Tuscan Challenge Road Car (at the moment) build project

[schimg]

Chuggaboom said:

f you mean the 2 way Ohlins....yes haven't tried to sell them TBH.

So if anyone would like them, they're still available.

That's good then, not for me but I have someone who might be wanting to chat with you....not looking to benefit from this in anyway ....just thought it would be nice to put you both in contact....

I have lost you mobile number ...otherwise I would have contacted you instead of this....

[Chuggaboom]

schimg said:

I have lost you mobile number ...otherwise I would have contacted you instead of this....

OK Cheers P. 07947 072 440

[marsdalebear]

schimg said:

Yes I did mate.....that's brilliant news , Ginny is so pleased..........iWeb are much likely to come and visit you when you take up residence in Barbados than Syston!

Seriously pleased for you both fantastic....just replied to email too......

Thanks for the phone pic, you need to get some up on here mate!
So after buying a Chim, stripping it down to component parts and rebuilding with added bling, buying a rolling wreck of a Wedge, stripping and rebuilding it, buying a Cerb, stripping.......you get the picture, you got bored?
The only difference with the Tuscan is that it came in component form saving you some time!
The big question is, how many more kit cars can you fit into the garages and onto the drive?
More than 3 TVRs is greedy, more than 4 is insanity!
What I find so great is that you are doing the majority yourself rather than farming it out. Respect!

Regarding Barbados, you are welcome any time. We should be settled by August.

[schimg]

See where you are coming from John this project stalled for a while as I was laid up following an operation, thankfully my fiend Karl who lives just over the road kept it moving on and trailered stuff about for me...top bloke images here we go...

The cage


We had to cut it in two...this meant cutting each of the seven joins in the middle...i.e. in the middle of the sleeve...



Luckily I managed to hit the space on most cuts...there were seven sleeves on my cage...



Then angle grind off each of the 14 welds...JR gave me sound advice on how to do this...each of the areas hit with the grinder have been filled and prepped for paint...



The cage and chassis were then sent for shot blasting and hot zinc spray and primer....



then back in the garage...



The roll cage was dropped at the bodyshop for paint...and further modification...

Ginny was s super star painting the zinc coated chassis with silver POR15....two coats of...more in some areas...


Then three coats of smooth white hammerite...brush painted...then flatted back and sprayed with cans...



No seat fixing brackets or seat belt mounts on the chassis at this point...

Edited by schimg on Friday 29th November 00:00

Edited by schimg on Friday 29th November 07:34

[schimg]

So I ordered a load of FIA approved fixings...


Got some metal 3mm sheet this is wide because I do not know for sure where the seat will line up..I want to bolt the seat through the floor...had a fold put in the edge of each sheet for strength and got Rich to weld them in..this was on a Saturday night at 19:00...he had to go to a wedding evening do and did this on the way home from the bodyshop!


Sourced the correct sleeve tubing, had bolt holes drilled and finished correctly for 7 sleeves (plus a spare)...these are sat on the plates for the seats in the picture...





Will probably have to cut the floor to accommodate the seat fixing plates....not a problem I will just re-glass them in..

As a road car I have been advised against 3-way adjustable shocks etc and have gone with a set of two-way adjustable bespoke GAZ units
Wayne (ex Steve Guigiami)has had sight of these new shocks and suggested spring rates that will suit this application...


Darren Dowling had a spare bonnet frame and oil coolers and carbon casings plus top rad bar.......again JR was helpful here in putting me in contact with Darren





After flatting them back and lacquering them they oil cooler casing came up well...a new radiator from Radtec...and some spray paint on the bonnet frame improved looks nicely...still no bonnet brackets yet though....


JR made me a bottom radiator mount fiberglass casing...and proper front ARB brackets with offset hole ....things you's never be aware of..

Used McGils again for a fully adjustable pair of turnbuckle drop-links..painted with POR15 and stirling silver



My ten year old son George helped with the rear suspension..



Plus the three of us worked until midnight one Saturday night trying to get the chassis ready for the NEC...

He even polished the inside rims of the O.Z's..




Ginny and me fitted the diff one Sunday morning whilst listening to Vettel win another gp..AND I managed to get some diff mounts...all cleaned up and painted....
Howard and John came round one night and tightened up the rear hubs...

Then Karl who lives across the road came round....stood back identified the fact that I had the arb upside down...that the front bottom wishbones needed swapping....then we put the wheels on and rolled the chassis out..




And we got her to the NEC Classic Car Show...and flew the DTEC flag...Les Edgar and the new directors of TVR (spent nearly three hours with us) had a good look over it, one of them a chap called Malcolm had some sound advice regarding belt fixings...missed grabbing his email address though doh!



Been at the bodyshop tonight flatting back the passenger door ...thiss was painted last night and will be go through three stages of cutting back the lacquer tomorrow...If we are happy with the colour...we will look at prepping the body...the roll cage will be painted in the morning...this will be the second time it has been painted...the first time was in "spectra-flake" which left a "gritty" touch...spent two nights this week taking off the lacquer coating...oh joy!

