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.