In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :
I still need to make levers to recline the seats, but this should work. The frames are going to the powder coater tomorrow.
Something I've been thinking about is putting universal seat heaters in these when they get rebuilt. This would extend the useful driving season here in Colorado. There appear to be several kits available for around $60 or less. This one may be good enough.
Dorman Seat Heater Kit
It draws less than 5 amps on the high setting, but that will potentially be x2. I need to check the current draw of all the existing circuits as my alternator is only rated at 55 amps. This may push me over with everything at full tilt boogie.
The Dorman seat heaters won't fit. The pads are 12"x12", which is great for the bottoms but the backs are just 11" wide. So I'm going to try this.
Water Carbon Heated Seat Kit
I'm guessing the wiring will be junk, but I have plenty of wire. Looking at kits with more than two settings, I just don't trust the controls. This kit runs the pads in parallel or series depending on the switch setting, and I can always wire that up with my own switches and relays. I can also just wire them in series with a single-pole switch to keep the heat/amperage down. Heating elements are warranted for 3 years.
It snowed here last night, so I'm laying low for today. Will head to the powder coater tomorrow.
I've been experimenting with chelation for rust removal on small parts. So far it's working pretty well. This is a bracket that goes in the bottom of the door. The other side had a little more rust, but it just takes longer. Not a fast process, BTW. I had considered a small blast cabinet, but just don't want the mess and noise.
I may have improved the speedometer to "good enough" status. Taking the one that was in the car apart showed why it was sticking. The input shaft and magnet had quite a lot of play along the shaft, and the magnet some amount of wobble. Here are the parts I'm talking about (from the busted speedo) with the magnet separated from the input shaft.
The two keeper plates are riveted onto the body, and these are supposed to be tight between the brass worm screw (which drives the odometer) on the input shaft and the magnet. I had about 1/32" of slop, allowing the magnet to contact the drive cup on the right. Lining up the body in a vise with a small socket contacting the input shaft, I was able to press the magnet on tight and straight. Everything was cleaned and lubed, especially that needle in the middle of the drive cup. Testing the speedo with a drill shows it's within 5-8 mph with just a little bounce. This should be good enough to get this car legal to drive and do more tuning.
Yesterday was spent messing around with fixing little electrical issues. The brake switch was adjusted, and I found a Lucas flasher unit that actually worked for the turn signals. Of course, three others didn't, including two that were brand new. But I'll take the victory.
Today was cleaning up tail light assembly day. I polished the lenses and the frames (for two hours), then assembled everything together. The bulb sockets were also cleaned up, and I soldered the riveted joint that always fails on those. The chrome on these tail light assemblies isn't really too bad, but there's visible pitting along the tops. Looks good enough for now, and all of the lights work. Even better, I found some LED bulbs that directly replace the incandescent brake light bulbs and project light 360 degrees.
That's a nice shade of blue... not too dark, not too bright. I'm leaning right now toward Valencia Blue for my TVR 2500M but the final decision is still a ways off. It's a popular color for TR250s, but it seems to have been offered at least through '73 for GT6s, so age appropriate. I'm not a fan of the mid-70s pallet... bright yellow, Java green, Pimento, and then there's that maple brown! Ah well, to each his own. Will you be painting the back panel black?
Stu Lasswell said:
That's a nice shade of blue... not too dark, not too bright. I'm leaning right now toward Valencia Blue for my TVR 2500M but the final decision is still a ways off. It's a popular color for TR250s, but it seems to have been offered at least through '73 for GT6s, so age appropriate. I'm not a fan of the mid-70s pallet... bright yellow, Java green, Pimento, and then there's that maple brown! Ah well, to each his own. Will you be painting the back panel black?
Yes, the back panel and sills will be painted satin black. If I can find a local paint shop that will do it for reasonable money, I'll let a pro do it. Otherwise, I've masked them off and used a quality spray before myself. SEM Satin Black trim paint seems to be what many are using.
I agree about the 70s colors. The 1972 front valence on this car (the rest of the shell is a donor) was originally Magenta. Holy cow is that a bright purple. The hood was Sienna brown. But I really like the Triumph blue colors. Mallard is also very attractive IMO.
The roll bar is almost ready for some kind of finish. I made up some aluminum spacers to bolt through into the floor rear frame mounts. The hole to the left is spaced off the floor with the standard body mount spacers and bolts through a bracket welded to the frame.
