Discussion
Hi all,
Perhaps some of you will remember the fact that I bought my LHD Griff in Holland in March this year, only for it to blow its engine 300 miles later. Since we are going to resurrect it from the dead this winter, I thought it would be nice to bring you up to speed. And besides, I need your help.
It's been 6 months since that fateful day of white smoke, and the engine has not yet returned from England. Lots of things went wrong, but predominantly the reason is that the whole block has been rebuilt, with virtually no original bits left. The final product is almost here - it's now going to be a 5.2L, which should be more free-revving than the 5.3 that was in there, with about the same output of 350bhp, and more reliable (well less reliable would not be possible).
However, since winter is here and I had a mind of respraying the car anyway, I figured I might as well go the whole hog and I've decided to go for a full restoration/customisation. New engine, new exterior, new interior, new car! It will require running in, even... I've already found the guys who will do the body and interior work for me, as they are also going to work on my 1974 Ferrari Boxer project (also starting this winter). It's a fun project for them because they don't work on TVR's often (if ever), and also because I want to customise the car so we'll be creating a new look together.
The exterior colour is decided already: deep dark burgundy, close to black. Metallic. Because the car has a blue hood and blue leather interior, all that goes and it will be a predominantly black leather interior with burgundy carpets and black hood. But I'm unsure of the details and I need to do some designing. Unfortunately I'm abroad for a few weeks and I don't have pics. So here my cry for help:
Does anyone have high-res pics of a 500 interior with Leven appointments? I need pics with as much detail of the interior as possible, close-ups of steering wheel and such are not really useful to me. You can send them to otenbrinke at hotmail dot com. Much appreciated!
It's all going to be ridiculously expensive compared to the value of the car, but to me it is endlessly more satisfying than buying some new piece of plastic like an M3 or GT-R. The aim will be to make this most stunning Griff on the planet, but I'm sure some of you would have something to say about that!
I'll keep you up-to-date with progress in this thread on a regular basis. I'm very excited about this project, I must say. This car is going to be awesome.
Onno
Perhaps some of you will remember the fact that I bought my LHD Griff in Holland in March this year, only for it to blow its engine 300 miles later. Since we are going to resurrect it from the dead this winter, I thought it would be nice to bring you up to speed. And besides, I need your help.
It's been 6 months since that fateful day of white smoke, and the engine has not yet returned from England. Lots of things went wrong, but predominantly the reason is that the whole block has been rebuilt, with virtually no original bits left. The final product is almost here - it's now going to be a 5.2L, which should be more free-revving than the 5.3 that was in there, with about the same output of 350bhp, and more reliable (well less reliable would not be possible).
However, since winter is here and I had a mind of respraying the car anyway, I figured I might as well go the whole hog and I've decided to go for a full restoration/customisation. New engine, new exterior, new interior, new car! It will require running in, even... I've already found the guys who will do the body and interior work for me, as they are also going to work on my 1974 Ferrari Boxer project (also starting this winter). It's a fun project for them because they don't work on TVR's often (if ever), and also because I want to customise the car so we'll be creating a new look together.
The exterior colour is decided already: deep dark burgundy, close to black. Metallic. Because the car has a blue hood and blue leather interior, all that goes and it will be a predominantly black leather interior with burgundy carpets and black hood. But I'm unsure of the details and I need to do some designing. Unfortunately I'm abroad for a few weeks and I don't have pics. So here my cry for help:
Does anyone have high-res pics of a 500 interior with Leven appointments? I need pics with as much detail of the interior as possible, close-ups of steering wheel and such are not really useful to me. You can send them to otenbrinke at hotmail dot com. Much appreciated!
It's all going to be ridiculously expensive compared to the value of the car, but to me it is endlessly more satisfying than buying some new piece of plastic like an M3 or GT-R. The aim will be to make this most stunning Griff on the planet, but I'm sure some of you would have something to say about that!
I'll keep you up-to-date with progress in this thread on a regular basis. I'm very excited about this project, I must say. This car is going to be awesome.
Onno
Hi from Spain (...but I'm italian), I have a LHD Griffith 500 as well, bought her new in '96, maybe the second or third in Italy...I have this car with me, wherever I live.
I can give you only the following advices from my direct experience:
I've swapped in lightweight racing seats, they look well in a Griff, are lighter then the stock and hold much better in sharp bends.
I've dropped the whole top, going to gut the doors, dump its windows with electric motors and ancillaries next week, I've fixed in a round tube chrome rollbar, which I think looks nice with the matt silver color of the car.
Lightweight wheels 18' rear and 17' front to be able to have good rubber choice, I'm painting them matt black next week.
Full decatted, sport exhaust, ACT headers and cherry bomb midmuffler, quadruple end pipes (I know many here get hilarious with the four tail pipes but I like them...).
I've just bout a lightweight hood that should arrive next week, it's going to be matt black.
The Leven alu dash looks better then the wood one,onmy humile opinion. I bought it a couple of years ago.
The car has new Gaz dumpers all round and uprated brakes, it drives lower then stock.
I have a good few of Leven alu pieces, I could make a few pics, when the bloody storm is going on here right now ends up.
