Small Progress

I was hoping to be able to post up quite a bit of progress this month. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

I ordered a new lower wishbone from David Geralds, which duely arrived. I then got all the front suspension arms, and a few other bits and bobs, off to the powder coaters.

I had decided to paint the uprights rather than powder coat them, so, while the wishbones were away being coated, I gave the uprights a final cleanup ready for painting. The thread on one of the uprights was rather rough and had become badly pitted by rust. The rough thread had eaten into the brass trunion threads and, as a result, the trunion had also become badly worn. Both the trunion and the upright were replaced. The thread on the second upright was fine, but the second trunion was also replaced as a precaution. The uprights and trunions are early Spitfire/ Herald items and available from Rimmer Bros. I ordered a trunion rebush kit at the same time.

Having given the uprights a final soaking in Deox-C and a clean, I gave them both two coats of POR15.

The streering arms were both badly rusted, but came up fine after a couple of days in Deox-C. Unfortunately all 4 bolts had been broken off and seized tight in the threaded holes.  Whilst the Spitfire/Herald steering arms are easily avaiable and only a few quid each, they are the wrong size! The arms are apparently Standard 10/8 items, but don't seem to be available anywhere. So I had to send the originals away to get them renovated. I discovered later that Mike Brotherwood (http://www.mikebrotherwood.com/Parts.html) does some hand made ones that look like they may fit.

So, following a trial  re assembly of the uprights, this is as far as the re assembly of the car got in 2010:

A Long Time Resting

Just had a quick look at the DVLC website. These are the details of my car

Date of Liability	1st December 1986
Date of First Registration	11th April 1968
Year of Manufacture	Not Available
Cylinder Capacity (cc)	1600CC
CO2 Emissions	Not Available
Fuel Type	Petrol
Export Marker	Not Applicable
Vehicle Status	Unlicensed
Vehicle Colour	BLUE

It looks like the road tax was due to be paid in December 1986. So she has been off the road for 24 years.

Getting her home

So, I now have the car home and safely installed in my garage.

I knew transporatation would be an issue, because of the distance. It was a two day run for a transporter on the tacho, so quotes came in at between £330 and £650. That would pay for a lot of useful bits! So after a bit of consideration I opted for loading the car and all the bits into a Luton and driving it myself. Surprisingly three blokes managed to get the whole thing loaded and away in about half an hour.

This is how well a Vixen fits in the back of a Luton Van.

Unloading was easy with the tail lift and the car is now safely installed in the garage.

Note the beautifully painted garage floor!

The first thing I did, having got the car into the garage, was take a look at all the boxes of bits to try and get an idea of what was there and what wasn't. Worryingly there are a good few bits, the identity of which, I have not the first idea; still, more of that later.

The plan is to start with the suspension and steering so as to get a rolling chassis. To that end, I spent a while digging out all the suspension parts and making sure they were all there. The good news was that they were all present. All the wishbones, save one, has been sand blasted and painted in hammerite black. The one that was not painted had been badly bent at some time.



A brief check confirmed that this was not worth trying to repair. The tube supporting the antirollbar attachment bracket was badly dented from underneath, and, although a few whacks with a sledgehammer might have straightened it out a bit, it has obviously been weakened and would not be safe. So a new one has been ordered from David Geralds (http://www.davidgeraldtvr.com/).

In the mean time I had a go at cleaning up the vertical links.

I was absolutely amazed at how well they  came up after an over night dunking in Deox-C (http://www.bilthamber.com/deoxc.html).

The trunnions were both there, but obvioulsy the bushes and seals were gone and a new bush kit has been ordered from Moss. This comes with all the washers and seals as well as a set of new bushes, which I will discard in favour of the polybushes that came with the car. Amazingly one of the top ball joints was in good nick and will be re used, the other was completely shot and has been replaced. These are  TVR special part but David Geralds had them in stock

Once I get the new wish bone I will get them all powder coated and I can get on with putting the suspension back together.

Checking her over

I went to visit the car today. It was about a 10hr round trip but well worth it.
These pictures don't really show the car in much detail, but they do show the size of the job ahead!

The tub has been separated from the chassis and more or less stripped to the gel coat. There are a fair few stress cracks as expected and I will have to read up a bit on what to do with these.

There is an exciting collection of boxes containing every thing from rubber seals, wiring and so on to essential looking bits of metal, some of which I recognise and others not. Its like a jigsaw without the picture on the lid. I am very pleased to report that the bumperettes are all there (almost impossible to find apparently) and there are duplicates of some of the parts including at least two pairs of rear lights. 

Its just a question now of working out how to transport the car.

Before we start

I've been looking for a classic TVR to restore, for about 6 years. I originally imagined a tatty but running example or perhaps one that at least moved under its own steam or, at worst was complete and at least rolled.....if pushed....quite hard.

I started off looking for a Grantura; Mk II or Mk III. I naively thought I might find a Mk III, (of which only 90 odd were made). I particularly like these cars because, unlike the MkIIs they have all round independent suspension, (compared to the torsion bar suspension of the earlier cars) and more pleasing treatment of the rear end (no really!).  However, since these cars have race history in period, they often get bought by the historic racers and this has pushed the price through the roof. The last one I saw for restoration, in about 2008, was not much more than a shell with a chassis and suspension. It had been messed about with, and I believe it went for about six grand.

So I gave up that idea and set my sights on an early Vixen. These cars have the advantage of sixties cool, superb handling, the bullet proof Ford 1600 cross flow engine (except the first few, which were MG powered), the fantastic "Ban the Bomb" rear lights and a wooden dash, packed with silver Smiths gauges. What more could you ask for?

Here are a couple of pictures I took at this year's pre 80s TVR gathering. The powder blue car is similar to a a series I Vixen, but the C plate suggests its an earlier 1800S (edit: as does the badge at the rear, which says TVR 1800s!!).

and a Grantura MkIII

I had been looking seriously again for a few months and last weekend I found a Mk I Vixen, for sale. the car was a stalled restoration project, completely dismantled and looked rather rough. I was in two minds about it because it looked like a lot of work was going to be needed to rebuild the car.  The ad had been up for a few days and I almost didn't follow it up, eventually I decide to check it out and I e-mailed the seller to see if it was still available. Disappointingly it had already been sold, but the seller promised to contact me if the sale fell through. I didn't hold out much hope, but a day or so later, unbelievably, I got an E-mail saying the sale had indeed fallen through and was I still interested.

The seller rang me with details of the car. It turned out the car had been stripped for restoration many years ago. A lot of work had been done on restoring the components. The car had a new chassis made on the original jigs (great, that saves a lot of heartache and a fair bit of knuckle skin) and a new floor pan professionally converted to bolt-on configuration (even better) and the engine had been rebuilt (where do I sign). All the bits were apparently there, except the rear screen and the seats. Anyway, to cut a long story short, after a very nervous morning, including a short bidding war with the  original buyer who re appeared on the scene, I bought myself a 1968 TVR Vixen Mk I, in kit form, without ever having actually seen it in the flesh. I am going to see it this week end though, to arrange transport. Can't wait to smell the old oil and I am already planning how to put it all back together.

Silver......with bulls blood red leather upholstery....what do you think?