My patience is taking a hamnering

[wooly350i]

Well my driveway and my garage floor have taken just about enough of every fluid used in a TVR or any car for that matter, Delilah has to go and the sooner the better.
Having spent a day and a bit walking here there and everywhere for the right bits to repair a cheap manufacturer on its ally rad causing a leak we finally fixed it, then the long time leak from the Micky mouse power steering bodge needed fixing properly followed by the leaking exhaust flexy joint and to top that the f00kin fuel pipes at the back that have been getting sandwiched in the trailing arm suspension have started leaking big time, oh plus the little plastic pipe off the fuel accumulator thingy had been butchered with grips and leaking from the bgrip marks, so off comes the rubber fuel pipe and oh no I'm wrong its f00king heater hose and its all shagged. Happy I'm not, pissed off very big time I am and the lad is the one covered in petrol and diff oil so he'll happily punch some lights.
I don't know who's going to be passing the buck about who did what on this pile of poo but one thing is for sure people shouldn't over step their capabilities,
fked off big time, wooly.

[wooly350i]

PS,hope bbwf is going well.

[wooly350i]

Here's the remnants of the 'fuel 'heater hose fitted to Delilah's arse end

[V8 Fettler]

You bought a 30 year old TVR, it's got problems, welcome to my world.

Stop whinging and fix it

[smash]

Helpful All we need now is honestJohn to cut and paste a great big screed from his website for good measure.

Sorry you're having a tough time with it mate - I totally understand you wanting to vent on here (and hopefully get support from fellow owners). I can see it's being a right royal pain in the arse but you seem to have at least grasped the nettle and know what you're doing and it will be sorted. Forecast is good for tomorrow - regroup overnight and see how it all goes in morning.

[Waynester]

I can understand your frustration, that is more than enough to deal with.
Hopefully you sort.. or, perhaps shop for a new Wedge.

[littlewooly]

Not big woolys problem, mine! Only trying to sort a few issues out for it's new owner, I didn't expect to get showered with 20 litres of 95 octane which has wrecked the Tarmac on the new drive! No I won't be shopping for a new wedge, I'm going to buy another old mini!

[prideaux]

I think the lesson is that when you buy a budget sports car of any Mark TVR or whatever that end of the market is often done on a tight budget of mend and make do and buyers at that end of the market no matter what Make need to look carefully.
I am sure that in Marks ownership things where done as best as possible but its an old car and a lot of cars of that age that have never had a full restoration will have many surprises under the skin that wont surface until they break.
Minis just the same although I really do love the Mini as well you cant go wrong there
A

[smash]

^ absolutely this.

Wedges just aren't for you - they are waffley old hectors compared to minis. TBH they're not for me either - I'll be outing mine as fast as I can as soon as it's been sorted and roaded.

Good luck with the mini Now, how about a nice VTEC or Redtop conversion...

[littlewooly]

Mini is going to be a 1293 highly modified, if a turbo or supercharger kit comes along at the right time I could be tempted with regards to Delilah, I'd love to spend a lot of money on her and do a full resto, but my wages and savings won't allow for it, plus I'd rather have a V8, however she has potential to be a very nice wedge for someone.

[smash]

ML Motorsport's engine builder is very good - AC Dodd.

Nothing bigger than 10 inch wheels!

[wooly350i]

V8 Fettler said:

You bought a 30 year old TVR, it's got problems, welcome to my world.

Stop whinging and fix it

Oh Yeh, its fixed but should never have gone there if it had been done properly in the first place, a loosened nut I can cope with but to have stuffed HALF an 'o' ring into the nut in the hope it would tighten it a can't, and an old leaking fuel pipe is understandable but one that's been fitted a matter if months and turns out to be wrong material on petrol is taking the piss and playing with lives, bodging a plastic petrol pipe as well by fking it with grips and leaving a hole in it is beyond my understanding, dont forget I've also got a 24 year old van and another 26 year old wedge and yes they need to be worked on but it gets done safely, I work in people's houses for a living and you can't bodge work coz it'll come back and bite hard plus it'll be expensive.
That fking petrol bodge has cost a lot more than a bit of pipe I'll tell you.


