My nightmare... errr restoration thread.

[Wedg1e]

Are you sure that's not my car you have there? My rad and PAS bits look identical

Got an MOT earlier on, Big John wasn't in but his sidekick did the necessaries ... only slightly marred by the coolant header tank splitting (again) and spraying hot water everywhere.

[Brap_Brap]

I still wanted my stainless steel lines, so I did the fakery route. I polished and painted my old fittings, bought a stainless sleeve kit and made these...


Not quite perfect, but nice.


Here's my nasty injector gear versus refurbed by me. I polished the stuff up, and painted the steel parts. I'll replace the bolts with stainless steel.


The injectors were rusty in places so I gave them some loving too. The o-rings I treated with tyre cleaning foam and that made them black and supple again.


I even went so far as to take an eigth inch brass wire brush and polish up the brass hose fitting. It doesn't look perfect, but it does look better than the still grungy one


Afterwards it was time to clean the intake. It was disgusting to look at.


It's not done yet, but all I can say so far is WOW!



It sure looks pretty on the production line.



I'd only polished a quarter of the intake before I was curious to see the final result. IMHO, fabulous.

I also bought some other goodies...


Some new spark plug wires by MSD.


A few condoms for my new wires.


Some plastic conduit to redo my wiring loom.

Unfortunately I discovered a rusted through section of my intake manifold's lower gasket, the section that covers the valley. Then again, better to learn about it now when it's right there exposed to replace.

To be continued...

Edited by Brap_Brap on Monday 29th June 09:51

[Brap_Brap]

The rad shop just called me with their estimate to fix my rad; $440 with "high efficiency fins" as opposed to what? Normal efficiency fins? Is there even such a things as high efficiency fins? Closer spacing maybe?
Am I being scammed?

I also called the shop rebuilding my alt and starter to see how things were going. Apparently the guts for a 45amp LUCASfer can no longer be had new, but the guts for a 75amp model will fit in my casing. The price remains the same, and I get an upgrade.



[edit]Apparently the high efficiency rad core is not a scam after all. It has closer tube spacing which equals more tubes, and more coolant in the rad to cool. It's a bit pricey but it's worth the performance and peace of mind to me.


Option-1:
O.E.M. Type, Tube & Center

Standard automotive core serpentine fin, with in-line tube construction 1/2" tubes on 9/16" centers. Available in normal duty, heavy duty and Desert Cooler®


Option-2:
High Efficiency

High efficiency automotive core utilizing close tube centers. Serpentine fins, with in-line tube construction 1/2" tubes on 3/8" tube centers. Available in normal duty, heavy duty and Desert Cooler®
[/edit]

Edited by Brap_Brap on Monday 29th June 19:22

[adam quantrill]

It deos sound rather expensive, Mike. Why not just get a better/double fan?

[Brap_Brap]

adam quantrill said:

It deos sound rather expensive, Mike. Why not just get a better/double fan?

I don't really have the choice about expense. As the car sat 3 months ago I'd be lucky to sell it as a $3k project to someone. It cost me $21.5k in all to get the car from Jim's driveway to mine, so it would be a huge loss, or a PoS that I couldn't drive and only stare and weep at.

The expense really isn't that bad compared to paying to have it done, and by the time I'm done it'll be worth more than I've put into it. It's just a matter of a lot more elbow grease and less beer.

Long story short, I've got the only known road worthy 390 in the western hemisphere. I'm betting that putting it back to pristine condition and having the full work history on the car plus new paint and leather/carpets/hood could easily see it fetch $40,000 here.

[Wedg1e]

Brap_Brap said:

... could easily see it fetch $40,000 here.

About 12 quid?

[Wedg1e]

Brap_Brap said:

Some plastic conduit to redo my wiring loom.

That stuff's bloody horrible. I used it on places on my car; by the time you get it to follow the route you need it has more gaps than a Microsoft product. You end up taping it every 6 inches to keep it in shape.

Edit: anyway, blue?!. That's as bad as painting your pulleys red...

Edited by Wedg1e on Monday 29th June 23:32

[lewis_sharman]

Wedg1e said:

Brap_Brap said:

Some plastic conduit to redo my wiring loom.

That stuff's bloody horrible. I used it on places on my car; by the time you get it to follow the route you need it has more gaps than a Microsoft product. You end up taping it every 6 inches to keep it in shape.