The other spacers go on top of the differential crossmember mounts under the body. These were already made, but it was a bear getting some of them into place. Once they were all in, everything was torqued down to see how this would effect the body/door alignment and stiffness. The doors still shut, the door gaps improved slightly, and the chassis appears to be less flexible. So tomorrow the roll bar forward tubes will finally get welded (just tacked on now). I'm also adding some gussets to these (zip tied in here).
The roll bar welding is done and I'm wiped out. It only weighs about 40 lbs., but I moved it around a lot to prevent warping. It still fits in the car, but it now takes a little coaxing. I really should have finished this before paint so that it could be welded bolted to the body.
Putting in the catalytic converter is next.
In reply to JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) :
Looks good. Remind me of the origin of the roll-bar. Was it originally a kit that you modified, or did you make it from scratch? You building toward a specific standard?
TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) said:
In reply to JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) :
Looks good. Remind me of the origin of the roll-bar. Was it originally a kit that you modified, or did you make it from scratch? You building toward a specific standard?
It came with the pile of parts that I bought, so I'm not certain who made it but believe it's from a kit. It appears to have been bolted to the differential shelf of this body shell and not attached to the frame in any way. I cut off the feet and lowered it to fit under a soft/hard top, then added the forward braces. The main purpose is to stiffen up the weak middle of a TR6 frame, so those forward braces are key. No real standard other than to be legal in FSP and provide some additional safety on the street.
In reply to JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) :
I look forward to the day we're both ripping around in our project cars at the regional autocrosses!
In case any of you Front Range Colorado guys are wondering why it's raining, that was me. I left my other TR6 outside to do some welding and grinding with the top down and didn't pay attention. At least it should help the fire risk.
In reply to JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) :
My lawn thanks you!
Dare I say that today saw the last welding project for this car? I dropped the mid-pipe down and, after measuring twice, cut out a section for the cat. It's now back in the car and apparently working as the exhaust smells different/better. Holding a rag over the tail pipe stalls the engine without any hissing sounds, so the exhaust seems pretty tight.
There's enough room for a heat shield, and I can mount it between the floors pans and frame brackets that the center console bolts into. So that should be easy.
One concern is the effect on ground clearance. I haven't had problems backing this car out of the driveway, but they build driveway entrances for trucks around these parts. Just the added diameter of the cat is sticking down below the frame, so hopefully it won't drag. At least the ends of the cat are angled. It's nothing as bad as an Austin-Healey exhaust.
I'm back from several days of vacation. This allowed some parts to arrive and powder coating to be done. The major things keeping me from driving this are seats, a heat shield for the catalytic converter, and installing the tunnel cover and seat belts. Of these, the heat shield needs to go in first, so I'm picking up some stock to work on this today.
I picked up the seat frames and grill from the powder coater yesterday and dropped off the roll bar and tow hitch bar. That should be the last of the big stuff that I can't bake in a toaster oven. Since I cleaned up the other grill parts earlier, assembling that and putting it on the car were low hanging fruit that will let me finally put the radiator shroud in.
The badge is a new enameled one. Everything else cleaned up well. The stainless trim pieces on the top and bottom weren't used until 1973, so that should be black on a 1972 car. This grill frame was very pitted along the bottom, so I used the trim strips to cover that up. I think the originality purists will have worse than that to complain about with this restoration. I can always cover them with tape, but a few shiny bits look nice with darker paint IMO.
I missed the post about the catalytic converter. Did you do any special engine tuning for that, or just pop it in and call it good?
TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) said:
I missed the post about the catalytic converter. Did you do any special engine tuning for that, or just pop it in and call it good?
Enough that auto-tune will get things leaned out quickly. I will also manually lean out the untouched parts of the map by 20% or so. At idle, it's pretty steady at 14.5 AFR.
Yesterday was for finishing up some things and getting ready to do others. The grill was bolted in without too much drama.
This let me finish under the hood. I've had the Richard Good aluminum radiator shroud for at least 3 years, and it could finally go on the car.
Doing this took just a little bit of swearing since the top studs on the grill keep the top shroud piece from just dropping in. I loosened the nuts along the top of the grill to tilt it out, but had to unbolt the radiator stays to make enough room. I like this so much better than the black cardboard that the factory used, and it's lighter. If there are any overheating issues in traffic, I'll make a shroud to go around the fan on the back side of the radiator.
