Kermit and co - the Pub2Pub TVR, and other steeds.
Discussion
bolidemichael said:
Hi there, you didn't include any posts or pics from the trip to the Eagle's Nest which seemed quite interesting! Please do share if you find a moment and keep up the adventuring!
Hi Michael, you're absolutely right - apologies for missing out the Eagle Rally.As it's the flagship event for Pub2Pub Adventures - the road tripping brand I've launched off the back of Kermit's journey - the TVR has actually completed two Eagle Rallies since getting back from its trip across the globe - the first in October last year, and the second this May. Here's an article and pictures from the first Eagle Rally:
https://www.pistonheads.com/news/tvr-news/life-aft...
And here are a few more photos, taken from this year's drive to the far side of Germany and back:
So, that was the 2018 and 2019 Eagle Rallies - each of which totalled about 2,800 miles from the UK to the Eagle's Nest in deepest Bavaria and back, and each of which Kermit completed with the bare minimum of issues (shredding the aux belt while being revved hard in the Porsche museum's underground carpark is the only one which springs to mind - luckily I was carrying a spare.) I'm planning on running the 2020 rally in June, with Kermit once again at the fore, and am looking forward to it already...
Fishy Dave said:
Book ordered, enjoyed the first one, fully expecting this one to be just as great. 
Thanks Dave. I'm glad you enjoyed the Africa book; hopefully this 'tricky second album' won't disappoint in comparison... Andy665 said:
Pub2Pub_Ben said:
Thanks Andy, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I was slightly nervous that by including the mental health sub-story I might alienate some of the readership, who may have been expecting more of a swashbucklingly heroic road trip yarn, but the subject needs all the airtime it can get and the feedback so far seems to be positive, so I'm glad
As someone who has had his own struggles with mental health I found it insightful and positive that you did include it - your thoughts / feelings resonated with me a lotIn no longer ashamed of admitting I have struggled (And continue to battle the demons from time to time) and the more it's brought out in to the open the better
While returning from Bavaria in May, Kermit suffered one of it's traditional issues - a cracked headlight lens. This repeating annoyance had first happened during the big trip across the world, when a stone was kicked up in Texas and took out the driver's side lens glass. I'd finally fixed the issue in Argentina, and all was good until this year's Eagle Rally, when a coach ran off the road slightly and put another rock through the same light, somewhere in Central Germany - talk about lightning striking twice. With an MOT looming, this was something which would need sorting pronto:
First, the cowling needed to be removed...
Chimaera build no. 2303?
A TVR tradition - breaking out the silicone sealant...
...then holding everything in place with gaffa tape while it sets... job done.
With that palava finished, it was just about time for the MOT. And given we're talking a car which in the previous 18 months or so, had completed 37,000 miles across 28 different countries, been driven across a flooded salt flat and spent the best part of 6,000 miles keeping up with hard -driving sports cars on two Eagle Rallies, it'd be a walkover, right?
Wrong, but fortunately things could have been a lot worse; Kermit failed this year's MOT on three points:
One - the big 'MOTUL' sun visor which had been fitted for its role in the Le Mans driver's parade last year came within the wiper's swept area.
Two - a leaking front shock absorber.
Three - corrosion on the headlight reflector, on the same side which had been broken by flying stones twice in the past two years.
On the plus side, the MOT offered a chance for a good poke around the chassis, and while it's not exactly a pretty sight, it's still all solid and reasonably well protected, so is good for another year. Evidently the only casualty of the salt flat adventure was the alternator...
So, three things to fix. The first wasn't an issue, as I'd been in two minds about keeping the bright red sun visor, so I had no issue with losing it in the event.
The leaking damper could have been more of an issue, but fortunately GAZ Shocks - who had supplied the dampers for the world trip - were very on point with their customer service. I posted the part to them on the Thursday of the MOT fail, and had it back the following Tuesday morning - certainly can't complain about that! And while getting the dampers off a 20 year old TVR can be quite a faff, in this instance the fact the bolts had been undone two years previously during Pub2Pub meant removal and refitting was a 5 minute job.
If only the same could be said for replacing the headlight reflector. Though saying that having done two lenses in the previous 18 months, I was at least well practised in this part of the car. So, for the third time, it all came apart and was reassembled with the RHD reflector, which is shared with the Porsche 964, and is basically like gold dust in TVR circles.
Putting the old and new reflectors side-by-side, it's easy to see why it failed the MOT - being exposed to the elements for thousands of miles had taken its toll...
New lens in...
...and showing just how tired the passenger side lens looks, as Kermit pulls into the test centre.
Even then, it wasn't plain sailing - I hadn't quite got the alignment right, which meant I spent the MOT tester's lunch break jacking the car up to get to the access hatch in the wheel arch and going through a process of trial and error until the beam was pointing in the right direction. And that was that - another 12 months motoring, and a sign of relief breathed to boot, because given what I've put this car though, it could've been a lot worse...
First, the cowling needed to be removed...
Chimaera build no. 2303?
A TVR tradition - breaking out the silicone sealant...
...then holding everything in place with gaffa tape while it sets... job done.
