Another body off thread.

[Dougal9887]

Interesting read as I am about to embark on the same project, also using a two post lift.
So first question......
Will I get away with using the axle stands I have, which with a block of wood on them will measure about 20". My measurements indicate that when the body is lowered onto these and the chassis is sitting back on the wheels, there will be room to swing the arms in between. Am I missing something here???
Dougal.

[Steve_D]

Dougal9887 said:

Interesting read as I am about to embark on the same project, also using a two post lift.
So first question......
Will I get away with using the axle stands I have, which with a block of wood on them will measure about 20". My measurements indicate that when the body is lowered onto these and the chassis is sitting back on the wheels, there will be room to swing the arms in between. Am I missing something here???
Dougal.

No the only issue is if you forget something like Alun and his vent pipe still cable tied to the chassis. Getting under there to release thinks will be tight. At 16 stone and 70YO I need all the free access I can get.

Having said that there is nothing stopping you from building some cribbing platforms to put the axle stands on. The body is not overly heavy.

Steve

[Dougal9887]

Hmm. Definite possibility. I'll measure clearance require for roller trolley (and me!)
Thanks, Dougal.

[QBee]

Dougal9887 said:

Hmm. Definite possibility. I'll measure clearance require for roller trolley (and me!)
Thanks, Dougal.

Depending on timing, Dougal, don't forget to allow for either or both of sporran and Hogmanay....

[Classic Chim]

I’ve asked this before so sorry for the repetition but has anyone got the correct spec for outrigger tubing please.
Been to my local steel stockist with a bit of rigger and they can’t be sure what size it is.
So size and steel spec would be very helpful.
Thanks

[mk1fan]

Give Mat Smith a call. He uses CDS rather than the rolled and welded the factory used. He also went up in the thickness which has a few passive benefits.

[phazed]

For Alun.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[Steve_D]

Classic Chim said:

..............So size and steel spec would be very helpful.
Thanks

ERW mild steel tube 38.1 x 1.62 or back in the day 1.5" x 16SWG

You can go seamless and increase the wall thickness but if you apply a decent finish it will last you another 20 years by which time you will not be worrying about rusty riggers you will be wondering if you can get out of the chair and make it to the loo in time.

If you can't find it local Metals4u will deliver next day as standard and are reasonably priced.

Steve

[Classic Chim]

Steve_D said:

ERW mild steel tube 38.1 x 1.62 or back in the day 1.5" x 16SWG

You can go seamless and increase the wall thickness but if you apply a decent finish it will last you another 20 years by which time you will not be worrying about rusty riggers you will be wondering if you can get out of the chair and make it to the loo in time.

If you can't find it local Metals4u will deliver next day as standard and are reasonably priced.

Steve

I think you told me last time Steve! I’ve lost my scrap of paper,,, duly noted down. Thanks

[ChimpOnGas]

Any rusty outrotter shots yet Alun?

We all love a good set of rotton chassis photos

I'll be sharing mine soon... I bet it's worse than yours

[Classic Chim]

ChimpOnGas said:

Any rusty outrotter shots yet Alun?

We all love a good set of rotton chassis photos

I'll be sharing mine soon... I bet it's worse than yours

I still can’t get any of them to load up!
Tried what others have said but I’m going via photo’s I took with iPad so straight from files, don’t get any message relating to photo size other than when emailing Them?
Weird as others taken moments before load ok. Hmm.

Rotton o/s front mostly. N/s surprisingly intact but well gone really. Main section ok ish but I’ve not had chance to look closer yet. Engine out so what will be will be.
It’s rather sad the only bit that needed to be coated properly wasn't or these cars would be perfect to this day. Hey ho Dave.
Anyway where the pics from your body off,,, it’s all interesting stuff.

Edited by Classic Chim on Wednesday 11th December 19:52

[ChimpOnGas]

Try compressing your photos Alun as I suspect image size is your issue, there's a limit to the size of the photos you can upload before the system rejects them.

My car has been with Alex Wheatly in Sheffield for a couple of weeks now so I'm expecting him to start removing the body soon, mine will be an armchair restoration so respect to you for getting stuck in yourself in these chilly temps.

Are you going with paint or powder coat? If you choose paint then Jotamastic 90 aluminium two pack epoxy mastic is the mutt's nuts, if its good enough to be the go-to paint for oil rigs and ship hulls its easily good enough for a TVR Chassis.

[Classic Chim]

I’ve had a closer look.
Mines not so bad.
It just needs outriggers, I’ve looked at top chassis rails and it’s surface rust only thank god.
Proper rub down before I decide but I’m moving towards riggers and decent paint.
Tomorrow I’m going to clean off all the chassis and have an experienced metal worker/ welder help me decide.
He already thinks chassis is 80% ok, I’ve already rubbed main bottom rails down before so not expecting anything to bad there.

