For the love of Tuscan (project build)

[Modrich]

Greetings all longtime lurker here with a Mk1 Tuscan in need of some TLC. I bought my 2000 Tuscan in August and have been systematically dismantling it ever since in an effort to get it MOT'd before winter, well winters (nearly) here and guess what...it's still dismantled!

The car came from Glen at North East Sports Salvage and was in need of some 'minor' fibreglass repairs to the small bonnet and the OSR corner/boot area. I've done fibreglass and carbon fibre work before so I thought it would be a perfect and cheap (!!) way into a Tuscan that was mechanically/chassis wise in very good condition.

When the car arrived on the transporter I couldn't believe how good it looked even with it's battle scars. The battery was dead and no fuel in the tank so we pushed it onto my drive where it has stayed ever since, yes I haven't even driven it yet apart from to manoeuvre it into position.







There was little history with the car and is as follows:
2019-07-10 40126 miles, Bespoke Performance major service and mechanical/suspension overhaul £6k spent
2022-03-30 40552 miles crashed category N, none structural.

Spec: AC (belt removed), upgraded AP TVR calipers with standard discs, unknown dampers/springs (haven't had a chance to check properly). Half hide interior.

Sadly, the last owner only did about 400 miles in it since the major service, I assume it was garaged for most of lockdown, then taken out for a spin which ended his ownership. I assume it had a minor rear end shunt that pushed it into the car in front?? What a shame.

I have all the MOT history etc and Car Vertical report, which is BTW very poor for a history checker as it missed the change of ownership in 2019.

I would like to rebuild the history file if possible so if anyone is familiar with this car, please post or get in touch.

As for the project, I'm well underway and as I get a chance, I will post details of all the repairs and hopefully some nice improvements.

Project bullet points:

• Fibreglass and bodywork repairs
• Respray
• Full interior strip and restoration (leather is very good condition) but interior smells baaaad.
• Leaky roof/doors/rear screen
• Alternative rear screen fixings
• Electrical restoration including dash pod repairs
• Lighting upgrades
• Bonnet struts
• Android touchscreen stereo and speaker upgrade
• Carl Baker alarm upgrade with driver proximity detection and boot release
• Stop/Start button
• Minor chassis rust repairs
• Fresh coolant hoses
• Engine vapour blasting

etc etc etc

My approach will be, restore where possible, if not viable, replace with factory or better parts. As I haven't even driven it yet, or any TVR for that matter, I will wait for that big day before starting on engine/chassis/brake improvements.

So, before I sign off, can anybody identify the colour? It isn't factory which was Crystal Topaz and has been changed to a beautiful dark metallic purple, much darker than Rolex blue, almost black when no direct sunlight is on it...

Any help or pointers would be very welcome.

Thanks for reading

Edited by Modrich on Sunday 16th October 15:32

Edited by Modrich on Thursday 15th December 15:36

Edited by Modrich on Monday 25th March 23:14

[sct_w4]

TVR used a Bentley Black Sapphire or Rolls Royce Sapphire Black towards the end of production which is exactly how you describe. A flat black with no sun, then a sparkling deep blue under the lights. There are a lot of manufacturers did similar though, BMW did it around 2012 on the 1 series and Mini, so it could be any. Best way would be to take a sample panel to a paint shop for a match. Good luck with the restoration, car does look decent to start with.

[Polly Grigora]

Bookmarked, please keep updating

[Granturadriver]

Welcome! Nice colours, and I really like the early Tuscans without any spoilers etc.

You will get all upcoming questions answered here. Just keep us updated with lots of photos!

[Modrich]

Thanks guys, I intend to fully detail everything I do, already have 1000s of pics, just need the time to write it all up.

@sct_w4, good shout about those colours, google is already throwing up some decent matches, the Bently colour seems too black from online pics, but RR black sapphire pearl seems a good match



Orrrr it could even be Midnight Purple II


But yes the best bet is to get it scanned, not sure if that will give me a colour code and name or just mix ratios.

Thanks again peeps more posts soon

Edited by Modrich on Sunday 31st March 23:55

[Basil Brush]

Have a good look at the chassis before you get too far as it looks from the engine bay that it has been sat for a while, possibly outside.

