Meet Shelly

[Jhcolling]

I'm sure I am not alone in this but I go through phases of wanting specific cars, only for the want to fade after a month or so to be replaced with a new want. The desire for a Chimaera never seemed to fade and, after years of lurking around this forum, I decided to grow a pair and buy one. After reading all about your cars I was well aware that there are good cars and not so good cars out there so I decided that I was going to spend a bit more and go for a car that had had a chassis refurb and one that somebody else had emptied their wallet into. Being a novice at this I first decided to give Ian at TorqueRVT a call and see if he would give me an hour to look over a local car for sale and give me a general lesson in what to look for. This time spent with Ian was well worth while and I soon started ploughing up and down the country looking at cars. Long story short, I did the total opposite to the original plan and bought a car that needed some TLC; the chassis was in good condition and the outriggers had been replaced, but it had not been serviced for a few years and it showed a little in the general condition of the car; the rear screen was cracked and needed replacing, discs ad pads were needed all round, there were Gaz shock on the rear and billies up front and there were three different tyre brands on the car, etc....
Over the last few months the screen has been replaced, the car has had a 12k service, Gaz Gold Pro shocks all round, rear discs and pads have been replaced and the front callipers have been upgraded to Brembo callipers with 324mm discs and braided hoses. I have also taken a risk with my choice of wheels, I personally love them but am aware they are not to everybody's tastes. My favourite comment so far, "did you get them out a a pack of Haribo"! Ironically, I can see where the comment has come from.
There have been a few electrical issues which I am on top of for the time being and Shelly is currently running beautifully. I now plan on enjoying the car over summer with further work planned over winter.

Anyway, enough waffle, pics below.

[seeby]

No risk as far as I,m concerned with those wheels ! They look the dogs goolies. They really suit the car colour too .

[Sardonicus]

seeby said:

No risk as far as I,m concerned with those wheels ! They look the dogs goolies. They really suit the car colour too .

Seconded

[Classic Chim]

I'm liking the wheels too.
What are the Brembos like.
Welcome and good choices all round id say

[NZ fan]

Well done, I have always liked the Minilite/Superlite look (not sure if yours are either?)
And wondered what they would look like on a Chimaera? Was considering them myself but 16" was as big as I could get them here in NZ. Yours must be at least 17" to get those brakes in there?

[s3c chris]

Hi and welcome to Chimaera ownership.

Your car looks lovely and your choice of wheels really suit the car.
I've not seen minilite style wheels in that size before, out of curiosity what make are they?
Good luck with the car and hopefully there will be some sub to enjoy it.

Regards Chris.

[JamsD]

No issues with the wheels at all, really like deep dish and polished.

Do you have the sizes and offset to hand.

[Jhcolling]

Classic Chim said:

I'm liking the wheels too.
What are the Brembos like.
Welcome and good choices all round id say

Brembos are probably the best mod to the car in terms of noticable improvement. I ran the car for a few weeks with the brembos and without the braided lines and thought it was a money well spent, once the braided lines went in they felt even better still.

Regarding the wheels: They are Image wheels so it was a bit of a risk going for custom wheels not really having an idea of how they would sit on the car. They are 3 peice wheels but I chose to have the bolts on the inside to keep them as smooth as possible, still not sure if this was the right decision or not. I've seen a few Chims with low profile tyres and I just don't think it suits the classic style of the car.
They are 17" all round, 7j 25et front and 8j 35et rear. There was a bit of a cock up on my part, the wheels were ordered before the brakes were purchased and obviously the brakes didnt fit under the front wheels so the front is spaced by 8mm and I spaced the the rear by 15mm to keep everything looking uniform.

Edited by Jhcolling on Monday 22 May 20:32

[N7GTX]

The wheels and the colour of the car go together really well.

[Jhcolling]

Thanks for the positive comments everybody, I'm chuffed to bits with it.

The car is a 450 and the engine is completely standard, I do not want to go down the route of forced induction so it will remain N/A but where should I start and what offers reasonable return for my money? At the moment it drives very well with zero shunting.
I have a clive f y piece waiting to go in but this will likely happen in winter along with a new ecu so any engine mods will happen in conjunction with this. I also plan to gut the pre cats but some of the bolts look a PITA to get to so I'm not looking forward to this job.

[QBee]

What do you want to achieve?

[450Nick]

Jhcolling said:

Thanks for the positive comments everybody, I'm chuffed to bits with it.

The car is a 450 and the engine is completely standard, I do not want to go down the route of forced induction so it will remain N/A but where should I start and what offers reasonable return for my money? At the moment it drives very well with zero shunting.
I have a clive f y piece waiting to go in but this will likely happen in winter along with a new ecu so any engine mods will happen in conjunction with this. I also plan to gut the pre cats but some of the bolts look a PITA to get to so I'm not looking forward to this job.

