Project Rocket on Instagram
Discussion
Hi all!
I'm starting the build of a ground up "restomod" Chimaera managed by the fantastic Ian Davies at Sportmotive. There's not a lot on it that's going to be standard so it should be an interesting build... The aim is to make my perfect vision of a TVR; to be both fast and very usable. Hopefully equally happy on the track, popping down the shops or long distance touring - being something a bit different, while adhering to what I think TVR could maybe have done in a 2019 Wheeler era.
To keep a running log of the build I've decided to create an Instagram page on which I'll put any interesting pictures or videos as we go along. I love following other people's builds so if you're interested in mine then please give me a follow and I'd love to hear comments or suggestions as we go along.
Look for "TVR_Project_Rocket" on Instagram.
This can also be a thread for build related discussion if anyone would like to have any
I'm starting the build of a ground up "restomod" Chimaera managed by the fantastic Ian Davies at Sportmotive. There's not a lot on it that's going to be standard so it should be an interesting build... The aim is to make my perfect vision of a TVR; to be both fast and very usable. Hopefully equally happy on the track, popping down the shops or long distance touring - being something a bit different, while adhering to what I think TVR could maybe have done in a 2019 Wheeler era.
To keep a running log of the build I've decided to create an Instagram page on which I'll put any interesting pictures or videos as we go along. I love following other people's builds so if you're interested in mine then please give me a follow and I'd love to hear comments or suggestions as we go along.
Look for "TVR_Project_Rocket" on Instagram.
This can also be a thread for build related discussion if anyone would like to have any
Edited by 450Nick on Friday 13th December 03:07
Moderator edit: no links please
Edited by jeremyc on Friday 13th December 08:27
Haha well I'm sorry in advance Peter! It seemed like the simplest way to keep the build diary in one place for my own record and for friends and others who might have an interest.
Presently the body is off at surface & design in blackpool to have the interior fibreglass panels installed from a t-car interior, with mk3 Tuscan door cards (hopefully it works as well as I hope it will!). Once that's all done then it'll be back to sportmotive for chassis and wiring...
Presently the body is off at surface & design in blackpool to have the interior fibreglass panels installed from a t-car interior, with mk3 Tuscan door cards (hopefully it works as well as I hope it will!). Once that's all done then it'll be back to sportmotive for chassis and wiring...
Right then, let's do a non-Instagram update...
I will write up the overall story behind this build at some point (probably with another Sprint article of similar stature to the GEMS one I did a couple of years ago) so let's cut to the chase. This is a build of a Chimaera, except it's not. There will be almost nothing standard about this car other then possibly the body, the door locks and hinges, and maybe the side window glass, so let's get the "it's not a TVR" chat out of the way. Yes, it's not. Sort of. It's a kind of cheaper version of a Singer Porsche (someone mentioned that to me and it seems like a good analogy). TVR inspired, but better. Hopefully. It might be s
t but let's hope it isn't. My ethos is to build something that Peter Wheeler could have commissioned in a sort of 2019 Wheeler era, and I have no guiding rule of what is in and what is out, but I'm trying to stick to TVR design principles, though with hopefully fewer self tapping screws.
Ian Davies from Sportmotive is doing the overall build since I'm currently living in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, but I'm building a few of the bits myself over here and figuring out what it will and won't do.
So.
Clean Chimaera Mk2 tub with no accident damage. Acquired.
Why a Chimaera? I thought about all body styles, and decided that I love my Chimaera. I love the roof coming off, the huge boot, the size and shape of it. It's great so I have no interest in jazzing that up - I would love a Sag as it looks awesome but no roof off, not as practical and generally a bit compromised. Maybe when I can afford another one if those prices keep on coming down
I love the outside of the Chimaera, but I feel the inside is a little dated, and after playing with mine many times with Level bits and stainless steel, I decided I wanted to do something right out of the park and different, but still TVR so I thought about a transplant from an Cerbera. Then took a long hard look at all of the different interiors and decided I actually prefer the T-Cars. It has a proper glove box, looks fresh still today, is simple but stylish and generally works for me. So first issue; get the T-car bits in the car. Off to Surface & Design we go!
Bits found and (very roughly) mocked up in the car:
The bit the dash mounts to is actually part of the body tub on a t-car so a mold was needed to re-create it..
I've then got the switchgear for the lights and fan controls, but the dash pod is a pain. They're a million pounds to buy plus another million for the ECU, and even then they often break. So naturally with no prior knowledge of how to do this, I decided to make my own (I'm an engineer by trade but not done much electronics beyond car wiring). HOW HARD CAN IT BE? Quite hard it turns out.