[Modrich]

The chassis is actually in really good condition, pretty sure it's had new outriggers at some point as it's sleeved on the front diagonals. The only areas that I felt needed immediate attention were the pedal box and seat supports the powder coating was flaking off. I'll detail this in a later post.

[Modrich]

So this is the damage sustained to the rear of the Tuscan. One long crack with several offshoots, a crack to the opening of the boot


And another crack (I had already started to remove material here in this photo) and a chunk out of the gelcoat/filler and crack to the bottom right of the rear screen



And crack on service bonnet, grille was damaged beyond repair so was removed before delivery


And localised hairline cracks in the gelcoat.

So, before I can start the repairs I need to get access to the inside of the boot skin which means stripping all the carpet...


Then grind out the inner skin that supports the boot lid latch and release solenoid...



Remove the boot lid and hinges...


And the bent boot lid latch


Now it's onto the repairs. I took a multitool and ran the blade between all the cracks so the panels will naturally re-align then using a grinder removed the gelcoat down to the fibreglass creating a 60mm strip wherever there is a crack...




Then wet it out with epoxy resin and apply layers of 50mm fibreglass tape inside and out and leave to fully harden for a few days, takes longer than usual as it's below 15degs a lot of the time now.




Next, it's filling and sanding back...

Edited by Modrich on Monday 25th March 21:27

Edited by Modrich on Monday 25th March 23:04

[Gladers01]

Modrich said:

So this is the damage sustained to the rear of the Tuscan. One long crack with several offshoots, a crack to the opening of the boot


And another crack (I had already started to remove material here in this photo) and a chunk out of the gelcoat/filler and crack to the bottom right of the rear screen



And crack on service bonnet, grille was damaged beyond repair so was removed before delivery


And localised hairline cracks in the gelcoat.

So, before I can start the repairs I need to get access to the inside of the boot skin which means stripping all the carpet...


Then grind out the inner skin that supports the boot lid latch and release solenoid...



Remove the boot lid and hinges...


And the bent boot lid latch


Now it's onto the repairs. I took a multitool and ran the blade between all the cracks so the panels will naturally re-align then using a grinder removed the gelcoat down to the fibreglass creating a 60mm strip wherever there is a crack...



Then wet it out with epoxy resin and apply layers of 50mm fibreglass tape inside and out and leave to fully harden for a few days, takes longer than usual as it's below 15degs a lot of the time now.




Next, it's filling and sanding back...

The colour could be Tvr Midnight blue, Amore sold one recently, there's usually a rating plate underneath the boot latch which could reveal some clues, my own Mk1 '03 vintage went to just over 40k miles without any major problems when I sold it. You certainly have your work cut out for you there even with light damage, shame for the previous owner and best of luck with the project

[Modrich]

Thanks Gladers. I haven't seen any for sale in this colour so if there was one recently I must have missed it. The ID plate in the boot lists the colour as Crystal Topaz so current colour isn't factory unfortunately. The bodywork repairs were surprisingly straight forward, painting it is the hard bit which I won't be doing...

[Modrich]

Sorry I've not updated for a while I've been poking at the rear indicators...

Anyway here's an update to the bodywork repairs. 1st stage of filling and sanding back done so all the bodywork damage has been addressed, ready for fine filling and sanding, but I will be taking advice on the hairline cracks to the gelcoat from the bodyshop first (I've managed to find someone familiar with TVRs).












I now have a very good fibreglass copy of the front grille from a breakers in Estoril blue which fits perfectly :-)

Edited by Modrich on Sunday 31st March 19:41

[nawarne]

Modrich said:

The chassis is actually in really good condition, pretty sure it's had new outriggers at some point as it's sleeved on the front diagonals. The only areas that I felt needed immediate attention were the pedal box and seat supports the powder coating was flaking off. I'll detail this in a later post.

I had outriggers done earlier this year at Lloyds in Warminster.
They commented on the apparent sleeving on the diagonals from backbone top tube to outrigger(s). I've had mine (an '04) since 2009...and 76,000 miles. So, i believe this 'sleeve' was as they left the factory.

In the end, Lloyds said that to do a decent job, they needed to do a full body lift. I agreed to this and with the chassis fully exposed, they addressed any areas of light corrosion that they treated. I am pleased with the work.

