The rebuild begins......again.

[markh1]

Last night I pretty much managed to get the interior sorted (apart from the seats) I am really pleased with it! The guys at Esser works did a great job of laquering the carbon.









One of the lights is also in...

Edited by markh1 on Thursday 10th September 11:18

[markh1]

Thanks Baz, if you look back through the thread you will sort of be able to see how the headlights go in. They have to be blended into the wing using the old covers, it is not an easy job!

[markh1]

Been very busy over the past week or so! Ridds very kindy spent Friday at mine and helped me get a lot done! All was on track to get it MOT'd Saturday morning but the smaller of the copper power steering pipes decided to piss fluid everywhere and I could not get a replacement on time to get it MOT'd on the weekend. I got a replacement flexible hose from Pirtek for the princely sum of £45 on Monday pm. After sorting a few other minor issues on Monday evening I thought I would be ok for an MOT on Tuesday morning. I set off in the morning and got about 400 yards down the road before the electrics went mental and it cut out. I got it back home and after speaking to Ridds he suggested it might be a dodgy earth. I found an earth lead behind the dash which had not been secured properly so sorted that and set off again. However it broke down again! Same symptoms - engine cutting out and electrics going mental. (it happens when I go over a bump) Thought I sorted it for the second time and then it happened again!

At this stage I admitted defeat and called my recovery (they took 2.5 hours instead of the promised hour!!) I got it recovered down to the classic car workshop in the grounds of Parham House in Pulborough. They are going to do all the geo and corner weighting, solve the electric problem and get it thought the MOT.

I will get more pics up of it in due course

[markh1]

cerdad said:

Do you know the outside diameter of the chassis pipes as i have some to replace ,im told that the outside diameter is metric ,the inside imperial,is this right???

I don't know about the inside diameter but I will measure the outside when I get the car back.

[markh1]

Thanks for the compliments chaps!

Yeah I was not sure what to do with the old bonnet Andy! But in all seriousness I am loathed to take it to the tip but apart from using it as a sledge I don't think there is much that it is good for?? I guess I could hang it from the garage rafters as a momento!

[markh1]

I will happily oblige if I were to be given a set of spiders

[markh1]

I am going to be sticking with the wheels I have for the time being. They look very dark in that picture but they are lighter in the metal.

[markh1]

dirty boy said:

markh1 said:

I am going to be sticking with the wheels I have for the time being. They look very dark in that picture but they are lighter in the metal.

I could lend you a set of Spiders but they'll have no tyres.

Thanks for the offer Clint but I'm not sure how it will look with no tyres

[markh1]

GT4 Baz said:

Are they 17" RL's?

Car looks fabulous mate!

Thanks Baz, yes they are RL17's. Ridds car is pretty much identical to mine apart from the headlights and he has RL18's. Hopefully we will get a picture of the cars together so you can see the difference.

[markh1]

dirty boy said:

markh1 said:

dirty boy said:

markh1 said:

I am going to be sticking with the wheels I have for the time being. They look very dark in that picture but they are lighter in the metal.

I could lend you a set of Spiders but they'll have no tyres.

Thanks for the offer Clint but I'm not sure how it will look with no tyres

Indeed.

How's progress anyway?

Sorry missed this post.

I have not done much on the car over the past few weeks. The main thing that is holding me back is the intermitant electrical fault that causes the car to cut out at random intervals. In the mean time I have painted the rest of the garage floor and built myself a decent workbench out of some scrap wood from some stables that were knocked down over the road, total cost was about a fiver for some coach bolts. Now I don't have to sit on the floor all the time!



I have just about finished retrimming one of the door cards in yellow which I am very pleased with. Will try and get pics up on Monday.

I have also been busy replacing bits on the Omega as I thrashed the pants off it at Millbrook.

[markh1]

They were already on the switches. I guess there were on yours originally but have just worn off. I just quickly looked on TVR Powers site but could not find them on there. I would imagine someone would sell them though.

[markh1]

I finally solved the electrical issue that was causing the car to cut out! I was looking through the photos on this thread and noticed that there was three earth cables on one of the fuel tank bolts but I currently only had two on there! So I put my hand down the back of the fuel tank and found the missing earth cable that was flapping around in the breeze. It was touching the fuel tank but I guess when it went over a bump it lost contact with the tank and cut the car out!

