My Taimar

[calum62]

As per other threads Ive finally got my Taimar restoration underway.

This car has been off the road since 1998, the last owner bought the car from David Gerald in 93, ran it for 5 years and then stuck it in storage for 11 years. I bought it 11 year ago and had have had it stored inside and then under a tarpaulin outside for more years than I would like to say. The car has full history from 93, and came with a complete new exhaust system ready for fitting and a replacement bonnet frame (one on the car is shot)

So I have no garage, but I have two shipping containers I have been using to store building material while building my house. I emptied one out, relined it, fixed all leaks and dragged the TVR in there. Made difficult by the brakes being seized! Shipping container is 20ft long but only 8 ft wide so quite snug. I have a good box trailer which is 10ft long and 6ft wide/high which I am using to store the many bits that come off the car.

First job will be to renovate the chassis so body needs to come off: So far: Stuck the thing up on high axle stands, took off bonnet, removed seats, disconnected Clutch cable, taken off front wheel arches, radiator removed for re-coring and today pulled the fuel tank. I notice it has a retro fitted electric fuel pump but no inertia cut off switch. The wiring a bit of a rats nest too.

A bit nostalgic using AF spanners and ratchet spanners, the last time I used most of them was I did my Scimitar restoration 14 year ago! Pretty much every fastener thats come off will need replaced.

Some photos, hopefully this works...

[calum62]

Should also mention the guy I bought it from was an absolute Gent, He and his mates pulled it out of a lockup in the Scottish borders, stuck it on a transporter Trailer and drove it 200 miles odd to deliver it to my place for 24 cans of Budvar! £2000 I think I paid.

[calum62]

Moto said:

Takes me back to my first TVR. A 1600M in the same metallic blue as yours but with a silver band. A drawing still hangs on my living room wall - a lovely colour combination and a truly fab car. I've always owned a TVR ever since the day I purchased it in 1987. According to DVLA it's SORN now, so probably sitting in a garage somewhere like yours has been. In my imaginary garage of six cars, it would be one.

Have fun with the resto..

Moto

Cheers and funnily enough that's what I was intending going with, a silver model band rather than the existing cream one.

[calum62]

I have planning permission for a very large garage, but funds are low just now, so will need to wait a year or so.

Got fed up seeing my Taimar lying outside rusting , and lockdown sees me with time on my hands if not money. Idle hands are the devils play things and all that

I console myself that a standard UK lockup garage would be much smaller and be costing me £100 a month here.

Have started making a list of things that will need replacing and what I'll need to sell to pay for them!

[calum62]

62stevew said:

Hi Calum62,

Is this your car ? => http://www.tvrfiles.co.uk/taimar/taimar.htm

It is indeed

I'd forgotten about that web site. It that you Graham?

[calum62]

Dollyman1850 said:

callum..

food for thought.. some very very good TVR restorations have been carried out in single garages

Your cheapest way into a 2 story garage is to buy 6 joist hangers and 3 lengths of 6 x 2 timber... your mates can then lift the body so you can crack on

N.

cheers, funnily enough I have both joist hangers and 2x6 C16 timber left over from my house! I have a vague plan to make a dolly with castors for the body out of some scaffold and scaffold castors I have. I have an even vaguer plan to use it to wheel the body out of the shipping container and into a decent 10ft x6ft x6ft box trailer I have.

Yes I like to do things the difficult way

[calum62]

Progress update, most stuff disconnected, have the handbrake to get off and the gear stick off , then its a matter of cutting off the old rusty bolts holding the shell on.

Starting to realise the last car I did ( A Scimitar 1976 GTE SE6) I got off very lightly.

A lot more stuff will need replacing on this motor, virtually all perishable items (hoses/bushes/pipes/seals/wiring) are goosed, still unlike my Scimitar the value of the potential end vehicle makes it worthwhile. Enjoying it in a masochistic way, out in an unheated shipping container in sub zero temps on a creeper , with grease and muck falling in by eyes wielding the spanners on rusty/stuck fasteners.

[calum62]

Penelope Stopit said:

What are you going to do about the wiring?

Rewiring the whole car and replacing the fuse box with a blade style one. I'd rather not have to do it but I dont see I really have a choice, just due to age the insulation on the wiring has become brittle and unsafe. I see Autosparks do a 3000M loom although it's a chunk of money, may just make my own up. Will need to work out relative costs.

Regards
Rob

[calum62]

Yes I have an all black loom as well with faded/ lost rings at the ends! Expecting it to take a bit of time to sort the wiring but it needs doing

[calum62]

Penelope Stopit said:

Black looms are amazing

The word "loom" may be giving it more credit than it deserves, there is no wrap or conduit on the wiring it's a bunch of wires tie wrapped to the chassis! What could possibly go wrong

[calum62]

Slow M said:

It may be of interest to you to look at the three concurrent restorations being chronicled here,
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-proj...
here,
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-proj...
and here.
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-proj...

