Are they all bl**dy rusty?
Discussion
Having decided to carry out an oil change on the 500 today I jacked the car up and decided to remove the offside road wheel.
I have only had the car a couple of weeks and I had noticed some light rust on the chassis but didn't think too much of it, however after removing the road wheel it became evident that a large percentage of the powder coating had come away from both the upper and lower wishbones leaving them very rusty.
Okay, so I should have examined the car more carefully but I have now cleaned up the wishbones and temporarily painted them with Hammerite until the spring when I intend removing them and getting them sandblasted and refinished, I'm sure rebushing them wouldn't do them any harm either. D
So, back to my inital question... Are they all rusty or was I just unlucky?
Finally, anyone know the cost of new wishbones or in fact s/h ones?
thanks
Tim
>>> Edited by TT Tim on Saturday 4th October 13:54
I have only had the car a couple of weeks and I had noticed some light rust on the chassis but didn't think too much of it, however after removing the road wheel it became evident that a large percentage of the powder coating had come away from both the upper and lower wishbones leaving them very rusty.
Okay, so I should have examined the car more carefully but I have now cleaned up the wishbones and temporarily painted them with Hammerite until the spring when I intend removing them and getting them sandblasted and refinished, I'm sure rebushing them wouldn't do them any harm either. D
So, back to my inital question... Are they all rusty or was I just unlucky?
Finally, anyone know the cost of new wishbones or in fact s/h ones?
thanks
Tim
>>> Edited by TT Tim on Saturday 4th October 13:54
I had my 36,000 mile service done yesterday and whilst doing that I had the upper wishbones replaced too. They were looking a little worse for wear, mostly it was just surface rust but there was undoubtedly some of the dreaded tin worm creeping in to the bulk of the metal. Looks like this is one of those "they all do that, sir" moments!!
SiH said:
I had my 36,000 mile service done yesterday and whilst doing that I had the upper wishbones replaced too. They were looking a little worse for wear, mostly it was just surface rust but there was undoubtedly some of the dreaded tin worm creeping in to the bulk of the metal. Looks like this is one of those "they all do that, sir" moments!!
Dare I ask what they charged you for the wishbones?
Tim
Sure, I've got to disappear off out for a little while but when I get back I'll update my profile with the details of the service and the extra work. It's the first service I've had done on the car but check again later and hopefully I'll have put it all on there.
Simon
Monza Red Chim
Simon
Monza Red Chim
Thanks Simon.
As someone said they're not too expensive are they?
www.tvrgear.co.uk lists Upper W/B @ £58.07 and lower @ £106.17. So, worse case scenario it's only £328.48 for both sides.
Anyone know if the w/b come with bushes fitted?
Tim
As someone said they're not too expensive are they?
www.tvrgear.co.uk lists Upper W/B @ £58.07 and lower @ £106.17. So, worse case scenario it's only £328.48 for both sides.
Anyone know if the w/b come with bushes fitted?
Tim
Hi Tim
Funnily enough I had seen your car advertised and thought hmm, I fancy that & then everyone said you've gotta good'n there. And you probably have but still the job list seems ending looking at your posts on here. Mine had it's upper wishbones done at the 36k earlier this year and they were actually holed! And some tosspot had actually just given it an MoT (before I bought it). In the scheme of the whole service that job wasn't an expensive one. Keep at it, it's all very worth while!
Mike
Funnily enough I had seen your car advertised and thought hmm, I fancy that & then everyone said you've gotta good'n there. And you probably have but still the job list seems ending looking at your posts on here. Mine had it's upper wishbones done at the 36k earlier this year and they were actually holed! And some tosspot had actually just given it an MoT (before I bought it). In the scheme of the whole service that job wasn't an expensive one. Keep at it, it's all very worth while!
Mike
Just had mine done at HHC in Harrogate - we were only going to do the bushes but the top arms were a bit worse for wear and as the new arms come with the bushes in them it worked out cheaper to fit new arms at £50ish + VAT than pay labour for them to change out the bushes on the old arms and pay for the new bushes as well. We fitted the Cerbera washers either side of all the bushes too. I had that and all the rear driveshaft boots changed and it came to £574 inc 
Hi again Tim, just done editing my profile thingy, but to save any bother about fishing through the drivel....
At Fernhurst in Surrey the costs were
£49.42 for each upper wishbone.
£150.00 for the labour to replace them.
Bear in mind that doesn't include the dreaded VAT, but as far as I can tell the bushes are all part of the wishbone assembly.
I had all this done at the same time as the 36,000 service and they were looking a bit ropey, difficult to tell whether they were worse than yours or not, but they were pretty much covered in surface rust and in quite a few places the rust had managed to get itself fairly deep into the bulk of the metal. Glad I got them done, more for piece of mind than anything else :-)
At Fernhurst in Surrey the costs were
£49.42 for each upper wishbone.
£150.00 for the labour to replace them.
Bear in mind that doesn't include the dreaded VAT, but as far as I can tell the bushes are all part of the wishbone assembly.
