Another new owner and some winter jobs

[TWB86]

Hi all,

After literally hundreds of hours of reading this forum for Chimaera research over the years I am finally an owner! The remaining 24hrs before I finally have the thing on the drive feels a bit like Christmas Eve use to about 20 years ago .

The car I've bought is this one...

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.17587453...

Seen here a couple of years back during its very comprehensive refurb at Southways, you may recognise it, the previous owner had a few threads on here about the process at the time. Apparently it was the first Chimaera restoration that Southways did, so doubtlessly of huge historical significance too .

I had initially intended to go for a 4.5l model, but in the end decided the recent refurb, new clutch, cam, Gaz Gold's, re-cored rad, full set of new bushes and all new fluid lines made the swept volume slightly less important! The lack of pre-cats and a sleeved exhaust make up for it anyway. So, hello to all, i'm very much looking forward to driving the thing, my elder brother had one about 8 years ago and I've wanted one ever since! But whilst the weather is not so great the first priority will be a few winter jobs...

Dash replacement
Fix temp gauge and brake lights
Interior refresh ala Furniture Clinic
DAB radio
sort some stone chips
Leven pedals (perhaps)


Cheers

Tom

[Cokes]

Hi Tom, welcome.
I too am a newbie here as I only bought mine on Saturday and have started my winter jobs but unfortunately I'm finding one leads to another on my car. Good luck with yours it seems to be much more sorted than mine

[davetripletvr]

Welcome to the fold, had mine 4 years now and love it just don't drive it enough. Got some mods to do over the winter as well.

Enjoy mate

[Mr Supercharged]

Hi, I saw those pics before. I'd be very interested to know or see pics of how well the chassis has done since the refurbishment? Is it still pristine? I hope so because it looked like a good job…..

[Milky400]

I don't have that facetwitter thingy so can't see it. But get some pics up when it arrives. Excited I bet......

[brett84]

looks very nice from the pics, lots of work done already which is ideal.
when you do the furniture clinic kit, i wouldn't bother with the compressed air cans they are crap, use a compressor. And order extra sealant as they don't really give you enough in the kits, I'm going to have to redo mine because they aren't sealed well enough

[TWB86]

Mr Supercharged said:

Hi, I saw those pics before. I'd be very interested to know or see pics of how well the chassis has done since the refurbishment? Is it still pristine? I hope so because it looked like a good job…..

Well that's a good question. I wouldn't say it was immaculate but as it's been two weeks since i've seen it and i don't have any detailed photos i'll wait until it arrives (hopefully within the next two hours!) then take some and show you! It's only done 4-6k miles since the work was done but as far as i can tell the previous owner has had it outside and uncovered for that time which isn't ideal. Looking through the wheel to the wishbone you can see a light peppering of superficial rust where the stones have been. Inside the engine bay looked great on the whole, a few tinges of brown behind the rad perhaps. I'll put some pics up shortly

Brett84 said:

looks very nice from the pics, lots of work done already which is ideal.
when you do the furniture clinic kit, i wouldn't bother with the compressed air cans they are crap, use a compressor. And order extra sealant as they don't really give you enough in the kits, I'm going to have to redo mine because they aren't sealed well enough

Thanks Brett, that was my highest priority on the buying criteria! I was only considering cars that had the chassis done, but when i saw this had a cam and clutch too (which must be the two other biggest jobs you're likely to need to do to one of these, except a diff refurb perhaps?) i was straight on the phone. Thanks for the advice re: FC kit, i'll do as you suggest.

Cheers, should have some photo's this afternoon!

Tom

[portzi]

TWB86 said:

Mr Supercharged said:

Hi, I saw those pics before. I'd be very interested to know or see pics of how well the chassis has done since the refurbishment? Is it still pristine? I hope so because it looked like a good job…..

Well that's a good question. I wouldn't say it was immaculate but as it's been two weeks since i've seen it and i don't have any detailed photos i'll wait until it arrives (hopefully within the next two hours!) then take some and show you! It's only done 4-6k miles since the work was done but as far as i can tell the previous owner has had it outside and uncovered for that time which isn't ideal. Looking through the wheel to the wishbone you can see a light peppering of superficial rust where the stones have been. Inside the engine bay looked great on the whole, a few tinges of brown behind the rad perhaps. I'll put some pics up shortly

Brett84 said:

looks very nice from the pics, lots of work done already which is ideal.
when you do the furniture clinic kit, i wouldn't bother with the compressed air cans they are crap, use a compressor. And order extra sealant as they don't really give you enough in the kits, I'm going to have to redo mine because they aren't sealed well enough

Thanks Brett, that was my highest priority on the buying criteria! I was only considering cars that had the chassis done, but when i saw this had a cam and clutch too (which must be the two other biggest jobs you're likely to need to do to one of these, except a diff refurb perhaps?) i was straight on the phone. Thanks for the advice re: FC kit, i'll do as you suggest.

Cheers, should have some photo's this afternoon!


Tom

So your saying that after just 6000 miles there's rust? On the wishbones or outriggers?. What was the treatment sandblasting, zinc primed, then powder coat?.

[Mr Supercharged]

I think they thermally zinc spray then powder coat there? I'm not sure what primer if any they use between the thermal zinc spray and the powder coat. I'm looking to do a body off on mine in 2 years time and still to decide on what to use on the chassis. I only want to do it once. High on the priority list is to remove / radius all of the sharp guillotined edges and radius the edges of the holes with a file prior to coating.

Picks of the chassis / wishbones would be great if possible please….thanks

[portzi]

Mr Supercharged said:

I think they thermally zinc spray then powder coat there? I'm not sure what primer if any they use between the thermal zinc spray and the powder coat. I'm looking to do a body off on mine in 2 years time and still to decide on what to use on the chassis. I only want to do it once. High on the priority list is to remove / radius all of the sharp guillotined edges and radius the edges of the holes with a file prior to coating.

Picks of the chassis / wishbones would be great if possible please….thanks

Also where nuts and bolts couple the chassis back together carefully remove the coating in these areas by rubbing down where the washer sits or cracking or flaking may occur. The area is greased anyway to stop water ingress and rust. I epoxy resined over the top of the power coat to give it a extra hard surface without making it brittle as epoxy expands and contracts well.

[TWB86]

So, an enjoyable first day with the car! Despite the crappy weather i got a couple of jobs done

First was to open up the wiper motor, the previous owner had told me that the screw thread rod had broken at the crank and this proved to be the case...



So out with the screw thread rod and on to Clevor Trevor to order up a replacement. The non-functioning brake lights were a quick fix as they were just missing a fuse! Not sure how that would have happened, I'm assuming the previous owner had been trying to fault find the wipers down there and not replace a fuse...perhaps.

Anyway, here are the chassis pics...


Cant quite remember which angle i took this from


This shows some small cracks in the powder coat on the leading edge of the offside upper wishbone...



This is looking in through one of the front wheels





And the arrival!

[portzi]

Lovely looking car. Unfortunately those areas of the wish bones are common corrosion areas. Its probably worth getting the wheels off and giving it a thorough inspection.

[TWB86]

Another job to be done asap is to sort out the extremely sluggish temperature gauge which only just struggles to lift itself onto a temperature reading. I've read all the previous threads and will do the RR sender mod, but I could just do with a little guidance on the appropriate variable resistor to choose. Having read that the resistance to calibrate the sender to the gauge is around 170 ohm I was just looking for something like 0-500ohm variable? Most of what I can bring up seems to be designed for printed circuit boards, could someone help me out with a link?

Thanks in advance

Tom