160,000 Mile TVR Chimaera

[Shed TVR]

Rob-c33sg said:

And you've left the body in the air on the cranes? Can't imagine it can be set down. Need more space..

I've set it down on axle stands as I needed one of the cranes to remove the engine. I guess if you had limited garage space it could be put outside temporarily.

[Rob-c33sg]

Thanks for entertaining my questions you're doing good work. No rot apart from the passenger front? Seems to be a common area from other videos/pics

[Shed TVR]

Rob-c33sg said:

Thanks for entertaining my questions you're doing good work. No rot apart from the passenger front? Seems to be a common area from other videos/pics

No problem and thank you, it's actually the drivers rear but it's hard to tell from the photos haha. The passenger side is also rotten but not as badly, surprisingly good really!

[crofty1984]

fk me, you're not messing about are you?

[C7 JFW]

This is the exact nightmare of bodges I was led to believe TVR ownership involves - crikey. It's almost as if anything you buy now you have to strip to the bare bones first and rebuild to be confident it'll be safe.

Awesome work, I look forward to seeing it all come back together.

[Shinyfings]

Shed TVR said:

Thanks, a Lotus would make a great project car but I've always been keen on larger engines so went in the TVR direction. Do those use a similar chassis design to this out of interest? I think a FWD Elan would make a great left field fast road car for slightly less than a Chimaera.

I went really safe and it’s a Toyota engined Elise so no corrosion issues for a few years. I really wanted a V8 but wanted low running costs and what I was seeing with TVRs worried me. I like tinkering but not quite as much as you are undertaking. I’ll be watching the rebuild.

[Pupbelly]

Bookmarked after reading a superb write-up over the years. A brilliant effort with everything you've done so far. Keep going!!

[Shed TVR]

crofty1984 said:

fk me, you're not messing about are you?

On furlough so I've got free time!

C7 JFW said:

This is the exact nightmare of bodges I was led to believe TVR ownership involves - crikey. It's almost as if anything you buy now you have to strip to the bare bones first and rebuild to be confident it'll be safe.

Awesome work, I look forward to seeing it all come back together.

Thanks, unfortunately with a TVR some of the bodges are from factory

Shinyfings said:

I went really safe and it’s a Toyota engined Elise so no corrosion issues for a few years. I really wanted a V8 but wanted low running costs and what I was seeing with TVRs worried me. I like tinkering but not quite as much as you are undertaking. I’ll be watching the rebuild.

Great stuff enjoy your Elise, I'd love to have a go in one of those some day.

Pupbelly said:

Bookmarked after reading a superb write-up over the years. A brilliant effort with everything you've done so far. Keep going!!

Thanks very much, appreciate that!

So some more progress. Removed all of the old bushing "shells", fairly easy but very time consuming.



Found a crack in the exhaust, oh dear:



Diff bushings looking great



Satisfying:



Polybushed (don't worry I will paint them as well):



Springs painted and built back up:



Hubs polybushed:





The car has had a loose gear shift for a while now, so I decided to try and sort that. I swapped out the plastic bush:





I also replaced all the plastic washers in the linkage but typically forgot to get a picture. It feels a lot less sloppy now but I'll know for sure when the car's back together.

Next I replaced the steering column lower bearing which was buggered, and forgot to get a picture of the new one again.





During this I spotted a wiring issue and fixed it while I was in there:



The ground contact for the horn was really dirty, this is probably why the horn has always worked intermittently in this car. I cleaned it up with some scotch brite and re-installed. And forgot to get a picture.



Next I took a look at the cracked fibreglass on the body. It really didn't look too good, I suspect it has been this way for some time following a minor front end bump. I did notice the front end had also been re-sprayed in the paperwork I have, so this supports my theory.



Fibreglassed with my professional clamping tools:



And the other front chassis mounting point:



While that was curing I took a look at the gearbox.The first thing I noticed was the clutch fluid build up in the bottom which is hard to see in this photo.



So I'll either need a new clutch slave cylinder or a rebuild kit as this seems to have been leaking for some time. Also I found there is more play than I would like in my input shaft, so I'm planning to shim that out and possibly do a couple of simple strengthening mods to the gearbox at the same time.

Ordered this dodgy wideband kit off ebay. Mistakenly believed it was a couple of years old but it's actually an ancient "LC1" kit. I found this great comment about it on an old PH thread:

"LC1 is utter garbage and anyone that reckons otherwise is either very lucky or has no idea what they are talking about or is getting paid to tell us how brilliant they are."





I'll see if I can get it going but I'm not too optimistic about it.

