Meet Shelly

[Jhcolling]

I'm sure I am not alone in this but I go through phases of wanting specific cars, only for the want to fade after a month or so to be replaced with a new want. The desire for a Chimaera never seemed to fade and, after years of lurking around this forum, I decided to grow a pair and buy one. After reading all about your cars I was well aware that there are good cars and not so good cars out there so I decided that I was going to spend a bit more and go for a car that had had a chassis refurb and one that somebody else had emptied their wallet into. Being a novice at this I first decided to give Ian at TorqueRVT a call and see if he would give me an hour to look over a local car for sale and give me a general lesson in what to look for. This time spent with Ian was well worth while and I soon started ploughing up and down the country looking at cars. Long story short, I did the total opposite to the original plan and bought a car that needed some TLC; the chassis was in good condition and the outriggers had been replaced, but it had not been serviced for a few years and it showed a little in the general condition of the car; the rear screen was cracked and needed replacing, discs ad pads were needed all round, there were Gaz shock on the rear and billies up front and there were three different tyre brands on the car, etc....
Over the last few months the screen has been replaced, the car has had a 12k service, Gaz Gold Pro shocks all round, rear discs and pads have been replaced and the front callipers have been upgraded to Brembo callipers with 324mm discs and braided hoses. I have also taken a risk with my choice of wheels, I personally love them but am aware they are not to everybody's tastes. My favourite comment so far, "did you get them out a a pack of Haribo"! Ironically, I can see where the comment has come from.
There have been a few electrical issues which I am on top of for the time being and Shelly is currently running beautifully. I now plan on enjoying the car over summer with further work planned over winter.

Anyway, enough waffle, pics below.

[Jhcolling]

Classic Chim said:

I'm liking the wheels too.
What are the Brembos like.
Welcome and good choices all round id say

Brembos are probably the best mod to the car in terms of noticable improvement. I ran the car for a few weeks with the brembos and without the braided lines and thought it was a money well spent, once the braided lines went in they felt even better still.

Regarding the wheels: They are Image wheels so it was a bit of a risk going for custom wheels not really having an idea of how they would sit on the car. They are 3 peice wheels but I chose to have the bolts on the inside to keep them as smooth as possible, still not sure if this was the right decision or not. I've seen a few Chims with low profile tyres and I just don't think it suits the classic style of the car.
They are 17" all round, 7j 25et front and 8j 35et rear. There was a bit of a cock up on my part, the wheels were ordered before the brakes were purchased and obviously the brakes didnt fit under the front wheels so the front is spaced by 8mm and I spaced the the rear by 15mm to keep everything looking uniform.

Edited by Jhcolling on Monday 22 May 20:32

[Jhcolling]

Thanks for the positive comments everybody, I'm chuffed to bits with it.

The car is a 450 and the engine is completely standard, I do not want to go down the route of forced induction so it will remain N/A but where should I start and what offers reasonable return for my money? At the moment it drives very well with zero shunting.
I have a clive f y piece waiting to go in but this will likely happen in winter along with a new ecu so any engine mods will happen in conjunction with this. I also plan to gut the pre cats but some of the bolts look a PITA to get to so I'm not looking forward to this job.

[Jhcolling]

wseed said:

Your car looks great, and for the record I too think the wheels suit the car.

Did you change to the while lenses on the signals yourself? I think they give the car a subtly modern look yet still in-keeping with the classic design.

I've been looking at a brake upgrade for mine in the future once I've got a few other jobs out of the way as I'll need to upgrade the wheels too. Do you mind sharing where you sourced yours and what offset you think you should have gone for to negate the need for the spacers. does that mean 17" 7j 15et front and 8j 20et rear?

Callipers were sourced from eBay, cost about £85 but i had them fully refurbished and painted at Classicar in Chelford at a cost of £300. Just noticed there is a set in the classifieds at the moment......

Yes lenses changed but I dontt think they added anything, just looks different.

Regarding the wheels, they are from Image wheels and the offset, I may be corrected but I think you are right.

Edited by Jhcolling on Thursday 25th May 20:57

Edited by Jhcolling on Thursday 25th May 21:02

[Jhcolling]

CHIMV8 500 said:

Welcome to the madhouse

Look on my profile and my topics

I took the precast out by only removing the Y piece and front bonnet

Took approx 2 hrs to complete

Thanks, how do you make sure no crud goes down the manifolds? does it all come out in one piece?

[Jhcolling]

Can I have clarification please, is removing the precats without removing the manifolds an accepted method. Is it easy to remove everything without any "bits" remaining in the manifolds?

[Jhcolling]

CHIMV8 500 said:

You drill the holes in the cats as many times as you can with a 10mm long bit

Use the hose off you vacuum cleaner to help suck the dust out along the way

Then as stated by other use a long cold chisel or thin bar and hammer and prise the cats away from the manifold edges into pieces that break up and you can pull/lever out...BE PATIENT

Use the vac throughout to remove the small pieces

When out push vac hose in as far as you can,I taped a piece of thin pipe on the hose for better access into the back of the manifold

Finally I started the engine and blew any remaining fine pieces out...job done

I can see it now, I will have been at this for a few hours and the swearing it becoming more frequent only for the wife to stroll out and ask how much longer I will be.

[Jhcolling]

TR4man said:

I think the wheels look retro-cool (I can see minilite influences)

But why on earth have you called the poor thing Shelly?

My wife is Scouse and is called Michelle. She hates being called Shelly especially spoken in a Scouse accent. I tried to make a joke about both her and the car being loud and unpredictable but she deosn't see the funny side of it.

[Jhcolling]

fausTVR said:

Great looking car OP, with allegedly the best engine option also.

A note of caution though, your front o/s tyre seems to be on backwards judging by the tread, it would channel water to its center.

I've checked the tyres and all is good, "outside" is written on the outside of all. I've has this before with some Vreds, my understanding is the tyre doesn't have to channel water to the outside, it just has to channel water away fro the centre of the tyre.