Kelvinators TVR Tasmin
Discussion
Well, it happened again. Somehow awesome old British cars that need loving find me, and of course who am I to turn them down?
This car has a bit of a weird story, but I guess it adds to the history of it all. It all started when I had the M328i listed on Trademe, back in March, and in amongst all the useless time-wasters asking me dumb questions, I got asked if I wanted to swap the black leather vaders for white leather seats from another M3. Of course this was a no, white leather is one of the worst wearing colours in the E36.
The fellow wasn't done there though, he wanted my seats. The next question he asked on my listing immediately had my ears perk up, and suddenly I was intrigued.
Yes, that's right, a TVR.
After a bit of googling I worked out an 80s TVR would be a Wedge. Not the most loved TVR, but I like them, and any TVR is a good TVR in my books. It's 80s, it's British, how bad can it be?
Of course I was interested, and let him know. Later that night I get a call and discuss the car. Its been off the road for a few years getting some work done at the "local" TVR specialist, in Auckland. Ok, no problem, except the owner is down in Christchurch (about 1000km and a large body of water away from each other, and I'm somewhere in the middle of that). It turns out that he wanted my car, because he was buying a convertible E36 M3, and wanted to swap my black leather into it. He also had thoughts of "Trevors last drive" by flying up to Auckland, picking up the TVR, driving it down to me, swapping to the M3 and for him to continue on his way down south. As I found out later, this would've been a big ask for the TVR.
We discuss the ins and outs, and I'm recommended to contact the specialist and discuss the car.
I give the specialist a call and discuss the car. Apparently it's all sorted, and basically ready to "fly through" a WOF and to hit the road. Its had various work done, including most of the hard work like suspension. He noted it does have an issue starting, which is possibly down to a failed fuel accumulator, but does run and could be driven onto a truck. His description of the car was that its a good solid, tidy car, but may need some carpets as they are a bit worn. I was very interested, but needed photos to see what condition it was in. Ok he said, he will try and sort some for me.
To cut a long story short, I tried for months to get photos of the car, with every reason under the sun for not getting them from the specialist. On the other side of it, the seller of the TVR decided not to buy that M3, and couldn't find one he wanted, so no longer had a need or want for my car. I let him know I was still interested in outright purchasing the car but would need photos. Both him and myself followed up with the specialist, to no avail.
Just before I went on holiday at the end of June, the BMW sold, but I still had no proof of life that the TVR even existed, so just left it hanging whilst I chilled out in the UK (more on that in a later post).
When I returned, I already had a list of cars on Trademe I wanted to look at. I had basically given up on the TVR at this point, as during the month I was away, still no photos had been sent.
I looked at a couple of cars, including an Evo 4 (which I came very close to buying, but the second viewing showed too many issues, and the unmistakable smell of weed inside) and a C55 AMG (nice car, if a bit dull). I wasn't quite set on them, but noticed that the TVR specialists website had been updated, with new photos, and what happened to be dead center in the photos, but a silver Wedge!
Well, there was my proof of life I guess; the car did exist!
I contacted the owner and confirmed the car was still for sale, and then did the stupid thing; making an offer for the car as it sits, without so much as a real photo. Offer was accepted, and a call was made to the specialist to make sure no money was owing, that the car could come with the spare parts, and that it would drive onto the truck.... oh wait, what's that, it suddenly doesn't run but you will "try to get it going"...
I pushed forward anyway, sending my hard-earned money to the seller, and booking my preferred transport, letting him know that the car doesn't run but the specialist will "try" to get it running.
After a long week of waiting, this showed up this morning.
Yes, that's the proper good fella Brent from Classic Towing dropping off yet another project to me. Can't recommend him enough, as even when things go a bit pear shaped, he has it all under control, and he loves weird cars almost as much as I do.
My first question to him was "did it run?" to which he replied with a no, and tightened the winch ready for laying the bed flat. Such a cool truck, it lowers the bed right off onto the ground. This is half way down
Brent pushed the car whilst I jumped in and steered it carefully into the garage. This was harder than you would think, being that it was raining on the outside, and inside of the windscreen, and the wiper didn't work (well, it's not even fitted). We made it safely into the garage though. The brakes work, which is something.
So, what is this weird little thing?
A 1980 TVR Tasmin 280i
It's more or less a Ford Capri in a fibreglass body with tube-frame chassis and some weird and bespoke parts.
Powered by a 2.8l V6 Ford Cologne engine topped with Bosch K-Jetronic mechanical fuel injection, backed by the latest (for the 70s) in Ford 4 speed manual gearbox technology, and driven via the rear wheels through a Jaguar XJS diff with spiffy inboard disc brakes. The pinnacle of technology, and a real parts bin special.
On the plus side it does get some pretty advanced gear for something that is the same age as my green Mini. Independent rear suspension, four wheel disc brakes, fuel injection, electric windows, bonded windscreen and a targa top convertible.
It does have a lot of known quirks though, such as a multitude of wiring issues, a wiring loom that consists of only black wires (seriously), diabolical K-Jet fuel injection, and a dual fuel tank system that is no end of troubles.
Anyway, this car is the 106th Tasmin off the line, and appears to be the 4th DHC (Drop Head Convertible) made (1st was a concept made from a chopped up FHC). Before the DHC was in production, the FHC (Fixed Head Coupe) was the TVR to have. The FHC was soon phased out though and only the DHC survived until the end of production, albeit with some big changes.
Being a very early car, my one has some specific early only "features". The first, and most obvious, is that its a TVR Tasmin, not a TVR 280i. TVR dropped the Tasmin name later on and left the names to just be the displacement of the engine (280i - 2.8 V6, 350i - 3.5 V8 etc).