Ciao/G
I can give you only the following advices from my direct experience:
I've swapped in lightweight racing seats, they look well in a Griff, are lighter then the stock and hold much better in sharp bends.
I've dropped the whole top, going to gut the doors, dump its windows with electric motors and ancillaries next week, I've fixed in a round tube chrome rollbar, which I think looks nice with the matt silver color of the car.
Lightweight wheels 18' rear and 17' front to be able to have good rubber choice, I'm painting them matt black next week.
Full decatted, sport exhaust, ACT headers and cherry bomb midmuffler, quadruple end pipes (I know many here get hilarious with the four tail pipes but I like them...).
I've just bout a lightweight hood that should arrive next week, it's going to be matt black.
The Leven alu dash looks better then the wood one,onmy humile opinion. I bought it a couple of years ago.
The car has new Gaz dumpers all round and uprated brakes, it drives lower then stock.
I have a good few of Leven alu pieces, I could make a few pics, when the bloody storm is going on here right now ends up.
Ciao/G
Thanks, some great points there. What racing seats have you used? My information is not many fit. Another question: have you managed to get the seat pointing straight ahead? LHD Grifs have their seat normally quite skew, forcing you to sit on the left side bolster. Is it the same for RHD Griffs?
Onno
Onno
Saw the samples for the paint yesterday - I am ecstatic that the guys got the idea in my head realised: dark red metallic but unless the sun shines directly on it, it will look black. The idea is that the red lines and planes will highlight the Griff's beautiful contours.
You can also see the large flake in the paint, which I think matches the Griff's character very well. A bit butch.
My worries concerning the normal seats have been lifted after trying a Griff with Tuscan seats: they're perfect. Now I just need to find some. If anyone has a tip, I'd be most thankful.
Onno
You can also see the large flake in the paint, which I think matches the Griff's character very well. A bit butch.
My worries concerning the normal seats have been lifted after trying a Griff with Tuscan seats: they're perfect. Now I just need to find some. If anyone has a tip, I'd be most thankful.
Onno
Thanks Tavan for the interior pics - got some good ideas from those.
Work has started! So, an update on the project: I've made my decisions on what we will be doing. First, it will be a body-off restoration and I'll have the chassis redone. Then, there will be a stainless steel inlet manifold, and a aluminium radiator. All hoses will be replaced, and all electric cabling too. The fuel and coolant lines will be steel. In short - we'll have a great looking engine bay. I'll have a couple of roll hoops installed, welded ones. The diff will be replaced too. The suggested diff from the dealer was BTR/Hydratrak which seems to be a fine choice. Any comments from you knowledgeable people out there?
For the interior, my ideas are coming together. I'll have all the Leven stuff anodised black. The rings around the gauges, gearknob and handbrake too. The dashboard will be brushed aluminium. The interior will be black leather, and the Tuscan chairs will be red leather and black alcantara for the centre section with a pattern (not quite decided how that will be). Burgundy carpets. Most of the terrible TVR carpeted stuff will be replaced by leather. The inserts in the door will be magnolia/cream, as will be the indented section around the gearlever and handbrake. Socks around gearlever dark red leather. I'm still debating the cream - I think it will brighten up the cabin but I don't want too many colours messing up the look. We'll see.
More good news: the new engine has run on the dyno! It delivered around 330bhp on the flywheel, which for me was a couple (not many) of horses short of what I was expecting from a 5.2L. Anybody out there agree? I don't know if they were still tweaking it or not, and she'll need to run in as well which presumably should free a couple of ponies. Hopefully the engine will arrive in Holland next week.
Onno
Work has started! So, an update on the project: I've made my decisions on what we will be doing. First, it will be a body-off restoration and I'll have the chassis redone. Then, there will be a stainless steel inlet manifold, and a aluminium radiator. All hoses will be replaced, and all electric cabling too. The fuel and coolant lines will be steel. In short - we'll have a great looking engine bay. I'll have a couple of roll hoops installed, welded ones. The diff will be replaced too. The suggested diff from the dealer was BTR/Hydratrak which seems to be a fine choice. Any comments from you knowledgeable people out there?
For the interior, my ideas are coming together. I'll have all the Leven stuff anodised black. The rings around the gauges, gearknob and handbrake too. The dashboard will be brushed aluminium. The interior will be black leather, and the Tuscan chairs will be red leather and black alcantara for the centre section with a pattern (not quite decided how that will be). Burgundy carpets. Most of the terrible TVR carpeted stuff will be replaced by leather. The inserts in the door will be magnolia/cream, as will be the indented section around the gearlever and handbrake. Socks around gearlever dark red leather. I'm still debating the cream - I think it will brighten up the cabin but I don't want too many colours messing up the look. We'll see.
More good news: the new engine has run on the dyno! It delivered around 330bhp on the flywheel, which for me was a couple (not many) of horses short of what I was expecting from a 5.2L. Anybody out there agree? I don't know if they were still tweaking it or not, and she'll need to run in as well which presumably should free a couple of ponies. Hopefully the engine will arrive in Holland next week.
Onno
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