Wishbones etc will all want doing, main section has no rust above bottom rails other than a few bits around Dif area, considering it’s a late chassis the powder coat is good, clean the muck off it’s shiny

If anyone’s interested there are chassis pics on Facebook.

[TJC46]

Classic Chim said:

I’ve had a closer look.
Mines not so bad.
It just needs outriggers, I’ve looked at top chassis rails and it’s surface rust only thank god.
Proper rub down before I decide but I’m moving towards riggers and decent paint.
Tomorrow I’m going to clean off all the chassis and have an experienced metal worker/ welder help me decide.
He already thinks chassis is 80% ok, I’ve already rubbed main bottom rails down before so not expecting anything to bad there.

Wishbones etc will all want doing, main section has no rust above bottom rails other than a few bits around Dif area, considering it’s a late chassis the powder coat is good, clean the muck off it’s shiny

If anyone’s interested there are chassis pics on Facebook.

Now you have come this far you MUST have the chassis bead / shot blasted to remove all the powder coat, good or bad.

After stripping everything off the chassis i then thoroughly degreased / cleaned everything and checked it all over for any rot. Once i was happy it was only

the outriggers, i had new ones welded in then off to be blasted and 1st coat primed straight after.

[TwinKam]

According to Steve and Rich at Southways (who have done a fair few!) the best way to check for soundness is to have the whole chassis shot blasted... apparently it is the 'Carlsberg' of rot finding, reaching the parts that other methods cannot...

[blaze_away]

ChimpOnGas said:

Classic Chim said:

I’ve had a closer look.
Mines not so bad.
It just needs outriggers, I’ve looked at top chassis rails and it’s surface rust only thank god.
Proper rub down before I decide but I’m moving towards riggers and decent paint.
Tomorrow I’m going to clean off all the chassis and have an experienced metal worker/ welder help me decide.
He already thinks chassis is 80% ok, I’ve already rubbed main bottom rails down before so not expecting anything to bad there.

Great news, the way I look at it if the backbone has lasted this long its not like it's going to crumble tomorrow.

If its lasted this long I'd replace the outriggers, de-rust and remove any loose powder coat, key & paint the lot with a decent 2k epoxy mastic and enjoy the car for the next 20-30 years.

These are £13k cars so the investment needs to be proportional to the value of the car, that doesn't mean corners should be cut but let's not get carried away folks.

Fully agree with this. Having looked at the chassis with Alun it really is in remarkably good nick with just the outriggers needing attention and even they are no where near as bad as many before have posted.

[ChimpOnGas]

blaze_away said:

ChimpOnGas said:

Classic Chim said:

I’ve had a closer look.
Mines not so bad.
It just needs outriggers, I’ve looked at top chassis rails and it’s surface rust only thank god.
Proper rub down before I decide but I’m moving towards riggers and decent paint.
Tomorrow I’m going to clean off all the chassis and have an experienced metal worker/ welder help me decide.
He already thinks chassis is 80% ok, I’ve already rubbed main bottom rails down before so not expecting anything to bad there.

Great news, the way I look at it if the backbone has lasted this long its not like it's going to crumble tomorrow.

If its lasted this long I'd replace the outriggers, de-rust and remove any loose powder coat, key & paint the lot with a decent 2k epoxy mastic and enjoy the car for the next 20-30 years.

These are £13k cars so the investment needs to be proportional to the value of the car, that doesn't mean corners should be cut but let's not get carried away folks.

Fully agree with this. Having looked at the chassis with Alun it really is in remarkably good nick with just the outriggers needing attention and even they are no where near as bad as many before have posted.

Have a look at this excellent video.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UEFymmetls

It's part 3 of a whole body off series and its well worth watching every one, these videos show better than any photos I've seen what is commonly found when the body is lifted and corresponds more or less exactly what Alun has discovered after lifting his body. At arround the 11 minute point the body is off and you get a truly excellent view of the whole chassis, what's quite clear is the main backbone is in very good shape indeed.

Obviously the outriggers need cutting out as covered in video 4 which includes the jetwashing of the main chassis afterwhich there's loads more footage of just how well the chassis has survived, jump to video 5 and there's some even better close ups of the chassis. The whole video series covers the body off chassis refurb of a 1996 siver/grey chassis car so the same as my Chimaera, to me his chassis really just needs new outriggers and all the welds on the rest of the structure cleaning up (mechanically de-rusting) then painting.

The videos very comprehensively show us what my Chimaera is about to go through and demonstrate why taking the body off is the right way to complete outrigger replacement, this is why I chose Alex Wheatley as for more or less what most charge to fit new outriggers with the body on he completes the work with the body completely removed. The videos also demonstrate just how well the main chassis structure lasts on our cars, it's pretty clear if all his chassis recieved was new outriggers it would easily last another 20 to 30 years.

