My nightmare... errr restoration thread.

[Brap_Brap]

Today I finally got started on getting the body off of my wedge.
My end goal is for a chassis resto this year, interior resto next year
and paint the following year. I'm not rich enough to do it in one shot.
I just want to get the car drivable then worry about the rest later.
A wedge on the road is worth two in the garage.



Day 1... Engine bay
Bonnet off.
L&R side wiring harnesses (loom?) disconnected.
Clutch/Brake lines disconnected
Oil cooler hoses and rad/heater hoses disconnected,
Ground straps and wires to starter disconnected.
Intake (flapper/filter/hose to pelnum) disconnected.
Fuel lines disconnected.
Speedo cable & reverse light switch disconnected.

Remaining: Steering u-joint.


Up in the air and ready to receive some loving.


O/S loom tied back, copper hard lines tied to block. Nothing left on O/S from body to frame.


N/S loom tied back, all hoses removed or tied back. No connections left.

After getting everyting out of the way and having a better view, the damage I have to fix is
even worse than I first thought.


looking down, N/S, there's a big crack in the upper wishbone mount and it's twisted too.

Things are no better down below...


N/S looking aft, a massive crack and you can see the twist to the member.


N/S looking forward, cracks on this side too... 1 in square tube, 1 in round brace.


I have a feeling getting the body off and back on is going to be the easy part of getting
my blue beast roadworthy again.

Edited by Brap_Brap on Thursday 21st May 05:46

[Brap_Brap]

V8TVR1978 said:

Mike: Do you know about that damage when you talked me into driving your car????? Not nice if you did unless my missus had a bigger insurance policy on me and you knew. Let me know when you are working on the car as I'm in the "HOOD" lots but don't admit that I am.

Wayne/Sherry Leppard.

PS: By the way with this economy I am now semi retarded no retired....

Of course I didn't know about that damage Wayne. As soon as I figured out something went majorly
wrong with the car I took it off the road. I doubt those cracks were more than microscopic when you
drove it. But unlike most cracks that develop slowly over time, I'm sure these flourished overnight
due to the location and stressors of turning and especially braking. There's no bloody way in hell I'd
willingly drive around like that making the end result even worse.

Hood? Geez, why don't you tell everyone I live in the ghetto? (I do)

Insurance policy? You really think highly of yourself if you think I'd write-off my wedge just to kill you.

Edited by Brap_Brap on Friday 22 May 05:59

[Brap_Brap]

Got some more done today and I'm pleased with my efforts.

Things I accomplished today include:
All in-cockpit related stuff, ie: floorpan bolts, sill plate bolts, gearshift, e-brake, bolts from frame to seatbelt etc.
Dropped my petrol tanks from the body... 2 tank straps turned to dust in my hands, the 2 closest to the wheels.
Disconnected o/s petrol tank from filler neck.
Disconnected fuel pump wires
Removed the body to chassis bolts near the boot and near the radiator.

In all I only broke two bolts. The rest were rusty for the most part, but patience, wd-40 and grunting
got the job done.


Remaining: Steering... forgot my darned allen keys at home.

As far as I can tell by squirming around under the car with a light, I think I'm ready for the lift. I can't
see any more connections from chassis to body... just steering left AFAIK.


n/s sill, nice and solid, outriggers on this side are just as good


o/s sill, some surface rust, nothing major... it was solid enough that I couldn't punch holes into it with a center punch and hammer.


Jacked up a little higher in anticipation of blocking up the body and lowering the chassis... more jacking to go


I hated doing this, but I guess to make an omlette you have to break eggs.

Edited by Brap_Brap on Friday 22 May 06:45

[Brap_Brap]

rev-erend said:

We should start running a bookies..

How many bits will brap brap have left over when this is all finished..

O' Ye of little faith! My name isn't Pilo-Wedgebits.

[Brap_Brap]

Waynester said:

Big project!

Take lots of photo's & label everything. Should make putting it back together..easier.

Good luck.

Wherever possible the bolt goes back into the hole, or the nut on the stud. Cuts down on writing so many labels.

[Brap_Brap]

I was only joking Wayne.

[Brap_Brap]

rev-erend said:

Now your in the wedge dog house .. best not show your face at BBWF .. in case pile'o'wedge bits is lookin for ya

ROFL!

@Pilo... implying nothing... I was just being funny... or trying to be... considering what rev-erend said about my left over "wedge bits" when the job's done.

[Brap_Brap]

The progress continues...


