Gone and bought one !

[Ptr400J]

Well I have finally gone and bought a 450.
Mate of mine has had a Chimaera for some six years now and I have always admired it everytime he came round to mine.

I am no stranger to rear wheel drive stuff, Gt6 (now sold) , Honda S2000, Jag XK8, TR7 V8 under rebuild, and of course motorcycles! well they are rear wheel drive !!! And brought up on them from very early age!

The 450 is a 1999 S reg, silver, with 61k miles in need of tlc and some. Issues include rough running, chassis issues, blown exhaust headers,leaking rad, boot hinge alignment, bonnet alignment, hot start problem, washwipe problem, rusted headlights, tail light seals, reg plate light problem, dab radio aerial problem, heater heat control not working, wet carpets, mouse smell! .........omg what have I done !!!!

Edited by Ptr400J on Sunday 9th October 09:19

[Ptr400J]

Thanks for encouragement! ,!!

Forgot to mention the roof, should be blue but is green with algae,.! Car has been stood a while.

Have actually had it few weeks but just really getting into it over last week or so.

It is on the road, with an mot, APPPARENTLY!!

[Ptr400J]

Thanks for that, ClassiChimi, I know it will be a while before all jobs are checked off but some of this stuff should be quick :-)

Already sorted the bonnet / boot alignments/ wipers...the easy stuff!

Manifolds are off and new gaskets plus the stainless 3/8th head bolts ready to go, pre cats coming out whilst we are in here !
Those old 9/16ths manifold bolts are barstewards to get out!
Had to cut the back one, offside, off and use a stud extractor and precious plus gas (original!)

Roof scrubbed clean and Renovo under way...

Edited by Ptr400J on Sunday 9th October 14:49

[Ptr400J]

Ha, looks like you should have the "green" roof that I had!

I have already ripped into it so missing early picks but will post some after its first bath!

Can I use photobucket img to post pics or is there a preferred way on this forum? Yes, I know, do a search !!

[Ptr400J]

On arrival after a quick bath externally, it had already been "bathed" internally,everything opened to get the pong out and also to try and dry it out :-)

[Ptr400J]

ianwayne said:

That's an impressive wall of sealant around the brake fluid reservoir. Many of them leak there so that's an interesting 'solution!'

Actually that is a plastic surround albeit with silicone sealing it to the base.. I presume that is not standard then ?

[Ptr400J]

ianwayne said:

Not seen this solution before and I've been using Pistonheads for years. Glad to hear a solution that stops the leaks from there!
The extra cover is a good idea because rainwater normally runs in the bonnet vent and straight onto the edge of the reservoir sealant.

Edited by ianwayne on Monday 10th October 10:35

Must have look see where things line up, the drivers foot well was water logged. .. apparently car had been jet washed before being stored away...that might explain a few things !

[Ptr400J]

On another note what colour trims should be on the door mirrors? Seem to have black on one side and silver on the other, probably a replacement in past..
Did different year cars have different trim mirrors?

[Ptr400J]

davetripletvr said:

Mirrors are normally colour coded, same colour as the car

Thanks for that, need to spray up the black one then !

[Ptr400J]

s p a c e m a n said:

I was expecting worse from the description, looks more presentable than my one

amazing what pictures can cover up ! On the surface it looks reasonable now its cleaned up but there are a lot of issues.

Still, didn't buy it to look at, it was bought to drive and to do that I have to fix a few things!!

Exhaust / headers and injectors sorted now, up and running reasonably well... bit lumpy on tickover, has a Kent 218 cam and vernier on... plus discovered it has Racing Red adjustable shocks all round...

[Ptr400J]

Don said:

Ours is a 98 S plate 450, so very like. Similar milage, too.

It gets everything that goes wrong with it fixed so it is in very usable condition. It's cosmetically a tad ropey by now. The little dings and scratches that come with having been used.

Yes, few bits of paint on this one too, couple of lacquer issues around the boot hinges, boot side.

Usual stone chips on front but least of the worries at the moment !

Pulled off the rear wheels to find the usual cracked / chipped powder coating on the chassis welds.. will sort most of that fairly quickly but front end looks similar.

[Ptr400J]

Finally nailed the hot start problem with the starter motor this afternoon.

Stuck a 30amp fused relay, new small loom too, into the system the other day... re fused it to 10 amp and promptly blew the fuse.... hmm, solenoid seems to be shifting a lot of current... tried a 20 amp and blew that too....