A couple of other early features are the weird little mirrors hanging off the doors. Later cars changed to pods in front of the side windows, like a normal car. One of my favourite really early features though, has to be the gorgeous Stewart Warner gauges
The later cars got boring, but arguably more readable (and probably reliable), VDO gauges. There is just something about the way the SW gauges are clocked, and the vertical odometer.
So, now that the car has been delivered, how is it? Did i win the blind buying game, or get screwed?
It's not as tidy as described, and it doesn't currently run. The battery was completely dead (to the point my ctek charger won't even detect it), but with a replacement battery the electrics are slowly coming to life again. Unfortunately, it leaks like a sieve and is full of water. I tried to dry as much as I could out, but the dehumidifer will have to do the rest. The roof seals will be the major contributor to this, as they are well buggered. The water ingress is what has ruined the carpet, it's literally rotting away. The boot, once I got it open, wasn't much better, with the lid being full of water and covered in condensation on the inside.
The seats are in good condition, with no obvious rips or tears, as is the rest of the general interior. The wood grain has some cracks, but overall for a car I suspect spent a lot of time sitting outside, its in good shape. Apparently blue velour and vinyl stand the test of time.
Bodywork is very good, with only some stone chips on the front. The rest of the paint appears to be good and will come up well with a polish. The top is also in good condition, with only some damage to the fabric on the removable section, and the rear window is very cloudy. Hopefully, I can polish that out, but it may need replacement.
I don't know how the car is mechanically as it does not run. The previous owner advised (only after I had paid for it) that there is a strong fuel smell from the tanks when sitting, but it drove well otherwise. The fuel in the tanks smells like varnish, but cannot be smelt without opening one of the two fuel caps. I will need to drain this out and throw some new fuel in before trying to start. The starting issues could be a few things, but I will get to that in due course.
One cool thing about TVRs is the convertible roof with a removable targa section. You can either have the roof up, down, or the rear section up but without the targa section, which fits into the boot (roof isn't locked in this photo, so looks a bit baggy)
So that's the TVR. The plan is to get get it running, get a WOF on it and then take it to the British Car Day show in Feb. In between that, just take it out for some top-down Summer cruising. Oh, and keep fixing it. Can't forget that.
This car has a bit of a weird story, but I guess it adds to the history of it all. It all started when I had the M328i listed on Trademe, back in March, and in amongst all the useless time-wasters asking me dumb questions, I got asked if I wanted to swap the black leather vaders for white leather seats from another M3. Of course this was a no, white leather is one of the worst wearing colours in the E36.
The fellow wasn't done there though, he wanted my seats. The next question he asked on my listing immediately had my ears perk up, and suddenly I was intrigued.
Yes, that's right, a TVR.
After a bit of googling I worked out an 80s TVR would be a Wedge. Not the most loved TVR, but I like them, and any TVR is a good TVR in my books. It's 80s, it's British, how bad can it be?
Of course I was interested, and let him know. Later that night I get a call and discuss the car. Its been off the road for a few years getting some work done at the "local" TVR specialist, in Auckland. Ok, no problem, except the owner is down in Christchurch (about 1000km and a large body of water away from each other, and I'm somewhere in the middle of that). It turns out that he wanted my car, because he was buying a convertible E36 M3, and wanted to swap my black leather into it. He also had thoughts of "Trevors last drive" by flying up to Auckland, picking up the TVR, driving it down to me, swapping to the M3 and for him to continue on his way down south. As I found out later, this would've been a big ask for the TVR.
We discuss the ins and outs, and I'm recommended to contact the specialist and discuss the car.
I give the specialist a call and discuss the car. Apparently it's all sorted, and basically ready to "fly through" a WOF and to hit the road. Its had various work done, including most of the hard work like suspension. He noted it does have an issue starting, which is possibly down to a failed fuel accumulator, but does run and could be driven onto a truck. His description of the car was that its a good solid, tidy car, but may need some carpets as they are a bit worn. I was very interested, but needed photos to see what condition it was in. Ok he said, he will try and sort some for me.
To cut a long story short, I tried for months to get photos of the car, with every reason under the sun for not getting them from the specialist. On the other side of it, the seller of the TVR decided not to buy that M3, and couldn't find one he wanted, so no longer had a need or want for my car. I let him know I was still interested in outright purchasing the car but would need photos. Both him and myself followed up with the specialist, to no avail.
Just before I went on holiday at the end of June, the BMW sold, but I still had no proof of life that the TVR even existed, so just left it hanging whilst I chilled out in the UK (more on that in a later post).
When I returned, I already had a list of cars on Trademe I wanted to look at. I had basically given up on the TVR at this point, as during the month I was away, still no photos had been sent.
I looked at a couple of cars, including an Evo 4 (which I came very close to buying, but the second viewing showed too many issues, and the unmistakable smell of weed inside) and a C55 AMG (nice car, if a bit dull). I wasn't quite set on them, but noticed that the TVR specialists website had been updated, with new photos, and what happened to be dead center in the photos, but a silver Wedge!
Well, there was my proof of life I guess; the car did exist!
I contacted the owner and confirmed the car was still for sale, and then did the stupid thing; making an offer for the car as it sits, without so much as a real photo. Offer was accepted, and a call was made to the specialist to make sure no money was owing, that the car could come with the spare parts, and that it would drive onto the truck.... oh wait, what's that, it suddenly doesn't run but you will "try to get it going"...
I pushed forward anyway, sending my hard-earned money to the seller, and booking my preferred transport, letting him know that the car doesn't run but the specialist will "try" to get it running.
After a long week of waiting, this showed up this morning.
