The re-furb starts!!!

[v8s4me]

The V8S went off on the back of the TVR Centre flat-bed this morning for its re-furb. Mainly cosmetic but with a bit of mechanical work as well. The engine & g’box are coming out so that the front part of chassis can be blasted back to bare metal and re-painted a nice bright red. Whilst out, the gear box linkages will be replaced as will the clutch and a few other parts to extend the engine’s life and reliability. A new alloy rad is going in to improve cooling (and keep the garage floor dry!!). Lots of bling jobs like a Cermakrome finish to the exhaust manifolds, Y-piece, rocker boxes and plenum are scheduled. ACT stainless coolant pipes and stainless fasteners will add to the shine. Maybe some other stuff depending on how the money goes.

Edited by v8s4me on Monday 1st February 22:51

[tinks v8S]

hope all goes well it is worth it in the end
cannot put it off
keep us all informed hope they take loads of photos how long did they say it will take

LONG LIVE ANOTHER V8S

[Wiz]

Was looking at the ACT S/S coolant pipes the other day with the hose kit they should look

[v8s4me]

The plan is to have it back just after Easter so I can get the most use out of the 6 months tax and finish with the "S Club Italian Job" tour in September.

[Barkychoc]

Is the body going to be lifted to see the tops of the outriggers or has this already been done?
Thats the crucial stage before anything else in my opinion, along with checking the trailing arms & rear chassis tubes.

[mep12345]

Barkychoc said:

Is the body going to be lifted to see the tops of the outriggers or has this already been done?
Thats the crucial stage before anything else in my opinion, along with checking the trailing arms & rear chassis tubes.

+1, particularly if the bit in the engine bay needs doing

[Longers]

v8s4me said:

.....Lots of bling jobs ......

v8s4me said:

....and finish with the "S Club Italian Job" tour in September.

I can picture the scene now.....

I appear bleary eyed into the bright Italian morning sunshine ready for another day in the Alps and head to my car which is covered in 1000+ miles of grime and dead flies. And what do I see in the car park? You and Tinks polishing your cars until the very last moment before we set off

[v8s4me]

Make sure you are wearing your sunglasses!!

[v8s4me]

The bonnet is off, the engine & gearbox are out and there are lots of boxes of bits to be cleaned and painted. When I arrived at the TVR Centre to pick up my “home-work” the exhaust was sitting outside the workshop. I had hoped I could re-use it but that won’t be happening! Most of the welded joints are rusted through but 18 years on the car I should have expected it. So, the first knock to the budget and back to the spread-sheet to see what has to be sacrificed. Still, better to find out now than half way up a Swiss Alp!. Busy weekend ahead!

[tinks v8S]

v8s4me is that your manifolds that you r on about

[v8s4me]

The manifolds are OK as is the Y-piece. It's the rest that's shot. Joe

[tinks v8S]

ok have some for sale will put on flee bay

[v8s4me]

I’ve ditched the idea of upgrading to larger front brakes. I should have realised there was no such thing as a “simple upgrade”. The Granada callipers cleaned up very nicely so those will go on Ebay as will the new Griff discs and a pair of new XR4i discs I have. Hopefully I'll off-set some costs.

Gerald is sending me a pair of nearly new Sierra vented and grooved discs. I sent the callipers off to Big Red on Monday to be re-conditioned and I got a call today to say they are ready. So that's the front brakes sorted (hopefully!).

The next issue is the exhaust system. I’ve bitten the bullet and ordered a complete stainless system from ACT. My original manifolds and Y-piece are sound so I'll clean those up and put them on Ebay as well.

I'm also going to break the bank and send the engine off to TVR Power for a rebuild. It's a lot of money but it will have a warranty so it should add to the value of the car if I ever need to sell it.

So two weeks in and the budget is in shreds! At this rate I should be running the Greek economy! I’ve bought my ticket for the Euro-lottery though so finfers crossed.

[v8s4me]

Well another two weeks into the refurb and the shreds of the budget have themselves been shredded. Dom emailed me some photos of my block today, not pretty! So that’s a re-line I hadn’t bargained for. On the bright side, literally, the new stainless manifolds and Y-piece from ACT have polished up very nicely and the re-conditioned callipers look great in gold. I’ve also managed to sell on some other bits and pieces.

I’m going to watch the opening sequence to the “Italian Job” now and remind myself why this is all going to be worthwhile before retreating back into the freezing garage to do some more “home work”.

Edited by v8s4me on Monday 22 February 17:11

Edited by v8s4me on Sunday 14th March 21:56

[v8s4me]

More progress. The chassis has been blasted now and is ready for painting. I've been living in the garage most evenings cleaning and painting all the small brackets and fittings ( I never realised there we so many!!). Hopefully the engine will be back next week and we can start putting it all back together.



The ACT stainless exhaust system polished up nicely as well.



Bling, bling!!!

Edited by v8s4me on Sunday 14th March 22:06

[Barkychoc]

Has the body been off the chassis?
If not I'd be concerned - there's bits of the chassis that you just cannot check without a body lift.

[v8s4me]

Couldn't afford a full lift but the outriggers have already been done. Its all been given a good poke and seems sound. Hopefully not a false economy but had to draw the line somewhere and just a well because of all the other unexpected expense.

[Barkychoc]

fair enough if the body has already been off you'd have to be pretty unlucky to have frilly outriggers again this soon.

I've just bought some of that heatshielding that goes on the body where the manifolds are from car builder solutions - it looks exactly the same stuff its due to be delivered today so pics to follo.

[v8s4me]

That’s a coincidence, I’m just thinking about that now. I’m wondering if I can get away with leaving the old stuff in place and putting the new stuff on top. With all those pop rivets to drill out it looks at laeast two hours labour (+vat of course) so putting new on top of old will probably save me around £120 overall. What do you think?

[Barkychoc]

I've bought the heat shielding and a pop riveter (£18 inc rivets I think) - pop riveting is dead easy I'll post some pics if you want to have a crack at it yourself.
It took about 5 minutes to drill all the heads of the rivets - I haven't knocked them through the body yet but will do probably later today.