Should you ever go back? 1993 Cosmos Blue Chimaera 400
Discussion
May 2020
Next, the inside of the doors was really scruffy, I was already planning to get a smart repair done on a nasty scrape on the family Volvo before I sold that, so I got Scott from Finishing Touch smart repairs in Newbury to have a look at the TVR as well. The doors looked like this
afterwards
Next up, I noticed the courtesy light did not come on when I opened either of the doors so I unscrewed the pin switch in each door and both were very green and corroded. I cleaned up both with emery cloth and contact cleaner and then I got a clear click from under the dashboard when opening the doors but still no light.
There is some very useful info at bertram-hill.com on the courtesy light relay and it looks to be more trouble than it is worth, so my plan was to pull it and short the pin switches directly to the courtesy light.
Looking at the fuse box in the footwell there was no obvious orange relay and no relay sound, so once again I popped off the dash top and had a look as that was the source of the clicking. There is a big grey relay which clicked when you opened the doors, but this has no connection to the courtesy light, so I guess it is related to the alarm or immobiliser. You can see it below with the big red “R” on top.
So, back into the footwell and here is the fusebox:
I did and some checks with a multimeter showed the bottom left relay socket (hidden by the ECU loom in the photo) was the door courtesy light one exactly as shown in the link above I checked the supplies first with the voltmeter and then I checked for resistance between the pin switch and ground with the door open and then closed, then checked resistance between the purple and red wire at the light and the light pin in the fuse box. I made up a little jumper lead with some automotive wire and a couple of Halfords spade connectors crimped and then soldered for good measure and all is working. I did also manage to find out the fuse for the interior light is 3rd in from the right. Turns out working on electrics when tired is a bad idea as fIrst time I plugged in the jumper wire I got the wrong hole and was rewarded with a small pop. While I was at it I gave the terminals and switch contacts in the light fitting a good clean so it should be good for another 27 years. I now just need to remember to make sure the doors are shut properly in the garage. I also bought an LED version of the courtesy light bulb to reduce the current draw as there is now no relay. This one is polarity ambivalent so it does work with the Chimaera courtesy light which is wired so the tip if the bulb contact is grounded and the body is 12V, so no modifications needed and is nice and bright.
The car did not come with a proper manual, just a photocopy of a poor quality scan of a 1997 one, so I added a request for a scan or loan of a 1993 manual for me to scan on another Chimaera thread. No luck on the scan, but glow worm” had a spare wallet and sent it to me - the kindness or PHers never ceases to amaze me! So to pay back I have tidied up the 1997 scanned images and OCRed the text and made a .docx version of the 1997 manual for anyone who wants it. It is scaled to fit Filofax personal refills which are easy to get. In the meantime I am modifying the 1997 manual to make a 1993 version or more accurately one which matches my car! I will print out and put in my new wallet. I will send that out too if anyone wants it, but it will be quite specific to my car as after 12 owners, I am not sure what is standard and what is aftermarket, for instance I am pretty sure as the alarm/immobiliser set up is different from when I 1st owned the car.
One of the things that cropped up while trying to write down what button and what light did what, I found that the little display below the light switches was upside down so that when the side lights were on the fog light tell-tale lit up so that is now fixed too.
I ordered a set of Autostyle mats to replace my tatty ones. I got a carpet sample to check the colour match is ok first. They fit in nice and snugly and have some natty little clips to stop the drivers side mat from sliding forwards. This pleases me as I still remember the mat on my “S” sliding forward and jamming the throttle cable open, leading to an impromptu race with an E-type up a hill on the wrong side of the road before I had the presence of mind to drop the clutch and kill the ignition.
I have also managed to find a spare magnolia coloured headrest on Ebay at Douglas Valley breakers, I have ordered some colour dye from Furniture Clinic to recolour it with a small sample from under the seat for them to match the colour. I have the rest of the kit left over from refurbishing an armchair.
Finally I took the car out this week to do some shopping, and unfortunately the hesitancy is still there when cold so I have booked back into Str8six for diagnosis in early June.
Anyway here she is in the sun now!
Next, the inside of the doors was really scruffy, I was already planning to get a smart repair done on a nasty scrape on the family Volvo before I sold that, so I got Scott from Finishing Touch smart repairs in Newbury to have a look at the TVR as well. The doors looked like this
afterwards
Next up, I noticed the courtesy light did not come on when I opened either of the doors so I unscrewed the pin switch in each door and both were very green and corroded. I cleaned up both with emery cloth and contact cleaner and then I got a clear click from under the dashboard when opening the doors but still no light.
There is some very useful info at bertram-hill.com on the courtesy light relay and it looks to be more trouble than it is worth, so my plan was to pull it and short the pin switches directly to the courtesy light.
Looking at the fuse box in the footwell there was no obvious orange relay and no relay sound, so once again I popped off the dash top and had a look as that was the source of the clicking. There is a big grey relay which clicked when you opened the doors, but this has no connection to the courtesy light, so I guess it is related to the alarm or immobiliser. You can see it below with the big red “R” on top.
So, back into the footwell and here is the fusebox:
I did and some checks with a multimeter showed the bottom left relay socket (hidden by the ECU loom in the photo) was the door courtesy light one exactly as shown in the link above I checked the supplies first with the voltmeter and then I checked for resistance between the pin switch and ground with the door open and then closed, then checked resistance between the purple and red wire at the light and the light pin in the fuse box. I made up a little jumper lead with some automotive wire and a couple of Halfords spade connectors crimped and then soldered for good measure and all is working. I did also manage to find out the fuse for the interior light is 3rd in from the right. Turns out working on electrics when tired is a bad idea as fIrst time I plugged in the jumper wire I got the wrong hole and was rewarded with a small pop. While I was at it I gave the terminals and switch contacts in the light fitting a good clean so it should be good for another 27 years. I now just need to remember to make sure the doors are shut properly in the garage. I also bought an LED version of the courtesy light bulb to reduce the current draw as there is now no relay. This one is polarity ambivalent so it does work with the Chimaera courtesy light which is wired so the tip if the bulb contact is grounded and the body is 12V, so no modifications needed and is nice and bright.
The car did not come with a proper manual, just a photocopy of a poor quality scan of a 1997 one, so I added a request for a scan or loan of a 1993 manual for me to scan on another Chimaera thread. No luck on the scan, but glow worm” had a spare wallet and sent it to me - the kindness or PHers never ceases to amaze me! So to pay back I have tidied up the 1997 scanned images and OCRed the text and made a .docx version of the 1997 manual for anyone who wants it. It is scaled to fit Filofax personal refills which are easy to get. In the meantime I am modifying the 1997 manual to make a 1993 version or more accurately one which matches my car! I will print out and put in my new wallet. I will send that out too if anyone wants it, but it will be quite specific to my car as after 12 owners, I am not sure what is standard and what is aftermarket, for instance I am pretty sure as the alarm/immobiliser set up is different from when I 1st owned the car.