Yes, that's the proper good fella Brent from Classic Towing dropping off yet another project to me. Can't recommend him enough, as even when things go a bit pear shaped, he has it all under control, and he loves weird cars almost as much as I do.
My first question to him was "did it run?" to which he replied with a no, and tightened the winch ready for laying the bed flat. Such a cool truck, it lowers the bed right off onto the ground. This is half way down
Brent pushed the car whilst I jumped in and steered it carefully into the garage. This was harder than you would think, being that it was raining on the outside, and inside of the windscreen, and the wiper didn't work (well, it's not even fitted). We made it safely into the garage though. The brakes work, which is something.
So, what is this weird little thing?
A 1980 TVR Tasmin 280i
It's more or less a Ford Capri in a fibreglass body with tube-frame chassis and some weird and bespoke parts.
Powered by a 2.8l V6 Ford Cologne engine topped with Bosch K-Jetronic mechanical fuel injection, backed by the latest (for the 70s) in Ford 4 speed manual gearbox technology, and driven via the rear wheels through a Jaguar XJS diff with spiffy inboard disc brakes. The pinnacle of technology, and a real parts bin special.
On the plus side it does get some pretty advanced gear for something that is the same age as my green Mini. Independent rear suspension, four wheel disc brakes, fuel injection, electric windows, bonded windscreen and a targa top convertible.
It does have a lot of known quirks though, such as a multitude of wiring issues, a wiring loom that consists of only black wires (seriously), diabolical K-Jet fuel injection, and a dual fuel tank system that is no end of troubles.
Anyway, this car is the 106th Tasmin off the line, and appears to be the 4th DHC (Drop Head Convertible) made (1st was a concept made from a chopped up FHC). Before the DHC was in production, the FHC (Fixed Head Coupe) was the TVR to have. The FHC was soon phased out though and only the DHC survived until the end of production, albeit with some big changes.
Being a very early car, my one has some specific early only "features". The first, and most obvious, is that its a TVR Tasmin, not a TVR 280i. TVR dropped the Tasmin name later on and left the names to just be the displacement of the engine (280i - 2.8 V6, 350i - 3.5 V8 etc).
A couple of other early features are the weird little mirrors hanging off the doors. Later cars changed to pods in front of the side windows, like a normal car. One of my favourite really early features though, has to be the gorgeous Stewart Warner gauges
The later cars got boring, but arguably more readable (and probably reliable), VDO gauges. There is just something about the way the SW gauges are clocked, and the vertical odometer.
So, now that the car has been delivered, how is it? Did i win the blind buying game, or get screwed?
It's not as tidy as described, and it doesn't currently run. The battery was completely dead (to the point my ctek charger won't even detect it), but with a replacement battery the electrics are slowly coming to life again. Unfortunately, it leaks like a sieve and is full of water. I tried to dry as much as I could out, but the dehumidifer will have to do the rest. The roof seals will be the major contributor to this, as they are well buggered. The water ingress is what has ruined the carpet, it's literally rotting away. The boot, once I got it open, wasn't much better, with the lid being full of water and covered in condensation on the inside.
The seats are in good condition, with no obvious rips or tears, as is the rest of the general interior. The wood grain has some cracks, but overall for a car I suspect spent a lot of time sitting outside, its in good shape. Apparently blue velour and vinyl stand the test of time.
Bodywork is very good, with only some stone chips on the front. The rest of the paint appears to be good and will come up well with a polish. The top is also in good condition, with only some damage to the fabric on the removable section, and the rear window is very cloudy. Hopefully, I can polish that out, but it may need replacement.
I don't know how the car is mechanically as it does not run. The previous owner advised (only after I had paid for it) that there is a strong fuel smell from the tanks when sitting, but it drove well otherwise. The fuel in the tanks smells like varnish, but cannot be smelt without opening one of the two fuel caps. I will need to drain this out and throw some new fuel in before trying to start. The starting issues could be a few things, but I will get to that in due course.
One cool thing about TVRs is the convertible roof with a removable targa section. You can either have the roof up, down, or the rear section up but without the targa section, which fits into the boot (roof isn't locked in this photo, so looks a bit baggy)
So that's the TVR. The plan is to get get it running, get a WOF on it and then take it to the British Car Day show in Feb. In between that, just take it out for some top-down Summer cruising. Oh, and keep fixing it. Can't forget that.
So I guess this is where we start then.
The first port of call today after having the car delivered was to work out why we had no power. I popped the bonnet, and yes there was a battery. Ok, let's remove the battery and see if I can throw some charge into it.
Ctek says NO. With the charger connected to the battery, nothing. No lights on the charger, and if anything, the charger started acting weird. Guess that's no bueno then. Hope my charger is OK.
A quick trip to Supercheap sorted out a battery for me. There is very little space for a battery, so a bit of digging in the Century Batteries catalogue yielded the biggest battery that would fit the same footprint, an NS60LSMF
Connecting this up showed that we finally had power. The dash warning lights come on with the key, the driver's electric window is working, albeit slowly, and the central locking works. Strangely the headlights did not respond to the switch, but some wiggling of the wires behind the switch sorted that out (yeah, I'll need to look into that).
The next obvious step was to see what was up with the fuel tanks. Now that I had power I could see the fuel gauge was reading empty. I decided to take a risk and try dumping some of BPs finest 98 and injector cleaner into the tanks and see what happens. I split the fuel and cleaner between the two tanks as evenly as I could.
Since I had been told it was possible the accumulator had failed, there is a trick to work around this and still have the car start and run normally. The accumulator works to hold fuel pressure in the lines when the engine is off, but when it fails the lines no longer have pressure, and the fuel pump only runs when the engine is turning, so it takes ages to build that pressure back up.