I had all this done at the same time as the 36,000 service and they were looking a bit ropey, difficult to tell whether they were worse than yours or not, but they were pretty much covered in surface rust and in quite a few places the rust had managed to get itself fairly deep into the bulk of the metal. Glad I got them done, more for piece of mind than anything else :-)
Thanks,
I'm a very 'hands-on' type of person, having restored a couple of cars in my time. The TVR really reminded me of the problems I had with my Spitfires front wishbones.
Once I get them sorted, I think I'll take your advaice and a ywarly coating of Waxoil or Dinitrol is on the cards.
Tim
I'm a very 'hands-on' type of person, having restored a couple of cars in my time. The TVR really reminded me of the problems I had with my Spitfires front wishbones.
Once I get them sorted, I think I'll take your advaice and a ywarly coating of Waxoil or Dinitrol is on the cards.
Tim
One bit if advice - Check the wishbones carefully.
They are only a U section and if this is distorted it will weaken the wishbone. Add the effects of rust and it could potentially fail....
It looks like my car had been jacked up on the lower wishbone so the U section was a bit bent and rusty. The consequence was that it buckled during a track day (high tyre side forces). Luckily it just threw me off line and I managed to stay on the black stuff, albeit with lots of toe-out on the drivers side.
If you get new wishbones try and grind off the sharp edges - the coating does not adhere to it and the exposed edge will quickly rust. I added a coat of hammerite and then waxoyl - it doesn't look pretty once road dirt has stuck to it but it does the job.
Dan
They are only a U section and if this is distorted it will weaken the wishbone. Add the effects of rust and it could potentially fail....
It looks like my car had been jacked up on the lower wishbone so the U section was a bit bent and rusty. The consequence was that it buckled during a track day (high tyre side forces). Luckily it just threw me off line and I managed to stay on the black stuff, albeit with lots of toe-out on the drivers side.
If you get new wishbones try and grind off the sharp edges - the coating does not adhere to it and the exposed edge will quickly rust. I added a coat of hammerite and then waxoyl - it doesn't look pretty once road dirt has stuck to it but it does the job.
Dan
Dan M said:
One bit if advice - Check the wishbones carefully.
They are only a U section and if this is distorted it will weaken the wishbone. Add the effects of rust and it could potentially fail....
It looks like my car had been jacked up on the lower wishbone so the U section was a bit bent and rusty.
Dan
Hmm.. don't like the sound of that. I have a similar looking dent on a lower wishbone on my car. I was told they are all like it. Could this be the same thing?
In answer to you question about if they all rust on the chassis, well I am afraid the answer is yes. It is dependant on if the last owner used it year round, drove on gravelly/stoney roads and if it was waxoiled
Mine a 94 model had a fair bit of surface rust on it. The problem is that the powder coating that tvr use is just not man enough for the job IMHO. The trouble is that once the coating gets chipped water can get at the metal and the rust will travel underneath the coating. Then the coating just comes away in you hands. The other problem is near the wield joints, something to do with the fluxes they use in the wielding, this seems to bubble and rupture the coating letting water in.
What I did on the chassis was to use a variety of power tools attached to my drill and dremel to get the rust off. Get rid of any dust on the surface and then apply Kur-rust to get rid of any remaining surface rust. Then coat with red oxide primer. Then topcoat with hammerite (smooth in my case). Once the hammerite has hardened fully and the car was dry I misted waxoil over the chassis and in any nooks and crannies. This should provide a good combination for protection.
I had my car up on stands for a couple of months of weekends and had the exhaust off (modded the exhaust at the same time) so that I could get at all of the chassis and do a really good job. Yours may be better than mine so yours may not need as much work/time.
I hope that this helps
cheers
Alex
Mine a 94 model had a fair bit of surface rust on it. The problem is that the powder coating that tvr use is just not man enough for the job IMHO. The trouble is that once the coating gets chipped water can get at the metal and the rust will travel underneath the coating. Then the coating just comes away in you hands. The other problem is near the wield joints, something to do with the fluxes they use in the wielding, this seems to bubble and rupture the coating letting water in.
What I did on the chassis was to use a variety of power tools attached to my drill and dremel to get the rust off. Get rid of any dust on the surface and then apply Kur-rust to get rid of any remaining surface rust. Then coat with red oxide primer. Then topcoat with hammerite (smooth in my case). Once the hammerite has hardened fully and the car was dry I misted waxoil over the chassis and in any nooks and crannies. This should provide a good combination for protection.
I had my car up on stands for a couple of months of weekends and had the exhaust off (modded the exhaust at the same time) so that I could get at all of the chassis and do a really good job. Yours may be better than mine so yours may not need as much work/time.
I hope that this helps
cheers
Alex
Just painted the whole of my chassis with hammerite and then waxoiled it. They are all rusty, mine is 4 yrs old with 10,000 miles. worth painting so not to need expensive repairs later! luckily my wish bones wasn`t bad scraped all loose paint off and re painted everything i could get too, took me around a week solid work to do!
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