Outriggers replacement

[Loubaruch]

I have lifted the body from the chassis on my 1996 Griffith with the intension of replacing the outriggers.

After a wire brushing and hitting all over with a welding hammer there is only one place,the front OS where the metal has failed and is holed.

Pleasantly surprised as that is a relatively easy weld

Edited by Loubaruch on Saturday 30th December 17:15

[Loubaruch]

[Loubaruch]

[Loubaruch]

[Loubaruch]

[Belle427]

Not bad really but what are your plans to just repair that one section?

[cliffords]

I wonder what they look like inside. I would clean them up really well with an angle grinder with a wire wheel on it and repair in situ, then re paint with something .

Edited by cliffords on Saturday 30th December 17:44

[Loubaruch]

As the rest seems very sound I will just cut back from the hole and weld in a part circular section.
I have yet to grind all the surface rust away then treat the bad sections with Hydrate 80, then the whole chassis with a few coats of red lead primer followed by a few coats of chassis paint. This will then outlast me !

[Belle427]

id want to chop that small section out and replace it personally along with the triangular plate, you may have difficulty getting a decent weld on that.
Shouldnt be too hard to do.

[Classic Chim]

That’s very impressive. What a result.
What miles are on the car.

That’s dumbfounded the nay sayers including me

I notice similar to mine the centre tube that goes under your legs and joins outrigger and has plates either side, that and that section of outrigger suffer. As you say see how it looks fully cleaned up then patch where necessary.
I don’t think that much weight gets applied to the riggers personally.
My riggers were non existent and could be torn off by hand on one corner ( late chassis ) lived in Scotland for 10 years then I took over and did another 10 years driving it as a daily fully knowing riggers would need doing.
My point is my riggers in that state couldn’t take any weight at all yet the body never fell off.
I notice the body weight is mostly taken and pinned to the Centre spars and indeed the body is strengthened in those areas. It’s only when the body is landed on those mounting points does the weight really get taken up by the chassis.
The outriggers are not taking even 1/3 rd the weight of the car if that. And that’s spread.
I did trackdays with those riggers in that condition. I’m confident a good repair here will indeed last years yet.
It’s great so see this.

Now your going to tell me it’s done less than 10,000 miles

Happy new year bud

[Loubaruch]

Thanks for the interest and advice.

Yes Belle I am considering removing the triangular fillet as it would make welding easier although Oxy/acetylene is a lot more tolerant of dirty metal. Not being not keen on "Snap crackle and pop " welding although it is much better and quicker for many things.

Alun, A 1996 car and done 67,000 miles, mine for 21 years but having the 4 post lift I have over the years been able to clear most of the mud etc. from the chassis and have pumped in paint and waxoyl etc. as well, it does seem to have helped.

All the best to all for 2024.

Edited by Loubaruch on Sunday 31st December 12:31

[keynsham]

I had a crack found at the MOT in my chassis. It was small enough to get welded up but the garage that did the welding said that there was rust inside the chassis and ultimately the tube would need replacing. He said he had see a lot of TVR's which had this issue. The tubes were never protected internally and so start rusting from day one, meaning ultimately however good your chassis looks from the outside, it has a shelf life and will eventually fail. Scary thought if you have just spend £80k on a Sagaris!!!

[cliffords]

You may have seen the old TVR factory pictures, quite near the end , where the chassis were stored outside with no paint protection before they came back into the factory for painting and car assembly. Luckily Blackpool is renounded for it's dry and warm climate .

[Loubaruch]

keynsham said:

I had a crack found at the MOT in my chassis. It was small enough to get welded up but the garage that did the welding said that there was rust inside the chassis and ultimately the tube would need replacing. He said he had see a lot of TVR's which had this issue. The tubes were never protected internally and so start rusting from day one, meaning ultimately however good your chassis looks from the outside, it has a shelf life and will eventually fail. Scary thought if you have just spend £80k on a Sagaris!!!

Fair comment but bashing the entire length of the riggers with a hammer produced a nice metallic ring apart from where the hole is so the thickness of steel has to be decent otherwise it would produce a dull thud if it was rusted through. I do intend squirting Ziebart throughout the tube inners. At my age with this intended treatment I am sure the riggers will outlast me!
That is quite long enough!