One of the things that cropped up while trying to write down what button and what light did what, I found that the little display below the light switches was upside down so that when the side lights were on the fog light tell-tale lit up so that is now fixed too.
I ordered a set of Autostyle mats to replace my tatty ones. I got a carpet sample to check the colour match is ok first. They fit in nice and snugly and have some natty little clips to stop the drivers side mat from sliding forwards. This pleases me as I still remember the mat on my “S” sliding forward and jamming the throttle cable open, leading to an impromptu race with an E-type up a hill on the wrong side of the road before I had the presence of mind to drop the clutch and kill the ignition.
I have also managed to find a spare magnolia coloured headrest on Ebay at Douglas Valley breakers, I have ordered some colour dye from Furniture Clinic to recolour it with a small sample from under the seat for them to match the colour. I have the rest of the kit left over from refurbishing an armchair.
Finally I took the car out this week to do some shopping, and unfortunately the hesitancy is still there when cold so I have booked back into Str8six for diagnosis in early June.
Anyway here she is in the sun now!
June 2020
I had managed a couple local runs and a couple of longer journeys to Slough, to sort out my mum’s garden. The cold hesitancy was still there but with the warmer weather, letting the car warm up before leaving was a usable workaround- sorry neighbours! The car ran well, tracked well, keeps cool and felts good and solid. Driving with the roof down in the sun is what it’s all about, but I keep getting caught in the rain. The various weather apps seem to be very bad at predicting showers.
The gearshift was also still a bit unwilling to go into 3rd and 4th gears and I also noticed the idle is running at 1000rpm which seems a bit fast so I booked it in to Str8six.
And of course a new issue cropped up, the drivers side window had stopped dead, thankfully while up. I could hear the relay faintly clicking in the door so it was not the switch, and because the passenger one is ok it was not the fuse. Both connectors behind the door speaker are fine and clean, so it was either the motor or the relay inside the door.
So I dropped the car with Str8six and they have resolved all the issues.
The gearshift selector has been adjusted and now the changes are great. The reversing light switch had got stuck and has now been unstuck! The cold running issue was down to a worn throttle pot which has been replaced with a new ACT one. Finally the motor on the drivers window had given up the ghost and had to be replaced.
The new throttle pot has really smoothed out the driving of the car now, there was some driveline shunt that has now almost completely gone.
However all was not going to be that easy. On the way back from Str8six, in the 30 degree heat, the car died on the A4142 by the Mini factory outside Oxford. I managed to pull over and a couple of guys from the factory helped me push it off the road. Jason from Str8Six drove over up with a new fuel pump relay (cheers Jason). While that did not cure it, bashing the pump with my metal water bottle did, at least for a few miles. A second thwack got me going again until it failed for a 3rd time on the A34
thankfully just by a lay-by. It was at this point I realised that I had put off paying for my roadside assistance as it had come up in April during lockdown and I had forgotten to renew it! A third piece of percussive maintenance got me going again, and with the logic that if I put my foot down, I would get more cool fuel from the tank with less recirculated hot fuel in the pump, that got me home.
Once home, I ordered a Bosch 0580464070, and set about changing the pump. I also bought some new 8mm fuel hose from my local auto factors to drain the tank with, and some fuel hose clips to replace the jubilee clips while I was at it. So, pump clamp bolts WD40ed, tank drained, battery disconnected, fuel line depressurised and off we went. Here is what I started with:
The car history showed the pump had been replaced in 2015 only 4000 miles ago, but it was not a Bosch - buy cheap - buy twice! While I was there I cleaned up and Hammerited the chassis around the fuel pump and the fuel pump mounting clamp which was looking a little crusty too. Taking off the fuel pump also showed some cracking in the high pressure fuel line to the filter which I replaced as well:
The condenser which is a little capacitor connected between the fuel pump positive supply and the chassis looked like it had been recovered from sub-sea reef, and although it tested ok, I thought I it was worth replacing while I was there. I could not find an identical part but this Nissan Vannette one from Ebay was made to fit by widening the hole for the earth connection and a little bending of the earth strap. Good news is that it works and the radio works fine.
All bolted together and it looks like this:
Another minor niggle was that my oil cap was cracked. New old stock on ebay goes for £30 a time, but I found an ebay lot which included a good second hand one and a pair of tappet chests for £12. My longer term plan is to get the tappet chest blasted and powder coated locally once I have drilled out the matching holes to mount the ignition lead clips as these are missing. Question is what colour. I am thinking original silver with black inside the grooves on the top.
Looks much better!
All bolted up, I refitted the battery, put 5 litres back in the tank, turned on the ignition and checked for leaks - all good. I have now done 125 miles since changing the pump - of mixed motorway, B roads and town driving (more miles than it did in 6 years of it's life!) and it now appears that everything now works! Frantically touches wood…. but just in case I have renewed by roadside recovery insurance!
I had managed a couple local runs and a couple of longer journeys to Slough, to sort out my mum’s garden. The cold hesitancy was still there but with the warmer weather, letting the car warm up before leaving was a usable workaround- sorry neighbours! The car ran well, tracked well, keeps cool and felts good and solid. Driving with the roof down in the sun is what it’s all about, but I keep getting caught in the rain. The various weather apps seem to be very bad at predicting showers.
The gearshift was also still a bit unwilling to go into 3rd and 4th gears and I also noticed the idle is running at 1000rpm which seems a bit fast so I booked it in to Str8six.
And of course a new issue cropped up, the drivers side window had stopped dead, thankfully while up. I could hear the relay faintly clicking in the door so it was not the switch, and because the passenger one is ok it was not the fuse. Both connectors behind the door speaker are fine and clean, so it was either the motor or the relay inside the door.
So I dropped the car with Str8six and they have resolved all the issues.
The gearshift selector has been adjusted and now the changes are great. The reversing light switch had got stuck and has now been unstuck! The cold running issue was down to a worn throttle pot which has been replaced with a new ACT one. Finally the motor on the drivers window had given up the ghost and had to be replaced.
The new throttle pot has really smoothed out the driving of the car now, there was some driveline shunt that has now almost completely gone.