The trick to work around this is to have the pump run when the key is turned to ON so it primes the lines. The simplest way on early cars like mine is to disconnect one connector from the side of the fuel distribution unit. This causes the pump to run when the key is on. Easy. Its the blue connector in the top photo, and the green plug goes onto it (strangely... why arent they matched colours?)
I connected the battery and turned the key. Sure enough, I heard the familiar whine of a pump turning, and then the woosh of fuel heading down the lines into the fuel distributor.
Now it was the moment of truth. I turned the key, and the engine turned smoothly over. It spluttered a couple of times, but wouldn't start. What a tease.
Eventually, this happened.
http://youtu.be/Sg8Qz8bN3Xk
It was rough, but running, and even idling. I ran it for a while, and everything looked good. No obvious signs of leaks, but blimey does it make a noise!
The longer I ran it, the smoother it was getting
http://youtu.be/Rvn72D3ShaI
I checked and it seems to have gears, and a clutch, so that's a big win.
It still hesitates a bit, but that's to be expected for an engine that has been sitting around. I'll take the plugs out and give them a clean (or replace), and check the cap and rotor condition. If everything looks OK, it may even be time for a quick run around the block.
One must wonder though; if I can get it running with little effort, why couldn't the "specialist" have it running for the truck? Oh well, best not to dwell on it I guess.
The first port of call today after having the car delivered was to work out why we had no power. I popped the bonnet, and yes there was a battery. Ok, let's remove the battery and see if I can throw some charge into it.
Ctek says NO. With the charger connected to the battery, nothing. No lights on the charger, and if anything, the charger started acting weird. Guess that's no bueno then. Hope my charger is OK.
A quick trip to Supercheap sorted out a battery for me. There is very little space for a battery, so a bit of digging in the Century Batteries catalogue yielded the biggest battery that would fit the same footprint, an NS60LSMF
Connecting this up showed that we finally had power. The dash warning lights come on with the key, the driver's electric window is working, albeit slowly, and the central locking works. Strangely the headlights did not respond to the switch, but some wiggling of the wires behind the switch sorted that out (yeah, I'll need to look into that).
The next obvious step was to see what was up with the fuel tanks. Now that I had power I could see the fuel gauge was reading empty. I decided to take a risk and try dumping some of BPs finest 98 and injector cleaner into the tanks and see what happens. I split the fuel and cleaner between the two tanks as evenly as I could.
Since I had been told it was possible the accumulator had failed, there is a trick to work around this and still have the car start and run normally. The accumulator works to hold fuel pressure in the lines when the engine is off, but when it fails the lines no longer have pressure, and the fuel pump only runs when the engine is turning, so it takes ages to build that pressure back up.
The trick to work around this is to have the pump run when the key is turned to ON so it primes the lines. The simplest way on early cars like mine is to disconnect one connector from the side of the fuel distribution unit. This causes the pump to run when the key is on. Easy. Its the blue connector in the top photo, and the green plug goes onto it (strangely... why arent they matched colours?)
I connected the battery and turned the key. Sure enough, I heard the familiar whine of a pump turning, and then the woosh of fuel heading down the lines into the fuel distributor.
Now it was the moment of truth. I turned the key, and the engine turned smoothly over. It spluttered a couple of times, but wouldn't start. What a tease.
Eventually, this happened.
http://youtu.be/Sg8Qz8bN3Xk
It was rough, but running, and even idling. I ran it for a while, and everything looked good. No obvious signs of leaks, but blimey does it make a noise!
The longer I ran it, the smoother it was getting
http://youtu.be/Rvn72D3ShaI
I checked and it seems to have gears, and a clutch, so that's a big win.
It still hesitates a bit, but that's to be expected for an engine that has been sitting around. I'll take the plugs out and give them a clean (or replace), and check the cap and rotor condition. If everything looks OK, it may even be time for a quick run around the block.
One must wonder though; if I can get it running with little effort, why couldn't the "specialist" have it running for the truck? Oh well, best not to dwell on it I guess.
Not one to let a nasty cold get in the way of progress, I did some more work on the TVR today.
The first course of action for the day was to see how the car starts. After a couple of splutters and a bit of cranking (much less than yesterday), it fired into life. Not perfect, but better.
I couldn't help myself and had to take it for a quick run down the road and back. This uncovered a couple of things. One, the steering wheel is WAY off centre (which I didn't know whilst trying to back up my driveway), and the brakes pulsate a lot. Hopefully, an alignment will sort the steering issue, and some hard braking might clear the brakes as I suspect they are covered in rust/dirt.
On the plus side, it did go down the road in one piece. I didn't get out of first gear (very short road), but the clutch seems to work well. Its too wet outside to go further, with no wiper, and a very un-weatherproof roof.
When I returned from my maiden voyage I wanted to have a look at the plugs. I only removed one, but that was enough for me.
They don't look that old, but very black. Not wet which is good. According to my records, they are the wrong heat range and should be BPR5ES
I'll grab some new plugs and swap them out. Hopefully, that sorts some of the niggles when starting and running.
Not to be deterred, I pushed on with some other little jobs. First was to upgrade the radio to work with my phone, and crank some Spotify. It was a quick and easy upgrade.
Aww yeah, A cassette adaptor I had kicking around for years (see, hoarding works!). Actually works surprisingly well and doesn't sound terrible. All speakers work, and the flash EQ works a treat
This can stay for a bit. Does what I need it to do, although I need to work out how to get the antenna up so I can get FM stations too. It's not like I really need music though, the engine is music enough.
With that success, I moved onto the next thing on my list. The dodgy headlight switch. Two things bothered me about it. First, the wiring was dodgy enough to need wiggling to work, and second, the switch was upside down. The icon was on the bottom, and the switch was up for off and down for on.