Stripped out starter motor, 3rd time now (!!! exhaust headers, starter strip/internal clean.)
Solenoid seems to be the problem so stripped that too, found the solenoid terminals, internally, burned and corroded.

Nipped up to my local leccy guy and got him to confirm problem and install new terminals on solenoid.

Stuffed it back in, hooked up my new loom/relay.... problem solved and running, as expected, on 10 amp fuse too! :-)

[Ptr400J]

ianwayne]tr400J said:

My car is silver with black mirrors. I quite like them.

One of the visitors to Neil Garner's in 2015 had a Chimaera with the Corrado mirror conversion, black mirrors on a silver car, which looked great.

Very common to see cars with different coloured mirrors to the body these days, the BMW Mini for example.

Interesting, when you say black mirrors, do you mean ALL black or just the front rim? Picture??? :-)

[Ptr400J]

This car has a DAB (JVC) radio in, not working due to windscreen aerial being detached, dancing around like the old seventies dice off the interior mirror!!

Not particularly bothered about a radio, can' hear it above the decatted (pre) and sleeved silencer ! but still it wants fixing. Ordered a replacement aerial of ebygum, genuine JVC at £10.99 delivered, can't complain at that!

Radio should be fixed by the weekend along with crappy wipers / washers !

Reg plate lights arrived from Racetech so should be sorted quickly (passed an MoT, prior to purchase, with one out and the other hanging though?)

Edited by Ptr400J on Tuesday 11th October 17:16

[Ptr400J]

The observant among you will have noticed in the pics, the interior one, that the control stalks and the handbrake are still all Cavalier specials.

Ordered a kit from billyard at £65 ish delivered,( ebygum) stalks x 2, steering wheel adjuster, handbrake handle/knob.

Also now fitted, easy job on the stalks but bit more of a problem with the handbrake as mine is the oval variety with a big release button.

Twenty minutes using a drill cutter and a file, ovaled out the handbrake handle enough to fit (loads of meat to go at!) and despite being sent the small button and email to the supplier produced the correct one in 24 hrs. Excellent service.

Bit more cost effective than a certain supplier!

[Ptr400J]

ianwayne said:

I have seen a thread where a car where just the rims were fake carbon wrapped:



The rims do come off bit they are a very tight fit. mine hav ehte whole mirror shell done:

Ah, I see, the red version is the same setup as mine, but I like the look of those others, is that your car?

[Ptr400J]

ianwayne said:

Yes it's mine. 2000 year reg, a 400. Last year of the 400s I believe. I see on another thread you have an iffy injector. If you want to clean them I used this lot:

http://www.injectortune.co.uk/

Improved running (mine had done over 84k miles) and back in the post within 3 days. £110. Since you;ve the plenum off and fuel rail out already....

Hmm, yes, sore point, had them checked out, 2 completely shot, one in sorry state... shelled out for eight new Lucas injectors. :-)

Might get the other five cleaned, useful spares for someone maybe.

Edited by Ptr400J on Tuesday 11th October 17:55

[Ptr400J]

TR4man said:

Interesting enough I bought a Chimaera 450 over the last few days although mine seems to have led a more pampered and charmed existence. It's a Mk3 with just over 25,000 miles.

That looks a tidy one ! bit further along the production line than mine though! and less miles...

still that means you have plenty of scope for adding a lot more without issue??!!

So that's three silver ones already , mine is supposedly "solent silver" really? is there any way to find out the true colour and also how many cars / silver were produced?

Edited by Ptr400J on Tuesday 11th October 19:30

[Ptr400J]

N7GTX said:

The paint code is a letter and 3 numbers usually but not always - mine is P179 Masalla.

Then look it up in this list: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Solent silver is an Aston Martin colour, usually on DB7s.

Edited by N7GTX on Tuesday 11th October 21:04

Thanks for the info, shoukd the paint code be on the commission plate, or similar, on the car?

Obviously not Solent silver then

[Ptr400J]

N7GTX said:

In the picture the paint code on this car is P422.
Your car could be Solent silver as many have been resprayed so it could be a posh one.[url]

|http://thumbsnap.com/5nBQzDCS[/url]

Well got the code.... R2843.... and apart from a fleeting reference to Solent Silver on the internet there appears to be no listing for it :-(

The TVR paint databases don't list it, TVRpaint.com haven't even got the code on their "rare paints" database.

The PH link also does not list it...........