However all was not going to be that easy. On the way back from Str8six, in the 30 degree heat, the car died on the A4142 by the Mini factory outside Oxford. I managed to pull over and a couple of guys from the factory helped me push it off the road. Jason from Str8Six drove over up with a new fuel pump relay (cheers Jason). While that did not cure it, bashing the pump with my metal water bottle did, at least for a few miles. A second thwack got me going again until it failed for a 3rd time on the A34
thankfully just by a lay-by. It was at this point I realised that I had put off paying for my roadside assistance as it had come up in April during lockdown and I had forgotten to renew it! A third piece of percussive maintenance got me going again, and with the logic that if I put my foot down, I would get more cool fuel from the tank with less recirculated hot fuel in the pump, that got me home.Once home, I ordered a Bosch 0580464070, and set about changing the pump. I also bought some new 8mm fuel hose from my local auto factors to drain the tank with, and some fuel hose clips to replace the jubilee clips while I was at it. So, pump clamp bolts WD40ed, tank drained, battery disconnected, fuel line depressurised and off we went. Here is what I started with:
The car history showed the pump had been replaced in 2015 only 4000 miles ago, but it was not a Bosch - buy cheap - buy twice! While I was there I cleaned up and Hammerited the chassis around the fuel pump and the fuel pump mounting clamp which was looking a little crusty too. Taking off the fuel pump also showed some cracking in the high pressure fuel line to the filter which I replaced as well:
The condenser which is a little capacitor connected between the fuel pump positive supply and the chassis looked like it had been recovered from sub-sea reef, and although it tested ok, I thought I it was worth replacing while I was there. I could not find an identical part but this Nissan Vannette one from Ebay was made to fit by widening the hole for the earth connection and a little bending of the earth strap. Good news is that it works and the radio works fine.
All bolted together and it looks like this:
Another minor niggle was that my oil cap was cracked. New old stock on ebay goes for £30 a time, but I found an ebay lot which included a good second hand one and a pair of tappet chests for £12. My longer term plan is to get the tappet chest blasted and powder coated locally once I have drilled out the matching holes to mount the ignition lead clips as these are missing. Question is what colour. I am thinking original silver with black inside the grooves on the top.
Looks much better!
All bolted up, I refitted the battery, put 5 litres back in the tank, turned on the ignition and checked for leaks - all good. I have now done 125 miles since changing the pump - of mixed motorway, B roads and town driving (more miles than it did in 6 years of it's life!) and it now appears that everything now works! Frantically touches wood…. but just in case I have renewed by roadside recovery insurance!
Last week the leather dye had arrived from Furniture Clinic, after a few weeks of Covid-delay so I had a go at re-clouring the replacement headrest. It looked like this when I got it!
I wire-brushed the mount and cleaning with the leather cleaner and prep and then after 1 sponge coat of dye is looked like this:
After 2 sponge coat of dye is looked like this:
After 4 spray coats of dye:
After 3 spray coats of the gloss sealant I had in my dye box, it looked ok but there was a difference between the original passenger headrest so I treated that to the same process and they now look like this:
There is a slight difference in glossiness which shows up on the photo more than in real life. If I do anything I may treat both the seats to match at some point, or I may get some less glossy sealant to finish them off. Mrs Spunagain thinks they look fine as they are!
I also just got insurance with Privilege for £160 for 5000 miles - after this much effort I am going to get some miles on this thing!
I wire-brushed the mount and cleaning with the leather cleaner and prep and then after 1 sponge coat of dye is looked like this:
After 2 sponge coat of dye is looked like this:
After 4 spray coats of dye:
After 3 spray coats of the gloss sealant I had in my dye box, it looked ok but there was a difference between the original passenger headrest so I treated that to the same process and they now look like this:
There is a slight difference in glossiness which shows up on the photo more than in real life. If I do anything I may treat both the seats to match at some point, or I may get some less glossy sealant to finish them off. Mrs Spunagain thinks they look fine as they are!
I also just got insurance with Privilege for £160 for 5000 miles - after this much effort I am going to get some miles on this thing!
Edited by Spunagain on Sunday 12th July 17:03
July 2020
Putting some miles on the car now as my work office is now open so I am going in twice a week and with the good weather it is getting plenty of use as a dad taxi. Last week I noticed the passenger door mirror glass was very wobbly so I had a look at that. I removed the mirror by tipping the glass up in the highest position using the electric mirror controls and used a screwdriver to move the tab at the bottom of the glass mounting to the left then pulling the mirror glass out. You can see the tab at the bottom of the photo below (just before I put a cloth over the door to prevent scratches in case I dropped the glass):
The foam tape was well beyond its usable life but was a pig to get off using a mix of contact cleaner and cellulose thinners. I would not use the cellulose again as while good at removing the adhesive, it also removed some of the sealant covering the circuit board that backs onto the mirror for the heating. I checked the continuity for the heater which was fine at about 7 Ohms. I then replaced the foam tape with double sided tape, put the mount back then fixed the mirror in the correct position.
So far it has survived another 140 miles so I count that as a success.
My eldest has started becoming more interested now that her boyfriend has bought himself a Mk1 MX5 which is spending a fair time in pieces on our drive!
Putting some miles on the car now as my work office is now open so I am going in twice a week and with the good weather it is getting plenty of use as a dad taxi. Last week I noticed the passenger door mirror glass was very wobbly so I had a look at that. I removed the mirror by tipping the glass up in the highest position using the electric mirror controls and used a screwdriver to move the tab at the bottom of the glass mounting to the left then pulling the mirror glass out. You can see the tab at the bottom of the photo below (just before I put a cloth over the door to prevent scratches in case I dropped the glass):
The foam tape was well beyond its usable life but was a pig to get off using a mix of contact cleaner and cellulose thinners. I would not use the cellulose again as while good at removing the adhesive, it also removed some of the sealant covering the circuit board that backs onto the mirror for the heating. I checked the continuity for the heater which was fine at about 7 Ohms. I then replaced the foam tape with double sided tape, put the mount back then fixed the mirror in the correct position.
So far it has survived another 140 miles so I count that as a success.
My eldest has started becoming more interested now that her boyfriend has bought himself a Mk1 MX5 which is spending a fair time in pieces on our drive!
October
Well I have been doing some more driving of the car which is nice but the car is now too embarrassing to be seen in for my 14 year old!
I noticed an oddity which I think is part Rover V8 quirk and part another fault. When starting the car the idle starts at about 2500rpm and after what seems like forever but is actually just a few seconds settles down to a 900rpm idle. I know the idle control stepper motor starts up wide open but this startup seems to have got a bit high and a bit antisocial towards my neighbors! To investigate I pulled off the hose between the throttle body and stepper motor and sure enough it had split at the stepper motor end.