It did however come with the worlds ugliest air/fuel meter, which I promptly installed. Crimps fitted:



In place of the clock:



Next up even more fibreglass repairs. The dash has been bouncing up and down on bumps lately, and I found this broken mounting point:



You can see how badly cut out it was from factory:



I didn't think I could make it strong again, so I made a metal plate and riveted it on instead. Worked great:



Steering rack gaitors replaced, and a new tie rod end:





Polybushed and painted (badly) more stuff:



Chassis removal victim:



It was a new ball joint less than a year old, so I managed to just get a new boot:



Popped the crank pulley off to fit the trigger wheel for my megasquirt ECU:



Oh dear, the rubber is showing signs of letting go:



Unfortunately these are balanced to the crank I believe so will have to have a think about what to do. I will ring up the engine builder tomorrow and see what they say. Still look on the bright side, at least it didn't come apart at 5000RPM!

Also found a little bonus for the end of this post. Remember this?

Shed TVR said:

So the fuel pump ground wire got repaired:



But the fuel pump still won't prime. Hmm. The power wire was a bit ropey, so that got some "refurbishment". I would have loved to just replace this but didn't have a crimp the correct size and wasn't able to source the weird black capacitor anywhere.







Fuel pump still won't prime. I also can't measure 12V at the pump wiring

There's still infinite resistance on the ground cable to the chassis. hmm. I traced the ground wire into the boot where it disappeared. I tried to open the boot and... nothing My battery was charged, so unfortunately the boot solenoid seems to have given up.

TVR in their infinite wisdom decided it would be a good idea to have no emergency boot release and no facility to open it with the key, so time to break into it. I won't post any photos of this, but suffice it to say it was very worryingly easy

I traced the ground wire all the way through the bloody car, only to find that someone had wired the power wire up to the ground, then disconnected the ground Not sure how my fuel pump ever worked, but anyway...

Well, I found this in the paperwork for the car:



I found one of the bodgers! I also never mentioned above, but they bypassed the inertia switch which stops the fuel pump if the car rolls over (one of the cars 3 safety features). Either that or someone else applied another layer of bodge on top of this.

Anyway, more updates soon.

[Peanut Gallery]

Looking really good! - I do like your high tech clamping tools!

The painting looks fine to me! - I wont be crawling under the car to look for how shiny the paint is, but water will be under there looking for metal to convert to rust.

Hope you get enough done before you are pushed back to the 9-5!

[Pupbelly]

Shed TVR said:

Found a crack in the exhaust, oh dear:

Looks like that zorst has seen many welds in the past!

[Hedgehopper]

Quote...
‘TVR in their infinite wisdom decided it would be a good idea to have no emergency boot release and no facility to open it with the key, so time to break into it. I won't post any photos of this, but suffice it to say it was very worryingly easy yikes‘

If the Chim is anything like a Griff then it will have an emergency boot release and also an emergency door release. For obvious reasons I can’t explain this here, suggest you post the question on the Chim forum.

Edited by Hedgehopper on Tuesday 7th July 18:51

[shalmaneser]

Enjoying this, it's going to be significantly better than new when you're done!

[Adam205]

As a new Chimaera 450 owner I'm finding this thread very interesting (& slightly scary)! Great effort to keep the car on the road.

Strangely I am also a former MR2 owner and had a string of french 'hot' hatches including an AX GT so there must be something in that.... quirky interiors and great driving experiences are a must, along with a dollop of rust!

[Shed TVR]

Peanut Gallery said:

Looking really good! - I do like your high tech clamping tools!

The painting looks fine to me! - I wont be crawling under the car to look for how shiny the paint is, but water will be under there looking for metal to convert to rust.

Hope you get enough done before you are pushed back to the 9-5!

Thanks! Agreed it's there for rust protection not to look nice at the end of the day. The Saab has been winding me up lately, I had to go round and replace virtually every vacuum line on the engine to get rid of the constant EML that keeps popping up. Working in that engine bay made me miss the simplicity of the TVR!

Pupbelly said:

Looks like that zorst has seen many welds in the past!

It's seen some action that's for sure

Hedgehopper said:

If the Chim is anything like a Griff then it will have an emergency boot release and also an emergency door release. For obvious reasons I can’t explain this here, suggest you post the question on the Chim forum.

It would make sense, looking at the desgin I can't see how unless there is an electronic button somewhere? I will ask the question though.

shalmaneser said:

Enjoying this, it's going to be significantly better than new when you're done!

Thanks! Trying my best to do it the right way.

So just a small update today. Adrian from RT Racing came and picked my chassis and wishbones up ealier, he mentioned it was in surprisingly good condition (except for my welding lol). I think I've reached the half way point with this... can I call it a build?

I've been just finishing off the little jobs that can be done without the chassis. Recieved and fitted this excellent distributor blank from Megasquirt V8:





I reckon I'll make an extra 0.5bhp without that extra rotating mass. Also I can sell the old distributor on ebay now.

Differential painted up. That's the last of the painting thankfully!