The switch pulls out the front once the connector is removed, but there is also a white plastic sleeve that pushes off. The sleeve is to illuminate the icon via fibre optic cable, but mine isn't currently working.
The reason for the wiring being a bit dodgy was that the connector has obviously suffered some high resistance and the plug housing is damaged, allowing the terminal to float freely
I pushed it firmly into the connector on refitting, but I may need to close the terminal a bit to make it a tighter fit. I also need to look into using some relays to re-wire the headlights directly and take the load off the switch.
The switch its self had some minor corrosion on the terminals, but nothing a quick scrape with the screwdriver couldn't sort
And refitted the correct way around. Down for off, up for pop-ups UP.
The next thing that bugged me was the interior light switch... which seemed to be missing everything but the surround. The interior lights didn't work.
I removed the surround and found the guts of the exploded switch had been pushed down into the center console. I carefully fished the switch block and connector out. The rest of the springs etc are stuck down there and can stay there until the console has to be removed
You can see a good example of the black wiring in this car. Each wire is black, but does have a coloured collar at each end to identify it. Its not actually that bad to work with, but coloured wires are still preferred.
Using the handy diagram I checked which terminals did what on the switch
Obviously the two bottom ones are a joint +12, and the two other terminals are either "door open" or "on" settings (grounds to turn light on). I tried bridging them with wire and got nothing from the lights. I popped one of the lights out to check the bulb (there was one, it's removed in photo)
The bulb looked good, so out comes the multimeter. No power at the light when the switch terminals are bridged. No power at the switch +12 terminals. Hmmm.
Ok, what's upstream of the switch? The fuse. I had checked the fuses visually yesterday and they all look good, but something was obviously up. Interestingly I note that fuse 6, which powers the interior lights, also powers the hazard lights, which also are not working.
Interesting.
This is the fuse and relay box. Lovely.
Fuse 6 is the red one about halfway down. It wasn't blown, and the multimeter said I had power on each side of the fuse. The power comes into the fuse on the RH side of the photo and out on the LH side, through the fuse. I disconnected the wiring, removed the fuse, and cleaned everything up. There was some corrosion in the terminal, and everything is very dirty.
The result was this
Hazard lights! A handy thing to have on a British car.
Which also means, I now have power to the interior light switch.
I popped an LED bulb into the holder, and bridged the terminal
Ooooooh, light.
Only one was working, so I jumped onto the passengers' side, popped the light out, and found that the wire hanging under the dash was from that light.
I popped another LED bulb in that one, reconnected it and BAM, let there be light!
Because the switch was buggered, and there was no point in finding another. It only operates these two "knee" lights, so when am I ever going to need to set them to "on", and they are LED so no point in turning them "off" when they turn off when the doors are shut anyway.
I decided to bridge the terminals and leave it. I made up a jumper, using a pair of specially modified (squished in a vice until they fit) bullet terminals and some wire.
To make it pretty, durable, and safe, I wrapped the lot in tape and then stuffed it into the center console
TVR-Parts still sell the switch blanks, so I'll grab one of those and replace the interior light hole with one of those
Unfortunately it wasn't all quite straight forward. The door switches weren't quite playing ball. The passengers side wasn't hitting the pad on the door correctly so wouldn't trigger the lights to turn off when shut, and it turns out the drivers side one had been unplugged. I swapped that over, so the passengers side is unplugged, and the drivers is now plugged in and working correctly.
So, I now have sweet interior lights, and working hazard lights. Isn't it inviting?
Love the warm white LEDs. Much better than the usual cold white, or incandescent bulbs. Also puts a lot less strain on the wiring and battery.
Its small things, but in the world of British cars, it's a big victory to have things working.
The first course of action for the day was to see how the car starts. After a couple of splutters and a bit of cranking (much less than yesterday), it fired into life. Not perfect, but better.
I couldn't help myself and had to take it for a quick run down the road and back. This uncovered a couple of things. One, the steering wheel is WAY off centre (which I didn't know whilst trying to back up my driveway), and the brakes pulsate a lot. Hopefully, an alignment will sort the steering issue, and some hard braking might clear the brakes as I suspect they are covered in rust/dirt.
On the plus side, it did go down the road in one piece. I didn't get out of first gear (very short road), but the clutch seems to work well. Its too wet outside to go further, with no wiper, and a very un-weatherproof roof.
When I returned from my maiden voyage I wanted to have a look at the plugs. I only removed one, but that was enough for me.
They don't look that old, but very black. Not wet which is good. According to my records, they are the wrong heat range and should be BPR5ES
I'll grab some new plugs and swap them out. Hopefully, that sorts some of the niggles when starting and running.
Not to be deterred, I pushed on with some other little jobs. First was to upgrade the radio to work with my phone, and crank some Spotify. It was a quick and easy upgrade.
Aww yeah, A cassette adaptor I had kicking around for years (see, hoarding works!). Actually works surprisingly well and doesn't sound terrible. All speakers work, and the flash EQ works a treat
This can stay for a bit. Does what I need it to do, although I need to work out how to get the antenna up so I can get FM stations too. It's not like I really need music though, the engine is music enough.
With that success, I moved onto the next thing on my list. The dodgy headlight switch. Two things bothered me about it. First, the wiring was dodgy enough to need wiggling to work, and second, the switch was upside down. The icon was on the bottom, and the switch was up for off and down for on.
The switch pulls out the front once the connector is removed, but there is also a white plastic sleeve that pushes off. The sleeve is to illuminate the icon via fibre optic cable, but mine isn't currently working.
