People who have had there chassis off.
Discussion
Whilst scraping/painting and everything else in between my chassis today, I was wondering, when you take the body off are there bits of chassis that fair badly that can't be seen without the body off?
Excluding outriggers that we all know die a slow death. I thought it may be either end of the chassis legs that are pushed up against the body, can anyone shed some light on the weak points you found on your chassis?
Excluding outriggers that we all know die a slow death. I thought it may be either end of the chassis legs that are pushed up against the body, can anyone shed some light on the weak points you found on your chassis?
Plenty of weak points.....suffice to say every weld on the chassis has the potential to rot away.TVR never cleaned the chassis after welding so the powder coating on every weld WILL break down eventually.
Heres a few pics of the chassis after i stripped and cleaned all the oil etc off it
Note all the surface rust around EVERY weld where the powder coating has broke down.
Also bare in mind, mine is a 1996 so one of the "better" chassis as stated by others on this forum.
My outriggers were solid, but on close inspection there were a few pin holes. Having seen all the other rust, it was a no brainer to renew the outriggers
and bead blast and paint the chassis.
2nd to last pic is at the rear where the diff would be. This area was covered in oil leaking out the diff.
Without this covering of oil, im sure it would have been a lot worse!
Heres a few pics of the chassis after i stripped and cleaned all the oil etc off it
Note all the surface rust around EVERY weld where the powder coating has broke down.
Also bare in mind, mine is a 1996 so one of the "better" chassis as stated by others on this forum.
My outriggers were solid, but on close inspection there were a few pin holes. Having seen all the other rust, it was a no brainer to renew the outriggers
and bead blast and paint the chassis.
2nd to last pic is at the rear where the diff would be. This area was covered in oil leaking out the diff.
Without this covering of oil, im sure it would have been a lot worse!
Edited by TJC46 on Thursday 15th January 19:32
Unfortunately I'd say this is the beauty of TVR. There isn't really any way to tell until you lift the body and find out. Like the above pics show rust can set in and have its merry way with the chassis. But then the below photos are of my chassis. Its a 2000 W Reg car, so apparently produced during some of the worst times for TVR.
Ok the outriggers weren't too great, but then again not a total disaster either. The worst part was the lower front most cross member (just behind the radiator) but of course that was visible without needing to lift the body. Other than that it was in remarkably good condition. The odd small bit of rust here and there but certainly nothing major. The spots above the manifolds were possibly a bit crispy, but again nicely intact with no major problems. The second pic down is where I started to strip the powdercoat off myself to see how it looked (nice clean metal) and hand sanded a couple of spots to again see what it looked like.
I guess its the luck of the draw really combined with how the car has been looked after and the environment its lived in.
Ok the outriggers weren't too great, but then again not a total disaster either. The worst part was the lower front most cross member (just behind the radiator) but of course that was visible without needing to lift the body. Other than that it was in remarkably good condition. The odd small bit of rust here and there but certainly nothing major. The spots above the manifolds were possibly a bit crispy, but again nicely intact with no major problems. The second pic down is where I started to strip the powdercoat off myself to see how it looked (nice clean metal) and hand sanded a couple of spots to again see what it looked like.
I guess its the luck of the draw really combined with how the car has been looked after and the environment its lived in.
Mine is a 1999 4.0 ltr which I bought in Nov 2013. At the time the previous owner had recently replaced the outriggers, had the chassis black waxoiled and the chassis appeared to me to be sound. During 2014 when doing various jobs underneath the car I noticed that the powder coat (c/w waxoil attached) was flaking off in places, particularly in my case the lower main rails, revealing surface corrosion. Having subsequently read on PH that the later models suffered with poor powder coating and mine certainly was, I decided to bite the bullet and take the body off.
Am I glad that I did!
In some areas the coating was quite sound notably along the two top rails. However the bottom rails, at the lower ends of the diagonal struts and around the diff cage, the coating was bubbling and when scraped just fell off revealing surface rust underneath.
Fortunately after much scraping and digging with a screwdriver the chassis was still solid. It has now been shot blasted, hot zinc sprayed and powder coated and is as good as new (better!). The shot blasting did however reveal some small areas of surface pitting although luckily for me nothing serious. The rebuild is now well under way with lots of new bits being fitted and I have peace of mind knowing everything is good underneath.
In conclusion, my car , was black waxoiled and in appearance looked sound. The reality was something different and had nothing been done then perhaps sooner rather than later major work would have been required.
|http://thumbsnap.com/HE1zwMCs[/url]
[url]
Am I glad that I did!
In some areas the coating was quite sound notably along the two top rails. However the bottom rails, at the lower ends of the diagonal struts and around the diff cage, the coating was bubbling and when scraped just fell off revealing surface rust underneath.
