My 1973 TVR 2500M : Renew and Restomod

TVR Scott said:

RacetruckRon said:

In reply to TVR Scott :

This is awesome.  I've thought about picking up a Kinect to do this but wasn't sure if it was worth the effort or not.  What file format did you export the scan data as that you could bring it into CAD and what CAD software are you using?

 

The Kinect and Reconstruct Me produce basic "triangle files" - like an stl or obj.  I'm pulling them into Mesh-Mixer, which is also free and pretty powerful.  You can do a lot of clean-up and smoothing there, and then I exported back into a newer, much smaller, cleaner triangle-file.  These can get get imported into Solidworks (for this I'm using 2017). 

In Solidworks, the file can either be imported as a graphics file - basically a 3d picture - or as a surface.  The surface import won't work if you have too big a mesh.  I want to play around more with other export options in Mesh-Mixer and see if there are cleaner ways of getting files into SW.

This is sort of the very beginning of my scanning.  I've already got ideas on how to make them sharper, more accurate, and more useful.

This is exactly what I wanted to hear. I'm off to ebay to find myself a cheapo kinect. My truck needs fender flares and a splitter.

In reply to RacetruckRon :

Heck yeah!  Give it a try!

RacetruckRon said:

TVR Scott said:

RacetruckRon said:

In reply to TVR Scott :

This is awesome.  I've thought about picking up a Kinect to do this but wasn't sure if it was worth the effort or not.  What file format did you export the scan data as that you could bring it into CAD and what CAD software are you using?

 

The Kinect and Reconstruct Me produce basic "triangle files" - like an stl or obj.  I'm pulling them into Mesh-Mixer, which is also free and pretty powerful.  You can do a lot of clean-up and smoothing there, and then I exported back into a newer, much smaller, cleaner triangle-file.  These can get get imported into Solidworks (for this I'm using 2017). 

In Solidworks, the file can either be imported as a graphics file - basically a 3d picture - or as a surface.  The surface import won't work if you have too big a mesh.  I want to play around more with other export options in Mesh-Mixer and see if there are cleaner ways of getting files into SW.

This is sort of the very beginning of my scanning.  I've already got ideas on how to make them sharper, more accurate, and more useful.

This is exactly what I wanted to hear. I'm off to ebay to find myself a cheapo kinect. My truck needs fender flares and a splitter.

grassroots at its finest.  unreal!

In reply to RacetruckRon :

Also, keep in mind which Kinect unit you buy.  There's the 360 version and the One version.  The model I have is a 360.  There's also a Windows version.  I think each version uses different drivers and such, but I don't know all the details.  I just know that what I bought works.

If you can find one that already has the PC adaptor cable, then you don't have to buy a separate one.  This cable plugs into the Kinect cable and then has a splitter with a USB on one branch and a power adaptor on the other branch.

Omnibus update package coming now:

Spray painted the outside of the gas tank, so it's almost ready to go.  I wish the sand blaster hadn't put the huge dent in the side...

How easy is it to assemble a Tanks Inc PA-2 fuel pump assembly?

A child could do it:

To be fair, she's almost a teenager.  And I was about 6 ft away making parts on the lathe, so if she got stuck I helped her out.

Did the finish welding on the motor mounts.  Just used flux core for this job.  Not bad for bending over sideways into the engine bay.

Got motor and trans mounts back from being nickel plated.  Turned out shinier than I expected.  Usually electroless seems to be more dull.

I found my roll of dimes!

Got to do a bunch of aluminum TIG for a work project.  I feel like I'm getting the groove back.  This piece turned out really nice.

That's all for now!

Nice work, and inspiring progress!

I also wish the sandblaster hadn't dented your tank. Argh.

Ransom said:

Nice work, and inspiring progress!

I also wish the sandblaster hadn't dented your tank. Argh.

I might have to dig around the garage and see what looks like it could become a paintless dent puller.  That dent is bugging me.  Maybe I'll just hot-glue a block of wood with a thread insert to the outside and then pull on that.  Or I've thought about getting one of those hail repair kits, because Colorado...

I would be livid about the tank. I hope they were at least extremely apologetic. 

That Tanks Inc PA-2 looks awesome. I'm saving that for my Volvo project as I'm not a fan of the expensive external EFI pump that car uses. 

Ian F said:

I would be livid about the tank. I hope they were at least extremely apologetic. 

That Tanks Inc PA-2 looks awesome. I'm saving that for my Volvo project as I'm not a fan of the expensive external EFI pump that car uses. 

I'm not sure they even noticed the dent.  I'm the worst at getting angry at people.  I get mad and nothing ever comes of it, except I get myself 2/3 of the way to an ulcer.

I really like the fuel pump.  Duster turned me on to that one, and he was spot on!

Fuel level sender - it came out of the tank looking like this:

I was totally surprised, but with acetone and a wire brush it cleaned up pretty well.  I broke out the multi meter and tested it, and it seems to work ok. I don't recall the exact resistance that it was giving at low and high, but it did vary and seemed linear.

Not a great pic of how it looks now. My question to you, the mighty grm reading public, is what I should use for rust protection on these parts? What's going to stand to to years of gas fumes?

Keep fresh fuel in the tank and drive the car a lot. That is all you can do. It won't rust when it is immersed and keeping the fuel cycling through the tank by driving the car is the only option, and more fun. These Smiths senders are surprisingly robust, unlike much of there compatriots in the Smiths catalog. It will not work with any other brand of gauge, nor will it work with a Smiths gauge built before 1966 even if the face is identical.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

That's sort of what I was thinking.  Running it as-is is certainly the low-cost option. 