The reason for the wiring being a bit dodgy was that the connector has obviously suffered some high resistance and the plug housing is damaged, allowing the terminal to float freely
I pushed it firmly into the connector on refitting, but I may need to close the terminal a bit to make it a tighter fit. I also need to look into using some relays to re-wire the headlights directly and take the load off the switch.
The switch its self had some minor corrosion on the terminals, but nothing a quick scrape with the screwdriver couldn't sort
And refitted the correct way around. Down for off, up for pop-ups UP.
The next thing that bugged me was the interior light switch... which seemed to be missing everything but the surround. The interior lights didn't work.
I removed the surround and found the guts of the exploded switch had been pushed down into the center console. I carefully fished the switch block and connector out. The rest of the springs etc are stuck down there and can stay there until the console has to be removed
You can see a good example of the black wiring in this car. Each wire is black, but does have a coloured collar at each end to identify it. Its not actually that bad to work with, but coloured wires are still preferred.
Using the handy diagram I checked which terminals did what on the switch
Obviously the two bottom ones are a joint +12, and the two other terminals are either "door open" or "on" settings (grounds to turn light on). I tried bridging them with wire and got nothing from the lights. I popped one of the lights out to check the bulb (there was one, it's removed in photo)
The bulb looked good, so out comes the multimeter. No power at the light when the switch terminals are bridged. No power at the switch +12 terminals. Hmmm.
Ok, what's upstream of the switch? The fuse. I had checked the fuses visually yesterday and they all look good, but something was obviously up. Interestingly I note that fuse 6, which powers the interior lights, also powers the hazard lights, which also are not working.
Interesting.
This is the fuse and relay box. Lovely.
Fuse 6 is the red one about halfway down. It wasn't blown, and the multimeter said I had power on each side of the fuse. The power comes into the fuse on the RH side of the photo and out on the LH side, through the fuse. I disconnected the wiring, removed the fuse, and cleaned everything up. There was some corrosion in the terminal, and everything is very dirty.
The result was this
Hazard lights! A handy thing to have on a British car.
Which also means, I now have power to the interior light switch.
I popped an LED bulb into the holder, and bridged the terminal
Ooooooh, light.
Only one was working, so I jumped onto the passengers' side, popped the light out, and found that the wire hanging under the dash was from that light.
I popped another LED bulb in that one, reconnected it and BAM, let there be light!
Because the switch was buggered, and there was no point in finding another. It only operates these two "knee" lights, so when am I ever going to need to set them to "on", and they are LED so no point in turning them "off" when they turn off when the doors are shut anyway.
I decided to bridge the terminals and leave it. I made up a jumper, using a pair of specially modified (squished in a vice until they fit) bullet terminals and some wire.
To make it pretty, durable, and safe, I wrapped the lot in tape and then stuffed it into the center console
TVR-Parts still sell the switch blanks, so I'll grab one of those and replace the interior light hole with one of those
Unfortunately it wasn't all quite straight forward. The door switches weren't quite playing ball. The passengers side wasn't hitting the pad on the door correctly so wouldn't trigger the lights to turn off when shut, and it turns out the drivers side one had been unplugged. I swapped that over, so the passengers side is unplugged, and the drivers is now plugged in and working correctly.
So, I now have sweet interior lights, and working hazard lights. Isn't it inviting?
Love the warm white LEDs. Much better than the usual cold white, or incandescent bulbs. Also puts a lot less strain on the wiring and battery.
Its small things, but in the world of British cars, it's a big victory to have things working.
Not much has happened due to me having the flu, but the weather was too good not to take the TVR for a quick blat around the block
Anyone who has had Man-Flu knows how hard it is to survive a normal day, let alone a day playing with old British cars, so my freight train of progress is halted at the station for a bit, as the garage is just too cold for me to be working in (its the middle of winter, and its been horrible weather recently).
Due to said horrible weather, the tiny little "first drive" mentioned in the previous post did only consist of popping down to the end of the street and back, a return trip of about 100m.
Today was the first day we saw some sun, and because I heard getting some fresh air and sun is good for you when you're sick, I took this as a sign that the TVR should go for a quick run around the block.
I didn't go far, only a total distance of 1km according to Google Maps, but further than the car has been driven in probably 3 years.
https://youtu.be/gm38a3Cm-34
The car was already warm in this video as technically I had already taken it around the block twice before I thought I should grab a video. It started easily from dead cold, and as you can see warm starting is pretty good for an 80s K-Jet too.
I had the targa panel off but the rear section up to reduce wind noise, and even then, what a sound that Cologne makes! It surrounds you. What a silly little car to drive, but such fun.
It's not all happy days. The steering wheel is way on the piss (as you can see), the brakes pulsate badly, and it seems to misfire under load at about 4500rpm. There is still work to do, but its good to know that the car is actually driveable.
The new spark plugs arrived today, so I'll probably throw them in this weekend, and I'll check over the rest of the ignition system at the same time. It could also do with some more fuel as I must be burning dinosaurs at a rapid rate of knots, and there wasn't a lot in there to start with.
Anyone who has had Man-Flu knows how hard it is to survive a normal day, let alone a day playing with old British cars, so my freight train of progress is halted at the station for a bit, as the garage is just too cold for me to be working in (its the middle of winter, and its been horrible weather recently).
Due to said horrible weather, the tiny little "first drive" mentioned in the previous post did only consist of popping down to the end of the street and back, a return trip of about 100m.
Today was the first day we saw some sun, and because I heard getting some fresh air and sun is good for you when you're sick, I took this as a sign that the TVR should go for a quick run around the block.