When I pulled out the seat upholstery kit earlier, I noticed a flaw in one of the seat bottom covers. Some of the vinyl around the edge got folded into the seam with the top piece. A local shop was able to improve it well enough by freeing the worst stitches and resewing. He only charged me $5. I'll start on the seats next week.
Next up is making the exhaust heat shield. I scored a free sheet of thin aluminum diamond plate (all they had) from Home Depot yesterday when the bar code wouldn't scan and the stock number didn't show up in inventory (and they were busy). Some self-stick insulation material will go between that and the cat.
I probably finished the catalytic converter heat shield today. There's enough clearance with the body and gearbox now with just a single bracket on either side.
The layer facing the cat is a self-stick fiberglass mat with a thin layer of aluminum. The diamond plate provides structural stiffness. It gets a little tight near the overdrive sump (to the right on the second photo), but if it bangs around I'll add a small strap to the exhaust bracket just behind that. I will probably add some more insulation inside the plastic tunnel cover just in case.
I did lots of family and house stuff last week, but did pick up the roll bar from the powder coater. Wanting to bolt that in for good, I messed around with putting the vinyl wheel arch covers in the interior today. The roll bar will make fitting these basically impossible. The first one didn't turn out too badly, but it's hard to get all of the wrinkles out.
This photo is under a white LED shop light, so the vinyl color looks lighter and more orange than it really is.
In reply to JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) :
That vinyl looks nice. What were you using for adhesive? Any techniques you found that worked well?
For this I used 3M Super 77 spray adhesive. If you need a stronger bond, 3M 90 is closer to a contact cement. Super 77 allows a piece to be repositioned somewhat if sprayed on only one surface. If you spray both surfaces, it grabs right away and doesn't want to let go easily. So I applied the thin backing foam by spraying both surfaces, going a little wide with the glue onto the body. Then I dry fit the vinyl piece, making cuts where needed, and spray just the vinyl backing. Putting that in can be tricky as the glue really bonds with itself. For this piece, I turn it inside out (fold in the middle) and lay the top part first. There's a tab on the body that locates that end well. You need to stretch the vinyl as you go in both directions. Since the body has some glue left over around the edges, those stick really well, so I stick those after the wrinkles are out. It's not hard, at least not compared to patching up a TVR frame.
The other rear wheel arch cover put up a fight, but it's glued down. Finally, the roll bar could be bolted in for good. Or at least I hope.
After that, the rear mounts next to the trunk were bolted in. I used a single 1/4" aluminum spacer for these as from the factory, but may put in another to close up the door gaps a little. The rear bumper mounts and tow hitch went next. I initially tried to put some thin gasket material between the hitch mounts and frame, but doing so displaced the mounts enough that I couldn't get all of the bolts in. A threaded hook (that holds down the spare tire) goes through the trunk floor, frame crossmember tube, and the end of the hitch receiver tube.
The gearbox tunnel cover goes in next.
I started the car for the first time in over a month yesterday and noticed a fluctuation in AFR at idle. It's cycling fairly regularly between around 14 and 15 every couple of seconds. My initial guess is that the throttles need to be rebalanced and the individual runners trimmed. Maybe TunerStudio will tell me more about what else is fluctuating.
I made a decision to add unnecessary weight to the car. This was one of those compromises between speed and comfort where comfort won out. Basically, this...
I used an entire 2'x3' roll of sound and heat insulation to line the plastic tunnel cover. It more than doubled the weight, I'd guess by about 10 lbs. But it should help keep extra heat from the catalytic converter from soaking into the interior. If I lose an autocross by 0.1 seconds, I'll kick myself. But I'm likely to lose by much more due to my age and fading eyesight.
Bolting this in the car wasn't fun. The lower flanges already had holes, half of which were pretty close. The firewall flange didn't and took a lot of trial-and-error fitting and drilling. A new rubber gasket was glued around the perimeter, so I can hope that it doesn't leak water into the floors. This is very wishful thinking, in my experience. In any case, it's done.
Seats coming up, with maybe some carpet first.
Looking great! I need to do the whole contact cement thing on a lot of the vertical carpet sections that I've just skipped so far with the Healey.
Lots of good ideas here Joe, I may borrow many of them for my next build.... Car is looking amazing, should drive the same!