Smash and Wayne, thanks for your understanding, unfortunately this little venture into wedge ownership for my son has put him right off owning another one. I'll end up giving him mine I expect in my Will.

[Toby Tram]

prideaux said:

often done on a tight budget of mend and make do.

A

...and that is part of the reason that Wedge values stay subdued! Which is a shame because it is clear that some of the guys spend a lot of time and money enhancing their cars, restoring their cars and improving on TVR's sometimes wayward engineering.

My view with my Wedge is that the cosmetic stuff can wait and if anything too expensive needs doing mechanically then the car will have to come off the road until I can afford to do it properly. After all, I take my kids out in the car.

.....well either that or the wife and kids will have to go without food for a while.

Adi

[smash]

Well this'll cheer you up - guess which fk wit just managed to cut a brand new ACT smooth bore induction hose too short essentially putting £40 in the shredder!!

[wooly350i]

Toby Tram said:

prideaux said:

often done on a tight budget of mend and make do.

A

...and that is part of the reason that Wedge values stay subdued! Which is a shame because it is clear that some of the guys spend a lot of time and money enhancing their cars, restoring their cars and improving on TVR's sometimes wayward engineering.

My view with my Wedge is that the cosmetic stuff can wait and if anything too expensive needs doing mechanically then the car will have to come off the road until I can afford to do it properly. After all, I take my kids out in the car.

.....well either that or the wife and kids will have to go without food for a while.

Adi

BANG ON,hit the nail smack on ye old head lice!!

[wooly350i]

Our tarmac driveway after the petrol event, the wife is fuming also, there is a stressful storey to getting this drive done a couple of years ago, now gotta get it done again!

[Wedg1e]

I was under the impression that this car had been in the care of several motor trade professionals?
Sounds like someone needs a slap.
Must have been a hell of a leak to dump that much fuel in a short space of time.

[Toby Tram]

Just to add to this story of workmanship!!

As I posted in my UJ Refurb thread I discovered that whoever had last replaced the UJ's on the rear axle put them the wrong way around. They work, but you can't get to the grease nipple to re-grease them. Hence my job of having to replace them!!

I know I shouldn't try to give others work ('cos I know I'm not the man for the job) and I also know that there are quite a number of articles for various Wedge jobs, but it would really help to have a Wedge forum encyclopedia. Perhaps when we have a thread which uncovers and irons out difficult problems the person who undertakes and completes the work to the final accepted standard could write up an article. Even if only with bullet points. I would be happy to do that for the various jobs I am due to complete on mine over the next year or so. The thing is though that we would need someone to post it onto the forum somewhere. That's the bit I can't do.

A.

[wooly350i]

Wedg1e said:

I was under the impression that this car had been in the care of several motor trade professionals?
Sounds like someone needs a slap.
Must have been a hell of a leak to dump that much fuel in a short space of time.

Yes Ian, wrong pipe used and had been getting trapped in the trailung suspension arm, so as the arm went up it was crushing the pipe in several places! The pipe had become very soft and tearable in what would seem to be a very short space of time as we were under the impression this lot had seen fixed in past threads.

[adam quantrill]

Toby Tram said:

Just to add to this story of workmanship!!
I also know that there are quite a number of articles for various Wedge jobs, but it would really help to have a Wedge forum encyclopedia. Perhaps when we have a thread which uncovers and irons out difficult problems the person who undertakes and completes the work to the final accepted standard could write up an article. Even if only with bullet points. I would be happy to do that for the various jobs I am due to complete on mine over the next year or so. The thing is though that we would need someone to post it onto the forum somewhere. That's the bit I can't do.

Yeah I am trying to build up a corpus of threads in the FAQ section "Technical Articles" but they are very much hints and tips rather than the full procedure. I suppose we tend to cover the tricky bits in the posts and assume knowledge of the standard stuff or what is already in the wedge bible or various haynes manuals.

It's in my interest too to do this because if it helps people keep the cars on the road at a reasonable cost then it can only help prices stay level.