I didn't go far, only a total distance of 1km according to Google Maps, but further than the car has been driven in probably 3 years.
https://youtu.be/gm38a3Cm-34
The car was already warm in this video as technically I had already taken it around the block twice before I thought I should grab a video. It started easily from dead cold, and as you can see warm starting is pretty good for an 80s K-Jet too.
I had the targa panel off but the rear section up to reduce wind noise, and even then, what a sound that Cologne makes! It surrounds you. What a silly little car to drive, but such fun.
It's not all happy days. The steering wheel is way on the piss (as you can see), the brakes pulsate badly, and it seems to misfire under load at about 4500rpm. There is still work to do, but its good to know that the car is actually driveable.
The new spark plugs arrived today, so I'll probably throw them in this weekend, and I'll check over the rest of the ignition system at the same time. It could also do with some more fuel as I must be burning dinosaurs at a rapid rate of knots, and there wasn't a lot in there to start with.
More progress was made on the old TVR today. Just small, but important things, again.
I had a weird thought last night as I was falling asleep. What if the alignment is OK, but the wheel isn't on straight?!
I previouslymentioned that the steering wheel is way on the piss, and I thought it was the alignment, but hey, with everything else wrong with this car, could it just be the steering wheel wasn't positioned correctly at some point after being removed?
This is a reasonably easy thing to check. First I marked the center top point of the steering wheel, with the wheels straight.
Yeah, that doesn't look right! Next, I turned from center to either lock and counted the turns. Both sides had the same amount of turns to each lock from center, so that indicates that the steering rack is centered. Hmm.
Also note in the above photo that the steering wheel bolt pattern lines up perfectly. I decided to take the wheel off and see if refitting it correctly would help, so I grabbed a hex key and started to remove the FINGER TIGHT screws from the wheel. Yes, finger tight.
The leather wheel is a genuine Momo from '86. Not original to the car then, but still period correct. It's in very good condition really.
Plot twist. I changed to the Momo Futura from Effie. I love this wheel, its so nice in the hand, and looks great. This is a much newer wheel, at '96, but still works.
It looks sublime
Moving right along, before I spend way too much time admiring my wheel, I changed the spark plugs. I whipped one out earlier to check and it was both black as anything, and the wrong heat range.
Just a quick note on heat ranges. The number in the spark plug model is the heat range. The ones in the car were a BP6ES and I replaced them with BPR5ES (the R is for Resistor, to reduce electrical interference). Going to a lower number means the plug is "hotter". A hotter plug transfers heat from the plug into the head slower, meaning the plug runs hotter. A hotter plug is better for lower performance engines that rev lower and don't have forced induction. The higher heat in the plug helps to clear carbon and keep the plugs from fouling. There is a science to it all, but that's the basic premise.
Love the ease of access. The old plugs came out with no issues.
Very black
The other bank wasn't much better, and plugs 4 and 6 were wet with fuel
I had to remove the intake tubing and air filter to get to the plugs, so went the next step and also checked and cleaned the metering plate (silver bowl looking thing)
The intake piping has been split before, but sealed up and had no other obvious splits, so that's good. The metering plate was nice and clean, but the throttle body was oily.
I gapped all the new plugs down to the correct 0.6mm and fitted
I haven't run the car yet, so it will be interesting to see if the new plugs make a difference to how it starts and runs. I have my fingers crossed.
The next thing I attacked was the windscreen wiper. The original wiper arm was removed from the car before I got it, and I suspect someone had intentions to convert the arm from a pin fitting to J-hook (who knows how), as they had butchered the fitting on the end so it couldn't be used. I had to find a replacement.
I knew I had a couple of arms from an SD1 in my piles of spares, so dug one out and had a look. The length was bang on, but it had a pretty solid kink in it, unlike the original one which is dead straight (come to think of it, the tailgate wiper is straight, I wonder if I have a spare still. I suspect its way too long though).
Hmm, not ideal. Sure, it wipes and works, but its pretty well in the middle of the driver's vision when parked.
Apparently, the original arm is a rear wiper arm from some ancient version of the Ford Festiva or similar. I could probably order one online, but I wanted a more local and readily available solution.
I went to Pick-A-Part with one goal in mind; Come home with a new wiper arm.
And look what I found
A rear wiper arm from a MK3 (00-07) Ford Mondeo liftback. It's not perfect; if it sits as low as the above photo the wiper will hit the bonnet. This is due to the arm being slightly bigger at the spindle, and if it sits lower, it doesn't clear the cutout in the bonnet when its shut. I found this the hard way by taking some paint off the bonnet >_<
Raising the arm up on the screen slightly means it clears the bonnet, but puts it at the bottom of the driver's vision
Even at that height though, it's barely intrusive in the driver's vision. I'll see if I can live with it, otherwise, I'll have to visit Pick-A-Part again. Its an option though, which is more than I had.
The last thing I had a go at today was the rear window. It's cloudy as heck and almost impossible to see through.
I had seen on YouTube that you can sometimes polish the plastic clear using elbow grease and some Plast-X. I tried elbow grease a while back and got nowhere.
Today I tried a couple of different methods. First, as a proof of concept, I used a small buffing pad on my drill to polish a small section with Plast-X. It's hard to see, but there is a slight difference. The arrow points to the line where the "before" is on the right and "after" on the left
So the concept works. Now to scale it up. I was meant to sell my spare buffer ages ago, as it just wasn't as powerful as my bigger one for dealing with paint, but as it turns out, it was perfect for this work.
I started on the driver's side, with Plast-X on the pad and this was the result
Still pretty cloudy, but now you can see through it. You can just make out the steering wheel, but if I move over slightly, no sign of the steering wheel
I worked it some more, but moved up to using Ultimate Compound. It's more abrasive than Plast-X, but seemed to take a bit more oxidation off. Polishing both sides made a big difference, clearly it was oxidised on both sides of the plastic
Unfortunately as far as i can tell, the yellow sections cant be removed. It's pitted into the plastic, and nothing seems to touch it.
