Silver/Grey Chassis - What's The RAL Code?

Silver/Grey Chassis - What's The RAL Code?

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Discussion

ChimpOnGas

Original Poster:

9,637 posts

178 months

Saturday 16th November 2019
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Hi all,

Does anyone know the RAL code TVR used on the earlier Silver/Grey chassis?

Thanks, Dave.

NZ fan

310 posts

133 months

Sunday 17th November 2019
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Not too sure what an "RAL" code is but mine has the chassis no. stamped on the front top cross member and what i always thought was a build date on a welded tag on the front lower cross member. is there another one somewhere?
Just Googled it, sounds like its the paint code? could be good to know for touch ups.

Edited by NZ fan on Sunday 17th November 02:13

Belle427

8,858 posts

232 months

Sunday 17th November 2019
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Someone recommended RAL9006 when I bought paint but that is more of a silver than grey.
I could send you a sample if needed.

TJC46

2,147 posts

205 months

Sunday 17th November 2019
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ChimpOnGas said:
Hi all,

Does anyone know the RAL code TVR used on the earlier Silver/Grey chassis?

Thanks, Dave.
RAL 9006 on the International paint chart is white aluminium [ its colour is actually metallic silver]

RAL 7004 is a possibility but that is more grey than silver


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RAL_colors


geeman237

1,228 posts

184 months

Sunday 17th November 2019
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Another link to RAL colours https://www.e-paint.co.uk/RAL_Colourchart.asp
Have you tried calling some of the TVR chassis specialists and asking them what they use?
You could also try finding someone local to you that does powder coating and see if they have swatches or samples.


ChimpOnGas

Original Poster:

9,637 posts

178 months

Sunday 17th November 2019
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Thanks chaps, to be honest it's getting Jotamastic 87 in aluminium which looks like this...





Its super durable 2k epoxy mastic Norwegian marine grade paint and is a close enough colour match for me.

My new outriggers will be made from stronger thicker wall seamless tube then protected by 1 coat of red oxide Jotamastic 87 followed by 1 coat of Jotamastic 87 in contrasting aluminium, finally a set of laser cut stainless outrigger protectors will be fitted to keep the muck out and shield against any future impact damage... although it has to be said the protectors are probably overkill as Jotamastic 87 is itself pretty much bullet proof.

My thinking is if I got 23 years out of my original powder coated thin wall seamed tube TVR outriggers that weren't nearly as well protected, my new set should easily last twice as long.

Edited by ChimpOnGas on Monday 18th November 17:45

Classic Chim

12,424 posts

148 months

Sunday 17th November 2019
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Looks lovely Dave. Goodluck with it all.

Plenty of detail on this one please mate. It’s a biggy.

I’m seriously de motivated over my car yet know a chassis haul would make it a shinning example. Worth fk all but hey a fantastic example of the mark which is actually why I ever did any mods, just trying to make it as good as it can be.

Big job to do this myself but feel I can only do it one way. Full chassis. Ffs

InitialDave

11,856 posts

118 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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Reminds me of trying to figure out what the "correct" grey for a 1940s Fergie was... the answer came back as "whatever surplus battleship paint the factory had a pallet of that week".

ChimpOnGas

Original Poster:

9,637 posts

178 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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Classic Chim said:
Looks lovely Dave. Goodluck with it all.
Thanks Alun,

Here's a section of the earlier silver/grey chassis next to some Lotus wishbones painted in the 'aluminium' colour Jotmastic 87 epoxy mastic paint.



I think it'll prove to be a pretty good match scratchchin

However TBH I'm not too worried about a perfect colour match, because the truth is if I was going for full TVR originality we'd need to paint all the welds in brown rofl

Here's to my next 10 years of TVR ownership by which time I'll either sell the car or more likely take 'Ol Gasbag' with me when I retire in Brazil, the roads there are off the scale, I've driven this mountain range in Lauro Muller in Southern Brazil and it's just made for attacking in a TVR.




These road are way better than anything you'll find in the South of France or the mountains of Northern Italy, they also have next to no traffic on them so I fully expect to be ragging my TVR senseless there at the age of 65 and running the old girl on heady mix of compressed natural gas and ethanol.

So here's to at least another 23 years of chassis life, the way I see it she's done well to give me 10 years of chassis service from a car that only cost me £8k at 30,000 miles, that's a low mileage silver/grey chassis for you that had been Waxoiled from birth followed by a comprehensive jet wash, thorough drying session, followed by the two stage Dinitrol treatment I gave it some 8 years ago.