[b]I got the car clear of the frame ready for a quick lift.
I blocked the body off of the frame to make sure all was clear,
and that there were no hang-ups, and also for less lifting.
Tomorrow I will lower the frame to mere inches above the floor so
that those helping me with the lift wont have to lift very high.[/b]


[b]Unfortunately jacking the body up was not without consequence.
As you can see the body took some GRP damage in the corner of the
footwell. This is because the upper dimensions of my chassis are
now larger than the body that slipped over it.[/b]


[b]This is the top frame rail, n/s, looking aft, at the upper wishbone mount.
You can easily see where the weld SHOULD be, in relation to the tubular
steel. This spreading of the upper frame rail dimensions is what caused the damage
in the picture above. There was just no way of getting around it.[/b]

All in all it was a productive day. I'm ready for a lift and confident I wont be wasting
any volunteer's time. The car is quite ready for it.

Edited by Brap_Brap on Saturday 23 May 09:06

[Brap_Brap]

Disaster strikes!

I was trying to jack that last f***ing inch and a half that the N/S footwell
was caught on the chassis (see my previous pic-post) when I heard wood crack and
the body decided to go surfing across the garage. There was no stopping it, the body
outweighs me by about a factor of five.


This is how the car is presently sitting.



Luckily the plenum caught and held the front end.


Kiss the O/S outriggers goodbye

Luckily I did not remove the gear shift, but only the knob. It was the gear shift lever
which prevented the body from travelling further to the floor. I may have to replace the
shift linkage now, I'm not sure.

All in all I got EXTREMELY lucky! I've got 8 guys meeting me at the garage tonight to
do some lifting and sort this sh|t3 out.

Edited by Brap_Brap on Sunday 24th May 01:02

[Brap_Brap]

TVRleigh_BBWR said:

Depends on how extreme you want to go,
But if you totaly strip the chassis of everthing inc bushes, then you could get the chassis acid striped.
I wish I did this with mine as it took longer than expected to strip it manually.

I wonder how paint stripper would work? I've been thinking of trying it, along with a wire-wheel attachment
for a grinder to get down to bare steel. I've got lots of time, but little money. If the "hard way" will do as good of a
job, I'm all for it.

[Brap_Brap]

Thanks for the advice.

Well, only 1/2 the people who said they'd show did, but 4 of us did get the body
properly righted again. I've got two engine hoists on loan and a pallet jack. Tomorrow
I'm going to run a couple slings under the wheel arches and lift the body using the engine
hoists, then once it's in the air, roll the chassis out from under it with the pallet jack.

As for the chassis, I've found a local place that rents out a sandblast pit for $50/hr, so given
the cheap cost, I'm not going to take shortcuts.

I'm also ready to order a complete set of new bushes, but given the choices between urethane, poly
and graphite, which is best? The graphite set says it's self lubricating. Has anyone tried them?


The body is nice and safe again. Luckily other than a couple scratches on the bottom, there's no damage at all.

[Brap_Brap]

V8TVR1978 said:

Mike: Sorry about the mishap. Sounds like your not going into the dumps when you have a BooBoo. Do you have a TV in the garage to catch Sunday's races????

Wayne/Sherry Leppard.

No TV, and I haven't owned one for over 10 years. Which races? TVR races? Tuscans?

As for booboo's, I was prepared for pitfalls when I bought the car, just not of my own making.

[Brap_Brap]

I had thought of that (wheels on) but I'm not sure I've got the clearance from the top of the windscreen to the garage door roller rail,
nearby also is the motor of the garage door opener and it hangs about 14 inches from the ceiling. I don't even have 8' ceilings,
they are only 7'9".

I've also got one more problem with rolling the car straight out. There's 2 broken down Datsun 260z's in the way which
at the present time cannot be moved. I've got no keys to unlock the steering on them, hence the sideways pallet jack plan.

As for wedging the doors, I was thinking of using a few carpet scraps in the cracks. I'd seen it done that way in a body
off thread I read here.

[edit] As for the side-crush force of using slings, I figured a 2x4 on top the car between the slings will stop that force.
Of course I'll have to wrap them up in cloth to avoid scratches.

Edited by Brap_Brap on Monday 25th May 15:44

[Brap_Brap]

blaineuk said:

here is the jig i made for my car

That's brilliant. Thanks for sharing that. I might try and save a few bucks
and re-do my outriggers and sills piece by piece that way.


The body came off today without a hitch.



Lifting the front like this with the engine crane seemed to work out very nicely using a nice snug fitting 2 by 6 for added strength.


There seems to be some sort of subframe (for lack of better term) for the rear suspension that bolts onto the chassis. I've got some really nasty cracks in this vicinity.




These are only two of DOZENS of examples of why whoever welded my car should have been offered a blindfold, the customary cigarette, then shot!

My car is inundated with that crappy workmanship. I could teach a jonesing crack-head with a "need a fix shakey hand" to weld better than that after 20 minutes of practice!

Why TVR didn't fire that idiot on the spot I'll never know. It's a pity they didn't.

I've got more horror stories and pictures I could share but I'd just be upsetting myself.

To be continued...