[keynsham]

Loubaruch said:

Fair comment but bashing the entire length of the riggers with a hammer produced a nice metallic ring apart from where the hole is so the thickness of steel has to be decent otherwise it would produce a dull thud if it was rusted through. I do intend squirting Ziebart throughout the tube inners. At my age with this intended treatment I am sure the riggers will outlast me!
That is quite long enough!

Yes, sorry, it wasn't meant to be a criticism. But it did make me reflect on the logic of paying a lot of money for a TVR. I have an old 350i wedge so not a huge investment, and everything seems OK so far. I expect there is a massive amount of redundancy in terms of tube thickness anyway, and as you say, I am pretty sure mine will outlast me!

[Classic Chim]

keynsham said:

I had a crack found at the MOT in my chassis. It was small enough to get welded up but the garage that did the welding said that there was rust inside the chassis and ultimately the tube would need replacing. He said he had see a lot of TVR's which had this issue. The tubes were never protected internally and so start rusting from day one, meaning ultimately however good your chassis looks from the outside, it has a shelf life and will eventually fail. Scary thought if you have just spend £80k on a Sagaris!!!

If water enters tubing via a breached or cracked tube that tube will of course rust.
If no breach is found the tube inside will be clean metal or at least mine was.

All 4 corners of mine were indeed breached but the tubes connecting them to chassis were solid and no rust inside them at all.
I cut straight through these tubes to allow me to add a sleeve to then connect new riggers up to and the steel there was as new inside those tubes.
That leads me to believe all other areas of the chassis internally should be dry and free of rust.
Anywhere that’s cracked or pin prick holes found, I would expect to find rust inside that particular tube.

[Belle427]

Do you make a primative jig of some sort when you chop the outer ends off?
Seems the easiest method really.
Slug/sleeve the tubes and plug weld I assume then fully weld tube joins?

[Zeb74]

Nice chassis! Mine on the same age was more lacework than metal. You took a good care of your car and probably the former owners too.

[Loubaruch]

keynsham said:

Yes, sorry, it wasn't meant to be a criticism. But it did make me reflect on the logic of paying a lot of money for a TVR. I have an old 350i wedge so not a huge investment, and everything seems OK so far. I expect there is a massive amount of redundancy in terms of tube thickness anyway, and as you say, I am pretty sure mine will outlast me!

I did not take it taken as a critisism, the more people post with their experiences of TVRs the better for everyone. As Chim says if there any holes in the riggers then they will rust inside, I wil have a good look with a camera to see how mine with a hole has faired.

[Classic Chim]

Belle427 said:

Do you make a primative jig of some sort when you chop the outer ends off?
Seems the easiest method really.
Slug/sleeve the tubes and plug weld I assume then fully weld tube joins?

Yes. A combination of cardboard cut outs and measurements taken from solid areas then tac welding, checking and carrying on.

I was going to create a gig but taking measurements from the floor and various other places off chassis got mine pretty spot on really.
As I used the existing outrigger corners to take measurements and outline drawings from and they did vary slightly corner to corner but only by about 3- 6 mm so as it’s the outbound tubes that mostly dictate the height and in/out positioning of the corners i used those tubes for most of my datum points.
This was always a big worry before replacing them but the new floor plates to take body bolts are all where they should be when body dropped back and holes drilled so proved accurate enough.
I’ve heard in the past it’s not uncommon to find riggers 10 mm higher one corner to another which doesn’t surprise me really.
If you have cocked up the heights of the corners your door gaps might be difficult to maintain.
I notice corrosion often forms along the line of weld between plates and tubes due to damp but I think body contact with the tubes breaks down PC prematurely,,, only a theory so I added 5 mm solid rubber triangular cut to fit body pads between plates and bodywork to allow access and more free air via that 5mm gap.
Old Tvr used these pads to good effect.
I think they have a gripping effect fibreglass direct to steel doesn’t have.
Probably reduces vibration by a percent but mostly it allows better access to clean wash out these trapped areas later on.