With that palava finished, it was just about time for the MOT. And given we're talking a car which in the previous 18 months or so, had completed 37,000 miles across 28 different countries, been driven across a flooded salt flat and spent the best part of 6,000 miles keeping up with hard -driving sports cars on two Eagle Rallies, it'd be a walkover, right?
Wrong, but fortunately things could have been a lot worse; Kermit failed this year's MOT on three points:
One - the big 'MOTUL' sun visor which had been fitted for its role in the Le Mans driver's parade last year came within the wiper's swept area.
Two - a leaking front shock absorber.
Three - corrosion on the headlight reflector, on the same side which had been broken by flying stones twice in the past two years.
On the plus side, the MOT offered a chance for a good poke around the chassis, and while it's not exactly a pretty sight, it's still all solid and reasonably well protected, so is good for another year. Evidently the only casualty of the salt flat adventure was the alternator...
So, three things to fix. The first wasn't an issue, as I'd been in two minds about keeping the bright red sun visor, so I had no issue with losing it in the event.
The leaking damper could have been more of an issue, but fortunately GAZ Shocks - who had supplied the dampers for the world trip - were very on point with their customer service. I posted the part to them on the Thursday of the MOT fail, and had it back the following Tuesday morning - certainly can't complain about that! And while getting the dampers off a 20 year old TVR can be quite a faff, in this instance the fact the bolts had been undone two years previously during Pub2Pub meant removal and refitting was a 5 minute job.
If only the same could be said for replacing the headlight reflector. Though saying that having done two lenses in the previous 18 months, I was at least well practised in this part of the car. So, for the third time, it all came apart and was reassembled with the RHD reflector, which is shared with the Porsche 964, and is basically like gold dust in TVR circles.
Putting the old and new reflectors side-by-side, it's easy to see why it failed the MOT - being exposed to the elements for thousands of miles had taken its toll...
New lens in...
...and showing just how tired the passenger side lens looks, as Kermit pulls into the test centre.
Even then, it wasn't plain sailing - I hadn't quite got the alignment right, which meant I spent the MOT tester's lunch break jacking the car up to get to the access hatch in the wheel arch and going through a process of trial and error until the beam was pointing in the right direction. And that was that - another 12 months motoring, and a sign of relief breathed to boot, because given what I've put this car though, it could've been a lot worse...
Is ThrowbackThursday a thing on Pistonheads? If so, here's one from earlier in the summer when, after travelling the world for what seems like years, the TVR finally went home for the first time.
And it was a somewhat melancholy experience to be honest, especially pulling up outside the factory where it was built, and seeing first hand how what was once a hive of activity is now a quiet and sleepy backwater, with the past gradually being forgotten...
So, this is the new normality. Stuck at home twenty miles from the workshop where my TVR lives, which means I won't be seeing it for a while now.
As there's nothing else to do, it seems like a logical time to update the story of Kermit...
Following Kermit's second Eagle Rally last year, along with a variety of other road trips including one to France and the trip to Blackpool, it was starting to need some TLC - not surprising, given it had covered something close to 15,000 miles in the 18 months since it had returned from its trip to Patagonia on the Pub2Pub Expedition.
With this in mind, I made plans to take the TVR off the road for the winter, following its appearance on the TVR Car Club stand at the NEC Classic Motor Show last November, and the drive back from that event was the last time it was used on the public highway.
A busy winter meant that it wasn't until February until I was finally able to get it up on the axle stands and get to work.
With the car off the ground, I planned to give it a thorough service, go over all the mechanicals and fix anything suspect, repaint the chassis as best I could, and also smarten up the interior, which was still in the same state in which it finished its globetrotting expedition - that's to say, pretty horrific.
What followed was a series of jobs which fell into two separate categories - 'wow, that was pretty straightforward', and 'damn you TVR for making this such a faff.'
Fitting a new brake master cylinder was very much in the latter category, with the access being famously inadequate. Saying that, a slow and patient approach paid dividends, as did releasing the six bolts which hold the pedal box in place, enabling it to be moved forward by an inch or two, the extra wriggle-room making all the difference.
In comparison, fitting new brake discs and pads was comparatively straightforward, even if I did need to saw down an allen key to make releasing the rear calliper possible. While I was there, I decided it was important that the callipers got a lick of gold paint, to go with the gold stickers which the car has been covered in for the past three years. Hopefully this will add to the look once it's back on the road, rather than turning out slightly tragic...
The old fuel pump, which had been on the car since I'd bought it and had pumped all sorts of dodgy gas in places like Ecuador and Bolivia was a breakdown waiting to happen, and so in a spot of preventative maintenance I swapped it out for a new pump from TVR Parts. A new fuel filter went in too, along with a thorough check of the fuel lines, which got the thumbs up for now.
All the fluids were to be changed, and while the gearbox oil was a pretty straightforward job, the diff was somewhat different, with the drain plug refusing to come undone for love nor money. This meant it was necessary to syphon the oil out through the fill hole before replacing it, a job which was pretty straightforward with the correct tool:
The chassis was in pretty good condition thanks to the POR15 which I'd applied liberally before Pub2Pub, but there were a few places where it could do with a touch up, and so I spent many hours crawling around beneath the car repainting anywhere on the structure where the protective paint looked less than perfect. The result isn't nearly as pretty as the shiny white chassis restorations which seem to pop up on my social media and make me feel guilty about the state of mine from time to time, but we're still on the original outriggers, so it seems to be coming up trumps when it comes to rust prevention - even on flooded salt flats - and that's what really matters.