This turned into war and peace!

Edited by schimg on Thursday 28th November 23:55

Edited by schimg on Friday 29th November 00:02

Edited by schimg on Friday 29th November 19:42

Edited by schimg on Saturday 30th November 08:30

[450Nick]

Looking great Steve! Yet another fantastic looking car on your drive - you are absolutely mad. Did Les offer any insight as to what he and the new directors are doing, particularly regarding racing..?

[Guillotine]

Going well mate

Looks great

Andy

[Chuggaboom]

schimg said:

As a road car I have been advised against ohlins etc and have gone with a set of two-way adjustable bespoke GAZ units

Really ? Because ???

This reminds me of so many old stories of fitting what type of cam to the A series mini engine.....so much twaddle spoken when they were really just trying to create a market for what was an average product !

I have 2 way Ohlins on the "road going" Cerb and they're excellent....as you'd expect !

[schimg]

Chuggaboom said:

Really ? Because ???

This reminds me of so many old stories of fitting what type of cam to the A series mini engine.....so much twaddle spoken when they were really just trying to create a market for what was an average product !

I have 2 way Ohlins on the "road going" Cerb and they're excellent....as you'd expect !

I guess you are right over two way adjustables.....cos thats what I have fitted Grant!

And perhaps my post regarding shocks isn't that clear ...what I meant was when I was talking of three way adjustables for the road I was advised that they would take more setting up and be ott for a road app....

Not knocking ohlins or nitrons we all know they are good units .....I will keep moving forward with this and see how it drives when it gets to the road.....there will be things that will need tweaking etc...

Thanks for posting hopefully your ohlins will find a new home...all good

[schimg]

450Nick said:

Looking great Steve! Yet another fantastic looking car on your drive - you are absolutely mad. Did Les offer any insight as to what he and the new directors are doing, particularly regarding racing..?

Cheers Nick,

Going picked the cage up from the bodshop last night....looking sweet!

A few of my mates are coming round at 14:00 we are going to drop the body on the chassis...bonnet with Graham Walden now....evan that is a bit wierd ...not like others it has a metal frame/hoop inside the nose section...looks like it possibly had vents and they were glassed in!

Les, Rob and Malcolm spent about 3 hours with us.....they could have just spent a few minutes and moved on but they didn't.....had a few cuppas some biccies and were really interested in the cars on the stand...

..Tim Hoods Sagaris created some interest, the fact the Terry was there on the stand with us also afforded a proper explanation of how they have developed the car....(in fact they are still doing just that....I will probably go over to thier unit later with my. Mate Karl who's 16 year son Ben has asked to help work on the sagaris....Terry and Tim have welcomed him....just brilliant that!, Ben is my son George mate...think George would love to help but he is too young....at the moment)

All three of TVR's directors are obviously real petrolheads and enthusiasts of proper sports cars....we asked loads of the "obvious" questions....and to be honest they answered them v.positively,

Obviously there's a certain etiquette thing that I need to be mindful of, I know they are talking to Tony C chairman of the club so thats good enough from where I am sat......last thing we want to do is compromise stuff that would not be good

But like a few os us that are followers of the brand all I can say is think back 12 months.....who would have thought TVR was back on home soil, talking to us....even responding to requests for shirts sponsorship (never happened before) and take the time to visit our stand....just brill....

Perhaps a stretegy of keeping "your powder dry" not making promises that although well intentioned are not met by conflicting unforeseen issues is probably sound methodolgy...could even start the ball off with a race series......only kidding!

Eitherway positive stuff....

Edited by schimg on Saturday 30th November 09:14

[schimg]

Been a little while since I have updated this thread...still been working away since my last post back in November...I had pretty much committed to the colour when I sprayed up the OZ Split tims (at 44 bolts each...I wouldn't want to take them apart for a colour change!

But still needed to see if my paint man was happy with the quality of paint and needed to see what the colour sat like on a panel...and get some input from mates to see if I was heading the right direction colourwise...this paint is a solid with lots of movement i.e something that can be easily colour matched...a necessity on a project like this where things will need to be adapted as I go...here is the "test" half door...warning flash makes it look blue it is purple!




I prepped the door under the close supervision!.....there are no ripples the finish is like glass....I have not polished this in any way it is "off the gun" I have filled all of the tonneu cover holes in the top of the door...so I have a blank canvas ..

[RetroWheels]

[wadsapple]

looks a good colour to my eyes, get on with it just a heads up .I have a spare tonneau cover if you or anyone else are needing one. I have used another I had to get altered to fit over seats. infact mine is down at the trimmers getting it altered as we speak took it yesterday.

[schimg]

wadsapple said:

looks a good colour to my eyes, get on with it

Funny you should say that Perry, early December we tried fitting the body...the floor and sill section needed cutting away in passenger and driver seat areas..the extra seatbelt points and harness points and seat reinforcement sections were the main problem here...