I had several conversations with Sportmotive...maybe it was Central? with regard to getting prefabbed outriggers shipped to me for fitting locally. In the end, they advised that they hadn't got a jig for the T car riggers yet..

Good luck with the project.
Nick

[Modrich]

That's interesting thanks Nick, so my chassis is possibly original. I wonder why they are sleeved from the factory? Must have been a way to give some adjustment to make up for tolerances to achieve a level floor.

I'm sure the more I poke around the chassis, the more areas that need addressing will become obvious, but so far it certainly doesn't look like a body off job. My priority ATM is getting it roadworthy for MOT, so I can get behind the wheel which will probably be the spring now if I'm honest.

[Modrich]

While we're on the subject of the chassis here is what I've done to address the worst of the chassis corrosion that I've found so far. In my opinion, with limited experience on TVR chassis, I think it's in amazing condition considering that it’s potentially original, the body to chassis bolts under the carpet also look like they've never been undone which would backup this theory.

The powder coating is only flaking off the pedal box and seat supports and floor pan corner fillets.


I decided to address this localised corrosion early on so attacked it with a wire brush attachment on my grinder. I'm a big fan of Hammerite paint, I restored a cast iron bench at the start of lockdown and painted it in silver Hammerite 8 year direct to rust paint, it’s really tough and after 3 years still looks as good as the day I painted it with no rust coming through so decided to mix a suitable light grey (roughly 70/30 white/black) to match the chassis colour. I treated the rust with Hammerite Kurust then 2 coats of the grey paint mix. This should last until the Tuscan is on the road and I have more time to give the chassis a thorough inspection.

Wire brushed & Kurust applied


Not pretty but will do the job






Here's a good shot of the main chassis, not much rust there, I've only painted upto the sleeve on the diagonal. I'm thinking this area would benefit from some sort of stone/mud guard to protect the paint, has anyone done this?

Edited by Modrich on Sunday 31st March 19:45

[NCE 61]

The sleeve on the chassis can be seen in this picture taken at the factory in April 2000:-



Hope all goes well with getting the car back in the road.

[Basil Brush]

It looks OK from the pics.

How is the top tube next to the manifolds? There wasn't any heat shielding there on the early cars and that tube suffers.

The body is currently coming off mine as one of my front wishbone mounts has rusted through. I didn't realise until I poked the powder coat and a bracket shaped piece fell off.

[Modrich]

Nice pic, that could be my chassis! Mine was registered Nov' 2000, thanks NCE 61.

@Basil Brush, I agree looks good so far, but as you say I've already noted corrosion on the top rail next to the manifold and was amazed that there's no heat shielding there, also like yours there is corrosion around the bolts on the front wishbone mounting points, just surface though, I plan on getting any difficult to get at areas like this vapour blasted when I get the engine done.

Thanks guys, keep the helpful comments coming. I've just got around to writing a letter to the owner who's details were on the Bespoke Performance invoice in 2019, he owned it for 14yrs from 2005 to 2019 when he sold it to the previous owner. I'm hoping he has some more info on the history and colour etc.

[sct_w4]

If you need any pics I’ve currently got the body off my Mk2. Only lifted it a couple of weekends ago so it’s still relatively untouched, haven’t even had time to clean it down.

The chassis colour is a RAL number and has been asked a few times around the forums if you want a direct match.

[nawarne]

Modrich, hi!

The pedal box plate is a swine to really de-rust and then protect....as are the channels/'top-hat' for the seat bolts at the rear.

I requested Lloyds to replace both items with flat bar/plate - doing away with the rust traps that were the forward facing 'right-angles'. I would usually do a scrape/sand and high zinc primer, then top coat on these every winter but they succumbed to the tin worm in the end.

Nick

[so called]

sct_w4 said:

TVR used a Bentley Black Sapphire or Rolls Royce Sapphire Black towards the end of production which is exactly how you describe. A flat black with no sun, then a sparkling deep blue under the lights. There are a lot of manufacturers did similar though, BMW did it around 2012 on the 1 series and Mini, so it could be any. Best way would be to take a sample panel to a paint shop for a match. Good luck with the restoration, car does look decent to start with.

My Tuscan was finished in Bentley Sapphire Blue which, as you describe, a flat black with no sun, then a sparkling deep blue under the lights, great in the Spanish sun.
No hint of purple though.