But now with new thicker wall seamless outriggers let in, everything sealed by two coats of marine grade epoxy mastic and further protected by stainless outrigger protectors my chassis will last way longer than the 23 years TVR's efforts achieved. I'm looking forward to putting chassis corrosion anxiety to the back of my mind for a very very long time... probably indefinitely if the truth be known as the kind of rusting we see here simply doesn't exist in sunny Brazil cool.

Buy it, drive it, wear it out, fix it... drive it some moredriving

This is the true essence of TVR ownership, not as some do wrapping these great cars up for the winter then only driving them three times in the summer to park in a field full of other classic cars so you can show of your shiny paint job!

Obviously that's not your way Alun and it's most definitely not my way either mate, we're not polishers we're drivers thumbup





ChimpOnGas

Original Poster:

9,637 posts

178 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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To to close this off I've just spoken with a super helpful guy at SML Marine who supply Jotun paints.

https://www.smlmarinepaints.co.uk/home

Following his advise things have changed slightly, but for the better so I thought I'd share what I've learned.

1. Firstly the guy at SML Marine clearly knows these paints, I wanted a zinc phosphate primer but he advised two coats of Jotamastic would work better

2. He then suggested I may want to consider upgrading from the Jotamastic 87 I'd selected to the Jotamastic 90 as it's a superior new formula that's a development of the 87, he suggested this would be a useful upgrade and as it was the exact same price as the 87 this seemed like a no brainer

3. The next thing I learned was the Aluminium colour I originally chose because it very closely matches my silver/grey chassis actually offers better protection than the other colours, happy with that!

I discussed that buying in 5L quantities was going to leave me with a lot of wastage as I want my first coat to be in red oxide with the top coat being in contrasting aluminium, this meant I was forced to buy 10L in total

4. The guy at SML Marine responded with this.... "Just buy a bottle of red tint as this means you only need one 5L tin, simply tint the first 2.5L to create a red oxide version of the Jotamastic 90 Aluminium with all it's additional impact resistance and direct to steel corrosion inhibiting benefits, then overpaint it in the remaining 2.5L of untinted paint to give the TVR factory silver/grey finish".

This advice has saved me roughly £50 in paint we would never have used, and by having a chat with the expert I ended up with the better Jotamastic 90 Aluminium too. These 2K epoxy mastic industrial oil rig/ship hull paints aren't cheap but I'm told Jotamastic 90 Aluminium offers 20 years protection in salt spray marine environments, so it should protect my TVR chassis even longer than that.



In my opinion it's way way better coating choice than chip prone powder coat which only really wraps the steel rather than truly bonding to the substrate as my two component epoxy mastic paint will.



In summary while buying online is definitely very convenient, you just can't beat a phone call and getting advice from a highly experienced human being, great service from SML Marine thumbup

TJC46

2,147 posts

205 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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Glad you got the paint choice and quantities all sorted. All we need now going forward.......is lots and lots of pictures. yes

Next question......suspension bushes....poly or original rubber ? whatever your preference i would definitely poly bush the diff,

especially the rear bush. it makes changing it out at a later date so easy.

Moose v8

204 posts

65 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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Chimp on gas, good article myself I used Rustbusters epoxy 2 pack didn't know of marine grade otherwise would have used , as for polybush yes did mine fully. The diff is a t### of a job but worth doing

ChimpOnGas

Original Poster:

9,637 posts

178 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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My diff is already poly bushed chaps as are my anti roll bars, but for suspension I'm a metaliatic bush man just as I firmly believe rubber bushing is the way forward on the coil overs which is why I run Ben Lang's Mk4 Bilsteins in Tuscan S spec.

To be clear what I've gone for here is not a full nut & bolt chassis restoration, its a body off outrigger replacement with a chassis clean & paint in 2k epoxy mastic for not much more than many quote just to replace the outriggers with the body left on the chassis, lets call it a very comprehensive chassis refurbishment rather than a full restoration.

It's certainly going to be way more comprehensive than the conventional body on outrigger replacement most go for, removing the body gives unparalleled access to inspect, de rust, and protect the rest of the chassis; it also means perfect 360 degree welds are guaranteed something I still can't fully accept is 100% achievable with the body still sat on the chassis scratchchin

Here's one Alex Wheatley did earlier, mine will look the same but in silver/grey rather than the white we see here....



