Reply With QuoteThe TVR Car Club produce a good magazine for their members: if you'd like my copy of the latest edition send me a PM with your address in. :wink:Originally Posted by CamCG
R
Cock-ups, eh? Well, to be honest there haven't been that many, but that's not boasting on my part!
Most blokes cut their teeth on car mechanics in their teens and twenties: buying old bangers and doing them up, improving performance and DIY servicing is all part of the learning curve. However, I missed all that as I was driving company cars from an early age and so my knowledge before this project was definitely lacking. But whilst I regard myself as a fairly practical person and am self-taught on motorbike maintenance, it was a steep learning curve to undertake a full refurbishment on a sports car and without the facility of the internet I doubt I would have even attempted it. But through a combination of Google, the TVR club, Pistonheads, car mechanic friends and the TVR specialist I was able to get answers to the many questions that were raised.
Perhaps my initial lack of knowledge worked in my favour though, as I didn't assume anything and I checked everything before undertaking each stage. Whilst there were very few cock-ups, I can say that I would do a number of things differently if I was to do this job again: mainly the sequence of work and also the knowledge now of how these cars are put together - which has got to be of little relevance to how most cars are made!
Doing the restoration has been very frustrating at times and also quite taxing on the brain, but overall I've enjoyed the experience and learnt such a lot about car mechanics. Come the winter, whilst the body is being re-sprayed I intend to strip the engine down and do some upgrading and this again will be a learning curve: it's one thing to do a strip-down on a two cylinder bike engine small and light enough that you can carry about in your hands, quite another to do so on a V8.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
The TVR Car Club produce a good magazine for their members: if you'd like my copy of the latest edition send me a PM with your address in. :wink:
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
The TVR Car Club produce a good magazine for their members: if you'd like my copy of the latest edition send me a PM with your address in. :wink:
R
You'll need to run very fast if you want this.
Very good. :wink: (For the uninitiated, the magazine is called 'Sprint").You'll need to run very fast if you want this.The TVR Car Club produce a good magazine for their members: if you'd like my copy of the latest edition send me a PM with your address in. :wink:
Due to the refurb and the recent good weather the windscreen wipers hadn't been used for some time so after I'd given the screen a good treatment of RainEx I switched the wipers on and found that the speed of them was pretty dire, so it was a strip down and rebuild of the motor and linkage:
Primarily it was lack of lubrication causing the slowness, but when I removed the linkage and powered the motor it didn't sound too clever so I dissembled that and found one of the brushes was split. Fortunately I had an old motor out of a tumble-drier so I nicked the brush out of that and filed it down to fit :lol:
As I'd had to take the whole assembly out to do the motor it seemed a shame to put it back in it's grubby state, so a lick of primer:
And some Hammerite and back in it went:
And then it was round to the rolling road to have the engine dyno-tested to measure the bhp. A brief explanation for those who (like me) have never had this done before: the car is driven onto rollers (just like at the MOT centre), however this time the car is strapped FIRMLY down :wink: :
Then the car was started up and taken through the gears in stages until it reached full revs and the measurements taken. The noise of the engine was just awesome and it's quite a surreal experience standing next to a car thats doing 150mph :shock:
The maximum power was recorded at 217 bhp at the wheels so that's pretty close to the manufacturers claim of 240 bhp at the flywheel. Some of the Chimaera 400 aficionados have managed to enhance their cars to over 330 bhp, but the rule-of-thumb is apparently £100 spent for every 1 bhp gained, so I'm quite happy to leave that well alone! (I've got a cam-corder video of the car being tested, but so far I've been unable to get it to transfer off the Hi8 tape onto my computer- if anyone could do that for me I'd be happy to send the tape out with a suitable 'thank-you' attached in return for it on a disc!!!)
