Same old story
Discussion
Serious coincidence, I have just got back from taking my S1.5 for its MOT and I was going to ask all the same questions as the last topic 'End of a beautiful relationship'. Many sympathies Richard, my car has exactly the same problems.
My questions are:
How much are, and where can I get, a pair of rear Trailing arms?
If I decided to go the whole hog and buy a new chassis (£1900 + VAT?) would I get my money back if I sold the car?
The car is a pretty good, bright red S1.5 with 62K on the clock and had a main dealer FSH up until 48K. I reckon it is worth around the £5.5K mark. Would it be feasible to expect to get around £7.5K if it had a new chassis or would I be wiser just removing the body and giving it a damn good repairing, painting and waxing?
Lastly, what could I expect to get for it as it currently is?
PS Cheers for all of you that have contributed to the last topic as it has saved me a load of time trawling for the answers and it has also given me some hope.
My questions are:
How much are, and where can I get, a pair of rear Trailing arms?
If I decided to go the whole hog and buy a new chassis (£1900 + VAT?) would I get my money back if I sold the car?
The car is a pretty good, bright red S1.5 with 62K on the clock and had a main dealer FSH up until 48K. I reckon it is worth around the £5.5K mark. Would it be feasible to expect to get around £7.5K if it had a new chassis or would I be wiser just removing the body and giving it a damn good repairing, painting and waxing?
Lastly, what could I expect to get for it as it currently is?
PS Cheers for all of you that have contributed to the last topic as it has saved me a load of time trawling for the answers and it has also given me some hope.
Hi Steve long time no post, must be serious 
. I see it is just the trailing arms, I've check my wodge of reciepts. Two years ago the car had two new upper front wishbones and the NS trialing arm replaced. The good news was the labour for the trailing arm was £97.60 and the wishbones were £170.80.
The not so good news was all the suspension bits were lumped on the receipt as one item at £385, so how much was for what bit I do not know.
Looking at the silver lining for this cloud, it can't cost anymore than that; I would imagine the fiting is within your DIY skills, just the rear goemetry may not be though, shimming required I believe.
Check the likes of penisula/adrian venn for a quote on the arms you might be suprised
. You may even be able to get the exsisting ones rebuilt once they are off the car by a specialist.
IMHO keep the car well you knew that anyway.
Harry
. I see it is just the trailing arms, I've check my wodge of reciepts. Two years ago the car had two new upper front wishbones and the NS trialing arm replaced. The good news was the labour for the trailing arm was £97.60 and the wishbones were £170.80. The not so good news was all the suspension bits were lumped on the receipt as one item at £385, so how much was for what bit I do not know.
Looking at the silver lining for this cloud, it can't cost anymore than that; I would imagine the fiting is within your DIY skills, just the rear goemetry may not be though, shimming required I believe.
Check the likes of penisula/adrian venn for a quote on the arms you might be suprised
. You may even be able to get the exsisting ones rebuilt once they are off the car by a specialist. IMHO keep the car
well you knew that anyway. Harry
I have had new S3 trailing arms fitted to my S1.
Consider it an essentiasl upgrade if ever you wish to sell your S or as an improvement for a car you wish to keep and cherish.
The benefits to the handling are well worth the expense and make the car more saleable, ie any buyer with knowkledge would want an S1/2 with the S3 trailing arms fitted.
If you plan to keep the car(why not) the benefits to the handling are worth the expense.
Expect to pay approx £500 for a pair of new S3 trailing arms and consider it money well spent.
Use a good independant specialist such as Colin Blower
and the pain of the cost will be worth it.
It is not a simple job and the cars handling is greatly affected by getting the suspension settings right. Merv at Colin Blower of Hinckley knows what is needed and has my recommendation.
When I went for my MOT he had another S2 for trailing arms so this job is now a common occurence.
Mine now handles so much better and I plan to keep it for a few more years yet.
Good luck
Consider it an essentiasl upgrade if ever you wish to sell your S or as an improvement for a car you wish to keep and cherish.
The benefits to the handling are well worth the expense and make the car more saleable, ie any buyer with knowkledge would want an S1/2 with the S3 trailing arms fitted.
If you plan to keep the car(why not) the benefits to the handling are worth the expense.
Expect to pay approx £500 for a pair of new S3 trailing arms and consider it money well spent.
Use a good independant specialist such as Colin Blower
and the pain of the cost will be worth it.
It is not a simple job and the cars handling is greatly affected by getting the suspension settings right. Merv at Colin Blower of Hinckley knows what is needed and has my recommendation.