Edit: anyway, blue?!. That's as bad as painting your pulleys red...

Edited by Wedg1e on Monday 29th June 23:32

Ive got this stuff all over my engine bay, are there any other products to replace it with?

[Comadis]

another comment on the chassis:

some of the welds on my ginetta-chassis from 1990 looked quite identical to the ones on your car!!

so not a TVR-problem, only!!!

[Brap_Brap]

Wedg1e said:

Brap_Brap said:

Some plastic conduit to redo my wiring loom.

That stuff's bloody horrible. I used it on places on my car; by the time you get it to follow the route you need it has more gaps than a Microsoft product. You end up taping it every 6 inches to keep it in shape.

Edit: anyway, blue?!. That's as bad as painting your pulleys red...

Edited by Wedg1e on Monday 29th June 23:32

Considering the car is blue, I've been wondering if it's overkill.

[Brap_Brap]

I went back to work on my intake today, finished the top and started on the bottom. The piping that runs beneath the intake was pretty corroded, but I make things nice.


The underside polished, pipes painted then reassembled. It looks good.

I also managed to buy a new intake gasket today for only $26.

[The Riddler]

Coming along nicely!

[TVRleigh_BBWR]

lewis_sharman said:

Wedg1e said:

Brap_Brap said:

Some plastic conduit to redo my wiring loom.

That stuff's bloody horrible. I used it on places on my car; by the time you get it to follow the route you need it has more gaps than a Microsoft product. You end up taping it every 6 inches to keep it in shape.

Edit: anyway, blue?!. That's as bad as painting your pulleys red...

Edited by Wedg1e on Monday 29th June 23:32

Ive got this stuff all over my engine bay, are there any other products to replace it with?

you could just use spiral wrap. I've got this on the racer. other more expensive option is heat sleeve.

[350Matt]

Excellent job, should all be very pretty once its back together, take extra care when you first add fuel pressure again as those injector hose clips are sods for leaking once they've been disturbed.

also while you've got the intake off I'd say chop 25mm off all the trumpets, for a cheap power boost.

[Brap_Brap]

350Matt said:

also while you've got the intake off I'd say chop 25mm off all the trumpets, for a cheap power boost.

And what's the powerband trade off? Top end? Bottom end? Mid range?


On another note, my headers came back today and they look fabulous, and feel far smoother, almost with a silk like feel to them. I'm really itching for the day I bolt so many clean and shiny parts back together.

I'm still not happy with my intake on the upper side. In the deep recesses there's still a lot of corrosion even the smallest brush wont reach. I know a guy with a glass beading machine though, and I've already spent close to $12k at his shop on the RX-7's I've owned, so I'm pretty confident as a good customer he'll rent it out to me on the cheap.

I'm not quite sure what to do with the valve covers. Original black but in high gloss ceramic? Ceramic satin coat? Something shinier? Just strip the paint and polish them up? Any ideas guys?

Edited by Brap_Brap on Tuesday 30th June 22:05

[adam quantrill]

Polished looks good but then you're polishing eveything else too, maybe you could pick out the detail on the top with black enamel.

[Wedg1e]

I always bead-blast if I want to clean up alloy parts. I used to do the messy switch between 80 grit AlOx and glass beads in my blast cabinet here but now we have glass bead at work I'm spoilt for choice

[rev-erend]

Brap Brap - they look superb.

Sounds like you are more than happy with them..

[350Matt]

Brap_Brap said:

350Matt said:

also while you've got the intake off I'd say chop 25mm off all the trumpets, for a cheap power boost.

And what's the powerband trade off? Top end? Bottom end? Mid range?

The std lengths are tuned for peak power at 5250rpm as most TVR's are fitted with a cam that moves the peak power to 5750-6000rpm then typically you'll pick up quite a bit (8bhp or so)at the top end 5500rpm with only a very minor loss ( 2-3bhp) at 3000rpm.

The gain is compounded by moving the ends of the middle trumpets away from the roof of the plenum which masks them slightly and reduces airflow. Typically the fuelling is rich / coarse enough to cover the extra you'll need.

[TVRleigh_BBWR]

Brap_Brap said:

On another note, my headers came back today and they look fabulous, and feel far smoother, almost with a silk like feel to them. I'm really itching for the day I bolt so many clean and shiny parts back together.

Look very nice, are they mild steel coated ?? if so maybe tempted to do the system on the racer, over the winter.