The Full Body Off Resto Begins..

[greenhulk]

Call me a glutton for punishment as im no stranger to the ol 'body off' on these TVR's.. Recently had my TVR S done but the only difference with this 93 chimaera is i bought it knowing it would need body off.
So here we go, in attempt to keep another ones of the british beasts on the road project chimaera has been initiated!
(Disclaimer, the pictures you are about to see are not for the faint hearted )

Edited by greenhulk on Saturday 26th November 10:56

[greenhulk]

[greenhulk]

Cheers gents & phillpot is right.. I've left the work to Tony up at coventry car centre (friend of adrian venns) who done an absolute brilliant job on the full body off resto for my 'S'. If i had the space i would of got a crate of beers in & asked few guys to help with the lift off

As with the 'S' i expect a few headaches along the way with this one.. Unforeseen parts that are on there last legs & need replacing (which all add up & end up sending you over budget!)

Any ideas on chassis colour? We done the last one black with silver suspension arms, i was really considering a red chassis with black suspension arms for the chim?

davetripletvr said:

i've had a full body off chassis restoration but left it to the professionals as i dont have the confidence or knowledge and i'm off the road myself for health reasons. Good luck with the restoration

Would love to see some pictures of your restoration dave, did you run into any other issues? I was told the mk1 suspension arms & anti roll bar were very poor handling wise & mk2 suspension arms were a worthwile upgrade improving the handling.. (£££)
Hope you get well soon, your chim will need you!

Cheers
Steve

[greenhulk]

Nice one Dave, looks brand spanking new, hope your going to keep that white chassis clean I'm thinking of doing mine red..

[greenhulk]

PhilH42 said:

Hope it all goes to plan....how many other bits are going to hit while the body is off?

Cheers Phil, well I'll defintely get the engine bay looking something like 'V8 porn' again
I got some gaz gold shocks to go on & front & rear plus the brakes are in a bad way so they'll need refurbing along with the alloys.
The car was sat up for 8years according to the mot history from 2008 till now, so will have a quick look at a few engine components too

[greenhulk]

plfrench said:

Good to see another being sorted out Greenhulk

Mine is booked in to start its winter chassis restoration at Neil Garner. Similar to you, I bought mine knowing I would do this. The plan is to get a good solid chassis first and then take care of more aesthetic items such as the paint and interior later on.

Whilst its in with the engine out, I'm having the clutch, fuel pump, brake lines, heat shields, water hoses and a few other bits replaced.

Exciting times

Thank you, so what model chimaera did you pick up then? Presume you got it for a good price knowing its chassis was rotten ralph'd.
I highly reccomend the stainless braided brake lines I put the chimaera calipers with 260mm discs on my S an boy does it stop!
I should of really limited myself & left the interior alone like you are but in typical fashion ive already declared war on the 2 interior seats & exterior hood which the plastic screen is gaffa taped on

Guess I'll be putting a few weekends in to fund it all

[greenhulk]

davetripletvr said:

Oh yes Steve it will be kept clean but it will be used and enjoyed my friend
As far as having your chassis red, think that would look the dogs doo dah's, have seen one red chassis before on a Chimaera and it looked fantastic. Was going to have mine blue but already got alot of blue going on under bonnet so stuck with white which i like as it looks so clean and tidy.

Dave that looks bloody amazing mate! Im going for similar theme but with the red silicone hoses, few chrome bits & the rocker covers & plenum in black with the aluminium stripes. Red chassis it is

Got to love abit of TVR engine bay porn!
This is my 'S' engine bay, I vow to do the chimaera even better!

Edited by greenhulk on Saturday 26th November 20:17

[greenhulk]

davetripletvr said:

Very nice, don't understand people who spend loads of money on these cars and have mucky engine bays

Did you splash out on stainless or keep the original manifolds dave? i cam see the same manifold wrap that i used i think, it really does keep the under bonnet temperatures down

P.S good to see that vile orange plastic oil filler cap is nowhere to be seen on yours!

[greenhulk]

plfrench said:

Yes, going for braided brake lines. Got a 500 for quite a bit less than they're normally up for. Under no illusions that i'll break even on the cost but it should be a good fun project for many years to come The engine seems to be in a pretty good state at the moment mechanically, so it should wait, but I quite fancy the idea of the MBE engine management once the bank account has recovered from the chassis work!



