Body lift help / outrigger replacement help

[Whizz65]

Just had Rob from find a sports car around to look at my car, really nice guy and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him. I’ll be definitely using him when I purchase my next TVR.

He found the seat belt anchor points needed replacing which is worrying and the outrigger on the front passenger side not too good, not holed but getting ready.
The chassis has been waxoiled but I’m guessing the damage was done in the first few years of its life when it was used as an everyday drive for someone.

So thinking of doing a body lift over the next few months myself, fairly handy and have access to some good engineering facilities if I need them. Has anyone done this, what’s involved, how much space can you get?

I live in North Nottinghamshire has anyone had the work done at a garage? And most important how much does it cost?

Also the outriggers are all in one piece and I’m thinking of cutting them off, getting some new ones made up and galvanised, then paint them, waxoil etc is this the way to go?

Any advice would be very much appreciated

[Whizz65]

Many thanks TVR Moneypit, I'll let you know if I decided to do it myself or get it done.
Has anyone had anywork done at Willow Sports cars in Newark? www.willowsportscars.com or know anyone who has used them?

[Colin RedGriff]

I did a body lift on my Griff a couple of years back.

This shows the sort of access I got



There are some more pictures here

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c16/chaycock1965...

[Whizz65]

Just got back from Willow Sports cars in Newark,. Had it up on a lift and we have tried to make holes in the out riggers etc with a screw driver ground to a sharp point, bit like a dentist implement! Gone a good 6” down on top of the out riggers, all seems solid, he spent a good hour giving the chassis a really good going over, yes its not new but far from wanting major surgery. So its car up on stands and a good bit of time removing all the old powder coating and wax oil, rust treatment and then paint and re wax oil I think.

The guy who runs Willow Sports Car it is ex TVR Henley, left there a couple of years ago and set up as an independent, he recognized my car from coming from there by the paint on the sump, he had serviced it!

many thanks for the pic's and offer of help very much appreciated.

Feel a lot better now !! :-)

Edited by Whizz65 on Wednesday 22 September 19:42

[neal1980]

I did mine in a single garage. Link to mine

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

Plenty of help always avilable on here go for it

[dmjw01]

Whizz65 and I have agreed a deal - I'll be buying his car once it's had the body-off job at Willow. I figured I'd like the extra peace of mind of having had a thorough inspection of the whole chassis, and we'll have the outriggers replaced as a precaution.

My question is this: For an additional £1500, Willow have suggested stripping the whole chassis and re-powdercoating it while the body's off. My gut feeling is that this would be a worthwhile investment. What's the consensus of opinion? Is the quality of the new powder-coating likely to be better than the original? Does this seem like a reasonable price?

I'm very pleased to be buying Whizz's car - it'll be truly fabulous once the chassis is renovated.

__
David

[dmjw01]

Thanks Moneypit!

I've just heard from Rob who agrees that £1500 is not bad, and he thinks it's worth doing too.

If I didn't do it while the body's off, I think I'd regret it in future.

[TJC46]

dmjw01 said:

Thanks Moneypit!

I've just heard from Rob who agrees that £1500 is not bad, and he thinks it's worth doing too.

If I didn't do it while the body's off, I think I'd regret it in future.

And so another quest when to spunk money begins. Here goes, you should renew all the petrol and brake pipes, renew all the bushes with poly ones, renew front ball joints top and bottom, renew the track rod ends, renew the hand brake cable, may as well fit or refurbish the brake calipers front and rear, and the discs, poly bush the diff bearings etc etc etc you might as well while the bodys off. The point im trying to make is you can [and i did] go on and on and on. Being serious. get as much done while the bodys off as you can afford, its more economical in the end, and good luck, Tom.

[Kitchski]

I did my outriggers in a single garage last winter. Although apparently as I've just read a 'cowboys job' (funny, I don't seem to own any hats!), I did it for the same reasons as you need to....seat belt anchor points failing the MOT. Raised the body right up but not off (as I had no where to put it) and sure enough I some the beginnings of rot, so they were all cut out and replaced. I even double-skinned the front ones while I was there, and used 6mm sheet steel for new anchor points....not messing around this time!

My point is you can strip everything right off and go to town with all this galvanising and what not, spending amounts of money which nearly total what the car is worth, or you can repair what is actually broken and if something has no fault with it (like the backbone/box section of the chassis) then simply reprotect it and leave it alone! If you've got corrosion on the rest of the chassis then fair enough, but it's usually only the outriggers and associated parts that are really prone to corrosion, and that's only because they act as a water retainer once they've packed enough road crap and dirt into the aperture they sit in. I think I'd only go to the lengths some have mentioned if I didn't ever plan to sell the car (and I know one day I'll have to against my will!) but like I say, mine really wasn't that bad and the only failures were the inner corners of the outriggers themselves, as usual.

Having had limited fabrication/chassis experience before I did the job (my experience was pretty much mechanical) I found the job to actually be pretty easy, if not time consuming as I was doing during evenings at 5 degrees C and over weekends only. My advice is don't rush anything, while it's up make sure you do everything. The feeling you get knowing it's fully protected all over is a nice warm one

Anyway, if you do decide to tackle it yourself and need any pointers I did document everything I did (as I have no ££££££££ reciepts obviously) so if they'd be any use to you let me know.

[BliarOut]

The pics seem to have gone but I did this

http://www.tvrgriffith.com/index.php?option=com_co...

Got the original article somewhere...