The car finally back together: 8 months on, a lot of new experiences and a rather emptier wallet later:
The new hood made to my own design of rear window: it now folds down lower than the original and with less distortion on the plastic:
I'll be giving the bodywork a bit of a spruce up in the interim before I have a full-on respray in late autumn, but now it's time to just get out and enjoy her. And a big thanks for all the words of encouragement from the forum by post, email and telephone during this saga: much appreciated. :salute:
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Fantastic job mate - thanks for sharing the experience with us. :thumbright:
Oh and first dibs if you ever want to sell! :mrgreen:
Fantastic final results, uber interesting thread, thanks for taking so much time to share this with us all :D
Cheers
Simon
Ralph Waldo Emerson: We ask for long life, but 'tis deep life, or noble moments that signify. Let the measure of time be spiritual, not mechanical.
A fantastic result, Ralphy, and thanks for sharing. I know from my own experience rebuilding cars that there are times when you just feel like pouring a gallon of petrol over the thing and reaching for the Swan Vestas. Ultimately, car restoration teaches you so much, not just about the mechanical aspect but about yourself as well.
Thanks again for a terrific thread, and well done.
Regards
Ian
Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.
Well done Ralphy, but hey what did the misses get promised in exchange for your little project?!!!
+1 Ralphy, excellent end result 8)
Well done m8, excellent results and the detail to work undertaken is amazing.
:D
Loved it. Thank you for sharing your journey with us.
Look forward to seeing the next stage.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
:D Great work Ralphy, it looks amazing now and I hope it will make another appearance at a SWHES sometime soon so a proper look and listen can be had.
Superb work m8! really nice result and should be great fun in the summer :)
What they all said Ralph, enjoy! :)
F.T.F.A.
stunning, you'll be enjoying that car for man a year thats for sure.
Lovely car, top result and by far the best thread we've had for ages. The perfect antidote to some of the vitriol and general bitching around here of late.
A massive congrats R, you have far more patience than me (which isn't saying that much in all honesty
Cheers,
Gary
Congratulations Ralphy, you've done a fine job.
I`ve enjoyed following this story; as a former car-restorer/DIY mechanic I`ve been able to empathise with most stages and it's stirred up memories of my own exploits (now in the distant past). People don`t realise how much hard work is involved, both physically and mentally, in completing such a project in such a relatively short time.
Those rolling road figures are pretty impressive; 217bhp at the wheels probably equates to around 255 at the flywheel allowing 15% transmission losses. Given the fat torque curve that comes with the V8, I`d expect this car to have more than enough urge for a sane human being driving in the real world ....I`m sure you tick the box on both counts :)
Enjoy driving her this summer and don`t forget to share details of the repaint job.
Paul
Fantastic restoration Ralphy, and a great thread/read to boot
8) :D
Fantastic job and a great thread. Safe driving and please post pics after you have it repainted.
I move that this thread be copied into the "Classic Posts" forum as I think it qualifies in every respect.
Amazing job Ralphy. Makes my little bit of work on the (push)bike the other day look completely trivial by comparison.
May you have many hours of sunshine and clear roads for your motoring pleasure.
Cheers,
I'm not much into cars, but I think that is really lovely. A great restoration too. Go well (in it).
Best wishes,
Bob
Just spent a long time look's stunning dad keep considering a chimera and then bottling it will show him this thread see if I can convince him round fantastic car's and fantastic value for money in my opinion...
Edit -
Well done getting 217ATW from a 400 as well as most dyno at a lot less than what the factory say. Feel free to come and finish my mini off for me btw :)
Feel free to show him my advert in the sales forum. :wink:
Yep, if your father is looking for a good Chimaera (there's lots of not-so-good around) then he'd do well to consider raceboy's (with whom I have no connection btw) as it's a very well sorted specimen IMO.Feel free to show him my advert in the sales forum. :wink:
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Been reading this for a long time now and as a first post it seems to fit the bill. Come from near Blackpool and used to work in a place called Poulton, had a lot of friends who worked at TVR and my route to work was part of TVR's unnoficial proving grounds, always loved them, could never afford them and after seeing the amount of work this one took now don't want one :bounce:
Absolutely superb job!