As a temporary fix I bound up the split end with tape and refitted it and the initial idle dropped to 2000 rpm, so I ordered a new hose from ACT for £30 delivered, fitted it and the initial idle is still 2000. There were no hose clips on the original hose which I assume is ok as the hose is effectively under negative pressure. Here is the new ACT hose fitted:
I have got through a few tanks of fuel now and seem to be getting about 27mpg which seems fairly healthy and I have also ordered some Silkaflex 221 in advance of tackling the front headlamp reflectors and the rear light covers - jobs for the coming winter evenings.
Well I have been doing some more driving of the car which is nice but the car is now too embarrassing to be seen in for my 14 year old!
I noticed an oddity which I think is part Rover V8 quirk and part another fault. When starting the car the idle starts at about 2500rpm and after what seems like forever but is actually just a few seconds settles down to a 900rpm idle. I know the idle control stepper motor starts up wide open but this startup seems to have got a bit high and a bit antisocial towards my neighbors! To investigate I pulled off the hose between the throttle body and stepper motor and sure enough it had split at the stepper motor end.
As a temporary fix I bound up the split end with tape and refitted it and the initial idle dropped to 2000 rpm, so I ordered a new hose from ACT for £30 delivered, fitted it and the initial idle is still 2000. There were no hose clips on the original hose which I assume is ok as the hose is effectively under negative pressure. Here is the new ACT hose fitted:
I have got through a few tanks of fuel now and seem to be getting about 27mpg which seems fairly healthy and I have also ordered some Silkaflex 221 in advance of tackling the front headlamp reflectors and the rear light covers - jobs for the coming winter evenings.
November
Getting back from work in the dark recently I noticed that the rear number plate lighting was particularly feeble, so decided to do something about it. I bought a 1 metre sample of Aluminium foil for 99p from Ebay and a pair of “12 VOLT FESTOON LED BULBS 35 - 37 mm LLB272 272 warm white 10W equivalent replacements from Classic Car LEDs to replace the two existing 5 Watt incandescent number plate bulbs. While I was there I also got an LED reversing light as my 21W one is pretty dim as well.
The Reversing LED has not made much difference to be honest. There is a much brighter one available but that will look a bit out of place as it is a higher colour temperature.
I unscrewed and unstuck the number plate and cleaned up the void with white spirit and lined it with the foil tape and replaced the old festoon bulbs with the LED ones. Sorry no photos.
1 metre of tape was not enough so I popped to Halfords and got a 10M roll for £3.40 and some fresh clear double sided 3M tape to replace the original black tape.
Here is the number plate lighting before
And here is the difference!
I am very pleased with it and it should help make my little car a bit more visible at night.
I have managed to do 1,300 miles on it so far. I’ll probably stop at Christmas and look at the headlights and tail light covers. A really cheap solution to the headlights could be to use the Aluminum tape but that seems a bit cowboy even for me.
Getting back from work in the dark recently I noticed that the rear number plate lighting was particularly feeble, so decided to do something about it. I bought a 1 metre sample of Aluminium foil for 99p from Ebay and a pair of “12 VOLT FESTOON LED BULBS 35 - 37 mm LLB272 272 warm white 10W equivalent replacements from Classic Car LEDs to replace the two existing 5 Watt incandescent number plate bulbs. While I was there I also got an LED reversing light as my 21W one is pretty dim as well.
The Reversing LED has not made much difference to be honest. There is a much brighter one available but that will look a bit out of place as it is a higher colour temperature.
I unscrewed and unstuck the number plate and cleaned up the void with white spirit and lined it with the foil tape and replaced the old festoon bulbs with the LED ones. Sorry no photos.
1 metre of tape was not enough so I popped to Halfords and got a 10M roll for £3.40 and some fresh clear double sided 3M tape to replace the original black tape.
Here is the number plate lighting before
And here is the difference!
I am very pleased with it and it should help make my little car a bit more visible at night.
I have managed to do 1,300 miles on it so far. I’ll probably stop at Christmas and look at the headlights and tail light covers. A really cheap solution to the headlights could be to use the Aluminum tape but that seems a bit cowboy even for me.
Edited by Spunagain on Wednesday 6th January 15:13
Small update
MoT time! Booked in for 21 Jan, and took it out for a pre-MOT Italian tune up, but on starting the idle held at 3000 rpm until I blipped the throttle a few times. Time to clean the throttle butterfly perhaps? Removing the intake hose it looked like this before - so not too bad really.
After cleaning with contact cleaner (I had run out of carb cleaner) it looked like this:
Not perfect but better and this time the car started at 2000 rpm and then settled back down to the 1100 rpm fast idle. And once warm, it was happy at 900rpm. So it looked like the throttle was being held open a bit by the muck.
I then took it down to my local garage for it’s MoT and the testers 1st comment when he saw it was "Well that's going to fail!". But the gods were smiling on me and it passed with no advisories! The emissions all look great so I am a happy bunny, back on the road (once we are allowed outdoors again
). To be honest with all the work done on it and the lack of miles there is no reason why it should have failed, but you never know what curve balls these fantastic but sometimes frustrating cars can throw your way.
I have noticed it is a bit noisy from the back at speeds above 50mph, and with no problems with the wheel bearings noted on the MoT, it might be time to replace the elderly Accelera Alpha tyres with some new Avons or Toyos.
MoT time! Booked in for 21 Jan, and took it out for a pre-MOT Italian tune up, but on starting the idle held at 3000 rpm until I blipped the throttle a few times. Time to clean the throttle butterfly perhaps? Removing the intake hose it looked like this before - so not too bad really.
After cleaning with contact cleaner (I had run out of carb cleaner) it looked like this:
Not perfect but better and this time the car started at 2000 rpm and then settled back down to the 1100 rpm fast idle. And once warm, it was happy at 900rpm. So it looked like the throttle was being held open a bit by the muck.
I then took it down to my local garage for it’s MoT and the testers 1st comment when he saw it was "Well that's going to fail!". But the gods were smiling on me and it passed with no advisories! The emissions all look great so I am a happy bunny, back on the road (once we are allowed outdoors again
). To be honest with all the work done on it and the lack of miles there is no reason why it should have failed, but you never know what curve balls these fantastic but sometimes frustrating cars can throw your way.I have noticed it is a bit noisy from the back at speeds above 50mph, and with no problems with the wheel bearings noted on the MoT, it might be time to replace the elderly Accelera Alpha tyres with some new Avons or Toyos.