Cheers for that

[calum62]

Cheers, building up quite a list of stuff that will need replacing besides wiring, the brake servo is RTF as well

[calum62]

All preparations now complete to lift body off. Should get that done in the next few days hopefully. Ended up cutting off all the body bolts with angle grinder as would have taken many hours to undo them. Getting replaced anyways

While under the car been having a good look at the chassis & and I am not so happy about the condition of the chassis from the rear wheels back. Particular the chassis tubes visible in the rear wheel arches. Somewhat concerning but the only way to know what I'm dealing for sure with is to strip it down completely.

Maybe worrying about the worst case but out of interest what options have you if the chassis is in need of major work? Are new ones available or are there TVR Specialist companies that will refurbish your existing one ? Replacing a few tubes isn't an issue for me, but if I find a large section where all tubes are toast it would be.. Maintaining the correct geometry when repairing would be difficult.

Cheers
Rob

[calum62]

Cheers for the advice. I plan on ordering up extra metal tube/box to practice with (fitting up and welding) prior to going near the chassis in anger. Although I've done my fair share of hobby welding in the past I want any work done to be beyond reproach. Some pretty funky angles in that chassis, must have taken an age to build originally.

Strangely the front part of the body is shimmed off the chassis by rubber sheet of varying thickness. At the back it looks like they used old sacking! I think at some time someone has done a bit of renovation on the chassis cos I also found a lap welded patch on one of the chassis tubes. Not unexpected given the age.

[calum62]

I was considering using rubber patches from car tyres. Doubling or trebling it up as required. That should see me out!

[calum62]

DavidY said:

If the rubber they are made of resistant to oil and grease??

The suspension bushes are made of rubber are as are engine mountings, the body shims would probably see less oil and grease than those.

[calum62]

Penelope Stopit said:

Black looms are amazing

"Black wires matter"

Took me a few days but I got there in the end

[calum62]

A progress update. I got everything disconnected and unbolted to lift the body, then realised I couldnt get anyone round my house to lift the body off due to covid lockdown. However "needs must" so I have removed the body myself , made about 100 times more difficult by doing it in a cramped shipping container.

Had to resort to medieval technology and after 2 short winter days fighting with the thing finally manged to get it off unscathed. Yes I am slow.
Had to make a makeshift gantry setup and ratchet straps to support the front and a scaffold pole across the rear of the body though the wheel wells supported by axle stands. Underestimated the height I needed to lift the body and needed to rejig the setup a few times. Anyways a few dodgy moments but it's off.

No holes in the chassis , but difficult to tell what state it's in until it's fully stripped and shot blasted. Next job make up a dolly for the body out of spare wood, stick body into my box trailer and then wheel chassis back into the shipping container to start stripping it.


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[calum62]

Thanks for kind words so far. So made up a wooden dolly for the body (which is surprisingly heavy) and with the wife's help got it pushed out of the shipping container down a ramp and on it's way to the box trailer where it will be living for the foreseeable. A quick measurement revealed I have a full 5cm extra space length and width in the trailer to take the body!

The Trailer had a winch on it which I took off and bolted to the shipping container floor and used to pull the rolling chassis back into the container. Not having steering made things awkward but using a 8ft long 3 inch post I was able to "row" either end of the car about to get it lined up. Put the winch back on the box trailer as will need it to pull the body up the ramp on the back, which I'll be doing tomorrow. Spent the rest of the day clearing out the box trailer which was near full. As the trailer is 6ft6 high I am going to chock the body up high so I can store stuff underneath it. Once thats done may give it a couple days before staring work again,as currently loaded with the man flu!

Edited by calum62 on Tuesday 26th January 20:56

[calum62]

So not a very good day today, in fact an unmitigated disaster

Started winching my Taimar into the box trailer and just about everything that could go wrong did, The winch cable jammed, half way up the ramp, then one of my scaffold boards shifted and one of the castors on my trolly fell off down the gap! Having 4 casters was a bad idea because on a slope the trolly was all over the place. As I had at most 2 inches to spare width wise I decided that if I continued (my pushing the thing up the ramp) I was going to end up damaging the body shell. So abandoned the whole thing, fixed a pallet on to the bottom of the now self destructing trolley and used my tractor (every man needs one ) to get control of the situation ! Looks to me like the body will need to stay outside under a tarp for the time being. Been fairly brutal weather wise here not really been above freezing for days.

Somewhat crest fallen I got fish and chips for supper and some much needed cider from Tesco.

Still no damage done so I'll take that given the way things were going....

Edited by calum62 on Tuesday 26th January 20:56