This guy on the other hand bough his Chimaera that had had new outriggers fitted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsYbiHZlvb4

But within a year or so he found he was spending another £9k on a full chassis restoration at Central TVR, in four years of ownership he'd spent the best part of £20k on a car thats worth £13.5k which just doesnt make sense to me.

By contrast I've already had 10 years of use out of my Chimaera, all I've done with the chassis in that time was to have it steam cleaned (year two of buying the car) and coated in a two stage Dinitrol treatment which kept the rot a bay until now by which time I'd found the right guy to lift the body and replace my ootriggers properly and for a sensible price

My body off chassis restoration from Alex Wheatly is £1,800, I then added the £150 option of seemless tube plus I myself purchased the Jotamastic 90 aluminium epoxy mastic paint & thinners which came in at £100.00, this gives me a total cost of £2,050.00. Of course there will be extras, for example it makes sense to address my oil leaks with the body off so Alex will be fitting a new valley gasket, OP switch and a few other bits and bobs plus de-rusting and painting the rest of the chassis where required.

It's a proper body off outrigger job using industrial marine grade paint not chip prone powder coat all completed in a reasonable time frame for sensible money over a couple of winter months when I tend to use the car least, come February my Chimaera will be back on the road again ready to face the next 25 to 30 years of use before the chassis needs looking at again.

And to be clear in 30 years time I will be aproaching 80 years old so I doubt I'll be worrying about the chassis on a car I probably sold 10 years previously, I respect all these nut and bolt chassis restorations we see that cost a good £8k to 10k if you recruit a proffesional to do it for you, but I can't help asking the question...

"Who are these people actually restoring their chassis for?"

[TJC46]

I applaud everything you have done so far, but i do not understand you not blasting the whole chassis.

You have come this far, and you only want to do this job once !

Painting over powder coat, no matter how good it looks would for me be a big for me.

For only a little extra cost and time, you can blast everything. Mine had only a little rot, but all the welds were rusty.

Why bother with just a mechanical prep on the welds ?

The perfect "key" for any 2 pack epoxy paint system is the bare, and quite rough surface after blasting.

I would want the paint to adhere to the bare metal, and not just adhere to the top surface of the powder coating.

Painting over the powder coat could lead to future problems when you have chip damage to the paint, [which happens]

In my case this is a local paint repair, the damage is just where the paint was chipped.

But in your scenario, rather than being just a local paint repair, there could be water damage happening under the powder coat that you cannot see, and no

amount of paint will stop that happening.

I work in the petrochemical industry and we use 2 pack epoxy paints all the time.

We do use mechanical means of prep on small paint repair areas,but most of our work is blasted before paint.

It is 10 years almost since i repaired, blasted and 2 pack painted my chassis and it still looks as new.

It is your car, and your choice of what to do with your chassis, but i am just trying to be helpful, and pass on some of my 30 plus years of working within an

industry that uses 2 pack epoxy paints all the time.

[motul1974]

TJC46 said:

I applaud everything you have done so far, but i do not understand you not blasting the whole chassis.

You have come this far, and you only want to do this job once !

Painting over powder coat, no matter how good it looks would for me be a big for me.

For only a little extra cost and time, you can blast everything. Mine had only a little rot, but all the welds were rusty.

Why bother with just a mechanical prep on the welds ?

The perfect "key" for any 2 pack epoxy paint system is the bare, and quite rough surface after blasting.

I would want the paint to adhere to the bare metal, and not just adhere to the top surface of the powder coating.

Painting over the powder coat could lead to future problems when you have chip damage to the paint, [which happens]

In my case this is a local paint repair, the damage is just where the paint was chipped.

But in your scenario, rather than being just a local paint repair, there could be water damage happening under the powder coat that you cannot see, and no

amount of paint will stop that happening.

I work in the petrochemical industry and we use 2 pack epoxy paints all the time.

We do use mechanical means of prep on small paint repair areas,but most of our work is blasted before paint.

It is 10 years almost since i repaired, blasted and 2 pack painted my chassis and it still looks as new.

It is your car, and your choice of what to do with your chassis, but i am just trying to be helpful, and pass on some of my 30 plus years of working within an

industry that uses 2 pack epoxy paints all the time.

It's TJC's paint I used on my chassis.

I started the strip down not knowing how far I was gunna go, but once the body was off and engine and box out.....it just made sense to go ALL the way. My central spine was much like yours and my out riggers still has a few years left on them, but I decided in the end 'in for a penny'!

[phazed]

ChimpOnGas said:

"Who are these people actually restoring their chassis for?"

Some people have plenty of time and money and are quite happy to spend some cash for themselves and the future of the car.