My nightmare... errr restoration thread.

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Wedg1e said:

I didn't particularly want to get into a war of words with you.

Value, ultimately, is in the eye of the purchaser: you can only sell anything for the price someone is willing to pay. Personally I think you have a distinctly average 390SE that is in typical condition for its age. Mine's the same. Most of them are. There will almost certainly be further 'horrors' in store for you; VERY few wedges are as good as their owners would have you believe.

Good luck with it.

Me neither.

You and right about value in the eye of the beholder but there's always the marketplace to be taken in as a factor. If I did all this work in England I'd be lucky to get the 5250 quid I paid for it. Judging by the wedge sale ads right now, I wouldn't. Then again wedges are so common in England a "wedge spotted" thread exists. If a wedge in the UK is as rare as hen's teeth, pterodactyl teeth would be the situation here.

Have you ever seen the Barrett Jackson car auction on TV? It's full of guys with way more money than brains who pay small fortunes for cars that were "stamped out" in the tens or hundreds of thousands. Surely a hand crafted super rare car fully restored can fetch a good price. Here a much more common TR6 in mint condition sells for $25k quite regularly.

Thanks.

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V8TVR1978 said:

Mike: The guy who has the other M in Calgary is trying to sell his TR6 and had an ad at Todds. Wants 20,000 and I don't think it is mint but it is worth 20,000 to the right buyer.

Exactly.

I was at Todd's shop the other day and saw that advert on the wall. If he holds out he'll get his asking price. It's a nice looking car and I wish it was in my stable.

Did you see the caged Sunbeam Tiger racer? I'd love to go for a spin in that!


[edit]Hopefully Mike will let me say this comment on his behalf also, " We just love our TVRs."

I do like the marque, it's history and whatnot, but TBH it is a bit of a love/hate relationship ATM. For example, the VERY LAST BOLT AND NUT I'd have to undo on the car was my lower diff to subframe bolt. It goes through a steel sleeved bushing and the sleeve was fused to the bolt. I could not twist it out, I could not drift it out, it wouldn't budge. I had to get out a thin cutoff disk and cut it. The very last bloody nut and bolt on the car and it has to be an impossibility.

I swear the car has ears. It's heard all the bad things I've ever said about it and saved it up for today. "Ha ha, who's got the last laugh now Mike?"

At the Stanley Park show in 07 I overheard a woman with an MG say "never speak bad about your brit car infront of it, it will remember that comment and let you down when you least expect it". LOL My wedge has me believing that supersitition now.

Edited by Brap_Brap on Tuesday 14th July 02:22

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grahamw48 said:

How do we ship one over ?

Sell it to me for a pound. I'll pay the shipping.

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350Matt said:

Mike

Just a samll piece of advice the brass/ c shaped / claw like spring than goes between the two arms on the handbrake is notorious for going soft over the years and generally making the handbrake ineffective.

As its an '86 Jaguar XJS unit you should be able to find a new replacement over there

I know some would argue that the handbrake has always been rubbish I found with careful greasing of the adjuster mech and a new spring it worked reasonably well.

Well good enough to hold the car on a hill without putting it in gear.

Already located and ordered.

http://www.britishparts.co.uk/.sc/ms/dd/Jaguar%20X...

[edit] FWIW that piece can ONLY act as a return spring, just look at it. Any braking via handbrake is done by the cable and nothing else. To set the record straightl.[/edit]

Edited by Brap_Brap on Wednesday 15th July 04:48

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Transmitter Man said:

The engineers doing the resto told me about, and then showed me the rather poor quality welding and the way (poor at best) the factory joined multiple tubes together. It opened my eyes!

I was also unaware that some of the chassis was made using 'seamed' tubing. Definite room for improvement.

Phil
420 SEAC

Some of the multi-angles is better than you think. It's likely due to my car body almost ripping my outriggers off, but some of that steel was better exposed once the outriggers got ripped off. The back portion where the diff subframe meets the chassis is TWO tubes thick. I could see it plainly with my own two eyes - a tube within a tube. I asked my welder (boiler maker {3000 psi welds etc} certified and more) about this tube within a tube and he told me it was to heat sink the overlaying steel as to not burn holes through it. IOW, welding so many joints in one small area is likely to burn holes, but the tubing inside the tubing was a heat sink protector. So, while TVR might have had stty welders, their engineering for it was good.

As for seamed tubes, I've seen none on mine.... TVR winds of change?

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Transmitter Man said:

Only wedge there - as normal

It only takes one to dominate.

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All of my f/r calipers have arrived.

With a little help from Wayne his and band of merry men we got the wedge frame off to the sandblast pit yesterday and had it done in an hour.