I believe its the right job for the right money that will give my chassis many more years life without breaking the bank, and lets be honest here the job TVR did protecting it originally wasn't great but it's did last 23 years. I fully expect to get at least as many years again out of the upcoming work, and probably more than 23 years given the seamless tube used for the outriggers, the paint products I've selected, and the way Alex is approaching this refurbishment.

Watch this space smile

ChimpOnGas

Original Poster:

9,637 posts

178 months

Monday 18th November 2019
quotequote all
Moose v8 said:
Chimp on gas, good article myself I used Rustbusters epoxy 2 pack didn't know of marine grade otherwise would have used , as for polybush yes did mine fully. The diff is a t### of a job but worth doing
Hi Moose v8,

Apparently the Rustbuster 121 epoxy mastic you used is rebranded Jotun Smart Pack epoxy mastic, which is their 50/50 mix version of the Jotamastic paint I'm using.

So I'd be interested to know how well the Rustbuster 121 epoxy mastic painted items on your car are holding up?

Thanks,

Dave.

Classic Chim

12,424 posts

148 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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ChimpOnGas said:
My diff is already poly bushed chaps as are my anti roll bars, but for suspension I'm a metaliatic bush man just as I firmly believe rubber bushing is the way forward on the coil overs which is why I run Ben Lang's Mk4 Bilsteins in Tuscan S spec.

To be clear what I've gone for here is not a full nut & bolt chassis restoration, its a body off outrigger replacement with a chassis clean & paint in 2k epoxy mastic for not much more than many quote just to replace the outriggers with the body left on the chassis, lets call it a very comprehensive chassis refurbishment rather than a full restoration.

It's certainly going to be way more comprehensive than the conventional body on outrigger replacement most go for, removing the body gives unparalleled access to inspect, de rust, and protect the rest of the chassis; it also means perfect 360 degree welds are guaranteed something I still can't fully accept is 100% achievable with the body still sat on the chassis scratchchin

Here's one Alex Wheatley did earlier, mine will look the same but in silver/grey rather than the white we see here....



I believe its the right job for the right money that will give my chassis many more years life without breaking the bank, and lets be honest here the job TVR did protecting it originally wasn't great but it's did last 23 years. I fully expect to get at least as many years again out of the upcoming work, and probably more than 23 years given the seamless tube used for the outriggers, the paint products I've selected, and the way Alex is approaching this refurbishment.

Watch this space smile
Very interesting.
Even with body off it must be difficult to paint around Dif area and without removing wishbones you can’t really paint any of the suspension lugs or are these removed as part of the job. Brake and fuel lines etc Dave. Forget riggers, it’s the top chassis tubes that need most attention but each car is different but I hope you’ve checked that area very closely before just deciding on riggers. I’m sure you have though.
Just a thought for others maybe, those top chassis rails are often very thin!

ChimpOnGas

Original Poster:

9,637 posts

178 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
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Hi Alun,

The manifolds are removed before the body is lifted, those cooked top tubes are therefore fully exposed ready to be the subject of much attention, Alex has confirmed on every Chimaera body lift he's completed these top tubes have required refurbishing so this work is expected.

If you zoom in on the above photo you'll see these vulnerable top tubes that get toasted by the exhaust manifolds are a different colour, the charcoal grey finish looks like a high temp coating to me, the thing is while I'm super OCD myself and can be a bit of a micro manager every time I query such details with Alex it turns out he's already thought them out long before me and developed an intelligent proven solution already.

To address your other points Alex offers a menu of options, the work can be taken to different levels depending on what's found once the body is off and the customer's budget, in the example of the above chassis the owner chose for his his Bilsteins and wishbones to be refurbished too. In this case the wishbones were powder coated but if I select this additional work mine will see more Jotamastic 90 Aluminium 2k epoxy mastic as we now have plenty of this paint, and I stand by it being far more durable than powder coat.

In my case my Mk 4 Tuscan S spec Bilsteins are only three years in service and still look tidy so I do not anticipate these will require attention, my front wishbones have also been replaced and looked like this after the Waxoil was removed and the Dinitrol was applied some 8 years ago...





But that was a while back so it'll be interesting to see how they've faired when that Dintrol gets removed in a few weeks time scratchchin, after steam cleaning my rear wishbones looked like this before getting that Dinitrol treatment, they were also pretty good to be honest but 8 years on there will clearly need to be some de-rusting and painting work especially around the wishbone brackets and chassis welds.