My hood is gaffa taped at the moment too Here it is at the moment (well the photos that were on Fernhurst's when I bought it!):

Stunning looking 500, really do like those leven interior trim accessories & the stainless dash is so much better than the walnut, reminds me too much of an old school classic jag.
Good ol gaffa tape eh, oh keep your eye out on ebay for replacement hood I picked a brand new one up on bid for less than £200 (I bet he wish he put a reserve on)

[greenhulk]

nicely done dave, are they stainless manifold headers? I read some bad things about wrapping mild steel..

Steve

[greenhulk]

davetripletvr said:

Not stainless, yeh i have heard of headers cracking that have not been wrapped and ones that have so think its a case of were headers in good shape to begin with is the question

I just want to tidy mine up, ceramic coating is out of the question as i heard it can distort mild steel? Just wondering if a VHT paint would work on these manifolds or do they get way hotter than the paint can handle

[greenhulk]

Chassis back from shotblasting, nothing surprising here but must confess for a car 5 years newer than my TVR S1 its in way worse condition chassis wise.. Usual suspects, hollowed tubing, corroded outriggers (or pretty much missing on some parts, pitted metal. Ready for chop an re-weld next week then off for hot zinc coating!

[greenhulk]

davetripletvr said:

Soon be back stronger with a better coating than before mate, should outlast the owner

i should hope so dave im not even 30 yet! Pretty much going for the same coatings we done with my 'S', U-POL Raptor epoxy for the final finish, its tough as dino skin.
Going for a Red chassis & black suspension arms this time, then the funpart.. detailing the engine bay! Any pointers Dave? I know your the king of engine bay porn I've already got the red silicone plenum elbow, coolant hoses & ancillaries from ACT, alloy oil cap & flame trap, stainless water pipes, plan on doing rocker covers & plenum black with the aluminium stripes..

[greenhulk]

davetripletvr said:

Will look the dogs doo dahs mate, love the idea of the red chassis

Thanks Dave, yeah i think the 'S' models were originally a white or red chassis, a friend of mines v8s looked awesome in red too.

Keep looking at those stainless performance manifolds.. abit out of budget tho

[greenhulk]

PhilH42 said:

I did love the raw drive of the S but I was always wondering when driving on the limits (well my limits) at what point it would all unravel and I'd be left skidding along on a seat with just the steering wheel in my hands

very comforting to know the seats are only held in through 4 bolts in the fibreglass too..

Oh & loving the red chassis! I'll have some snaps of mine welded up an hopefully all coated next week

Im beginning to wonder how different the chimaera will drive compared to the S now

[greenhulk]

Things are coming along nicely.. Looks like Tony Stark himself has been at it with the welder

Edited by greenhulk on Friday 16th December 16:32

[greenhulk]

Cheers gents, much appreciated. It'll look abit different next week when its all coated up.

WinstonWolf said:

Is it worth welding in some seat mounting straps while you're at this stage?

Tony at Coventry car centre who's doing my rebuild mentioned something similar, said 4 bolts through fibreglass isn't exactly the safest

Did you mod your chassis? Any pics of the seatbelt mounting straps

[greenhulk]

phillpot said:

On the other hand, I've never seen a "my seat ripped out the floor!" post?

you might have jinxed it now mike, Im all for an easy modification whilst the chassis is accessible tho, bit of added safety never hurt nobody

[greenhulk]

Nice work! silver chassis looks great & its nice to see abit of detail work around the engine bay too.. Cant beat abit of engine porn

Got the gaz golds for mine too, bit limited on brake upgrade myself as im keeping the original wheels so 15" fronts, may do the 888 sierra cosworth brake upgrade tho unless the original brakes are more than adequate? (4.0 mk1 mine is)

[greenhulk]

hillclimbmanic said:

Thanks for the great feedback.!!

I'm just about to fit the body back on, just got to paint and heatshield engine bay, and protect/stonechip the underbody...After bening messed about by TWO painter friends, I decided on a vinyl wrap, in Satin Colour-Flair...Red to Gold flip.

It looks stunning from about 6 feet away, but there are a few joins that I'm not happy with...Body in container at the moment, due to workshop being busy, but will post photos later

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLt9ALJgOFD

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLtjtNPAIJB/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLtDqmhA-9N


Sorry for hi-jacking this post.!!!

Edited by hillclimbmanic on Sunday 18th December 13:41

looks bloody good that matey, so where are the joins then? I thought the vinyl wraps were done in one sheet :/