Sad TVR polishing
Discussion
Time to own up - who is the saddest TVR (or other car) polisher?
I'll start the ball rolling: I started cleaning up the engine bay of my Griff after a mechanic said it was pretty dirty. One thing lead to another and having polished up the alloy swirl tank and rad expansion tank, I moved on to the brake pipes and hydraulic pipes on the power steering which are now shinier than horse brasses in the pub!
Took the car to TVR Power on Monday morning and the chap looked at it and said 'ah - I see you've had new hydraulic pipes on the steering rack'. No, I said, I've just polished them. Very long silence followed by 'you need to get out more'!
In my defence I use the car in all weathers - I just like it clean...
Anyone care to own up to even sadder cleaning antics?
I'll start the ball rolling: I started cleaning up the engine bay of my Griff after a mechanic said it was pretty dirty. One thing lead to another and having polished up the alloy swirl tank and rad expansion tank, I moved on to the brake pipes and hydraulic pipes on the power steering which are now shinier than horse brasses in the pub!
Took the car to TVR Power on Monday morning and the chap looked at it and said 'ah - I see you've had new hydraulic pipes on the steering rack'. No, I said, I've just polished them. Very long silence followed by 'you need to get out more'!
In my defence I use the car in all weathers - I just like it clean...
Anyone care to own up to even sadder cleaning antics?
Andy, do you work in coventry or something, cause you seem to be in the Warwickshire/Coventry area most of the time? I work not far from TVR Power, up towards Bedworth(Bayton Road Ind. Est.). Maybe i'll see you one day. And to answer your sad question, i cleaned the TVR last night, which seems nothing unusual about that, but i only picked it up on Sunday 
,
Who do you speak to at TVR power? Dom?
, Who do you speak to at TVR power? Dom?
I took all the wheels off my Chim and cleaned, painted and polished all the ally and steel bits, when you look through the 17" five spokes you can see all the gubbins, looks great, I use mine every day also so It needs a lot of cleaning, come to think of it I start at one end Saturday and by wednesday I finish at the other, HHMMM better get a life I suppose. Nice shinney exhaust all the way through too. oops, should I admit to that one. Here comes the girlfriend, Im off. BFN
>> Edited by vinny on Thursday 5th September 12:09
>> Edited by vinny on Thursday 5th September 12:09
quote:Haven't done it myself but was thinking about annodizing them black.
One thing lead to another and having polished up the alloy swirl tank and rad expansion tank, I moved on to the brake pipes and hydraulic pipes on the power steering which are now shinier than horse brasses in the pub!
MC
quote:
Andy, do you work in coventry or something, cause you seem to be in the Warwickshire/Coventry area most of the time? I work not far from TVR Power, up towards Bedworth(Bayton Road Ind. Est.). Maybe i'll see you one day. And to answer your sad question, i cleaned the TVR last night, which seems nothing unusual about that, but i only picked it up on Sunday
Who do you speak to at TVR power? Dom?
No - I live near Reading but bought the car from a dealer in Warwick. Had a few problems which I won't go through again here - has meant the car has been back to Warwick a couple of times.
Prince Charming - thanks for asking. Generally ok but after some high rev pinking the latest is the car needs new camshaft. I wasn't entirely comfortable with the dealer doing the work - I preferred the guys who build the engines to do it. Its at TVR Power as I type. Once this, the stepper motor, passenger door lock and the track rod arms are sorted then the car will finally be how it should have been when I bought it.
To be fair to the dealer, they have (eventually) got things sorted, assuming that this week's work is all carried out and paid for, plus I get my cheque for rectification work. It has taken some perseverence though!
I'm dealing with Dom at TVR Power, but I think it was Colin who made the shiney pipes comment.
I polish my exhaust pipes too - but only the bits you can see!
I took all the wheels off to bleed the brakes and ended up de-rusting and repainting the exposed chassis tubes. I then cleaned off all the suspension and polished the insides of the wheels. Suspension springs were black, but turns out they are red at the front and yellow at the back....
So many things to polish, so little time...!
I'll admit to reaching through the gaps in the wheels and cleaning with the sponge the inside rims ... that's because the wheels had been redone before I bought it and so I like to keep them clean. Haven't taken off the wheels yet tho ...
Also the discs were new, so clean the hub etc too. All looks shiny throught the gaps!
Have a clean engine bay but by no means THAT shiny. This'll be a winter job if I can be bothered.
Also the discs were new, so clean the hub etc too. All looks shiny throught the gaps!
Have a clean engine bay but by no means THAT shiny. This'll be a winter job if I can be bothered.
not sure if this will work:
http://community.webshots.com/scrpts/editPhotos.fcgi?action=showMyPhoto&albumID=47413765&photoID=49309882&security=MBSfux
guess not then!
How do I embed a picture from webshots in a post?
>> Edited by griff2be on Thursday 5th September 12:49
>> Edited by griff2be on Thursday 5th September 12:53
>> Edited by griff2be on Thursday 5th September 12:56
http://community.webshots.com/scrpts/editPhotos.fcgi?action=showMyPhoto&albumID=47413765&photoID=49309882&security=MBSfux
guess not then!
How do I embed a picture from webshots in a post?
>> Edited by griff2be on Thursday 5th September 12:49
>> Edited by griff2be on Thursday 5th September 12:53
>> Edited by griff2be on Thursday 5th September 12:56
Funny this should come up today! Just been talking to Peninsula about my car. They'd found a running problem which they traced to the airflow meter, but as they are £300+ and they had a good 2nd hand one in the shop they fitted that for £75. Fine, but you'll need to polish it yourself they said, it's not nearly as shiny as the one thats come off!