When I went for my MOT he had another S2 for trailing arms so this job is now a common occurence.
Mine now handles so much better and I plan to keep it for a few more years yet.
Good luck
Hi Steve,
Sorry to hear about your trailing arm problems - it's obviously M.o.T. failure season!
I'm guessing that replacement of the trailing arms doesn't require the body to come off, and Harry's posting seems to bear that out. So it does at least sound like you'd be able to solve your immediate problem without too much (comparatively
) expense.
In terms of buying the trailing arms, I seem to remember reading in the bible yesterday that the S1 trailing arms aren't available but that the S2 arms will fit - not sure how easy these are to source though. I guess you're best off speaking to TVR themselves (very helpful when I've dealt with them) plus Peninsular, Tower View etc.
If you're considering a new chassis, I'm assuming that you've got general chassis corrosion to deal with, although you don't say whether this influenced the M.o.T. failure. I would say that rather than buying a new chassis, you'd be better off going for the full strip down, shot blast, repair and repaint of the existing one, obviously depending on how much is wrong with it. Have you checked out Darren Taylor's site? He's done the full chassis renovation so that might give you some idea. If you lift the body and strip the chassis yourself, I'd imagine that you could get all the necessary work done for under a grand.
If you splashed out for a new chassis, I doubt you'd recoup the cost, although this might depend on how much of the strip/rebuild you did yourself. I'd be surprised if a new chassis would add £2K to the overall value. I think Darren paid around £2K - £2.5K for his S3 as an M.o.T. failure, so that should give you some idea of what you might get without doing the work, although I think his outriggers were very rotten, which obviously requires more remedial work that the trailing arms.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do. Don't forget to keep us informed.
Sorry to hear about your trailing arm problems - it's obviously M.o.T. failure season!
I'm guessing that replacement of the trailing arms doesn't require the body to come off, and Harry's posting seems to bear that out. So it does at least sound like you'd be able to solve your immediate problem without too much (comparatively
) expense. In terms of buying the trailing arms, I seem to remember reading in the bible yesterday that the S1 trailing arms aren't available but that the S2 arms will fit - not sure how easy these are to source though. I guess you're best off speaking to TVR themselves (very helpful when I've dealt with them) plus Peninsular, Tower View etc.
If you're considering a new chassis, I'm assuming that you've got general chassis corrosion to deal with, although you don't say whether this influenced the M.o.T. failure. I would say that rather than buying a new chassis, you'd be better off going for the full strip down, shot blast, repair and repaint of the existing one, obviously depending on how much is wrong with it. Have you checked out Darren Taylor's site? He's done the full chassis renovation so that might give you some idea. If you lift the body and strip the chassis yourself, I'd imagine that you could get all the necessary work done for under a grand.
If you splashed out for a new chassis, I doubt you'd recoup the cost, although this might depend on how much of the strip/rebuild you did yourself. I'd be surprised if a new chassis would add £2K to the overall value. I think Darren paid around £2K - £2.5K for his S3 as an M.o.T. failure, so that should give you some idea of what you might get without doing the work, although I think his outriggers were very rotten, which obviously requires more remedial work that the trailing arms.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do. Don't forget to keep us informed.
Thanks for the advice. I probably didn't make it clear that the corrosion at the end of the outriggers, on both sides, where the 'L' shape plate is welded to the round outrigger section. That has completely gone. The outrigger themselves look like they only has surface rust but I have no doubts that underneath the surface lurks a monster.
I think body off is without a doubt.
I think body off is without a doubt.
Hi Stephen,
Don't know if you read my latest developments, but I had a positive conversation with Richard Moore this evening, during the course of which he mentioned that he reckoned that a full body off chassis refurb would be around £2K (plus VAT), so that could be an option worth you considering (better value than a whole new chassis).
I know he's busy for a while but, depending on your timescales, it could be worth giving him a shout.
I'll be updating my posting as applicable if you want to find out how things develop.
Richard
P.S. Hope you get the wipers sorted.
Don't know if you read my latest developments, but I had a positive conversation with Richard Moore this evening, during the course of which he mentioned that he reckoned that a full body off chassis refurb would be around £2K (plus VAT), so that could be an option worth you considering (better value than a whole new chassis).
I know he's busy for a while but, depending on your timescales, it could be worth giving him a shout.
I'll be updating my posting as applicable if you want to find out how things develop.
Richard
P.S. Hope you get the wipers sorted.
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