Edited by Brap_Brap on Tuesday 26th May 10:09

[Brap_Brap]

adam quantrill said:

Looks like you're getting on with it! Go over the chassis with a small hammer and tap each tube, to see how it rings. While you have it off you might consider replacing any that sound dull, but weld in a bracer bar parallel before you cut any out - saves using a jig.

Make loads of measurements too - I'm sure some of us can measure up relevant dimensions over this side to help you corroborate your dimensions.

I'm taking it to a frame an alignment shop for my suspension and geometry problems.
I might do the outriggers if time permits, but there's no way in heck I'm trying to
fix this chassis myself. I'll leave it to the pros.

[Brap_Brap]

rev-erend said:

That welding is not TVR original .. my guess is a DIY restoration jobbie..

Anyway - it's 100 times better that Adams welding

I hate to say it as I'm not trying to badmouth TVR, but that's factory. You can tell
that by what's been welded, how far the bead goes, and no evidence of grinding out previous welds.
For example, in the first (top) weld picture, the bead doesn't even run to the corner of the tube,
it stops an 1/8th inch shy, moreover the bead doesn't even turn the corner, so one side is completely
unsealed. This means water can get into the tube and rust them from the inside out. No grinding on the
unsealed side proves it's a factory weld. There's quite a few welds like that which don't even go all
the way around the tube letting in water, and no evidence of grnding out previous welds either.

As for Adam's welding, that's too cold, turn up the juice.

Jonny weggie said:

Very interesting what your doing Mike, like the photo's and the running comments on the subject, will help me later on if i decide to do my frame up and find things like you have that you didn't know was there. PS-- welding's shocking it looks as if John Wayne was practicing his shooting on it.
Good luck on the rest, jonny.

Thanks Jonny, that's why I'm chronicling this adventure.

[Brap_Brap]

TVRleigh_BBWR said:

For those that may not have seen, here's a link to my re-build.
http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

Do you have any vid clips of that car on youtube or whatnot? I read your entire rebuild thread in anticipation
of begining mine. I'd love to go for a ride in that car, being a real race car.

[Brap_Brap]

adam quantrill said:

Brap_Brap said:

These are only two of DOZENS of examples of why whoever welded my car should have been offered a blindfold, the customary cigarette, then shot!

OK fair enough - but the welds have all held, it's the chassis that's cracked through. Therefore they are strong enough ;^)

That's not my point Adam.

Have all the wedges you've owned been used? Imagine the original owner paying 21 thousand quid (inflated to today's money) and getting that quality of workmanship? Would you feel the same way if the guy who hand built your engine couldn't read a torque wrench?

[Brap_Brap]

Not too much really. I'm waiting for the frame guy to stop by after work and give me a quote, and more importantly let me know what I can strip off the car without interefering with his job. IE: can I remove the suspension and give him just the chassis or will he want both? I'm hoping I can remove the wishbones and springs etc so I can start sandblasting some peices.


I've currently got the fuel tanks at my friend's shop and he's going to hot tank them for me. They've got a bit of surface rust near the wheels but nothing major. Tonight I'll be repainting them with engine enamel. My other task for today is getting the rad out. It looks pretty rotten.

[Brap_Brap]

Work progresses albeit slowly. It seems that way anyhow. My laptop died so I don't get to update this thread like I'd like to. I need a computer.

After pulling the engine and getting a better view of what it'll take to restore my steering geometry I decided the frame shop was a rip off, and in my tiv's case I was right. I had it fixed in about 10 minutes, and IMHO, as good as they could have.


The lower wound, ready to be stitched closed. This crack looks much better now than pic of the same earlier in this thread.


I realised that whatever tearing and twisting of the wishbone mount had to have occured via force through this big bolt. It only stood to reason that a perfect realignment must also put its force through that same spot. Given that, I used a tie-down strap to put a twisting force on the wishbone, and thus that bolt.



The strap I used only allows increments in fairly large "clicks", id est, an eigth inch or more minimum, so I gently tweaked the final few millimeters with a hydrolic bottle jack. I had to do it both above and below, but the cracks lined up and closed perfectly.

After twisting things straight I measured from shock tower to shock tower, also diagonally to check if thing were square, spot on end to end, and 1/32nd of an inch out of squsre. 1/32nd of an inch is nothing really.

Savings, $860 sans welding. Better spent powder coating!



Anyone doing a body-off or re-doing headers might also want to check their muffler at the same time. Mine's got cracks at both ends.


Nice shiny parts ready for various coatings. The exhaust headers will be ceramic coated inside and out to reduce under bonnet temperatures as well as longevity. The gas tanks will also be ceramic coated, albeit outside only. The power steering pump and bracket will be powder coated black along with all chassis parts, ie: roll bar etc. etc. The alum alternator bracket and spacer I'll clear coat to keep the shiny polished look.

Edited by Brap_Brap on Friday 12th June 09:15