[URL=http://s188.photobucket.com/user/schimg/media/IMG_4371_zps4d888bdd.jpg.html]

it only took a few pairs of hands...


But we ran out of light and time....so the car sat on a couple of fence posts until I could get hands around again...at least the body was inside the garage now..even if it looked like the only off road Tuscan!



With the body inside the garage I had chance to have a proper look at the carpet that had been fitted




Had a chat with Ginny (my wife) and we have decided to change all of the carpet and re-trim it ourselves using the discarded carpet as a template...



The rear wiring loom was just hanging there and had damage to the wires (it still has the rear plastic sections for the hamburger lights) I took the whole lot out...



I don't think the set up for the steering column is standard....it has this bracer bar that runs accross the bottom of the dash board - I reckon the dash support sits in the roll cage....I don't have this bar...anyone got a spare?


And the cage I have has the brackets...(I reckon the persons who were going to use this body were going to do so without any sort of cage....)



The wiring was attached to it and the steering wheel and column purchased with the car sort of sits in there...I try fitted it



The steering column and wiring loom and ignition key all go together...it is out of a 1.4 metro kensington or knightsbridge!

Many wires have labels attached to them...

I am tempted to retain this though has it has lots of useful stuff on the couple of column stalks...wiper - indicators - dip - main beam - horn - mostly things not normal on a challenge car!.....

I have been spending a fair bit of time going through this loom soldering joints - heat shrinking them before wrapping the loom in self amalgamating tape...then it will go in conduit sleeve...also discovered that there are standard colours for wires functioning different things, using a circuit tester to id feeds etc...

I took the dash out too...


The dashboard support came out next ..





The shell is now bare...



I have also taken off the drivers door



I do not have hinges for the passenger side...they are quite basic...is this normal?



So a couple of questions

1. What is that dashboard bar all about?


2. Does anyone have a couple of those passenger door hinges?

3. Has anyone got a spare dashboard cross bar?
(still need to confirm what the set up is).

4. How do you fir roll cages!

5. Anybody got a rear gearbox mount that attaches to the cross member.. Tim Hood (top bloke!) let me have the bracket bar but we do not have the fixing that goes on the back f the gearbox....bar

6. That flippin steering arm anyone got one!

Thanks for looking

Edited by schimg on Wednesday 12th February 17:28

[wadsapple]

crash bar does what it says helps in a crash roll over type thing. More stiffening and I used mine to hang the steering Colum off it.I have a set of hinges but you have to make a nylon bush for the centre mount hole that goes into the body socket depending on size bolt you are going to use.450 quid special price can't say I blame you with replacing the carpets preety cheap but a really good pattern

[TiffsTuzzy]

Steve,
My steering column is held in place by a bar as shown in the photo. There's a similar bar on the other side (without the steering column mounting. I don't know if this is the standard setup.

.....Rich

[schimg]

TiffsTuzzy said:

Steve,
My steering column is held in place by a bar as shown in the photo. There's a similar bar on the other side (without the steering column mounting. I don't know if this is the standard setup.

.....Rich

Hi Rich,

That makes sense now thank you...

Could do with those bars....still might be able to chop and weld my frame....

Mins has another set of Brackets ....above those for the column....perhaps these are for the "brace" bar that You are talking about Perry?

How long has your car been on the road?

Looks cool mate well done

[schimg]

wadsapple said:

crash bar does what it says helps in a crash roll over type thing. More stiffening and I used mine to hang the steering Colum off it.I have a set of hinges but you have to make a nylon bush for the centre mount hole that goes into the body socket depending on size bolt you are going to use.450 quid special price can't say I blame you with replacing the carpets preety cheap but a really good pattern

I guess as far as c.car carpets go they were cool....edged well enough good trimming in all fairness....don't think I will replace the sound deadening sponge will retain water ....they will make a broil template we will get some half decent black carpet...got a brill trimmer...get them edged in either purple or red......will fit the cage then cut the doors to fit the cage...then make interior door panels ...to wrap the drivers side protection ....then quilt in leather ....prob red or purple thread to match carpet .....

Got a set of white dials to replace odd non tvr ones...

[wadsapple]

trust me you won't have time to look at the clock with rose joints.

[Graham]

schimg said:

TiffsTuzzy said:

Steve,
My steering column is held in place by a bar as shown in the photo. There's a similar bar on the other side (without the steering column mounting. I don't know if this is the standard setup.

.....Rich

Hi Rich,

That makes sense now thank you...

Could do with those bars....still might be able to chop and weld my frame....

Mins has another set of Brackets ....above those for the column....perhaps these are for the "brace" bar that You are talking about Perry?

How long has your car been on the road?

Looks cool mate well done

I'd get some brackets welded to the roll cage and brace the cage with a proper full width dash bar, and also brace the dash bar to the tunnel as your original bar was, and then mount the column off the full width dash bar, much better side impact and stiffer chasssis