Other than the fact we know the outriggers will be replaced with new thicker wall seamless tube and we are epoxy mastic painting not powder coating, at this stage it would be unwise to specify the full extent of the work. The sensible approach Alex adopts is to remove the body, completely degrease the chassis and then to make a full inspection, at this point decisions will be made as to what's needed.

The objective here is to deliver quality long lasting job without letting costs spiral out of control, we are not trying to make a concourse show winning smooth powder coated beauty, we are going for proper durability without breaking the bank. I would wager many of the smooth powder coated chassis we see while looking wonderful the day they're done may actually last no longer than TVR's original effort, I should also point out theses epoxy mastic paints are not especially self levelling, this means I am not expecting Alex to achieve that super smooth finish you see with powder coat.

However, I'll take the superior durability of epoxy mastic over the smooth & initially pretty but chip prone finish of powder coat every time, I drive my TVR and I drive it regularly in all weathers, I do not go to car shows and put mirrors under my car to show off my chassis. The only people who ever see my chassis are me and my MoT man, so its all about a lasting job for me using proper industrial marine grade epoxy mastic rather than trying to win a chassis beauty contest.

So before we get too carried away we should let the professional lift the body and remove all that sticky Dinitrol, from there we see what horrors sit beneath it and design our plan of attack, To me this is the right way to do things, what I can also tell you is Alex has very high standards so the results will be of a very high standard with excellent attention to detail and all executed by a true automotive engineer who understands costs must be carefully controlled but who does not accept compromises.

Here's another one Alex made earlier....



I'm very confident I have the right guy on the job wink



Classic Chim

12,424 posts

148 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
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Very very interesting, mouth watering almost. Hah.

Oh yeah only just noticed the top tubes, very good.

Don’t whatever you do leave those wishbones bare paint or powder coat, be rusty in 18 months, mine are!
So in all honestly whatever you coat it with it really needs a protective layer on top anyway as our weather is soo bad. Mud crap, salt, chemicals,,,
So who cares about a shiny smooth finish if your going to have to coat it with something for full protection.
I’m seriously impressed with your wishbones and how they have been protected as against mine that weren’t.
Dinitrol you say,,, probably spelt it wrong but the more I think about it the better to coat the lot with something or rust will form again imho so smooth coatings don’t mean a lot.
Goodluck as this is a great service by the looks of it.

Classic Chim

12,424 posts

148 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
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Hold up hold up,,, I have this assumption your engine bay is a bit shall we say technical hehe
So are you going to help make engine bay ready for a lift in any specialist areas or have you detailed what a good mechanic could do or is there just not much extra to do,,, lpg etc ?

You might be a right royal pain in the ass when you correct my intelligence biggrin but you are a motivator little do you know
Crack on mate thumbup




ChimpOnGas

Original Poster:

9,637 posts

178 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
So the LPG thing was discussed with Alex and he simply said...

"Well its just another fuel system, I have no issue with that"

He's right of course, TBH for the purposes of lifting the body its really not a complex thing at all, I'll run the gas down before I deliver the car and we can bleed off the tanks together before they get removed.

Other than that because the LPG system is delivery only there's just one high pressure Faro hose running the length of the car to deal with, being a feed and return system the petrol side is actually more complex than the gas system. There are a couple of extra earths here and there and the engine loom has 16 injector connectors not 8 (8 petrol & 8 LPG injectors), the vaporiser is mounted to the chassis but only has two coolant hoses (in & out) and one electrical connection to the safety solenoid.

So that's it, two LPG tanks to bleed off and remove, a few extra connectors to unclip around the engine bay, and the odd additional hose and earth cable here and there to disconnect.

Easy innit wink




Classic Chim

12,424 posts

148 months

Sunday 24th November 2019
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As I thought. Cool.

Now taking the body off might in Principle look and sound fairly straight forward but bolts that have been there 20 years next March might not quite agree.

Trade plates, washed car that’s been stood throughout this dire weather, battery on, fired up a treat, groggy for a minute, built the revs, lovely engine. Took a spin, wow wow wow. What a car, deserves the best care wink

All set to take it tomorrow ( if a stock cars off the ramp ) onto said ramp and hopefully if I can get body off by maybe the weekend... which weekend I’ve not decided yet. biggrin we’ll know where we’re at.
Hope things are progressing on yours although I’m sure it’s in a que,, not a bad thing, means he’s busy, when you start to add up the inevitable new heat matting and good knows what, you need time to save for all those bits you thought were ok, rofl