The Griffith was my 1st love as far as TVRs go but circumstances never lined up. I was offered a Silver 500 by a friend about 10 years ago and stIll regret not taking up his offer, partly down to fear that I could run out of talent very quickly in a 500 and partly with 2 small kids the Evora was the best car for that time! Best of luck with it and please put up a thread, it is always great to see another being brought back to life.
Sadly I have only managed 1260 miles this year which is much less than planned but not really surprising! Mrs Spunagain expected me to keep it for a year for old time sake and then pass it on. I think I will keep it for at least a couple more years (probably more) so I can enjoy a few more road trips and the occasional trip under the bonnet. For instance I really want to go down to Caffeine and Machine with Mrs Spunagain, my daughter and her BF in convoy.
Talking of the history of the car, here it is just before I sold it and just after I had taken delivery of my Elise.
The Elise arrived a couple of months early which caught me on the hop, and then, as now it can take a while to sell a TVR. Financially it could have been awkward but I was offered a loan by a family friend who had a (legitimate) cash business, which led me to walking into the bank with £20k in tens and twenties stuffed into a Tescos carrier bag (in my head to look inconspicuous!). Thankfully the loan was only for a couple of weeks as Runnymead sold it within days of me handing it over to them on SOR.
After I sold it Mrs Spunagain bought me a model as a birthday present, an SMTS model CL69. Image from the Do you have a miniature version of your classic? thread on the classics page. When I built it I did not get the right coulour (the model is painted in the paint code I originally had for the car) which should have warned me in advance that I would have trouble colour matching the real car when I got it back!
Talking of the history of the car, here it is just before I sold it and just after I had taken delivery of my Elise.
The Elise arrived a couple of months early which caught me on the hop, and then, as now it can take a while to sell a TVR. Financially it could have been awkward but I was offered a loan by a family friend who had a (legitimate) cash business, which led me to walking into the bank with £20k in tens and twenties stuffed into a Tescos carrier bag (in my head to look inconspicuous!). Thankfully the loan was only for a couple of weeks as Runnymead sold it within days of me handing it over to them on SOR.
After I sold it Mrs Spunagain bought me a model as a birthday present, an SMTS model CL69. Image from the Do you have a miniature version of your classic? thread on the classics page. When I built it I did not get the right coulour (the model is painted in the paint code I originally had for the car) which should have warned me in advance that I would have trouble colour matching the real car when I got it back!
Edited by Spunagain on Sunday 24th January 13:38
March 2021
With some enforced holidays to take, I decided to have a look at the headlights where the reflective plating on the headlight bowls was failing.
My plan was to get the bowls out and re-plated at http://www.silchrome.co.uk/.
First of all, I marked out the lighting pattern on the garage door with some tape so I could reset the beam positions.
My car is an early one so there is no access hole in front of the front wheels so I then unscrewed the front number plate and the front grille - lots of cross head self tappers. The grille seal was not fixed at all to the body and was just lying on top. The seal was in a pretty poor state so I ordered a couple of metres of the https://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/product/1775/rubber-extrusion from Woolies.
I took a couple of pictures of the headlamp pods from the inside - you can see the two studs holding each one in - the lower passenger one is already undone.
Passenger side
Driver’s side - you can also just see the lower screw holding in the headlamp bowl - held in with a 7mm nut.
I unscrewed the 2 studs on each side and then started to cut the mastic blobs at the top of the cowl, it was a pig and eventually I used some dental floss to cut into it to free it off.
Here are the exposed headlamps. The failed reflector is more visible on the passenger side.
Next was to dig into what looked like white kitchen sealant behind the blue paint using a stanley knife. The bowls were also not keen to let go and again I threaded some dental floss between the water vent at the bottom of the bowl and the holes for the adjustment screws at the side and broke the seals that way. I was then able to prise the lenses off with a screwdriver using doubled over cardboard to avoid damaging the paint as I levered them out.
Driver’s side free:
I then unscrewed the headlamp bowls - this is going to be a pig to put back together - everything was just wedged in and the wing nut adjustment was not used at all. The plastic wing nuts were loose about 2cm from the bodywork the lamps were just held in with tension. I replaced the bolts and the nylon wingnuts with stainless ones.
Here is the lower screw and spring (which is not supposed to be adjusted) from the passenger side.
I released the bowls with a lot of wriggling and unplugged them and sent photos to Silchrome who agreed to re-plate them for £150 for the pair and return them for the 6th of March. You can see a couple of threaded widgets that plug into the rubber grommets in the headlamp bowl.
I then removed the 3 grommets (bits of rubber pipe) on each bowl that held the fixings together and also marked the passenger and drivers sides as I bet they are sided and popped them in the post - I insured them for £1000 to at least part cover a Lupo conversion if they get lost!
Next I cleaned up around the headlamp hole and cleaned up the lenses ready for the refinished reflectors. I also cleaned up the electrical connections with some contact cleaner - but they were already in good nick.
While I was behind the grille I noticed a couple of other bits that could be looked at, the air filter bracket and mounting standoffs looked very rusty so I applied WD40 and pulled them out -urgh:
And I am glad I did - when removing the air filter - it had lumps of rusty paint inside it - the steel tube which links the air filter to the intake hose was rusting inside:
So I attacked the tube and mounts with the drill wire brush and a couple of coats of hammerite and replaced the mounting nuts with new stainless nylocks and new washers, the bolts were cleaned up and all assembled with plenty of Copperease. I also replaced a very rusty jubilee clip with a stainless one.
The diagonal bracing behind the grille was also covered in overspray, I cleaned this off with some thinners and the black satin paint also came off to reveal the original blue paint, so I masked it off and sprayed on some primer and satin black to tidy it up.
I also noticed a hole in the filler pipe for the wash bottle. Replacing it looked like a radiator out job so - bodge time, I put some Sikaflex 221 on the back of a cable tie and used that to block the hole.
I also re-taped up some of the alarm wiring which was starting to un-peel.
As promised Silchrome took 2 weeks to return the reflectors which looked much better:
However there were a couple of tiny spots where the nickel and silver did not take - tiny sub mm specs.
[[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50999572621_1dc91f70d9_c_d.jpg[/img
I sent the photos to Silchrome who agreed they should not be like that and I returned them for rework.
With the reflectors back a week later and looking great I reassembled the fitting bits - rubber hose bits into the reflectors, new stainless bolts, threaded widgets which fits into the rubber hose bits, washer spring, washer and then into the body, another washer and stainless wingnuts for the side bolts and 7mm nuts for the bottom bolts all with plenty of waterproof grease to protect it..