I spotted this stillborn design on Dom's Facebook page which was going to be used on the Moleskin car, but TVR went bust before it could be built:
With a bit of CAD drawing I came up with this:
Which became this:
Which then became this. I decided to rather than have LEDs floodlighting the decal as in the original, backlight the whole unit with lit needles. It probably made the project 10x more complicated due to having to design everything for light to disperse properly onto the decal from behind, and to use back-lit servos with lit pointers (more on that later). To get the small gauge pointer shafts close enough together to look right, I needed to offset one onto a different PCB which also brought a load more challenges but ultimately it should be better for it (I hope!):
Then it got complicated, and some PCB design was required so in came Autodesk Eagle and a bit of this:
Before arriving at one of the most satisfying things I've ever created:
I'm currently working with a supplier to manufacture 3 sets of the PCBs (4 in a set) to start prototyping and testing. The finished result should allow me to plug the switchpacks directly into the pod with no ECU, and the car loom directly into the pod too, where it will communicate via analogue and CAN bus (OBD-II) with the new GM ECU an ECUMaster Power distribution modules that will be replacing the fusebox and all relays. I'll get onto the car loom schematics once the pod is a little further along.
Speaking of GM ECU, a rather nice package arrived from the states recently:
The engine is a dry sump 2019 LT4 crate motor which will be mated to a T-56 magnum, a Mustang 8" diff housing with some sort of LSD in it - not sure what to put in it yet but thinking an ATB perhaps? Also in the box is a complete replacement HVAC system from Restomod air in the states. We'll chuck the whole blower and heater matrix from TVR in the bin and start again with a modern heater and AC system which according the the yanks will keep the car cool even with the roof down (we'll see about that).
So that's a bit of a rapid update of what's happened so far. I'll post regular mini updates on the on the Instagram page for anyone who might be interested and on here once there's something interesting enough to add. I hope you all enjoy following it as much as I enjoy following everyone else's builds! I'm open to any cool ideas or suggestions or experience that you all have to make this the best car it can be, including boring stuff like seals or bonnet hinges
I will write up the overall story behind this build at some point (probably with another Sprint article of similar stature to the GEMS one I did a couple of years ago) so let's cut to the chase. This is a build of a Chimaera, except it's not. There will be almost nothing standard about this car other then possibly the body, the door locks and hinges, and maybe the side window glass, so let's get the "it's not a TVR" chat out of the way. Yes, it's not. Sort of. It's a kind of cheaper version of a Singer Porsche (someone mentioned that to me and it seems like a good analogy). TVR inspired, but better. Hopefully. It might be s
t but let's hope it isn't. My ethos is to build something that Peter Wheeler could have commissioned in a sort of 2019 Wheeler era, and I have no guiding rule of what is in and what is out, but I'm trying to stick to TVR design principles, though with hopefully fewer self tapping screws.Ian Davies from Sportmotive is doing the overall build since I'm currently living in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, but I'm building a few of the bits myself over here and figuring out what it will and won't do.
So.
Clean Chimaera Mk2 tub with no accident damage. Acquired.
Why a Chimaera? I thought about all body styles, and decided that I love my Chimaera. I love the roof coming off, the huge boot, the size and shape of it. It's great so I have no interest in jazzing that up - I would love a Sag as it looks awesome but no roof off, not as practical and generally a bit compromised. Maybe when I can afford another one if those prices keep on coming down
I love the outside of the Chimaera, but I feel the inside is a little dated, and after playing with mine many times with Level bits and stainless steel, I decided I wanted to do something right out of the park and different, but still TVR so I thought about a transplant from an Cerbera. Then took a long hard look at all of the different interiors and decided I actually prefer the T-Cars. It has a proper glove box, looks fresh still today, is simple but stylish and generally works for me. So first issue; get the T-car bits in the car. Off to Surface & Design we go!
Bits found and (very roughly) mocked up in the car:
The bit the dash mounts to is actually part of the body tub on a t-car so a mold was needed to re-create it..
I've then got the switchgear for the lights and fan controls, but the dash pod is a pain. They're a million pounds to buy plus another million for the ECU, and even then they often break. So naturally with no prior knowledge of how to do this, I decided to make my own (I'm an engineer by trade but not done much electronics beyond car wiring). HOW HARD CAN IT BE? Quite hard it turns out.