I have retrimmed on of the door cards. The main part was easy however the little bit where the speaker goes was not easy due to the curves and the fact that the alcantara that I am using does not stretch much. It looks best when the door is closed and you look at it from the inside rather than when the door is open against the yellow of the body.

[markh1]

tur8o said:

looking very nice. like the head light covers. did you try them out with the inside body coloured or just black?
very keen to get a carbon dash also. did you buy yours from somewhere or have it made?

I just opted to go straight for black and am pleased with the results it was a bit of a gamble though! I partly wanted the black to match the dark wheels.

I made the carbon dash myself. If you look a couple of pages back you will see how I made it. It was pretty easy to do but the carbon fibres make you itch big time!

[markh1]

Thanks, I had a lot of help from people from PH though! I could not have done it without them!

[markh1]

Well the reason for the size of the bench was that If I made it longer I would have to put the bikes somewhere else and I wanted to keep them there. Also the materials came from an old stable block that was knocked down over the road so the main limiting factor was the length of the old worktop I found in the undergrowth It only cost me the price of the bolts which was pretty good.

[markh1]

I spent some time this weekend doing odd little jobs on the cerb, sorting minor leaks out, adjusting handbrake etc I took it for a blast down the lane and back a couple of times and it drove fantastically! Now I have disconnected the carbon can there is no hesitancy like there was before. The steering is pin sharp but because the lane is very smooth and flat I don't know yet how the suspension feels.

I made some protectors for the chassis out of stainless sheet to try and reduce the road rash. I need to make some for the rear also.





If all goes well I will get an MOT for it this coming weekend!

Edited by markh1 on Monday 19th October 07:59

[markh1]

This weekend I started to do a few odd jobs on the car to get it ready for the spring. I have not really done anything on it over the winter as I had no intention of driving it in this crap weather!

I fired it up and it started first time on the button! However, I noticed quite a large amount of fuel pissing onto the floor by the rear passenger wheel arch. After removing the wheel I discoved that the fuel hose going from pump to the rigid fuel pipe that goes into the car had perished. On further inspection I found that the hose from the filter to the pump had also perished but was not yet leaking.

You can just about see the cracks in this picture...



It proved to be a real bugger to get off as the fitting was quite rusty...



In the end I resorted to pulling it through into the cabin and undoing it from there...




One of the other little problems I have is the headlamps don't work on dipped beam due to one of the wires breaking out of the connecting block...



It may seem like a simple fix but when I poke the wire back in, it does not solve the problem. Any ideas???

I am also in the process of trying to put the plastic 'hand' that divides the airflow for the aircon but I can't for the life of me remember how it goes. Can anyone from the pictures tell me if I have positioned it right?





In this picture you can see two outlets, the plastic covered one and the metal one above. Does the metal one connect to anything or does it just vent into the footwell like that?


s

As I mentioned in a previous post Plasticman and I have fitted some different shock mounts to allow the shocks to move in a more vertical plane of movement...

[markh1]

Hi Alan,
Thanks for that, I thought the 'hand' was sort of right! I think the position will need a bit of fine tuning.
The metal vent is the one by the drivers left knee. it is separate from the plastic vent below. I am guessing that the metal vent is for the hot air and the plastic for the cold air??

How are you getting on with your project?

[markh1]

Hi Rich,

I have only driven it down my lane as it has no MOT so I can't confirm how it rides. However Classic Sports Cars who corner weighted and did all the geo said it handled extremely well but that the ride was quite hard. So I am guessing the springs need to be changed.

Also the new mounting positions now reduce the level of wheel drop quite a bit, i.e. when all four wheels are off the ground the fronts are lower than the front. This is not a problem on Dave's car as he has Nitron's which have longer rear shocks, where as on my Gaz they are the same length front and rear. I presume that this will also mean I will need to change the bump stops as the wheel will now travel higher in the arch??

I think when I have the time I need to take it to someone that is experienced in setting up cerbs and get them to spec proper spring rates and to also maybe get Nitrons's or equivalent to give longer travel.

I am going to try and get it MOT'd in the next couple of weeks and will report back!


Edited to add:

When Dave originally suggested doing the mod he said it would mean the back end would grip more which is also helped by having no rear ARB. I am guessing that the altered mounts will make the ride a little harder so compensate a little for the lack of ARB. From what I can remember, people that have removed the ARB have said the back end is too soft with too much roll without any other suspension mods.

Edited by markh1 on Thursday 4th March 20:24

[markh1]

Rich I have pm'd you.