One part of the car which hadn't survived the ordeals of the previous few years, however, was the engine mounts. The rough roads of the Pan Americana had pummelled them sufficiently that the engine had sagged down and the exhaust manifolds were actually touching the chassis. Changing these took a full day of work and much cursing, thanks to a large degree to my incompetence at all things mechanicing.
Under the hood, there was a predictable amount of work to do. The power steering hoses were replaced as they were leaking, an ACT silicone coolant hose set was fitted, a new idler pulley installed as the previous one's bearing was grumbling, various sensors were changed and the whole engine given its first clean in years as it was predictably filthy after the car's travels and various fluid leaks.
(photo taken before the great toilet roll crisis of 2020...)
Definitely the smartest Kermit's engine bay has looked in many a year.
With the mechanicals moving in the right direction, it was time to look at the interior. The first job to tackle was the dashboard, as the original walnut veneer was warped and cracking badly, thanks in part to the heat and humidity of some of the environments the car had travelled through. The big question was, what style to go for? After many hours of discussions in the pub on this very subject, a decision was made - turned steel, for a '30s Bentley vibe. After a few methodical hours of swapping the dash over, I'm rather please with how it's turned out:
But as far as the interior was concerned, the dash was just the tip of the iceberg. The carpets were in a terrible state, the hood's plastic window torn and the seat's leather was looking very tired. After considering re-dying the carpets, I decided to bite the bullet and order a new set, and it turns out that there's quite a lot of carpet in a Chimaera:
Thanks, Central TVR!
Changing the carpets is a pretty easy job so long as you take a slow and methodical approach to it, and it has the bonus of revealing plenty of the factory scribbling which all these cars seem to have:
When I shared this graffiti on the Pub2Pub Facebook page, it was suggested that I should add my own mark on one of the panels, to keep the tradition going. My ego rather liked the idea, and so I customised the fibreglass in the centre console:
I was rather pleased with the effect.
Once the new carpets were in, the car was beginning to look pretty good, and the spring road trip season was looming, with its first trip out planned for the TVR Car Club season opening show on the 5th April, followed by a trip to France for Easter, and a Pub2Pub Adventures road trip down to Italy in May.
With these dates in mind, the trimmer was getting the seats, door cards and hood finished by the end of March, ready for the trips. In fact, they surpassed the target, calling me last Tuesday to tell me they were all done and ready for collection.
The last piece of the rebuild jigsaw was ready.
Unfortunately, the lockdown beat us by a couple of hours. With only a tiny amount of work left to go, the car now won't be getting finished for a good few weeks...
Until then, stay safe people, and good luck getting through this...
Ben
As there's nothing else to do, it seems like a logical time to update the story of Kermit...
Following Kermit's second Eagle Rally last year, along with a variety of other road trips including one to France and the trip to Blackpool, it was starting to need some TLC - not surprising, given it had covered something close to 15,000 miles in the 18 months since it had returned from its trip to Patagonia on the Pub2Pub Expedition.
With this in mind, I made plans to take the TVR off the road for the winter, following its appearance on the TVR Car Club stand at the NEC Classic Motor Show last November, and the drive back from that event was the last time it was used on the public highway.
A busy winter meant that it wasn't until February until I was finally able to get it up on the axle stands and get to work.
With the car off the ground, I planned to give it a thorough service, go over all the mechanicals and fix anything suspect, repaint the chassis as best I could, and also smarten up the interior, which was still in the same state in which it finished its globetrotting expedition - that's to say, pretty horrific.
What followed was a series of jobs which fell into two separate categories - 'wow, that was pretty straightforward', and 'damn you TVR for making this such a faff.'
Fitting a new brake master cylinder was very much in the latter category, with the access being famously inadequate. Saying that, a slow and patient approach paid dividends, as did releasing the six bolts which hold the pedal box in place, enabling it to be moved forward by an inch or two, the extra wriggle-room making all the difference.
In comparison, fitting new brake discs and pads was comparatively straightforward, even if I did need to saw down an allen key to make releasing the rear calliper possible. While I was there, I decided it was important that the callipers got a lick of gold paint, to go with the gold stickers which the car has been covered in for the past three years. Hopefully this will add to the look once it's back on the road, rather than turning out slightly tragic...
The old fuel pump, which had been on the car since I'd bought it and had pumped all sorts of dodgy gas in places like Ecuador and Bolivia was a breakdown waiting to happen, and so in a spot of preventative maintenance I swapped it out for a new pump from TVR Parts. A new fuel filter went in too, along with a thorough check of the fuel lines, which got the thumbs up for now.