Welcome to the forum. :thumbup:
You might care to put up a 'hello' post in the George & Dragon - and if you have some pics of your watches to show us they always go down a treat. :wink:
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
I agree, it's been a great read.
And a great result too!
(I painted the rusty hubs on the BM the other day - that was hard enough....
Hi Ralph, will do but will not be anything exciting unfortunately, great job and a great read once again,Welcome to the forum. :thumbup:
You might care to put up a 'hello' post in the George & Dragon - and if you have some pics of your watches to show us they always go down a treat. :wink:
R
It doesn't seem like one year on, but the first thing I did when I bought the TVR was get an MOT - and today was the time for another one!
So off to the test station and the examiner was the same guy who did her last year. I must admit to a bit of trepidation (given the amount of work that's gone on since the last visit) but it passed with a clean bill of health! :cheers: (Well, one advisory: OSF lower ball joint with a bit of play in it..... replacement now ordered).
What really made my morning though was the examiners comments on the car: he remembered the condition of her from last year and spent ages enthusing over the refurb and looking around the underside. The brake test gave somewhat better readings than last time :wink: and she passed the emissions with plenty of leeway: last year I had to take her 'spiritedly' up the road - twice - to get the readings within acceptance. This was a particular relief today as the weather was appalling and these cars are not the most trustworthy under heavy acceleration in the wet on our local roads........
For the first time since I got her it felt like everything that needed doing has now been done: I've no wish to try to wring any further bhp from the engine, the suspension is exactly how I want it, all the electrics (finally) work - and roof is as waterproof as it's every likely to be! :D
And now, a tip for those of us with less than modern car electrics: Glow fuses. If the fuse blows it illuminates - so identification is easy, such a simple but effective idea!
(Apologies for the crap pics)
Day-time (the glow is a lot brighter than it appears here):
And (as is FAR more likely :roll: ) night-time:
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
The worst thing about this thread is that it's damped my enthusiasm for buying a Chimp. Having seen the amount of hard work and money that goes into the refurb...
Classic thread though for sure 8)
Top thread. Thanks :wink:
Just buy one thats already been done :P
Cheers,
Ben
..... for I have become the Jedi of flippers
" an extravagance is anything you buy that is of no earthly use to your wife "
Have you managed to add up how much all this has cost? (or is ignorance bliss :D )
This has to be one of my favourite threads of all time on TZUK.
I, like many on here, enjoy watching Youtube tinkering, there are some amazing channels. I've been following this guy for the past couple of years and it is safe to say he has taken on some challenging projects. He did a V8 RS4 a while back that had been flood damaged and needed a full engine out rebuild...... a good watch.
Anyway, fast forward and his most recent challenge is a TVR Cerbera, to say he has his hands full would be an understatement ;-)
Have a watch, there are 4 videos on the TVR so far - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ2eSL77TCs
He comes across as very down to earth, very calm and with a nice balance of him learning as he goes on some of his projects. If Ralphy is available, maybe he could pop down and give him a hand!
Cheers
Paul
I was thinking about buying a Chimaera a couple of years ago. Specifically this Supercharged 4.3L with a Steve Edwards hardtop.
https://www.amoreautos.co.uk/car-lis...ent-what-a-car
Car had £34K spent on its restoration. Asking price was £25K, IIRC. I was just too slow making an offer.
Last edited by Seiko7A38; 27th June 2022 at 12:28.
They do seem to be money pits!! The one I have linked to had a rodent / mouse infestation. They've destroyed the wiring, thats a massive understatement!
I was thinking about buying a Chimaera a couple of years ago. Specifically this Supercharged 4.3L with a Steve Edwards hardtop.
https://www.amoreautos.co.uk/car-lis...ent-what-a-car
Car had £34K spent on its restoration. Asking price was £25K, IIRC. I was just too slow making an offer.
I had a factory tour of TVR when I was training to become a vehicle technician. The sound was enough to have goose bumps on your arms. They certainly were not short of passion and soul, quality seemed to a missing ingredient however.
Paul
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