I have since joined the Chimaera owners group on Facebook and it looks like suitable bowls are available for £30 each. They do seem slightly different to mine in that they have cowls which cover the centre of the bulbs. https://www.hcqkaqc.top/index.php?main_page=produc...
I put masking tape all around the head light area and then each assembly was carefully fitted back in and adjusted to match my light pattern door markings. I was dreading this, but while it took me a few goes it was pretty straightforward.
I put a bead of Sikaflex 221 on the back of the lenses and stuck them down, held in place with masking tape. Then the following morning I masked off the lenses and the body and filled and smoothed the edges with more Sikaflex 221.
Then after lunch I added the blobs of Sikaflex 221 above the lenses and refastened headlamp cowls using the 2 studs on each side tightening so the fit looked right. I used some knurled nuts I had left over from the dashboard to make it easier next; time remembering to add plenty of copper slip.
While that was curing I trimmed the new piece of ‘S’ trim to make a new grille surround and refitted the grille. This was the worst part of the whole chapter. It would have been much easier in warmer weather, as even with softening the trim with hot soapy water, it soon firmed up in the cold air. I can see why the last person to fit the grille had just bolted on top of the surround:
Here it is properly fitted waiting for the headlamp cowls to cure. Looks much better than before:
Finally as a bit of titivation I also removed the crankcase breather flame trap which was looking like a brown rusty lump:
I attacked it with the wire brush and a couple of coats of spray very high temperature paint - much better:
So back on the road for spring!
With some enforced holidays to take, I decided to have a look at the headlights where the reflective plating on the headlight bowls was failing.
My plan was to get the bowls out and re-plated at http://www.silchrome.co.uk/.
First of all, I marked out the lighting pattern on the garage door with some tape so I could reset the beam positions.
My car is an early one so there is no access hole in front of the front wheels so I then unscrewed the front number plate and the front grille - lots of cross head self tappers. The grille seal was not fixed at all to the body and was just lying on top. The seal was in a pretty poor state so I ordered a couple of metres of the https://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/product/1775/rubber-extrusion from Woolies.
I took a couple of pictures of the headlamp pods from the inside - you can see the two studs holding each one in - the lower passenger one is already undone.
Passenger side
Driver’s side - you can also just see the lower screw holding in the headlamp bowl - held in with a 7mm nut.
I unscrewed the 2 studs on each side and then started to cut the mastic blobs at the top of the cowl, it was a pig and eventually I used some dental floss to cut into it to free it off.
Here are the exposed headlamps. The failed reflector is more visible on the passenger side.
Next was to dig into what looked like white kitchen sealant behind the blue paint using a stanley knife. The bowls were also not keen to let go and again I threaded some dental floss between the water vent at the bottom of the bowl and the holes for the adjustment screws at the side and broke the seals that way. I was then able to prise the lenses off with a screwdriver using doubled over cardboard to avoid damaging the paint as I levered them out.
Driver’s side free:
I then unscrewed the headlamp bowls - this is going to be a pig to put back together - everything was just wedged in and the wing nut adjustment was not used at all. The plastic wing nuts were loose about 2cm from the bodywork
the lamps were just held in with tension. I replaced the bolts and the nylon wingnuts with stainless ones.Here is the lower screw and spring (which is not supposed to be adjusted) from the passenger side.
I released the bowls with a lot of wriggling and unplugged them and sent photos to Silchrome who agreed to re-plate them for £150 for the pair and return them for the 6th of March. You can see a couple of threaded widgets that plug into the rubber grommets in the headlamp bowl.
I then removed the 3 grommets (bits of rubber pipe) on each bowl that held the fixings together and also marked the passenger and drivers sides as I bet they are sided and popped them in the post - I insured them for £1000 to at least part cover a Lupo conversion if they get lost!
Next I cleaned up around the headlamp hole and cleaned up the lenses ready for the refinished reflectors. I also cleaned up the electrical connections with some contact cleaner - but they were already in good nick.
While I was behind the grille I noticed a couple of other bits that could be looked at, the air filter bracket and mounting standoffs looked very rusty so I applied WD40 and pulled them out -urgh:
And I am glad I did - when removing the air filter - it had lumps of rusty paint inside it - the steel tube which links the air filter to the intake hose was rusting inside:
So I attacked the tube and mounts with the drill wire brush and a couple of coats of hammerite and replaced the mounting nuts with new stainless nylocks and new washers, the bolts were cleaned up and all assembled with plenty of Copperease. I also replaced a very rusty jubilee clip with a stainless one.
The diagonal bracing behind the grille was also covered in overspray, I cleaned this off with some thinners and the black satin paint also came off to reveal the original blue paint, so I masked it off and sprayed on some primer and satin black to tidy it up.
I also noticed a hole in the filler pipe for the wash bottle. Replacing it looked like a radiator out job so - bodge time, I put some Sikaflex 221 on the back of a cable tie and used that to block the hole.
I also re-taped up some of the alarm wiring which was starting to un-peel.
As promised Silchrome took 2 weeks to return the reflectors which looked much better:
However there were a couple of tiny spots where the nickel and silver did not take - tiny sub mm specs.
[[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50999572621_1dc91f70d9_c_d.jpg[/img
I sent the photos to Silchrome who agreed they should not be like that and I returned them for rework.
With the reflectors back a week later and looking great I reassembled the fitting bits - rubber hose bits into the reflectors, new stainless bolts, threaded widgets which fits into the rubber hose bits, washer spring, washer and then into the body, another washer and stainless wingnuts for the side bolts and 7mm nuts for the bottom bolts all with plenty of waterproof grease to protect it..
I have since joined the Chimaera owners group on Facebook and it looks like suitable bowls are available for £30 each. They do seem slightly different to mine in that they have cowls which cover the centre of the bulbs. https://www.hcqkaqc.top/index.php?main_page=produc...
I put masking tape all around the head light area and then each assembly was carefully fitted back in and adjusted to match my light pattern door markings. I was dreading this, but while it took me a few goes it was pretty straightforward.
I put a bead of Sikaflex 221 on the back of the lenses and stuck them down, held in place with masking tape. Then the following morning I masked off the lenses and the body and filled and smoothed the edges with more Sikaflex 221.
Then after lunch I added the blobs of Sikaflex 221 above the lenses and refastened headlamp cowls using the 2 studs on each side tightening so the fit looked right. I used some knurled nuts I had left over from the dashboard to make it easier next; time remembering to add plenty of copper slip.