Crank sensor and trigger wheel fitted:





I'm going to get this balanced with a new harmonic damper; JE engineering asked if I could align it with the old assembly then send the whole thing to them so they know the correct position of the wheel.

My fantastic alignment diagram sent to Extra EFI. I swear these guys will get so fed up with me by the end of this



Repairing my exhaust bracket. Some people mark this out properly but I'm a bit simple and cardboard works for me





Perfectly symetrical. Ahem.



Removed the bottom half of the broken bracket from the exhaust. I swear the welding on this was so ridiculously over the top, I wish the chassis was welded to this extent!



I'll need to wait until the exhaust is on the car to weld the new bracket in the correct position.

More updates soon, although I have almost run out of things to do for now! I've also been in touch with 5speeds in the USA about a couple of cheap mods for T5 gearbox to improve reliability and strength so hopefully that will come through as there aren't any suppliers for this gearbox in the UK.

[Tin Hat]

Really enjoying this, thanks!

[Shed TVR]

Adam205 said:

As a new Chimaera 450 owner I'm finding this thread very interesting (& slightly scary)! Great effort to keep the car on the road.

Strangely I am also a former MR2 owner and had a string of french 'hot' hatches including an AX GT so there must be something in that.... quirky interiors and great driving experiences are a must, along with a dollop of rust!

Hi Adam, thanks for the kind words!

I wouldn't be too worried, this car was about half the price of a really good Chimaera at the time and is still to this day the cheapest one I've seen for sale by a long margin. I saw a crashed one for more a while back

With that said make sure your outriggers are OK! And head over to the TVR section on here if you haven't already, there are some very knowledgeable and helpful people on there. These aren't complicated cars but they do have a lot of quirks.

I think a lot of TVR owners have tended to buy quite raw cars (such as MR2, Renaultsports) and eventually ended up at TVR. I thought my circa 300bhp MR2 turbo was exciting until I drove this car, and this is one of the most tame TVRs! I would love another frenchie though, I was looking at Saxo VTSs the other day.

Tin Hat said:

Really enjoying this, thanks!

Thanks, I've been trying to put more effort into getting pictures

Edited by Shed TVR on Tuesday 7th July 22:50

[B'stard Child]

Adam205 said:

As a new Chimaera 450 owner I'm finding this thread very interesting (& slightly scary)! Great effort to keep the car on the road.

Strangely I am also a former MR2 owner and had a string of french 'hot' hatches including an AX GT so there must be something in that.... quirky interiors and great driving experiences are a must, along with a dollop of rust!

Ahhh you found it - I'd just sent you a link to the thread on faceache

[Spunagain]

Great so see another one being revived!

Re your fuel pump condenser, this Nissan Vannette one from Ebay worked for me - just needed to widen the earth hole a bit!

[ivanhoew]

Hi,

great thread thank you

re the t5 , i have a tvr t5 , and i was under the impression it is stronger that the us mustang t5's , because of a steel bearing support on the input , do that think that may be a load of tosh ,and its just the same as the us ones ?


regards
robert

[Shed TVR]

Spunagain said:

Great so see another one being revived!

Re your fuel pump condenser, this Nissan Vannette one from Ebay worked for me - just needed to widen the earth hole a bit!

Thanks so much I've been stressing trying to find a replacement for this! I had no idea what the capacitor was for or what a fuel pump condenser was lol. I've ordered that now.

ivanhoew said:

Hi,

great thread thank you

re the t5 , i have a tvr t5 , and i was under the impression it is stronger that the us mustang t5's , because of a steel bearing support on the input , do that think that may be a load of tosh ,and its just the same as the us ones ?


regards
robert

Thanks Robert!

From the research I did, we have the "Z spec" version of the t5 (last revision of the world class t5 I believe) so it's likely that it is stronger than the boxes from the mustang, especially the non "world class" versions. I think it's rated to about 330lbft or something like that, wheras the mustang boxes are rated to 260lbft. I found this online for you:

"The “Z” Spec T5

In 1993 Ford started offering a new service unit to the Ford Motorsport crowd. The nick name T-5z comes from Ford’s part number, 7003Z. This Ford Motorsport T-5 is also sometimes referred to as “World Class T-5”. While it is a Word Class T-5, as it has all the upgrades, having a 2.95 first and “Cobra pocket bearing does not make it “World Class”. The T-5z is a 1993 Cobra T-5 with 2.95 first gear set and .63 over drive. It has the best of everything. Hardened gears, short throw factory shifter, steel front bearing retainer, and tapered output shaft bearing and a seven tooth drive speedometer gear. Best of all it has a torque rating of 330ft/lbs. based on 100,000 mile usage. The stock T-5Z can handle up to 450hp with a soft locking clutch and is not shock loaded like in drag racing."