All the fluids were to be changed, and while the gearbox oil was a pretty straightforward job, the diff was somewhat different, with the drain plug refusing to come undone for love nor money. This meant it was necessary to syphon the oil out through the fill hole before replacing it, a job which was pretty straightforward with the correct tool:
The chassis was in pretty good condition thanks to the POR15 which I'd applied liberally before Pub2Pub, but there were a few places where it could do with a touch up, and so I spent many hours crawling around beneath the car repainting anywhere on the structure where the protective paint looked less than perfect. The result isn't nearly as pretty as the shiny white chassis restorations which seem to pop up on my social media and make me feel guilty about the state of mine from time to time, but we're still on the original outriggers, so it seems to be coming up trumps when it comes to rust prevention - even on flooded salt flats - and that's what really matters.
One part of the car which hadn't survived the ordeals of the previous few years, however, was the engine mounts. The rough roads of the Pan Americana had pummelled them sufficiently that the engine had sagged down and the exhaust manifolds were actually touching the chassis. Changing these took a full day of work and much cursing, thanks to a large degree to my incompetence at all things mechanicing.
Under the hood, there was a predictable amount of work to do. The power steering hoses were replaced as they were leaking, an ACT silicone coolant hose set was fitted, a new idler pulley installed as the previous one's bearing was grumbling, various sensors were changed and the whole engine given its first clean in years as it was predictably filthy after the car's travels and various fluid leaks.
(photo taken before the great toilet roll crisis of 2020...)
Definitely the smartest Kermit's engine bay has looked in many a year.
With the mechanicals moving in the right direction, it was time to look at the interior. The first job to tackle was the dashboard, as the original walnut veneer was warped and cracking badly, thanks in part to the heat and humidity of some of the environments the car had travelled through. The big question was, what style to go for? After many hours of discussions in the pub on this very subject, a decision was made - turned steel, for a '30s Bentley vibe. After a few methodical hours of swapping the dash over, I'm rather please with how it's turned out:
But as far as the interior was concerned, the dash was just the tip of the iceberg. The carpets were in a terrible state, the hood's plastic window torn and the seat's leather was looking very tired. After considering re-dying the carpets, I decided to bite the bullet and order a new set, and it turns out that there's quite a lot of carpet in a Chimaera:
Thanks, Central TVR!
Changing the carpets is a pretty easy job so long as you take a slow and methodical approach to it, and it has the bonus of revealing plenty of the factory scribbling which all these cars seem to have:
When I shared this graffiti on the Pub2Pub Facebook page, it was suggested that I should add my own mark on one of the panels, to keep the tradition going. My ego rather liked the idea, and so I customised the fibreglass in the centre console:
I was rather pleased with the effect.
Once the new carpets were in, the car was beginning to look pretty good, and the spring road trip season was looming, with its first trip out planned for the TVR Car Club season opening show on the 5th April, followed by a trip to France for Easter, and a Pub2Pub Adventures road trip down to Italy in May.
With these dates in mind, the trimmer was getting the seats, door cards and hood finished by the end of March, ready for the trips. In fact, they surpassed the target, calling me last Tuesday to tell me they were all done and ready for collection.
The last piece of the rebuild jigsaw was ready.
Unfortunately, the lockdown beat us by a couple of hours. With only a tiny amount of work left to go, the car now won't be getting finished for a good few weeks...
Until then, stay safe people, and good luck getting through this...
Ben
Andy665 said:
Nice to see it getting some love but hope all the battle scars are not removed, its a car with an incredible story and its scars are part of the story
Indeed, that side of things has had a lot of consideration, and the general appearance will definitely not be changing - the stickers and scars will be staying, and after much deliberation I decided not to have the alloys painted in shadowchrome as it'll be too much of a deviation from how it looked on the big trip.The interior refresh is a slightly different kettle of fish, however - as myself and others spend quite a lot of time sat there, making it a more pleasant environment will definitely make the car more appealing to drive places, a fact which kinda over-rode the desire to keep it as a time capsule of the Pub2Pub Expedition. Not that it's changing that much; other than the dashboard it'll still look roughly the same, just cleaner...
Revisiting this topic for the first time in a while, it's poignant to see that my last update on my TVR was back in March, and saw the car in a state of disassembly - the reason for the lack of updates in the intervening time can be blamed on... well, you know what.
So, what's happened in the past six months? Well, when lockdown happened back in March, I was a few weeks of graft away from having Kermit back on the road. However, the restrictions meant I was suddenly unable to continue work, as my workshop is on a working farm and at the time, it would have been inappropriate to pop up there to tinker with my old car. This meant that I didn't see Kermit for over three months, during which time it was sat on axle stands in a state of moderate disassembly, while the interior was mostly about 30 miles away at the trimmers. Who were, obviously, closed.
As spring became summer I was able to get back to grips with putting the TVR back together and getting it on the road, but then there came another setback. With the travel restrictions I was also forced to cancel the summer European tours which I was to be leading in the TVR, removing all the urgency to get it back on the road. Additionally, I was focussing my car-related efforts on finally finishing the book about my Corvette/Singapore drive, rather than the TVR's needs. This meant that I drifted along over the summer, putting in a day's work on the car every week or two until a few weeks ago, when to my surprise I found that it was all reassembled and ready to roll for the first time since last November.
