Vixen rear deck

[Astacus]

Can anyone help me with pictures of how the series one vixen plywood deck section stays up at the rear. I have a wooden bracket at the front that it rests on, but nothing at the back. Odd. Also any idea of how the tank straps are fitted would be good. Just have some rusty residue on the bottom of the “boot”.

Thanks

[Dollyman1850]

The original set up is a combination of bodged wood screwed to the fibreglass. There are better ways to do it. Personally I would bond some Ally L section in the boot to take the ply panel. I have done it 2 ways on 2 different cars now. I will post some pics up on the pre 80's facebook page.

Neil.

[Astacus]

Cheers Neil

[P100]

I have done just that on mine !
Some simple 35mm aluminium angle, glassed into the rear section is enough to provide a strong support for the ply floor .

Roy

[Marcosmaniac]

One of my cars came with a piece of ply over the fuel tank, I thought this was a DIY bodge done by a previous owner, didn't realise it was "factory"
Other car came with a flat piece of fibreglass, was this only on earlier cars? Or maybe the fibreglass piece was a DIY badge?

[Astacus]

Hi Ive never seen the fibreglass approach, but it sort of make sense. The ply is indeed the factory fitting. MGBGT also has a ply boot floor, so I suppose its not too bodgey. I was going to use the ply approach with some Dzus fittings to hold it on (also a la MGB). Neils idea of the ally angle to support the rear of the sheet sounds like the way to go, but I am intrigued to find out how the actual factory approach worked. If you look on the thread with the Pre 80s photos, you can see that the recently posted orange Tuscan had some kind of broom handle thing a the back, that looks like it was supported by some fitting around the lights. I wonder if thats how it worked. I am going to fit a flush cabinet handle as a pull ring.

Do you have any photos of you rear deck?

Cheers

Matt

[1969tuscan]

Hi mat the broom handle is a peice of alloy tubeing that's bolted on to rear light bolts , and glass bonded onto rear panel in centre , wireing runs through centre, my tank straps are alloy and also glass bonded to floor , the wood is factory fitted, and has the spare wheel bracket bolted to it, you might get the toilet chain in the back but definitely not room for the toilet,

[1969tuscan]

[Sonus]

My S1 has no support at the rear either. Makes for an annoying clonk when driving over sharp ridges. I have made a fiber glass L-section that I am bonding to the rear. However I am wondering how to secure the plywood to the ledge to stop it from banging against it when going over bumps?

[Astacus]

I was going to use some Dzus fasteners like these

click

they even have their own wiki page!

wiki

Edited by Astacus on Friday 8th June 22:16

[Dollyman1850]

If you look closely on the facebook pics on mine you will see that the ally is bonded using PU7 polyurethane seam sealer, Tigerseal, Sikaflex etc etc. I have also used Rivnuts set into the ally and M6 cap heads. I also used foam strip on the ally section to prevent any squeaking or rattling. I have used 12mm ply as the main floor then utilised further L section which is screwed to the ply also fitted with strategic rivets to make for reliable removable fixings which should not deteriorate or strip with age.

The rear trim panel bolts to the ply floor and under the top fibreglass section at the back of the car there are a further 3 small lengths of L section bonded to the underside of the car also with a rivnut

N.

[Astacus]

Thanks Neil, Nice idea with the rivenuts.

[Astacus]

argh, just got the toilet chain reference.

[moluag]

Having taken delivery on 2nd December 1971 of my shockingly lime green TVR Tuscan body and a whole kit of other parts, a friend and myself set about putting the whole thing together over the following weekend resulting in the very last, 101st, Tuscan V6 ever produced.

Fortunately I still own the car, and can describe the rear deck setup as it was when it left the factory.

The rear deck was made of plywood and only secured by the three woodscrews into a wooden baton bolted to the fibreglass in front of the petrol tank. It did however have an additional baton screwed to its underside with padding on which rested on top of the fuel tank.

Just prior to a full restoration of my car in 2010, I removed the rotten deck and duplicated it using marine ply, The only changes made was to fix the spare wheel bracket from below rather than from the top, and lengthen the fixing bolt to match.


Image before restoration


Topside view of rear deck


Underside view of rear deck

HTH, Mike

[sonnylad]

Not sure how helpfull this is but this is the setup in my M, has wood running front to back with a piece of cross iron towards the rear

[Astacus]

Cheers both. Mike that looks like the missing piece of the puzzle, the baton on the underside resting on the tank. Thanks

So the spare is mounted to one side?

[moluag]

Yes, the spare goes behind the driver, right in the back corner, in fact it is so tight it makes it somewhat difficult to get the cover onto the spare wheel.

[Astacus]

HI, I have now managed to sort out the tank well and the straps, so now I have a follow-up question. Fitting the tank in such a position that the filler neck aligns with the hole in the bodywork was a fiddle, but now all sorted, but try as I mights I can't seem to get the tank low enough so that the Smiths sender unit wouldn't foul the underside of the deck. Then I noticed that in the photo, the hole that I had originally thought allowed the filler neck through, might actually align with the sender instead. So my question is,

does the hole circled in red here:



overlay the sender or is it intended to allow the filler to pass. I can see that the other two holes receive the lugs for the tank straps, which is what made me think about it.

(I haven't actually made the deck yet, obviously!)

[Andrew Gray]

Yes Mathew the hole in the deck allows the sender to not get fouled there is very little clearance above the tank hence when i fit return flow on the tank i add it on the top at the end as there is not enough clearance to add at the top the way the M series ones are.
Andrew

[Astacus]

Lovely, thanks Andrew