While that was curing I trimmed the new piece of ‘S’ trim to make a new grille surround and refitted the grille. This was the worst part of the whole chapter. It would have been much easier in warmer weather, as even with softening the trim with hot soapy water, it soon firmed up in the cold air. I can see why the last person to fit the grille had just bolted on top of the surround:
Here it is properly fitted waiting for the headlamp cowls to cure. Looks much better than before:
Finally as a bit of titivation I also removed the crankcase breather flame trap which was looking like a brown rusty lump:
I attacked it with the wire brush and a couple of coats of spray very high temperature paint - much better:
So back on the road for spring!
Edited by Spunagain on Monday 22 March 08:43 to correct name of the goop to Sikaflex 221 which is what I actually used
Edited by Spunagain on Thursday 22 April 15:07
Time to sort the radio out.
The Sony Xplod FM radio CD that came with the car combined with the dodgy Vibe 6x9s in the back fire wall combined to make a pretty awful audio experience in terms of audio quality for CDs and awful radio reception. The Focal speakers I fitted in the doors could not rescue that. From memory I know it can do better.
Now before you all pile in to tell me I should be listening to the V8, my view is that to drive the number of miles you need to to keep the car happy, you need to do some boring commutes on the motorway, and a good stereo helps. Also I have a biblically awful sense of direction so for me, sat nav is a must for road trips into the unknown.
I looked for a single DIN sat nav head unit and these don’t exist apart from the ones with the motorised screens which I really don’t like. So it came down to either the Pioneer SPH-10BT or SPH-20DAB. Both have a little clamp that pops out of the front which you can clip your phone onto which uses an app to run the stereo controls.
I chose the 20DAB as it has a bit more power and I thought I would give DAB a go. I found an ex demo on eBay for 99.99 and a Pioneer AN-DAB1 clone antenna for less than a tenner.
For the rear speakers I found some 2nd hand Infinity 9313i 6x9s for less than £50. These replaced the nasty Vibe units that someone used to replace the very nice Infinity’s that I fitted when I originally owned the car. The Ebay auction was pick-up only so a good excuse for a trip to Portsmouth to collect them - the longest journey so far without a hitch
However when fitting them, it looks like the Vibe speakers had been connected incorrectly with one side with reversed polarity which may explain some of the awful performance. That said, the boot cover for the rear speakers was done really nicely.
Anyway much better:
I noticed the original boot vents are still there which may not be helping with my bass response.
Now for the stereo. I pulled the old one and connected up the new one I pulled out lots of unused connectors and soldered the following connections into the Pioneer ISO power loom:
You can see where I soldered the green Hand Brake sense wire into the spade connector on the lamp mount:
I disconnected and the original FM antenna and fitted this powered dipole antenna from Halfords: https://www.halfords.com/motoring/car-accessories/... only £4 and I did a bit of work to optimise its position. I installed the Pioneer Smart Sync App, paired the phone and I moved the FM antenna around using the signal strength meter on the phone radio display which helped place it.
After a bit of experimentation I decided horizontally under the dash. I decided not to glue it to the dash cover as it would make dash removal even more of a hassle, so I stuck it to the back of the dash. Oddly the performance was better with the braided tail not connected to ground. The final position was about 4 inches to the right from its original position which changed 1 signal bar into 5 bars.
I then ran the DAB antenna to the passenger side of the dash and slid the little flexi di-pole under the leatherette trim below the windscreen with the little box tucked in the void for the ventilation vent. The self adhesive sticker was useless so I used the same 3M double sided tape that I used for the wing mirror glass:
While I was behind the dash I had a look at the back light for the oil pressure gauge - it had always been much brighter than the others, the bulb was a 5W like the others so I have put a little bit of heat shrink over part of the bulb which has made a massive difference.
Finally I mounted the hands-free microphone onto the central tunnel and ran the cable under the carpet in the central dash cubby hole. You can also see the phone mount - the phone clamp just clears the radio surround which is perfect and the app works nicely for Google maps and Spotify. The phone mount is a good solid affair which was something I was unduly worried about:
The radio panel was refitted with a combination of the 3M tape around the edges of the radio aperture and 2 hex head black stainless cap screws.I fitted a couple of clips for them to grip on to and while they just hold I think I need to get the next size up for them to be fully secure.
Initial testing with the engine off was good, I could get plenty of DAB stations and most importantly I could get Radio 4 and Planet Rock. The FM was not so great but miles better than before and I could get all the BBC channels clearly.
Next I had a go at setting up the EQ. I used an app on my iPad called HouseCurve
This sends a swept test tone “whoop -> squeak” over Bluetooth to the stereo and uses the iPad microphone to capture and plot a response curve of the stereo.
So as a reference I ran it on my Tesla model S which has a pretty good standard sound system set up the way I like it.
For the TVR the response looked like this with the default settings:
Using the Pioneer’s 13 band EQ I flattened the response out as best I could to give me a good baseline. I also dug deeper into the menus and found all the speakers had a high pass filter at 100Hz so I turned that off for the rears, I also found the dip at 80Hz was due to the speakers being connected incorrectly - there must be another break and join between the speakers and the head unit. This is what I was left with, there is more I can do but I will do some more optimising while on the road.
I have tried out the hands free phone and with the targa panel off I could be understood at 60 mph so I am calling that a win although to hear here I had the volume on full!
Overall for the entire system I spent less than £260 for what is a pretty good sounding system:
Focal 130AC 13cm speakers: £89.00
Infinity 9313i 6” x 9” speakers £50
Pioneer SPH-20DAB Stereo £99.99
Pioneer AN-DAB1 clone DAB antenna £9.95
Halfords Powered FM Dipole antenna £4.00
House curve App £3.95
Total £256.89
I think a next step would be to add an external amplifier, while it is advertised on the Pioneer site as having 50W per channel, digging into the head unit manual, it actually states 22W per channel continuous.I do have an old Sony XM2545 4/3/2ch amp I was given with maximum output: 50w for 4ch Output power: or 25w for 4 channels but that requires more surgery to fit the Amp and meatier power supplies, and I am not sure where I would fit it as it is a big old beast so I will skip that for now as the gain is pretty marginal. May be I will look at at a class D amp which is more efficient and smaller such as a Pioneer GM-D1004 which gives 4 x 45 W (20 kHz - 20 kHz / 4Ω) or 2 x 90 W (1 kHz / 4Ω bridge), but see how I get on with my current system.
I will put the old stereo and speakers up on eBay.