And so when the sun came out in Devon a few weeks ago, I took Kermit out into the daylight for the first time this year, and finally sampled the results of its rather interrupted mini-restoration:
Back in February when I started work, my goal was to keep the car's unique, battle-scarred external appearance, while lifting the tired interior to become somewhere pleasant in which to spend long hours on the road, and simultaneously making the car's mechanicals as dependable as possible. And luckily, my first impressions are that I've succeeded. In my opinion the restored interior leather, new turned stainless steel dash and quilted leather door cards really lift the interior, which was previously suffering from the wear and tear of its trip across the world - the leather was cracked and stained, the wood veneer dash cracked and flaking and the rear window split. Mechanically, everything feels much more taunt now and, touch wood, the car has been running flawlessly ever since the first twist of the key last month.
So, that's the TVR all back on the road and ready for adventures just as winter rolls in, accompanied by talk of further lockdowns. Kermit won't be getting put into hibernation just yet however, as right now it's standing in as my daily driver, while I get to work on fixing some issues on my Volvo 240 daily - hopefully this time I'll get the work finished in a slightly faster time though...
So, what's happened in the past six months? Well, when lockdown happened back in March, I was a few weeks of graft away from having Kermit back on the road. However, the restrictions meant I was suddenly unable to continue work, as my workshop is on a working farm and at the time, it would have been inappropriate to pop up there to tinker with my old car. This meant that I didn't see Kermit for over three months, during which time it was sat on axle stands in a state of moderate disassembly, while the interior was mostly about 30 miles away at the trimmers. Who were, obviously, closed.
As spring became summer I was able to get back to grips with putting the TVR back together and getting it on the road, but then there came another setback. With the travel restrictions I was also forced to cancel the summer European tours which I was to be leading in the TVR, removing all the urgency to get it back on the road. Additionally, I was focussing my car-related efforts on finally finishing the book about my Corvette/Singapore drive, rather than the TVR's needs. This meant that I drifted along over the summer, putting in a day's work on the car every week or two until a few weeks ago, when to my surprise I found that it was all reassembled and ready to roll for the first time since last November.
And so when the sun came out in Devon a few weeks ago, I took Kermit out into the daylight for the first time this year, and finally sampled the results of its rather interrupted mini-restoration:
Back in February when I started work, my goal was to keep the car's unique, battle-scarred external appearance, while lifting the tired interior to become somewhere pleasant in which to spend long hours on the road, and simultaneously making the car's mechanicals as dependable as possible. And luckily, my first impressions are that I've succeeded. In my opinion the restored interior leather, new turned stainless steel dash and quilted leather door cards really lift the interior, which was previously suffering from the wear and tear of its trip across the world - the leather was cracked and stained, the wood veneer dash cracked and flaking and the rear window split. Mechanically, everything feels much more taunt now and, touch wood, the car has been running flawlessly ever since the first twist of the key last month.
So, that's the TVR all back on the road and ready for adventures just as winter rolls in, accompanied by talk of further lockdowns. Kermit won't be getting put into hibernation just yet however, as right now it's standing in as my daily driver, while I get to work on fixing some issues on my Volvo 240 daily - hopefully this time I'll get the work finished in a slightly faster time though...
Usget said:
Alloy dash, quilted leather - it's basically indistinguishable from a Bentley Continental T!
I'm glad someone made the connection - that was certainly the inspiration behind the look.Growing up, I always used to love the turned steel dash which was an option on the outrageously torquey/expensive Bentley coupes of the '90s, and its part of the brand's DNA which goes right back to the big blower Bentleys of the '30s. Now, I can't afford a Bentley - blower or otherwise - but that doesn't mean I can't at least borrow some ideas from them...
therealsamdailly said:
Lovely job. A car that is much more than the sum of its parts
Thanks, I can't wait until the restrictions are lifted and I can get back out there and keep adding to the car's story. Though after all the work, I may have to invest in some seat covers before it goes anywhere too adventurous again...As memorable milestones go, owning any car for ten years is a notable one. Owning a sticker-clad TVR for ten years is definitely notable, and given it's an anniversary which, for me, passed a few days ago, I figured it's high time for an update.
Not on the TVR, though.
Since last autumn, when the TVR was briefly back on the road following its mini restoration which ended up dragging out over much of 2020, attention has been focussed on other members of the Ben fleet. Firstly, the daily driver - a Volvo 240:
I bought this fine machine back in 2018, when I needed a new daily on my return from the Pub2Pub Expedition in the TVR, and it's been providing sterling service ever since. But when last autumn came around it was in need of some attention, and with the TVR back on the road and able to stand in as a daily, it was time to give the mighty ovloV some long-overdue spannering.
As well as a general service and once over, a few tasks stood out. Firstly, being a 33 year old machine which has spent its entire life on our salty little island, some rust repairs on the underside, and in the rear wheelarches, were required. The headlight bowls were looking rather tired and past their best, and so a shiny new set was purchased for £60 and fitted. Some clunking in the front suspension was traced to a broken droplink, which was replaced, and as the rear suspension had became rather droopy over the years, I took the excuse to fit a new set of sports springs.
These take the ride height down by 40mm in comparison to a standard 240, but as mine is the 'sporty' GLT model which sat 15mm lower than standard, the drop is 25mm. And I have to say, it rather suits it - along with the smartened-up front end, the work has given the car a new, pugnacious look which I rather like, as well as tightening up the handling no end.
And thanks to all the work, last December the Volvo flew through its MOT without so much as a minor - happy days!
The third car in my current fleet would have rather more trouble with an MOT, however. In fact, it hasn't had one since 2009. Luckily, it's old enough not to need one, but still, I feel a bit of work may be appropriate before it gets back out on the road:
The tattered carcass you're currently viewing is 'Daisy the Second', a 1974 Mini which was one of my first-ever road trip cars. I paid £650 for it in spring 2007, and promptly took it on a road trip to Spain a few weeks later, followed by a New Year's tour of Turin, Venice, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary at the end of that year. But it quickly became evident that after a lifetime in the unforgiving climate of the south west, the rust was setting in, and it needed some work. The only problem was, there was always something more pressing than giving Daisy the attention she deserved. What follows is a litany of excuses...
In 2008, the AfricanPorsche Expedition dominated my time. Then, work and writing the book about that wee drive took over. After that was the V8Nam Expedition, then a new business, then the Pub2Pub Expedition in the TVR, and then the small matter of writing a book about that one. And all the time, Daisy sat patiently in a barn, awaiting its turn to receive some TLC. However, fast forward to the 'new normal', and thanks to Covid shutting down my work and providing me with the time to finally get the V8Nam book finished, I find myself in a situation with no further books to write or trips to make happen.
In other words, it's time to get Daisy back to her former glory. And who knows, maybe plan an adventure for her while I'm at it, to celebrate fifteen years of ownership next year...
This clearly isn't going to be a quick job - not least due to the fact that I stripped it down about a decade ago in a rare moment of free time, and most of the car has been sat in boxes ever since. I'm not exactly a master at all things mechanical, and so restoring Daisy will be quite a learning experience for me, in many respects. And with the bodywork being the most pressing issue, the first lesson in the course is cutting and welding. Tackling a few jobs on other cars over the years - most recently on the underside of the Volvo - has given me enough confidence to get stuck into the easier jobs on the bodyshell, and hopefully this will enable me to progress in a manner which enables me to finish the job. Then, it'll be the small matter of an engine rebuild on it's 998, and getting it all back together.
I'll be firing some further updates onto here as work progresses, so watch this space for some truly appalling welding...
Not on the TVR, though.
Since last autumn, when the TVR was briefly back on the road following its mini restoration which ended up dragging out over much of 2020, attention has been focussed on other members of the Ben fleet. Firstly, the daily driver - a Volvo 240:
I bought this fine machine back in 2018, when I needed a new daily on my return from the Pub2Pub Expedition in the TVR, and it's been providing sterling service ever since. But when last autumn came around it was in need of some attention, and with the TVR back on the road and able to stand in as a daily, it was time to give the mighty ovloV some long-overdue spannering.
As well as a general service and once over, a few tasks stood out. Firstly, being a 33 year old machine which has spent its entire life on our salty little island, some rust repairs on the underside, and in the rear wheelarches, were required. The headlight bowls were looking rather tired and past their best, and so a shiny new set was purchased for £60 and fitted. Some clunking in the front suspension was traced to a broken droplink, which was replaced, and as the rear suspension had became rather droopy over the years, I took the excuse to fit a new set of sports springs.
These take the ride height down by 40mm in comparison to a standard 240, but as mine is the 'sporty' GLT model which sat 15mm lower than standard, the drop is 25mm. And I have to say, it rather suits it - along with the smartened-up front end, the work has given the car a new, pugnacious look which I rather like, as well as tightening up the handling no end.
And thanks to all the work, last December the Volvo flew through its MOT without so much as a minor - happy days!
The third car in my current fleet would have rather more trouble with an MOT, however. In fact, it hasn't had one since 2009. Luckily, it's old enough not to need one, but still, I feel a bit of work may be appropriate before it gets back out on the road:
The tattered carcass you're currently viewing is 'Daisy the Second', a 1974 Mini which was one of my first-ever road trip cars. I paid £650 for it in spring 2007, and promptly took it on a road trip to Spain a few weeks later, followed by a New Year's tour of Turin, Venice, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary at the end of that year. But it quickly became evident that after a lifetime in the unforgiving climate of the south west, the rust was setting in, and it needed some work. The only problem was, there was always something more pressing than giving Daisy the attention she deserved. What follows is a litany of excuses...
In 2008, the AfricanPorsche Expedition dominated my time. Then, work and writing the book about that wee drive took over. After that was the V8Nam Expedition, then a new business, then the Pub2Pub Expedition in the TVR, and then the small matter of writing a book about that one. And all the time, Daisy sat patiently in a barn, awaiting its turn to receive some TLC. However, fast forward to the 'new normal', and thanks to Covid shutting down my work and providing me with the time to finally get the V8Nam book finished, I find myself in a situation with no further books to write or trips to make happen.
In other words, it's time to get Daisy back to her former glory. And who knows, maybe plan an adventure for her while I'm at it, to celebrate fifteen years of ownership next year...
This clearly isn't going to be a quick job - not least due to the fact that I stripped it down about a decade ago in a rare moment of free time, and most of the car has been sat in boxes ever since. I'm not exactly a master at all things mechanical, and so restoring Daisy will be quite a learning experience for me, in many respects. And with the bodywork being the most pressing issue, the first lesson in the course is cutting and welding. Tackling a few jobs on other cars over the years - most recently on the underside of the Volvo - has given me enough confidence to get stuck into the easier jobs on the bodyshell, and hopefully this will enable me to progress in a manner which enables me to finish the job. Then, it'll be the small matter of an engine rebuild on it's 998, and getting it all back together.
I'll be firing some further updates onto here as work progresses, so watch this space for some truly appalling welding...
RC1807 said:
Appalling welding? You don't make roll cages, do you? (another thread....)
Anyway, I look forward to seeing the updates!
I've not seen that thread. However, I could probably make roll cages in the style Lancia were rumoured to have done on some of their '70s rally cars - i.e. out of cardboard. Metal may be a bit ambitious for me, however...Anyway, I look forward to seeing the updates!
Jonmx said:
Cracking thread. I'm guessing you're Dartmoor way? I'll keep an eye out next time I'm tootling about over there (Exeter based here).
Thanks; I'm over in Plymouth, but am often to be found roaming the Dartmoor and Exeter regions. Because let's face it, when you live in Plymouth, getting out of town regularly is a good thing.G111MDS said:
Fantastic fleet, and great to see the classic Mini.
Cheers - hopefully over the next few months it'll start actually looking like a classic Mini, rather than the remains of one which has been picked clean by vultures... I've just noticed it's now been over a year since I've updated this thread - oops, apologies for that. The upshot of this is, it's definitely high time to revisit the fleet...
The TVR first. I've now owned 'Kermit' for over 11 years, and it's currently nudging the 100,000 mile mark, a reasonable increase from the 38,000 miles it had covered when I bought it. During Covid, I didn't have much in the way of opportunities to use it, but the memories of that lack of use have certainly been banished during the summer, with around 4,000 miles being notched up on a couple of European trips. The first of these took place in May when, as part of a group of 15 Chimaeras, I took it down to a chateau in Burgundy, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Chimaera. As this was it's first big run since Covid, and also a kind of shakedown from the work I'd done on it during the lockdowns, it wasn't a trouble free trip. The main issue was overheating, caused by the swirl pot corroding out at its base, resulting in a coolant leak. This was fixed by going back to my banger-rally roots, and throwing in a load of radweld to get me home, before flushing out the system and replacing the offending part, and overall, these issues didn't detract from what was a great trip. Here are some photos from the drive:
While a drive down to Burgundy doesn't exactly represent the most dramatic of drives, it must be said that it was great to finally be back behind the wheel of my well travelled TVR, making noise in a foreign land for the first time in three years. As doing just that was such a big part of my life before the travel restrictions came, for me the trip represented a symbolic end to the weirdness of the previous few years. Normal service was resumed, and the fact a chateau, the winelands of Burgundy, perfect weather and a great bunch of other TVR owners was involved too, made it all the better.
But in many ways, the France trip was just a warm-up for what came next - the Chimaera's run down to Italy in June, which I'll cover in my next post.
The TVR first. I've now owned 'Kermit' for over 11 years, and it's currently nudging the 100,000 mile mark, a reasonable increase from the 38,000 miles it had covered when I bought it. During Covid, I didn't have much in the way of opportunities to use it, but the memories of that lack of use have certainly been banished during the summer, with around 4,000 miles being notched up on a couple of European trips. The first of these took place in May when, as part of a group of 15 Chimaeras, I took it down to a chateau in Burgundy, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Chimaera. As this was it's first big run since Covid, and also a kind of shakedown from the work I'd done on it during the lockdowns, it wasn't a trouble free trip. The main issue was overheating, caused by the swirl pot corroding out at its base, resulting in a coolant leak. This was fixed by going back to my banger-rally roots, and throwing in a load of radweld to get me home, before flushing out the system and replacing the offending part, and overall, these issues didn't detract from what was a great trip. Here are some photos from the drive:
While a drive down to Burgundy doesn't exactly represent the most dramatic of drives, it must be said that it was great to finally be back behind the wheel of my well travelled TVR, making noise in a foreign land for the first time in three years. As doing just that was such a big part of my life before the travel restrictions came, for me the trip represented a symbolic end to the weirdness of the previous few years. Normal service was resumed, and the fact a chateau, the winelands of Burgundy, perfect weather and a great bunch of other TVR owners was involved too, made it all the better.
But in many ways, the France trip was just a warm-up for what came next - the Chimaera's run down to Italy in June, which I'll cover in my next post.
Thanks guys, I'm glad you appreciate the updates.
So, with the trip to the Chateau in May complete, the TVR's next Euro-drive loomed large - a run down to Supercar Central, the Modena area, in northern Italy. And with one big run to blow away the cobwebs already under its belt, this one should be a formality, reliability-wise, right?
Erm, not exactly. In fact, it was bookended with breakdowns.
The first happened before I'd even made it out of the country, on the A303, of all places. Fortunately, when the engine cut, there was a lay-by into which I could coast, and look into the problem.
My immediate thought was that the issue was ignition related, and I figured it was either the ignition coil, or the amplifier. If it was the coil, great - I had a spare one in the boot. And if it was the Amplifier? Well, that would mean the end of the TVR's trip. So, with this in mind, I got stuck into changing the coil, while crossing my fingers.
A few minutes into the task, a Mercedes pulled up, having recognised the car. It turns out that the driver had a copy of the Pub2Pub book, and so we chatted away about the trip as I worked - certainly one of the more surreal brakedown experiences I've ever had!
Luckily, the new coil got Kermit back up and running, and so off to Italy it went. The route passed through Chamonix before crossing the Alps on the Gran San Bernardino Pass, and then after a night in Turin, we headed down to a hotel in Fiorano for a few nights, with the Ferrari, Lamborghini, Pagini and Maserati factories all close by. And then, it was time to head back over the Alps via the famous Stelvio Pass, and the Davos road which was made famous by Top Gear.
Here are a few shots of the TVR on its trip:
And so, with the Alps behind and the smooth road home beckoning, the scene was set for a smooth run back to Devon. Unfortunately, no-one told the TVR about this.
On the M25, in one of those daft variable speed sections with no hard shoulder, it suddenly cut out again. Fortunately I was able to coast into an emergency layby, and so I got stuck into another fix, as it turned out that the cheap new coil had packed up. This meant that the only option was to put the old, previously failed one back on, and hope that it would at least work when cool. This proved to be the case, and after a considerable amount of cranking, it fired up. I re-joined the traffic, driving slowly and using as high a gear as possible to keep the coil cool, and despite regular misfires, it kept the car moving. I made it to the A303, and as it got dark, the nerve-wracking misfiring was joined by a gradually increasing, intermittent rotational grinding noise, coming from under the car somewhere. A sticking brake, some gradual structural failure? I wasn't sure; I just wanted to get home. And eventually, I did, crawling along at a maximum of 40 mph, the grinding getting worse, the misfire from the dodgy coil omnipresent.
And after all that stress, a beer was definitely needed.
I eventually traced the grinding noise to a collapsing gearbox mount, which was allowing the propshaft to rub on the exhaust, so I guess I should just feel glad it didn't happen a thousand miles earlier, in Italy...
So, that covers most of the TVR's main adventures over the summer - on to the Volvo next...
So, with the trip to the Chateau in May complete, the TVR's next Euro-drive loomed large - a run down to Supercar Central, the Modena area, in northern Italy. And with one big run to blow away the cobwebs already under its belt, this one should be a formality, reliability-wise, right?
Erm, not exactly. In fact, it was bookended with breakdowns.
The first happened before I'd even made it out of the country, on the A303, of all places. Fortunately, when the engine cut, there was a lay-by into which I could coast, and look into the problem.
My immediate thought was that the issue was ignition related, and I figured it was either the ignition coil, or the amplifier. If it was the coil, great - I had a spare one in the boot. And if it was the Amplifier? Well, that would mean the end of the TVR's trip. So, with this in mind, I got stuck into changing the coil, while crossing my fingers.
A few minutes into the task, a Mercedes pulled up, having recognised the car. It turns out that the driver had a copy of the Pub2Pub book, and so we chatted away about the trip as I worked - certainly one of the more surreal brakedown experiences I've ever had!
Luckily, the new coil got Kermit back up and running, and so off to Italy it went. The route passed through Chamonix before crossing the Alps on the Gran San Bernardino Pass, and then after a night in Turin, we headed down to a hotel in Fiorano for a few nights, with the Ferrari, Lamborghini, Pagini and Maserati factories all close by. And then, it was time to head back over the Alps via the famous Stelvio Pass, and the Davos road which was made famous by Top Gear.
Here are a few shots of the TVR on its trip:
And so, with the Alps behind and the smooth road home beckoning, the scene was set for a smooth run back to Devon. Unfortunately, no-one told the TVR about this.
On the M25, in one of those daft variable speed sections with no hard shoulder, it suddenly cut out again. Fortunately I was able to coast into an emergency layby, and so I got stuck into another fix, as it turned out that the cheap new coil had packed up. This meant that the only option was to put the old, previously failed one back on, and hope that it would at least work when cool. This proved to be the case, and after a considerable amount of cranking, it fired up. I re-joined the traffic, driving slowly and using as high a gear as possible to keep the coil cool, and despite regular misfires, it kept the car moving. I made it to the A303, and as it got dark, the nerve-wracking misfiring was joined by a gradually increasing, intermittent rotational grinding noise, coming from under the car somewhere. A sticking brake, some gradual structural failure? I wasn't sure; I just wanted to get home. And eventually, I did, crawling along at a maximum of 40 mph, the grinding getting worse, the misfire from the dodgy coil omnipresent.
And after all that stress, a beer was definitely needed.
I eventually traced the grinding noise to a collapsing gearbox mount, which was allowing the propshaft to rub on the exhaust, so I guess I should just feel glad it didn't happen a thousand miles earlier, in Italy...
So, that covers most of the TVR's main adventures over the summer - on to the Volvo next...
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