Little hole big problem

[MWBS3]

I was just preping her indoors Alfa for MOT with underseal and thought I would check the TVR and whoops found a big carbuncle on the front off side chassis to outrigger tube ( I was able to push my finger through it ). I suspect other areas as well.
My thoughts are considering breaking it up as I doubt its worth that much.
Question - what does a body off chassis refurb cost ?
Whats a good but not excellent TVR S3 fetch ?
It all works

Having just finally got my XJS seats fitted and motoring its a tad disappointing.
Since owning it it has had many new parts inc
New hood, ally tank, saab 9000 servo
Engine tuned at Austec to 172bhp
New AVO's
Trailing arms

Thoughts - advice appreciated

Mark

[tubbystu]

sorry to hear your glum news.

MWBS3 said:

Question - what does a body off chassis refurb cost ?

Mine was nudging £10k at Austec and took 7 months. Obviously if you were to do the strip & rebuild this cost would come down significantly.

Until the body comes off, the extent of the rot is hard to clarify.

[mep12345]

Mine was well shot but doing all the work except welding myself and got it done for under £750 all in. If you can weld you could do the work for under £200 and a lot of elbow grease. The OP paid premium rates for premium quality don't be swayed by a £10k bill that is the exception. Most done at garages are between £1500 and £2500 I believe.

I wouldn't break it as there will be plenty on here who would take a project on I am sure. May even be worth a call to Chris Bark (Barkychoc) to see if he is in the game for doing the work for you he was touting the possibility a while ago and is now without his V8S I believe

HTH

Mark

[Alan Whitaker]

Hi.
One of those questions which depends on how much you can do yourself, if you have a welder the steel is not that expensive to buy, I spent less than £100, you will need to lift the body to do any repairs, one thing with the chassis where it passes through the front chassis rails its all connected so water will pass from one side of the outriggers to the other side, so if one side is gone there is a chance the other side will also be on its way out.

Hope this helps


Alan

[magpies]

I did mine for less than £100 - bought the steel tube measured everything - cut the out chassis to out riggers off and replaced them , tack welded only, then cut the long outrigger sides off and replaced those tack welded only. Paid a good welder to do the final welding.

[AutoAndy]

Got mine done by a local TVR experienced garage (both out-riggers). They only partially lifted the body and did it for a few hundred pounds...All is not lost.

[sleeptalker]

I can second that - same prob for me in West London and it cost me ~£600 without the need for any lift.

[phillpot]

As others have said, "it ain't the end of the World"

If rot isn't too bad a simple body lift will do, not a full (mega bucks) body off, there are even garages that can repair without even lifting the body by welding from inside the tubes at the top then welding a piece in the bottom half.

Materials cost is minimal. its all labour so.......

get the tools out and have a go!

[ajp70]

To the OP. After reading your list of what you've paid for on the car already I think you should get the outriggers done to keep the car. It's cheap enough if you can do it yourself as you need about £50 worth of metal plus whatever paint protection but the costs lie in the labour charges if you need someone else to do the work. The job is not difficult for anyone who can do a bit of fabrication and welding. From what I experienced, even though the outer corners and tube had turned into rust cornflakes the outriggers 6-8 inches from the main backbone chassis was solid.

[tvrgit]

ajp70 said:

To the OP. After reading your list of what you've paid for on the car already I think you should get the outriggers done to keep the car. It's cheap enough if you can do it yourself as you need about £50 worth of metal plus whatever paint protection but the costs lie in the labour charges if you need someone else to do the work. The job is not difficult for anyone who can do a bit of fabrication and welding. From what I experienced, even though the outer corners and tube had turned into rust cornflakes the outriggers 6-8 inches from the main backbone chassis was solid.

Agree with all of this - my sill tubes were rotten through, at the front corners, but the outrigger bit itself was fine, apart from the last 6 inches or so. I spent less than £20 on steel, and about £60 on paint, and did a partial lift myself - it took me about 6 weeks, on and off in my spare time, but if it had been more desperate i could have lifted the body in a day, replaced it in a day, and done all the work in 4 or 5 days in between (allowing time for paints to dry etc) - say a week in total.

Full details are on my web site at http://www.tvrgit.com - look at the "how to" pages in the menu, and then "chassis repair" - if you want to read it as I wrote it (as I went along) then go to the "previous diary pages" for the end of July 2010 and start from there.

[MWBS3]

Hi All

Thanks for all your input. I will have a more detailed look to see how far the problem goes but its more than the front tube.


Mark

[King Fisher]

I can highly recommend RT Racing for body offs, they have all the jigs for the chassis, and their head welder is a bit of a wizard. They will charge about £4000 to do the entire thing, including fully stripping the chassis down to just the main backbone, then shot blasting it all, and re-powder coating it.