The Sony Xplod FM radio CD that came with the car combined with the dodgy Vibe 6x9s in the back fire wall combined to make a pretty awful audio experience in terms of audio quality for CDs and awful radio reception. The Focal speakers I fitted in the doors could not rescue that. From memory I know it can do better.
Now before you all pile in to tell me I should be listening to the V8, my view is that to drive the number of miles you need to to keep the car happy, you need to do some boring commutes on the motorway, and a good stereo helps. Also I have a biblically awful sense of direction so for me, sat nav is a must for road trips into the unknown.
I looked for a single DIN sat nav head unit and these don’t exist apart from the ones with the motorised screens which I really don’t like. So it came down to either the Pioneer SPH-10BT or SPH-20DAB. Both have a little clamp that pops out of the front which you can clip your phone onto which uses an app to run the stereo controls.
I chose the 20DAB as it has a bit more power and I thought I would give DAB a go. I found an ex demo on eBay for 99.99 and a Pioneer AN-DAB1 clone antenna for less than a tenner.
For the rear speakers I found some 2nd hand Infinity 9313i 6x9s for less than £50. These replaced the nasty Vibe units that someone used to replace the very nice Infinity’s that I fitted when I originally owned the car. The Ebay auction was pick-up only so a good excuse for a trip to Portsmouth to collect them - the longest journey so far without a hitch
However when fitting them, it looks like the Vibe speakers had been connected incorrectly with one side with reversed polarity which may explain some of the awful performance. That said, the boot cover for the rear speakers was done really nicely.Anyway much better:
I noticed the original boot vents are still there which may not be helping with my bass response.
Now for the stereo. I pulled the old one and connected up the new one I pulled out lots of unused connectors and soldered the following connections into the Pioneer ISO power loom:
| My TVR Loom | ISO Connector | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Red/White | Orange/White | Lights |
| Red | Yellow | 12V continuous |
| Black | Black | Ground |
| Green/Black | Red | 12V Ignition |
| Red-Halfords FM antenna supply | Blue/white | 12V FM antenna amplifier |
| Black/Yellow from Handbrake lamp spade | Light Green | Hand brake switch (Brake on=Gnd) |
| Not connected | Violet/White | For reversing sensors -not used |
You can see where I soldered the green Hand Brake sense wire into the spade connector on the lamp mount:
I disconnected and the original FM antenna and fitted this powered dipole antenna from Halfords: https://www.halfords.com/motoring/car-accessories/... only £4 and I did a bit of work to optimise its position. I installed the Pioneer Smart Sync App, paired the phone and I moved the FM antenna around using the signal strength meter on the phone radio display which helped place it.
After a bit of experimentation I decided horizontally under the dash. I decided not to glue it to the dash cover as it would make dash removal even more of a hassle, so I stuck it to the back of the dash. Oddly the performance was better with the braided tail not connected to ground. The final position was about 4 inches to the right from its original position which changed 1 signal bar into 5 bars.
I then ran the DAB antenna to the passenger side of the dash and slid the little flexi di-pole under the leatherette trim below the windscreen with the little box tucked in the void for the ventilation vent. The self adhesive sticker was useless so I used the same 3M double sided tape that I used for the wing mirror glass:
While I was behind the dash I had a look at the back light for the oil pressure gauge - it had always been much brighter than the others, the bulb was a 5W like the others so I have put a little bit of heat shrink over part of the bulb which has made a massive difference.
Finally I mounted the hands-free microphone onto the central tunnel and ran the cable under the carpet in the central dash cubby hole. You can also see the phone mount - the phone clamp just clears the radio surround which is perfect and the app works nicely for Google maps and Spotify. The phone mount is a good solid affair which was something I was unduly worried about:
The radio panel was refitted with a combination of the 3M tape around the edges of the radio aperture and 2 hex head black stainless cap screws.I fitted a couple of clips for them to grip on to and while they just hold I think I need to get the next size up for them to be fully secure.
Initial testing with the engine off was good, I could get plenty of DAB stations and most importantly I could get Radio 4 and Planet Rock. The FM was not so great but miles better than before and I could get all the BBC channels clearly.
Next I had a go at setting up the EQ. I used an app on my iPad called HouseCurve
This sends a swept test tone “whoop -> squeak” over Bluetooth to the stereo and uses the iPad microphone to capture and plot a response curve of the stereo.
So as a reference I ran it on my Tesla model S which has a pretty good standard sound system set up the way I like it.
For the TVR the response looked like this with the default settings:
Using the Pioneer’s 13 band EQ I flattened the response out as best I could to give me a good baseline. I also dug deeper into the menus and found all the speakers had a high pass filter at 100Hz so I turned that off for the rears, I also found the dip at 80Hz was due to the speakers being connected incorrectly - there must be another break and join between the speakers and the head unit. This is what I was left with, there is more I can do but I will do some more optimising while on the road.
I have tried out the hands free phone and with the targa panel off I could be understood at 60 mph so I am calling that a win although to hear here I had the volume on full!
Overall for the entire system I spent less than £260 for what is a pretty good sounding system:
Focal 130AC 13cm speakers: £89.00
Infinity 9313i 6” x 9” speakers £50
Pioneer SPH-20DAB Stereo £99.99
Pioneer AN-DAB1 clone DAB antenna £9.95
Halfords Powered FM Dipole antenna £4.00
House curve App £3.95
Total £256.89
I think a next step would be to add an external amplifier, while it is advertised on the Pioneer site as having 50W per channel, digging into the head unit manual, it actually states 22W per channel continuous.I do have an old Sony XM2545 4/3/2ch amp I was given with maximum output: 50w for 4ch Output power: or 25w for 4 channels but that requires more surgery to fit the Amp and meatier power supplies, and I am not sure where I would fit it as it is a big old beast so I will skip that for now as the gain is pretty marginal. May be I will look at at a class D amp which is more efficient and smaller such as a Pioneer GM-D1004 which gives 4 x 45 W (20 kHz - 20 kHz / 4Ω) or 2 x 90 W (1 kHz / 4Ω bridge), but see how I get on with my current system.
I will put the old stereo and speakers up on eBay.
Nice work! I’m after a Sagaris bible to help with working on my Tuscan, they’re rarer to find now.
Those stereos seem popular because of the phone connection. Does the phone wobble a lot in transit or the bracket is pretty secure? Does the bracket have any left or right ‘angling’?
Thanks!
Those stereos seem popular because of the phone connection. Does the phone wobble a lot in transit or the bracket is pretty secure? Does the bracket have any left or right ‘angling’?
Thanks!
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