Fortunately after much scraping and digging with a screwdriver the chassis was still solid. It has now been shot blasted, hot zinc sprayed and powder coated and is as good as new (better!). The shot blasting did however reveal some small areas of surface pitting although luckily for me nothing serious. The rebuild is now well under way with lots of new bits being fitted and I have peace of mind knowing everything is good underneath.
In conclusion, my car , was black waxoiled and in appearance looked sound. The reality was something different and had nothing been done then perhaps sooner rather than later major work would have been required.
|http://thumbsnap.com/HE1zwMCs[/url][url]JWzed said:
Mine is a 1999 4.0 ltr which I bought in Nov 2013. At the time the previous owner had recently replaced the outriggers, had the chassis black waxoiled and the chassis appeared to me to be sound. During 2014 when doing various jobs underneath the car I noticed that the powder coat (c/w waxoil attached) was flaking off in places, particularly in my case the lower main rails, revealing surface corrosion. Having subsequently read on PH that the later models suffered with poor powder coating and mine certainly was, I decided to bite the bullet and take the body off.
Am I glad that I did!
In some areas the coating was quite sound notably along the two top rails. However the bottom rails, at the lower ends of the diagonal struts and around the diff cage, the coating was bubbling and when scraped just fell off revealing surface rust underneath.
Fortunately after much scraping and digging with a screwdriver the chassis was still solid. It has now been shot blasted, hot zinc sprayed and powder coated and is as good as new (better!). The shot blasting did however reveal some small areas of surface pitting although luckily for me nothing serious. The rebuild is now well under way with lots of new bits being fitted and I have peace of mind knowing everything is good underneath.
In conclusion, my car , was black waxoiled and in appearance looked sound. The reality was something different and had nothing been done then perhaps sooner rather than later major work would have been required.
|http://thumbsnap.com/HE1zwMCs[/url]
[url]
So really in just a few rebuild posts already we are seeing from cars ranging from 1996 to 2000 all the cars are suffering the Blackpool rot because of poor chassis prep which lead to weak powder coat. I would certainly not buy a chimaera or certainly a griff if the body had not been lifted. l would not pay over 15, 000 plus for a tvr dealership car that has not had abody off rebuild. If our chimaera's are getting this bad what would a griffith chassis look like that commands another 10k and if its an Griff SE £15, 000-20, 000 more !!Am I glad that I did!
In some areas the coating was quite sound notably along the two top rails. However the bottom rails, at the lower ends of the diagonal struts and around the diff cage, the coating was bubbling and when scraped just fell off revealing surface rust underneath.
Fortunately after much scraping and digging with a screwdriver the chassis was still solid. It has now been shot blasted, hot zinc sprayed and powder coated and is as good as new (better!). The shot blasting did however reveal some small areas of surface pitting although luckily for me nothing serious. The rebuild is now well under way with lots of new bits being fitted and I have peace of mind knowing everything is good underneath.
In conclusion, my car , was black waxoiled and in appearance looked sound. The reality was something different and had nothing been done then perhaps sooner rather than later major work would have been required.
|http://thumbsnap.com/HE1zwMCs[/url][url]Edited by portzi on Thursday 15th January 21:40
shake n bake said:
But from the few pictures above there's nothing actually wrong with the chassis' mentioned that an outrigger only job and tidy wouldn't cure?
Most of these area's you can't get to properly with the body on the either bead blast and reweld pitting or get an angle grinder in safely to remove the unwanted rust? And can you guarantee that you haven't missed any part of the chassis with the body on? With the body off its 100% , chassis feel good factor !!!In my opinion the correct way to replace the outriggers is to remove the body both from a making sure its jigged properly and to satisfy yourself the rest is good i had a griff come over from holland a few months ago for outriggers ended up with a new chassis most of the rot you coulnt see plus quite a bit was internal rust hence i use a marine ultrasound to check thickness
John
John
In my opinion the correct way to replace the outriggers is to remove the body both from a making sure its jigged properly and to satisfy yourself the rest is good i had a griff come over from holland a few months ago for outriggers ended up with a new chassis most of the rot you coulnt see plus quite a bit was internal rust hence i use a marine ultrasound to check thickness
John
John
shake n bake said:
But from the few pictures above there's nothing actually wrong with the chassis' mentioned that an outrigger only job and tidy wouldn't cure?
It must be that cup half full thing, because I see alot wrong with them chassis pictures, lots of rust which I think its better to catch it before you need to repair and replace sections of chassis. The rust can be cleaned off but its there eating the steel, just MHO
CHIMV8 said:
Recent body removal on a 1996,chassis turned out to be solid throughout,good sand blast and powder did the job
Peace of mind then mark, some cars have good chassis and some dont, whether its down tot the factory at the time or if a car has been outside all its like, lots of variables on chassis serviceability. Gassing Station | Chimaera | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff