oh bu66er. I have a hole in the chassis

[z_chromozonehome]

I have a hole in the out rigger behind the near side front wheel near the corner (on top of the place where the body mount is. I only found it when i removed the inner wheel arch. I was planning on painting the whole chassis in POR-15. Having bought the car 1 month ago I am a little bit pi55ed off (private sale). It's in a place that you could not see, or get to when i looked at the car. I don't think the guy who sold it to me knew either, as the inner wing had never been removed.

Is there any thing I can do about it. Will it mean a full body off job. If so how much does this kind of thing cost. There does not seem to be any room to weld on a new bit and as the water is getting in I bet the whole of the out rigger needs replacing. At least the MOT is not until April. Do you guys know who to talk to about this.

I'm going to go and cry now.....

Z

[gadgit]

First thing to realise is that this is quite normal for an S to have this problem, so don't panic!
Get someone else with an S if you know anyone who knows what they are looking at, to check underneath with you to see what the damage is like.

You may be lucky, you said it was the near side, which seems always to be the worst. The other side and the rest of the chassis could well be ok.

However, if its bad, quite a bit of work may be required which will cost! but you will have to do it so except it.

If the work is all around the bottom, the body will not need to come off, as it is possible to lift the body enough to weld the problem away.

Go to a TVR specialist and get a quote when you know what required, and post the details so all us can help you to see if its fair. Remember loads of people on here have had this done so they know the score. there should be others who already will see this post and see where you live to advise you on a nearby reliable specialist.

Don't panic !

gadgit.

[pies]

This thread might offer some help

http://213.52.163.118/gassing/topic.asp?p=1&f=11&t=45885&h=0

Sorry about the problem

[HarryW]

Not that uncommon, you may be fortunate to get access by lifting the body 6" but get a quote.
Don't feel so bad, there are a lot of early Chim and griffs out there that don't even know they have this problem yet, they just haven't looked yet .

Harry

[spivvy]

Richardr had outrigger work done recently at milton keynes for £500+VAT (which is what they quoted me also ) if you do all the prep work and get it to them

i also have holes in the outriggers again not visible when the car was bought ,

i have decided to go with the full body off job with help from a lot of northants tvr members hopefully starting in the next couple of weeks

Another guy in northants also just did his outriggers and did the job with a partial body lift so all is not bad


Note :
(am also using PoR 15 for painting has just finished rear of car )

[HarryW]

Whats this por15 stuff , just about to start the annual scrap and hamerite/waxoil routine myself and was advised that some of the Marine grade prep stuff like Autrol are the mutts nuts before painting bare metal.

Harry

[Pies]

IIRC its the paint used for painting oil rigs in the north sea

Available from Frost but i believe there web site is down somebody may be able to suggest somewhere else

[z_chromozonehome]

Cheers guys,

who is Richardr, I live near Milton Keynes. I don't know of any TVR specialists in the area though.

Z

[z_chromozonehome]

If you guys are in Northants then give me a shout if you need a hand, it would be nice to see what the job is like.

I have a full hoist that is fixed to verticle supports on my garage roof, which I use to crane to engines out of my various Golfs. If you need to borrow it for a bit let me know.

It's not slung from the rafters, but supported on some large verticle timbers that are them selves fixed to the wall to stop horizontal movement. This works great and the hoist was used for my grandads lorry, so it can lift a few pounds.

As my MOT is not due until April and I have a friend who is a welder (MK-Panel Craft) living next door, it may be an intersting winter project on my own car (don't tell the Mrs i said that)

Z

[spivvy]

this is the thread
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?f=11&h=&t=45885

although the number is in london they are based in MK


also POR15 is www.por15.com

will let you know on the body off thing

[tvrgaas]

HarryW said:

Not that uncommon, you may be fortunate to get access by lifting the body 6" but get a quote. Don't feel so bad, there are a lot of early Chim and griffs out there that don't even know they have this problem yet, they just haven't looked yet . Harry

Jack Acres was showing us some pictures last year of a Chimp with the chassis rails under the manifolds in a very very bad way!

[z_chromozone]

It was a bit late last night, so I did not read all of the links. Thanks for the info,

Z.

[RichardR]

Hi Stephen,

Haven't been on PH over the weekend, hence I've just seen your postings. If you've read the previously mentioned thread you'll already know about my recent woes, so I can sympathise with your predicament.

I can't recommend Moore Racing highly enough, and I'd definitely advise that you talk to Richard Moore (01908 368960) ASAP. I did a lot of the body/chassis disconnection work myself but ended up sending the car off with the body still on and they then lifted the body just high enough to get access to the outriggers for welding. If you take that approach it should save some of the fiddly stuff you need to do for a full body off exercise. He charged £500 (excl. VAT) for the work which included lifting the body, cutting out the offending sections of the outriggers on both sides, welding in new tubing, fabricating and welding new body mounts and seatbelts mounts on both sides, and painting and Waxoyling all new parts plus any other areas of the chassis that were showing surface rust. He also charged £80 for trailer collection and delivery, but he's based in MK so I guess you could take care of that yourself. Other companies I'd approach were around the £1200 plus VAT figure, so I was very pleased with the Moore figure, and Richard's a top guy to boot.

When I got the car back, Richard also returned the old sections of outriggers both of which had big holes in the top (see pics on other thread) which weren't visible until the body was lifted, so I'd advise that you assume the worst of get the full job done. At least you'll then know that you've got a sorted chassis that you can keep in good nick with regular Waxoyl applications.

Hope it all works out ok for you.

[z_chromozone]

Thanks Richard,

I will give him a ring when I decide to lay my car up for winter.

Steve.

[lurch]

You have my sympathies. Exactly the same happened to me in May this year, but I had both sides to replace and rear belt mounts. IMHO there are a few options. I've put approximate prices next to them on the basis of my phoning around:

1. Ditch the car. NOT an Option

2. Do it your self. Time consuming but can be done, there is a thread on here somewhere on how to do it. Cost is obviously small, i.e. someone to do the welding, and your time to remove the body.

3. Go to a specialist, have the body jacked up and the offending part replaced. Various specialists quoted me between a grand and 2 grand for this.

4. Have full body off and offending part replaced, costs between 2 grand and three grand, as is very timeconsuming.

Best advice is to shop around, most will give you a general price over the phone, as most specialists have done this before. May be cheaper for you as you have less bits to replace. I got mine done at david geralds TVR, and they did a good job.

Good luck
It is DEFINATELY worth doing.
Sam

[yellabelly]

Couple of more threads to give you some more idea of the work content:

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=11&t=31524

www.taylorcars.co.uk/

Good Luck.

[richarddorman]

dont no if you got this sorted yet but i have dont a full rebuild of my s3 there is a story on here about it somewere and if you are going to do it your self i will advise you if you had have lived in ireland i would have done it for you at the right price the out riggers are made of a CHS or tubbing to you lot it is called ERW tubbing that is inportant as that is what TVR make all there chassis from to be frank it is shit metal and it hold mosture inside and rusteds from the inside out the best thing you can do to them is waxs oil the out riggers and the sup arms the other thing is that tvr use 16G tube i replace it with 14G which is 2mm 16G is 1.5 so not only does it help agenst rust it will stiffen the car as will what to no anymore let me no Richard

[z_chromozone]

Hi Richard,

I don't live in Ireland, but I read all about your resto project.

My MOT is not due until April, so I have plenty of time to sort my car out. I fancy having a go my self, as I have a hoist and most of the gear needed. I also have a friend who is good a welding and has a body shop. If I do it my self I can paint the tank and rest of the chassis at the same time.

I am interested in the grade of steel tubing that you use, although I do not know much about it my self. My friend mentioned Reynolds tubing of different grades and was wondering if TVR use seemless, or not. I have not come across 16 and 14G, but I will see if my welder friend can shed any light.

Thanks,

Steve.

[kev s3]

hi guys not been around much lately. i would recommend por 15,done my entire chassis with this system and the paint itself is rock hard, i used the full treatment on mine, metal ready,three coats of por 15, tie coat primer and then a "cosmetic" top coat of hard automotive paint.bright red all the por stuff is available from frost automotive. only thing is they dont have a top coat in any other colour than black so i had to source this from a paint specialist. the por apart from inhibiting rust also stops rust creep as well.
hope your repairs go well.
cheers

[richarddorman]

when i said 16g i ment the thickness of the tube the tube its self was 38 OD i think i can cheak that for you i just cant remember of hand the reson i no all this is that i am a steel fab/stainless steel fab/sheet metal worker by trade and have build a few chassis from start to finsh