In which we almost complete the diff. and get hold of some seats

This has been a frustrating few months on the TVR front. I managed to get the diff back together after getting the internals inspected. What should have seen a a simple strip down and renovation of the output shafts turned into a bit of a saga. The castellated nut wouldn't come off, so having spent days soaking them in WD40, I gave up and went back to the engineers. I felt like a bit of a plonker presenting them with two nuts to undo, but pride was swallowed and here we are:

The bearing came off easily with a three legged puller

The new bearing is a relatively common size of snap ring bearing, and was simple to track down, but the leather seal in the aluminium casting took me weeks to find. The suppliers had two left! so I took both

The seals have to be soaked in oil over night to swell the leather, then it can all go back together. The flanges were cleaned up, treated with Deox-C gel, wrapped in cling film and left over night. Two cycles of this and the rust was completely gone. Then they were painted with POR15.

It only remains to find the correct size bushings and the whole thing can go back on the car.

The major success of the last few weeks, though, has been tracking down a pair of genuine TVR Vixen S1 seats:

They need a bit of work, but I am really pleased with them.