.com/store/index.php?act=view...

[MJG280]

I made up a quality product

which is why I always park in long grass

The board used to say 'For Sale'

[Brap_Brap]

Transmitter Man said:

I'll second that.

Brap,

Did you get you headers coated when they were new or are they pre-treated then coated.

What is the process called?

I'm wondering if it's the same as a company over here offers: http://www.camcoat.u-net.com/Exhausts.htm

Phil
420 SEAC

I had them ceramic coated in and out. You can have it done in various colours and metallic looks. I picked the one most like chrome. It cost me $247 Cdn if I recall.

[Brap_Brap]

gavinv88 said:

is it possible to source or have built a galv (or other) chassis?

all this "body off stuff" is making me sweat and i don't own a wedge yet!

You can certainly have a stipped chassis galvanised easily enough. As for the body off resto's, my advice is to buy one with a recent (past 5 years) body off already done.

I'll say this much; don't buy any wedge without getting it on a hoist. It might drive great. It might sound even better than great, but don't let that be a deciding factor when you buy one. Get under it, take a rag and wipe down every weld joint you can reach and look for cracks. My car had at least a dozen.

[wooly350i]

i would not galvanize a chassis, after seeing an example of a chimeara one in the flesh, which had been drilled to let the heat out during the galvanizing process. Result = a well twisted chassis beyond repair!

[Brap_Brap]

wooly350i said:

i would not galvanize a chassis, after seeing an example of a chimeara one in the flesh, which had been drilled to let the heat out during the galvanizing process. Result = a well twisted chassis beyond repair!

That's very good information! Is there a thread with pics and such? I'm just thinking that the wedge forum might/should have a "do's and dont's" sticky topic listing such suicidal "fixes".

[Brap_Brap]

Back at it today... got everything done I never got at last time I said I would, ie: ARB installed and drop links.

I finally got my rear brakes sorted out having found the L/2/R caliper brake line bridge pipe. I also got my clutch slave line installed. I actually got a fair bit done today besides watching paint dry.



I'd not done anything to this tank for the longest time due to a pin hole, but uber-welder Marc assured me he could fix it without turning my tank to Swiss cheese. He did it too. This is AMAZING welding skills on such thin rusty material.


After a few coats of primer and paint, I used a rubberised anti-gravel coating to seal the tanks from moisture, air and rust. I figured this has to beat WaxOyle!


The pebbled look of the coating finish is good at hiding the rust along the seems were it seems to be be the worst. Tomorrow I`ll give it another coating. I ran out of product tonight.











Tomorrow`s plan is to second coat my tanks and get them back in plus the restr of the fuel system.

Damned near ready to put the body back on now!!! YAY!!!

[gavinv88]

grahamw48 said:

Anyone considered covering the exposed outrigger behind the front wheel (with some sort of rubber mudflap affair, or removable fibreglass panel) ? I thought about it.

a guy called rob (runs the middlesex arm of tvrcc) with an s-series made one from either rubber mats (heavy duty) or tyres as i recall. saw them at the Ace cafe down here on their monthly meet. he reckoned it worked well. (think there is a recent thread on s-series P.H.)
I also know he will be on the stand on sat NEC show (very nice chap)
gavin

[V8TVR1978]

Looking very good there Mike. Keep up the good work and soon you will be back on the road. Hope you get a chance to drive it before the snow flys around here.

[Brap_Brap]

V8TVR1978 said:

Looking very good there Mike. Keep up the good work and soon you will be back on the road. Hope you get a chance to drive it before the snow flys around here.

I guess you weren't here when it snowed 3 times already? Lucky you.