Chassis Advise please :)
Discussion
Now that i have decided the S is staying i thought i might as well invest some time and money making it as mint as poss 
So, first thing is going to be to do the chassis, as best i can without taking the body off
Any ideas on the best way of stripping off the hamerite i put on it earlier this year
, thought about a drill with a wire brush attatchment but i think thats gonna take me weeks 
I want to take it as far back to metal as poss!
Any ideas?
So, first thing is going to be to do the chassis, as best i can without taking the body off
Any ideas on the best way of stripping off the hamerite i put on it earlier this year
, thought about a drill with a wire brush attatchment but i think thats gonna take me weeks I want to take it as far back to metal as poss!
Any ideas?
marts1 said:
How involed is taking the body off?
took about a day to prepare and 5 minutes to lift
a loads of patience to paint and clean
www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?t=31524&f=11&h=0
also pictures here
www.tvrcc-northants.co.uk/gallery/
and info here
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/a.bolards/tvr/html/the_body_lift.html
>> Edited by spivvy on Friday 5th December 22:34
I've done this job without taking the body off, but you have to make sure that the chassis is all solid before you go down this road. mine was all sound and therefore worth taking this avenue.
There is only one way to do this job properly and thats to remove all the front suspension, the radiator, all the steering, both the manifolds, and of course before this remove and store the bonnet.
Why the manifolds? cos thats a prime place for rust and you can't get there without removal. You may be lucky and they could be fine, but do check this area!
If you don't have a good tool kit, get one. you don't want to use paint stripper as if you strip it all off you will be there for ever repainting and most of the plastic coating will be ok. get off what you can with a set of wood chissels on all the bad areas and wire brush, on a drill if you can. Any spots of rust must go, and be treated with the best rust killer you can afford.
Suspension and other components removed.
These take a lifetime to clean up. Take the wishbones, after a couple of days of cleaning by hand they were still rusty! So I advise you to take what you can to a sand blaster, and they will look like new when they come back. This also allows you to get on with the chassis which was where you started. The problem is you cannot do the chassis with the bits on it, so you might as well do all the bits as well.
I've done this and it took me 18 months as you will get fed up, yes you will, its a hell of a job. obviuosly the outriggers are important so have a good knock round, and the side runners. most other parts are pretty solid on these cars. If you do not have one, get the bible! you will see all you need in there.
The rear. Well you have to take off the trailing arms to do a proper job here as well. they will need to be sand blasted as other parts you have removed. The bolts on the drive shafts won't come undone unless you are lucky, so be prepared to grind them off.
The fuel tank mounting bracket will have to come off to paint the rear end properly which means dropping the exhaust down at the back, and suporting the fuel tank. not to bad a job.
While you are at it replace the brake pipes, and renew all the bushes if they are worn to tighten up the handling.
Don't be fooled into thinking you can do this in a few weeks, you can't. Its what you find when you are doing it which makes the job go on.
Of course, you could just go in and have it checked at a TVR specialist and let them wax oil everything in site. The question is do you want a BIG project or not?
I'll allways be available, as others for advise!
gadgit.
There is only one way to do this job properly and thats to remove all the front suspension, the radiator, all the steering, both the manifolds, and of course before this remove and store the bonnet.
Why the manifolds? cos thats a prime place for rust and you can't get there without removal. You may be lucky and they could be fine, but do check this area!
If you don't have a good tool kit, get one. you don't want to use paint stripper as if you strip it all off you will be there for ever repainting and most of the plastic coating will be ok. get off what you can with a set of wood chissels on all the bad areas and wire brush, on a drill if you can. Any spots of rust must go, and be treated with the best rust killer you can afford.
Suspension and other components removed.
These take a lifetime to clean up. Take the wishbones, after a couple of days of cleaning by hand they were still rusty! So I advise you to take what you can to a sand blaster, and they will look like new when they come back. This also allows you to get on with the chassis which was where you started. The problem is you cannot do the chassis with the bits on it, so you might as well do all the bits as well.
I've done this and it took me 18 months as you will get fed up, yes you will, its a hell of a job. obviuosly the outriggers are important so have a good knock round, and the side runners. most other parts are pretty solid on these cars. If you do not have one, get the bible! you will see all you need in there.
The rear. Well you have to take off the trailing arms to do a proper job here as well. they will need to be sand blasted as other parts you have removed. The bolts on the drive shafts won't come undone unless you are lucky, so be prepared to grind them off.
The fuel tank mounting bracket will have to come off to paint the rear end properly which means dropping the exhaust down at the back, and suporting the fuel tank. not to bad a job.
While you are at it replace the brake pipes, and renew all the bushes if they are worn to tighten up the handling.
Don't be fooled into thinking you can do this in a few weeks, you can't. Its what you find when you are doing it which makes the job go on.
Of course, you could just go in and have it checked at a TVR specialist and let them wax oil everything in site. The question is do you want a BIG project or not?
I'll allways be available, as others for advise!
gadgit.
The thought of stripping the old paint and using a paint brush sounds hard work to me. I have just finished (well very nearly) rebuilding my Griffith and have had the chassis shotblasted and painted.The primer was a self repairing Zinc powder, and a polyester satin black powder on top.50,000 times better than the factory finish. The idea of the primer is if you should chip the finish with say a stone, it wont allow the ingress of water under the coating, and so wont rust away.Total cost £250, which is worth every penny, I reckon. If your are going to MPH03, you will see it in the flesh. I am so pleased with it that I will be doing the S chassis. (which is the next project,expecting to start just after xmas)The company I used is Spray Blast Fabrications in High Wycombe. If you decide to go down this line, send me an email, and I will talk to you about it.
Mike
Mike
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