My rear trailing arms are pretty gone. There are no threads left whatsoever, they've all rusted off. I've spoke to the guys at http://out-pace.com and they're going to make me a set or rose jointed trailing arms that are able to be greased from the inside.

Edited by Brap_Brap on Saturday 18th July 17:42

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mike.williams said:

"Out-Pace Racing Products, LLC makes no oral, written, expressed or implied statement of warranty or guarantee on any product sold. The purchaser assumes all responsibilities for malfunction or misuse after installation."


They look really good, but, I scrolled down to the bottom of the page and found the disclaimer!
I know it's racing stuff but no warranty at all?

Anyway, did you take any photos of the chassis blasting?

ATB, Mike

I took a pic afterwards, but not of the actual process.

I'm not too worried about the unit breaking. It looks as tough or tougher than what Steve's put together.


I'd say I certainly picked the right colour to paint my handbrake bits.


Nice and new is so much nicer than old and rusty.


Sandblasted and about 1/2 hand sanded so far.


I'm kicking myself in the ass for forgetting this piece.

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V8TVR1978 said:

Mike: Are you now introducing a new color of black in your color scheme? (Last pic)

Chelsea WON first place in the "Other British" class with her car today. Guess we are getting some competition from a girl and we are going to have to play harder. Todd and I helped get her there and it is now up to her to continue on her own as I am now washing my hands of her and the car for any further car shows. Now she needs a name for her PH profile. See you next week.

Send my congratulations to her.

As for competition, only battles on a track mean anything to me.
With a little luck we'll both have our cars back before Race City Speedway closes for the season.

As for the goofy silver... nah, that's not in my plans. Since you can see them thru the rims at the front I was going to go with this caliper colour kit in red. http://www.duplicolor.com/products/caliper.html

And in other restoration news...

I got 2 lower ball joints coming in the mail. I just ordered another upper joint on ebay for $13 and still need to track down 1 upper BJ to complete the set.

Also my uprated 75A alt is done. They called me today, I'll pick it up by tomorrow.

Except for 2 track-rod ends I've got everything I need.

[edit] Nix the TRE's, found em. $78.82CDN w/shipping. My own gov't will sodomize me for another $12 or so.

If anyone thinks maintaining their wedge is expensive, you should try it from my side of the pond using the Kanuckistan peso for currency. I'm going to be in debtors prison soon.

Edited by Brap_Brap on Tuesday 21st July 03:47

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V8TVR1978 said:

If anyone thinks maintaining their TVR or wedge is expensive, you should try it from my side of the pond using the Kanuckistan peso for currency. I'm going to be in debtors prison soon.



Mike: We all came into this world with nothing and we shall leave with nothing....
(Unless you know how we can take it with us and leave nothing for everyone to fight over.)
Debtors prison...We all could get there very easy so no sence losing sleep over it.

Indeed we do.

Sometimes I think all my rust removal/coating is for naught... some prick will prolly steal it and crash it anyhow.

Matthew 6:20
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

...and you can't stop rust, moth, thieves or God.

If only God frove a wedge, He might cut us a little break.

Edited by Brap_Brap on Tuesday 21st July 06:11

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I picked up my brake/clutch lines yesterday and all I can say is WOW,
they look beautiful.


I had my work done by Green Line Hose & Fittings, and it cost a small fortune.


This was the entire invoice to replace every single brake/clutch line on the car in stainless, sans the rear "bridge" lines. A full sized double edged axe show's the enormity of the bill. $459 said and done.


One by one they replaced them all.


It's not the cheap exposed stainless weave but rather top of the line plasti-coated stainless, and the weave is much tighter. The difference in stainless is like 100 per cale cotton bed sheets and silk. This is NASA space shuttle grade kit.


The best part is the plastic sheathing is tinted and it gives a nice gunmetal look that will snake down my black chassis and color match every thing else in the vicinity.

Can I pick colour coordinated brake lines or what?

Edited by Brap_Brap on Friday 24th July 08:46

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Things move slowly but surely. I feel as thought I'm running out of steam... sort of.
The more I do to the car the more it costs, so the past two weeks I've psychologically avioded the car with fear and dread. I have the stamina to see it through, but the cost is killing me.

I'm almost to the point of bolting things back together. For the past two days, and finishing touches tomorrow, the welder guy has been over working his majic, and he is good!


A nice tig welded joint, smooth, strong and penetrating. In the background two stTY TVR welds, all bead, NO penetration, for comparison


My welder, Marc, is a real perfectionist and things like the sleeve-over he wouldn't stand for.



So, flush, straight and true he made it.


While the welding goes on I begin reassembling the engine bits


I ordered 2 lower b/j 2 upper, this is what arrived.