I spotted this stillborn design on Dom's Facebook page which was going to be used on the Moleskin car, but TVR went bust before it could be built:
With a bit of CAD drawing I came up with this:
Which became this:
Which then became this. I decided to rather than have LEDs floodlighting the decal as in the original, backlight the whole unit with lit needles. It probably made the project 10x more complicated due to having to design everything for light to disperse properly onto the decal from behind, and to use back-lit servos with lit pointers (more on that later). To get the small gauge pointer shafts close enough together to look right, I needed to offset one onto a different PCB which also brought a load more challenges but ultimately it should be better for it (I hope!):
Then it got complicated, and some PCB design was required so in came Autodesk Eagle and a bit of this:
Before arriving at one of the most satisfying things I've ever created:
I'm currently working with a supplier to manufacture 3 sets of the PCBs (4 in a set) to start prototyping and testing. The finished result should allow me to plug the switchpacks directly into the pod with no ECU, and the car loom directly into the pod too, where it will communicate via analogue and CAN bus (OBD-II) with the new GM ECU an ECUMaster Power distribution modules that will be replacing the fusebox and all relays. I'll get onto the car loom schematics once the pod is a little further along.
Speaking of GM ECU, a rather nice package arrived from the states recently:
The engine is a dry sump 2019 LT4 crate motor which will be mated to a T-56 magnum, a Mustang 8" diff housing with some sort of LSD in it - not sure what to put in it yet but thinking an ATB perhaps? Also in the box is a complete replacement HVAC system from Restomod air in the states. We'll chuck the whole blower and heater matrix from TVR in the bin and start again with a modern heater and AC system which according the the yanks will keep the car cool even with the roof down (we'll see about that).
So that's a bit of a rapid update of what's happened so far. I'll post regular mini updates on the on the Instagram page for anyone who might be interested and on here once there's something interesting enough to add. I hope you all enjoy following it as much as I enjoy following everyone else's builds! I'm open to any cool ideas or suggestions or experience that you all have to make this the best car it can be, including boring stuff like seals or bonnet hinges
Edited by 450Nick on Monday 16th December 17:18
I'm in
You'll never understand how happy I am to be able to witness this build, I don't do Instagram or Facebook
Great first post of images, diagrams and plans
You comment "Power distribution modules that will be replacing the fusebox and all relays".......
What products have you got planned to use instead of fuse-boxes and relays
Are you going solid state?
Thanks for the update, it's an eye opener, very very interesting and clever, I like clever
You'll never understand how happy I am to be able to witness this build, I don't do Instagram or Facebook
Great first post of images, diagrams and plans
You comment "Power distribution modules that will be replacing the fusebox and all relays".......
What products have you got planned to use instead of fuse-boxes and relays
Are you going solid state?
Thanks for the update, it's an eye opener, very very interesting and clever, I like clever
Penelope Stopit said:
I'm in
You'll never understand how happy I am to be able to witness this build, I don't do Instagram or Facebook
Great first post of images, diagrams and plans
You comment "Power distribution modules that will be replacing the fusebox and all relays".......
What products have you got planned to use instead of fuse-boxes and relays
Are you going solid state?
Thanks for the update, it's an eye opener, very very interesting and clever, I like clever
Thanks for the nice words! For the power modules, I'm thinking currently 2 of these: https://www.ecumaster.com/files/PMU/PMU_Manual.pdfYou'll never understand how happy I am to be able to witness this build, I don't do Instagram or Facebook
Great first post of images, diagrams and plans
You comment "Power distribution modules that will be replacing the fusebox and all relays".......
What products have you got planned to use instead of fuse-boxes and relays
Are you going solid state?
Thanks for the update, it's an eye opener, very very interesting and clever, I like clever
They're really nicely specced and reasonably priced for what they do, I just hope there's enough outputs for what I want to do go properly fully digital - no relays anywhere - that's the goal.
450Nick said:
Thanks for the nice words! For the power modules, I'm thinking currently 2 of these: https://www.ecumaster.com/files/PMU/PMU_Manual.pdf
They're really nicely specced and reasonably priced for what they do, I just hope there's enough outputs for what I want to do go properly fully digital - no relays anywhere - that's the goal.
Thank you for the link to the modules manual, have had a quick read through the manual and visited the website for more informationThey're really nicely specced and reasonably priced for what they do, I just hope there's enough outputs for what I want to do go properly fully digital - no relays anywhere - that's the goal.
Haven't seen these modules until now, if they stand the test of time they are sensibly priced
To design a panel and mount 16 relays plus fuse-boxes on it, wire supplies and returns to each relay then terminate them to the fuse-boxes and stop at that, gives similar to what a module gives but nothing near as good due to no programmable control, sensing or CAN will take something in the region of 12 to 16 hours work
12 to 16 Hours x 70 to 100 Pounds an hour (if someone good enough can be found to carry out the work) = Price of a module or more
Must find time, re-visit the ecu master website and do some studying
It's a shame, there doesn't seem to be a 4 or 8 way module, was thinking a very nice set-up would be module up front, module down the back and a central interior module
Would like to play with one of these modules
Looking forward to your next update
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