Mine isn't "I've manically scrubbed and polished every component so it shines like it was new" type clean. Its just 'clean'. I've gone to town a bit on one or two bits that yield some good results, like the alloy or copper components, but that's about it.
I took the bonnet off to display it at the Berkshire/Reading Motorshow on Sunday. A bonnet-less Griff looks quite cool and it certainly attracted a lot of attention if the grubby hand prints on the nose cone were anything to go by. Also saved the crappy bonnet stay from giving out in the breeze.
I took the bonnet off to display it at the Berkshire/Reading Motorshow on Sunday. A bonnet-less Griff looks quite cool and it certainly attracted a lot of attention if the grubby hand prints on the nose cone were anything to go by. Also saved the crappy bonnet stay from giving out in the breeze.
You’ve all got me going with this talk of engine cleaning! Some of the alloy components in my engine bay look pretty rough - what’s the best gear to use? Also I don’t want the hassle of hosing off engine de-greaser (my TVR has been 100% reliable and it’s sods law I’ll wet the engine bay and toatally fcuk things up), so can you use that stuff carefully and just wipe it off - I was particularly thinking of the rocker covers.
I use Autosol metal polish on the alloy and copper bits to make them shiny. Initially hard work but pretty soon it comes up shining.
I used Halfords engine cleaner for the rest (trigger spray) which is just a de-greaser. Spray on carefully so as not to get it into things which need greasing, or electical components, then wipe off with an ever growing collection of rags.
Toothbrushes, brass (nice and soft!) wire brushes on a Dremel, rags over the end of a screwdriver etc are all useful...
After I got it all pretty clean I just wipe it over now and again with a dry rag. A bit of oil accumulates around the rocker cover tops and smearing this around helps stop corrosion. I don't think a totally degreased engine is a good thing.
I used Halfords engine cleaner for the rest (trigger spray) which is just a de-greaser. Spray on carefully so as not to get it into things which need greasing, or electical components, then wipe off with an ever growing collection of rags.
Toothbrushes, brass (nice and soft!) wire brushes on a Dremel, rags over the end of a screwdriver etc are all useful...
After I got it all pretty clean I just wipe it over now and again with a dry rag. A bit of oil accumulates around the rocker cover tops and smearing this around helps stop corrosion. I don't think a totally degreased engine is a good thing.
'Some of the alloy components in my engine bay look pretty rough - what’s the best gear to use?'
I mostly used Solvol metal polish, but if it's really bad you might need to use 1000-grade wet-and-dry (used wet) first. And plenty of elbow grease...
'Also I don’t want the hassle of hosing off engine de-greaser (my TVR has been 100% reliable and it’s sods law I’ll wet the engine bay and toatally fcuk things up), so can you use that stuff carefully and just wipe it off - I was particularly thinking of the rocker covers.'
I found WD40 to be good degreaser - spray it on and wipe it off with a piece of paper towel. On my rocker covers dirt had got ingrained into the milled parts on the top, so I flatted them down with wet-and-dry then polished them. The other good trick is to turn the jubilee clips round and polish them - easy to do and makes a difference.
I mostly used Solvol metal polish, but if it's really bad you might need to use 1000-grade wet-and-dry (used wet) first. And plenty of elbow grease...
'Also I don’t want the hassle of hosing off engine de-greaser (my TVR has been 100% reliable and it’s sods law I’ll wet the engine bay and toatally fcuk things up), so can you use that stuff carefully and just wipe it off - I was particularly thinking of the rocker covers.'
I found WD40 to be good degreaser - spray it on and wipe it off with a piece of paper towel. On my rocker covers dirt had got ingrained into the milled parts on the top, so I flatted them down with wet-and-dry then polished them. The other good trick is to turn the jubilee clips round and polish them - easy to do and makes a difference.
quote:
I use Autosol metal polish on the alloy and copper bits to make them shiny. Initially hard work but pretty soon it comes up shining.
I used Halfords engine cleaner for the rest (trigger spray) which is just a de-greaser. Spray on carefully so as not to get it into things which need greasing, or electical components, then wipe off with an ever growing collection of rags.
Toothbrushes, brass (nice and soft!) wire brushes on a Dremel, rags over the end of a screwdriver etc are all useful...
After I got it all pretty clean I just wipe it over now and again with a dry rag. A bit of oil accumulates around the rocker cover tops and smearing this around helps stop corrosion. I don't think a totally degreased engine is a good thing.
Cheers! That's me down Halfords tonight then...
quote:
'Some of the alloy components in my engine bay look pretty rough - what’s the best gear to use?'
I mostly used Solvol metal polish, but if it's really bad you might need to use 1000-grade wet-and-dry (used wet) first. And plenty of elbow grease...
'Also I don’t want the hassle of hosing off engine de-greaser (my TVR has been 100% reliable and it’s sods law I’ll wet the engine bay and toatally fcuk things up), so can you use that stuff carefully and just wipe it off - I was particularly thinking of the rocker covers.'
I found WD40 to be good degreaser - spray it on and wipe it off with a piece of paper towel. On my rocker covers dirt had got ingrained into the milled parts on the top, so I flatted them down with wet-and-dry then polished them. The other good trick is to turn the jubilee clips round and polish them - easy to do and makes a difference.
Thanks for the info - much appreciated!
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