My Taimar

[calum62]

As per other threads Ive finally got my Taimar restoration underway.

This car has been off the road since 1998, the last owner bought the car from David Gerald in 93, ran it for 5 years and then stuck it in storage for 11 years. I bought it 11 year ago and had have had it stored inside and then under a tarpaulin outside for more years than I would like to say. The car has full history from 93, and came with a complete new exhaust system ready for fitting and a replacement bonnet frame (one on the car is shot)

So I have no garage, but I have two shipping containers I have been using to store building material while building my house. I emptied one out, relined it, fixed all leaks and dragged the TVR in there. Made difficult by the brakes being seized! Shipping container is 20ft long but only 8 ft wide so quite snug. I have a good box trailer which is 10ft long and 6ft wide/high which I am using to store the many bits that come off the car.

First job will be to renovate the chassis so body needs to come off: So far: Stuck the thing up on high axle stands, took off bonnet, removed seats, disconnected Clutch cable, taken off front wheel arches, radiator removed for re-coring and today pulled the fuel tank. I notice it has a retro fitted electric fuel pump but no inertia cut off switch. The wiring a bit of a rats nest too.

A bit nostalgic using AF spanners and ratchet spanners, the last time I used most of them was I did my Scimitar restoration 14 year ago! Pretty much every fastener thats come off will need replaced.

Some photos, hopefully this works...

[calum62]

Should also mention the guy I bought it from was an absolute Gent, He and his mates pulled it out of a lockup in the Scottish borders, stuck it on a transporter Trailer and drove it 200 miles odd to deliver it to my place for 24 cans of Budvar! £2000 I think I paid.

[Moto]

Takes me back to my first TVR. A 1600M in the same metallic blue as yours but with a silver band. A drawing still hangs on my living room wall - a lovely colour combination and a truly fab car. I've always owned a TVR ever since the day I purchased it in 1987. According to DVLA it's SORN now, so probably sitting in a garage somewhere like yours has been. In my imaginary garage of six cars, it would be one.

Have fun with the resto..

Moto

[Zeb74]

Impressive!
Starting such a project in this tiny space, you will be able to have a job at the Beijing's circus after this .

[calum62]

Moto said:

Takes me back to my first TVR. A 1600M in the same metallic blue as yours but with a silver band. A drawing still hangs on my living room wall - a lovely colour combination and a truly fab car. I've always owned a TVR ever since the day I purchased it in 1987. According to DVLA it's SORN now, so probably sitting in a garage somewhere like yours has been. In my imaginary garage of six cars, it would be one.

Have fun with the resto..

Moto

Cheers and funnily enough that's what I was intending going with, a silver model band rather than the existing cream one.

[calum62]

I have planning permission for a very large garage, but funds are low just now, so will need to wait a year or so.

Got fed up seeing my Taimar lying outside rusting , and lockdown sees me with time on my hands if not money. Idle hands are the devils play things and all that

I console myself that a standard UK lockup garage would be much smaller and be costing me £100 a month here.

Have started making a list of things that will need replacing and what I'll need to sell to pay for them!

[8Speed]

Good luck with the restoration.
I love these - I had a 3000M many years ago (red with a white stripe) - would have one again if I had space for a few more cars.

[62stevew]

Hi Calum62,

Is this your car ? => http://www.tvrfiles.co.uk/taimar/taimar.htm

[Dollyman1850]

callum..

food for thought.. some very very good TVR restorations have been carried out in single garages

Your cheapest way into a 2 story garage is to buy 6 joist hangers and 3 lengths of 6 x 2 timber... your mates can then lift the body so you can crack on

N.

[calum62]

62stevew said:

Hi Calum62,

Is this your car ? => http://www.tvrfiles.co.uk/taimar/taimar.htm

It is indeed

I'd forgotten about that web site. It that you Graham?

[calum62]

Dollyman1850 said:

callum..

food for thought.. some very very good TVR restorations have been carried out in single garages

Your cheapest way into a 2 story garage is to buy 6 joist hangers and 3 lengths of 6 x 2 timber... your mates can then lift the body so you can crack on

N.

cheers, funnily enough I have both joist hangers and 2x6 C16 timber left over from my house! I have a vague plan to make a dolly with castors for the body out of some scaffold and scaffold castors I have. I have an even vaguer plan to use it to wheel the body out of the shipping container and into a decent 10ft x6ft x6ft box trailer I have.

Yes I like to do things the difficult way

[calum62]

Progress update, most stuff disconnected, have the handbrake to get off and the gear stick off , then its a matter of cutting off the old rusty bolts holding the shell on.

Starting to realise the last car I did ( A Scimitar 1976 GTE SE6) I got off very lightly.

A lot more stuff will need replacing on this motor, virtually all perishable items (hoses/bushes/pipes/seals/wiring) are goosed, still unlike my Scimitar the value of the potential end vehicle makes it worthwhile. Enjoying it in a masochistic way, out in an unheated shipping container in sub zero temps on a creeper , with grease and muck falling in by eyes wielding the spanners on rusty/stuck fasteners.

[Penelope Stopit]

What are you going to do about the wiring?

[calum62]

Penelope Stopit said:

What are you going to do about the wiring?

Rewiring the whole car and replacing the fuse box with a blade style one. I'd rather not have to do it but I dont see I really have a choice, just due to age the insulation on the wiring has become brittle and unsafe. I see Autosparks do a 3000M loom although it's a chunk of money, may just make my own up. Will need to work out relative costs.

Regards
Rob

[GAjon]

Oh there not so bad once you get stuck in, just a bit of brushing here and there.

[DavidY]

GAjon said:

Oh there not so bad once you get stuck in, just a bit of brushing here and there.

Unless you had one of the 'black wired' cars!!! obvously ran of credit with the coloured wire supplier at that time......

Mine was wired completely in black, with little coloured markers on each wire end. All those cable markers that were exposed to the elements had rotted off, but leaving those inside the cockpit!!!

[Penelope Stopit]

calum62 said:

Penelope Stopit said:

What are you going to do about the wiring?

Rewiring the whole car and replacing the fuse box with a blade style one. I'd rather not have to do it but I dont see I really have a choice, just due to age the insulation on the wiring has become brittle and unsafe. I see Autosparks do a 3000M loom although it's a chunk of money, may just make my own up. Will need to work out relative costs.

Regards
Rob

Very interesting

You'll certainly enjoy the job if you do decide to build your own loom, by the time it's all built and taped up you will know everything there is to know about the cars electrics plus have the satisfaction of having achieved so much

Well, that's how I felt when building the first few looms, many looms later the job would drive me bonkers

3 years ago when sorting out a wiring loom for a Ford Escort MK II which is similar to your cars size, I think the cable cost was in the region of 130 Pounds and the whole cost of the job including fusebox, relays, flasher units and terminals was approximately 230 Pounds

Autosparks proved to be the cheapest UK supplier of cable and have just visited the Autosparks website to find that the prices don't seem to have increased

Anyway, you seem to have other work before wiring

Enjoy

PS. The best part about building your own loom is that dummy fuseboxes, flasher units etc can be left in their original positions with short cables connected to them, taping those short cables into the loom for nothing but looks/original layout, while the components doing the work are fitted in the best positions away from water and dirt

[calum62]

Yes I have an all black loom as well with faded/ lost rings at the ends! Expecting it to take a bit of time to sort the wiring but it needs doing

[Penelope Stopit]

Black looms are amazing

[Slow M]

It may be of interest to you to look at the three concurrent restorations being chronicled here,
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-proj...
here,
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-proj...
and here.
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-proj...