Oh well, I guess I have spares... anyone wanna buy 2 lower b/j's? $15 US and u can have them.

Edited by Brap_Brap on Monday 3rd August 05:07

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Mike: I just got back from Spokane via Creston ( Yes I do know that Creston is west of Calgary )

What took you to Washington USA, a car show?

Stopped by 3 times last week before we left to see if you were ready for me to transport your frame to the powdercoaters but didn't see any movement in the garage.

I've been "just" busy enough at work to f*k up everyting else. Not enough to make any real money, just enough to put me off track. So far this week looks empty. *crossed fingers*

There's not much left to weld on the car. I wish I could have posted my gusset plate pics, but alas I forgot the camera in the garage. How's a tentative Saturday transport looking for your schedule?

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Here's what I've done for gusset plates on the car. As far as I can tell the only thing I might need to trim down is one plate on the side the drive shaft is offset towards, but I think it'll sneak by.

Besides my dire front end cracks mentioned earlier in this topic the back section was pretty beat up too. Basically the rear half of the tranny tunnel had 8 different cracks. In each case it was where a main 1.5" upright member butted into a upper or lower frame rail. Where two or three pipes met in one spot, the cracking was even worse. The rear horizontal member that has the two sub-frame bolt holes was cracked 360deg around in one spot.

In some cases the welder guy used stick because the porosity was giving problems in tig. At any rate his welding is a damned sight better than the guy who welded my car in Blackpool.


This will NEVER crack again.


Same thing shown from the back side. You can see the crack that went fully 360deg around the bolt hole where the subframe goes on.


I had cracking up top here too, as well as one set of vertical members forward and added these massive gussets to both.

There's still a little welding to do, hopefully I can get it to the powercoater's by next Monday.

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I don't know when I work next, but it tends to be Tue, Thu, Sun over the past month so Monday sounds good tentatively.

Where are you talking Chelsea for track practice, race city speedway? Maybe I'll drive down and watch. The only TVR I've ever seen on that track is my own.

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Finally we got the frame done yesterday. All the cracks, gussets and steel replacing had been done, now it was time for washing the old stty welds.


Before.


During.


After, much better.

While Marc was fixing up old welds I cleaned up and painted the differential. It looks much better than the rusty greasy lump it was before.




According to the tag I've got a 3.31 gears. I thought I had 3.54.

In other achievements, my TRE's have arrived as has my dizzy cap and rotor.

Today if all goes to plan, the frame will be at the power coater's by this afternoon. It's coming much slower than I thought, but it is coming along.

Edited by Brap_Brap on Monday 10th August 15:13

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The bolts I could really use are the ones for the back side of the mintex pads... I broke 2 of 4.

In other news... ran out of money, still lots of work to go.
It really burns my ass, but with only $700 left in the bank, still needing 4 shocks and an upper b/j, plus a speedo just to pass an "MOT", I couldn't powder coat the frame after all. That really pisses me off. I did get it painted in 4 really thick coats of enamel tho. Oh well, it's the next owner's problem. I'll drive a year or two then I'm getting rid of it. The car has worn me down far more than the grin factor.

Pics to come...

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The work carries on...


Carrying on the the colour scheme, a gun metal hub bearing carrier ready to be mated to a black hub and half shaft.




Original verus a 1/2 hour with solvent.


Ready to prime.


This will look good with a black shaft.

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Waynester said:

Fantastic effort Mike, not just with the resto but the thread itself!

I hope you hang onto her after you have finished, be a shame for someone else to come along and enjoy it instead.

Thanks. My running dialogue in this thread was to show other wedger's with rusty/greasy pieces of junk how little work it can be to at least make things pleasing to the eye, if not "all new".

As for keeping the car, my life is in the hands of the Good Lord... I think... it seems like Satan is ruling my finances at the moment. If my job doesn't pick up drastically in the next two weeks, I'll be the first homeless street person eveer with a wedge.

[Brap_Brap]

Things haven't been going very quickly lately for 3 reasons, money, time spent looking for employment and the discouragement resulting from lack of the aforementioned money and a job. Actually I was also partially held up awaiting for the arrival of a lower diff bushing. I have gotten more done over the past few days and should be ready for engine and tranny next week if I can find the time. Thankfully work has gotten busy for me again.




The bottom of the spring isn't quite seated, I guess I need some weight on it first. I'll put the shock absorber in after it's seated right.








I goofed up ordering these tie-rods. It's an easy fix but I need to sleeve the inside of the heim joint. It's got a .75" OD and the bolt is half inch.

I don't think I'll have it done before the snow flies, but I think I can last the winter without driving it for this long already.

Edited by Brap_Brap on Saturday 12th September 23:56