I'll just be happy if it's clear enough to see a car behind me, as previously it wasn't. It was like having a white sheet instead of a window.
And just because I can, here is a photo of one of the few times the bonnet has been down since the car rolled into the garage
I had a weird thought last night as I was falling asleep. What if the alignment is OK, but the wheel isn't on straight?!
I previouslymentioned that the steering wheel is way on the piss, and I thought it was the alignment, but hey, with everything else wrong with this car, could it just be the steering wheel wasn't positioned correctly at some point after being removed?
This is a reasonably easy thing to check. First I marked the center top point of the steering wheel, with the wheels straight.
Yeah, that doesn't look right! Next, I turned from center to either lock and counted the turns. Both sides had the same amount of turns to each lock from center, so that indicates that the steering rack is centered. Hmm.
Also note in the above photo that the steering wheel bolt pattern lines up perfectly. I decided to take the wheel off and see if refitting it correctly would help, so I grabbed a hex key and started to remove the FINGER TIGHT screws from the wheel. Yes, finger tight.
The leather wheel is a genuine Momo from '86. Not original to the car then, but still period correct. It's in very good condition really.
Plot twist. I changed to the Momo Futura from Effie. I love this wheel, its so nice in the hand, and looks great. This is a much newer wheel, at '96, but still works.
It looks sublime
Moving right along, before I spend way too much time admiring my wheel, I changed the spark plugs. I whipped one out earlier to check and it was both black as anything, and the wrong heat range.
Just a quick note on heat ranges. The number in the spark plug model is the heat range. The ones in the car were a BP6ES and I replaced them with BPR5ES (the R is for Resistor, to reduce electrical interference). Going to a lower number means the plug is "hotter". A hotter plug transfers heat from the plug into the head slower, meaning the plug runs hotter. A hotter plug is better for lower performance engines that rev lower and don't have forced induction. The higher heat in the plug helps to clear carbon and keep the plugs from fouling. There is a science to it all, but that's the basic premise.
Love the ease of access. The old plugs came out with no issues.
Very black
The other bank wasn't much better, and plugs 4 and 6 were wet with fuel
I had to remove the intake tubing and air filter to get to the plugs, so went the next step and also checked and cleaned the metering plate (silver bowl looking thing)
The intake piping has been split before, but sealed up and had no other obvious splits, so that's good. The metering plate was nice and clean, but the throttle body was oily.
I gapped all the new plugs down to the correct 0.6mm and fitted
I haven't run the car yet, so it will be interesting to see if the new plugs make a difference to how it starts and runs. I have my fingers crossed.
The next thing I attacked was the windscreen wiper. The original wiper arm was removed from the car before I got it, and I suspect someone had intentions to convert the arm from a pin fitting to J-hook (who knows how), as they had butchered the fitting on the end so it couldn't be used. I had to find a replacement.
I knew I had a couple of arms from an SD1 in my piles of spares, so dug one out and had a look. The length was bang on, but it had a pretty solid kink in it, unlike the original one which is dead straight (come to think of it, the tailgate wiper is straight, I wonder if I have a spare still. I suspect its way too long though).
Hmm, not ideal. Sure, it wipes and works, but its pretty well in the middle of the driver's vision when parked.
Apparently, the original arm is a rear wiper arm from some ancient version of the Ford Festiva or similar. I could probably order one online, but I wanted a more local and readily available solution.
I went to Pick-A-Part with one goal in mind; Come home with a new wiper arm.
And look what I found
A rear wiper arm from a MK3 (00-07) Ford Mondeo liftback. It's not perfect; if it sits as low as the above photo the wiper will hit the bonnet. This is due to the arm being slightly bigger at the spindle, and if it sits lower, it doesn't clear the cutout in the bonnet when its shut. I found this the hard way by taking some paint off the bonnet >_<
Raising the arm up on the screen slightly means it clears the bonnet, but puts it at the bottom of the driver's vision
Even at that height though, it's barely intrusive in the driver's vision. I'll see if I can live with it, otherwise, I'll have to visit Pick-A-Part again. Its an option though, which is more than I had.
The last thing I had a go at today was the rear window. It's cloudy as heck and almost impossible to see through.
I had seen on YouTube that you can sometimes polish the plastic clear using elbow grease and some Plast-X. I tried elbow grease a while back and got nowhere.
Today I tried a couple of different methods. First, as a proof of concept, I used a small buffing pad on my drill to polish a small section with Plast-X. It's hard to see, but there is a slight difference. The arrow points to the line where the "before" is on the right and "after" on the left
So the concept works. Now to scale it up. I was meant to sell my spare buffer ages ago, as it just wasn't as powerful as my bigger one for dealing with paint, but as it turns out, it was perfect for this work.
I started on the driver's side, with Plast-X on the pad and this was the result
Still pretty cloudy, but now you can see through it. You can just make out the steering wheel, but if I move over slightly, no sign of the steering wheel
I worked it some more, but moved up to using Ultimate Compound. It's more abrasive than Plast-X, but seemed to take a bit more oxidation off. Polishing both sides made a big difference, clearly it was oxidised on both sides of the plastic
Unfortunately as far as i can tell, the yellow sections cant be removed. It's pitted into the plastic, and nothing seems to touch it.
I'll just be happy if it's clear enough to see a car behind me, as previously it wasn't. It was like having a white sheet instead of a window.
And just because I can, here is a photo of one of the few times the bonnet has been down since the car rolled into the garage
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