NA, nothing really returns a reasonable result for the money. If you want to retain drivability, I am a little biased but I think the best thing for a 450 is a GEMS ECU and a Supercharger. Had mine for around 7 years and wouldn't do things any differently if I could do them again. It's super driveable, sounds the nuts and makes excellent progress down the road!

[wseed]

Your car looks great, and for the record I too think the wheels suit the car.

Did you change to the while lenses on the signals yourself? I think they give the car a subtly modern look yet still in-keeping with the classic design.

I've been looking at a brake upgrade for mine in the future once I've got a few other jobs out of the way as I'll need to upgrade the wheels too. Do you mind sharing where you sourced yours and what offset you think you should have gone for to negate the need for the spacers. does that mean 17" 7j 15et front and 8j 20et rear?

[CHIMV8 500]

Jhcolling said:

Classic Chim said:

I'm liking the wheels too.
What are the Brembos like.
Welcome and good choices all round id say

Brembos are probably the best mod to the car in terms of noticable improvement. I ran the car for a few weeks with the brembos and without the braided lines and thought it was a money well spent, once the braided lines went in they felt even better still.

Regarding the wheels: They are Image wheels so it was a bit of a risk going for custom wheels not really having an idea of how they would sit on the car. They are 3 peice wheels but I chose to have the bolts on the inside to keep them as smooth as possible, still not sure if this was the right decision or not. I've seen a few Chims with low profile tyres and I just don't think it suits the classic style of the car.
They are 17" all round, 7j 25et front and 8j 35et rear. There was a bit of a cock up on my part, the wheels were ordered before the brakes were purchased and obviously the brakes didnt fit under the front wheels so the front is spaced by 8mm and I spaced the the rear by 15mm to keep everything looking uniform.

Edited by Jhcolling on Monday 22 May 20:32

Welcome to the madhouse

Look on my profile and my topics

I took the precast out by only removing the Y piece and front bonnet

Took approx 2 hrs to complete

[Jhcolling]

wseed said:

Your car looks great, and for the record I too think the wheels suit the car.

Did you change to the while lenses on the signals yourself? I think they give the car a subtly modern look yet still in-keeping with the classic design.

I've been looking at a brake upgrade for mine in the future once I've got a few other jobs out of the way as I'll need to upgrade the wheels too. Do you mind sharing where you sourced yours and what offset you think you should have gone for to negate the need for the spacers. does that mean 17" 7j 15et front and 8j 20et rear?

Callipers were sourced from eBay, cost about £85 but i had them fully refurbished and painted at Classicar in Chelford at a cost of £300. Just noticed there is a set in the classifieds at the moment......

Yes lenses changed but I dontt think they added anything, just looks different.

Regarding the wheels, they are from Image wheels and the offset, I may be corrected but I think you are right.

Edited by Jhcolling on Thursday 25th May 20:57

Edited by Jhcolling on Thursday 25th May 21:02

[Jhcolling]

CHIMV8 500 said:

Welcome to the madhouse

Look on my profile and my topics

I took the precast out by only removing the Y piece and front bonnet

Took approx 2 hrs to complete

Thanks, how do you make sure no crud goes down the manifolds? does it all come out in one piece?

[Paulprior]

The precats will definitely not come out in one piece, they will stop after about 1/2 inch when the hit the bend, the need destroying basically, i did mine by removing the Y piece, drilling several holes with a long drill, some bashing with a long cold chisel and a good pair of pliers to try and get hold of lumps and pull them out, once it starts to breakup it gets much easier, about 1 hour per side for me, i then tied old pillow covers over the end and very briefly fired up the engine.

[wseed]

Jhcolling said:

....Wheel and brake info....

Thanks for the info.

[s3c chris]

Having looked at wheel offsets and sizes recently, I think the problems regarding brake clearance often depend on the dish of the rim.

The offset isn't the only factor to consider when looking at brake upgrades.

Obviously a flat faced wheel will have a lot more clearance behind the spokes than a dished one and consequently there will be more room for bigger brake calipers.
I had some et 35 rear wheels at one stage and because of the deep dish on the rim the rear face of the spokes actually touched the caliper without a spacer. They were the correct et 35 too.

Just something to bear in mind when thinking about bigger brake calipers.....

Regards Chris.

[phazed 11.83]

Paulprior said:

i then tied old pillow covers over the end and very briefly fired up the engine.

That made me laugh! Reminds me of when I built a 3.1 Essex engine. Bolted it in my Granada with manifolds and Y piece and thought it was a good idea to drive it around town for about 20 minutes with no exhaust system! The noise............