The guy at O'Reilly suggested smearing it with some gas-tank-sealant-goo.  I'm iffy on that, though it might help.

I asked the tech support at one of the Cold Zinc Spray companies, and they said it likely wouldn't stand up.

I can buy a new one for $60 or so from the UK, but if this one works...

Next task will be to yank the gauge and put power to both.  If it works, then I'll probably just call it good.

I can't remember for the life of me how the ground wire was attached when I took it apart.  Probably just tucked under the clamping ring or some similar hack.  I think I'll solder a good spade on and know I've got a solid contact.  Maybe I'll just drill a hole and mount a nut and screw with a star washer.  That'd work too.

The clamping ring type senders originally had a male flat spade spot welded on. It was slightly smaller than the hot terminal so you could not miss-connect them Your solution wins.

TurnerX19 said:

The clamping ring type senders originally had a male flat spade spot welded on. It was slightly smaller than the hot terminal so you could not miss-connect them Your solution wins.

I wonder if the spade broke off when I disconnected the wiring.  I'll have to look.

Copper plate it in a bucket with a battery charger. 

Youre welcome on the fuel pump. 

But i can't take any credit. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Really neat trick with the Kinect.  I just ordered one for 35$ on amazon

My cousin - who got me going on the Kinect thing - told me about another software package.  This one is Artec Studio 13, and he says it's pretty awesome after you get over the giant learning curve.

Looks like they are more focused on the commercial user and dedicated scanners, but their software does support the Kinect.

They've got some scans of carbuerators and other engine parts that look terrific.

Busy busy with work stuff.  Over the last month I've built a piece of mining test equipment, and flown to Spain to test it for a week.  Very little else has been done in May.

Big loader!

To give an idea of scale, the top of the treads is over 6 ft high.  Huge!

I'm back, reasonably on Mountain Daylight Time again, and ready to get some work done on the TVR.

My current project remains laying out the radiator, intercooler, and oil cooler.  Once designed, I'll add in the piping and get fabricating on the whole shibang. 

I wanted to get a good 3d scan of the hood, and spent a bunch of yesterday trying to get the scanner to work.  It was not cooperating, and I'm not totally sure why.  Tried a variety of setups and graphics settings.  It may have just been too much light from trying to scan outside.  It was cloudy, but Colorado sun is intense regardless.

I got one ok scan.  Started cleaning up the file in Meshmixer.  It looks about like this right now, and I'm maybe 25% of the way thru the clean-up.

Probably will just import this into Solidworks as an stl object rather than a surface.  I don't want to spend a ton of time, I just want to get a feel for the working size for my ducting.

That's it for now!

That is so cool. did it scale correctly? or do you need some feature to scale to? I only had time to play with it a little bit so far. Really powerful tool even if the surface is rough

In reply to MarshHoltRacing :

Scale does seem to be pretty close.  I do wish it was a bit cleaner and more continuous.  Needs work still.

On to other work.  My buddy came by the other day and we dug into the pedal box.  Here it is out of the car:

You can see the old - incredibly rusty - accelerator there on the bench.

I have verified that this is a TR-6 part, though there are some notches cut in the side gussets part way down.  Not sure if there was trim there or something?

The new gas pedal needs to fit in pretty close to the brake pedal.  Around here:

It's going to be a tight fit between the steering shaft and the brake master.  But it's looking like it'll go.  I may be able to nudge the steering shaft over just a bit.

Also, it looks like the brake and clutch master cylinders are in good shape.  Yay, parts I can actually use!  I'll be taking them apart for cleaning, inspection, and paint.  Also the vacuum booster unit seems to be functioning as expected.

AngryCorvair demands TVR updates, so TVR updates ye shall have.  After the dog gets more water...

,,,,

,,,,

.... And I'm back.

I did a bit of work getting the gas tank buttoned up and ready to go.  I showed earlier the crusty but somehow magically still functional fuel sender.  I still have no idea how it was grounded, so I just made a ground.

Step 1 - tapped a #10-24 hole for a stud:

Ugh, it's no longer concourse-ready showroom-stock.  What will the judges at Pebble Beach say when they see this fuel sender???

Here's my fabulous ground stud installed and test fit with a ring-terminal.  I put in star-washers on the stud and the lock-nut, so I think grounding should remain pretty constant.

This is all stainless hardware.  I couldn't really find a lot of info on the gasoline resistance of stainless, so please GRM nation, let me know if I've made a bad assumption.

Second issue is sort of a nagging problem - the original fuel-pump line is an unusual BSPP (British Standard Pipe Parallel) thread and I'll be darned if I can find a cap to go over the outlet fitting.  I already misordered one, and I really want to move on to other things.  (I'm sure someone will send me a link for these...)

I thought about tapping the inside of the fitting with a 1/8 npt tap, and then installing a plug.  I don't have that tap at the moment, but that sort of remains my back-up plan.

I decided to just install a close-fitting 5/16" bolt/washer/nut set, and then goop the hell out of all of it with gas-tank sealant.  Again stainless hardware on all this.  The outside, showing the old fitting and the new bolt/washer:

And the inside.  Sweet patchy sealant job (flogs self).

Now is your chance to tell me I've made a terrible mistake, and I pinky-swear I'll tear it out and do something different.  Otherwise we're rollin' with this!

And here's the tank as it stands this evening:

Gotta give it a quick rinse and clean with acetone, install the fuel pump, and I'd say it's ready to go back in the car.  That's it for now!

In reply to TVR Scott :

I’m AngryCorvair, and I approve of this post.

I'm not sure if you check the rest of the forum, but there is an M series I just found in the U-Pull-It the other day.  Not sure if there s anything you can use, but I would be remiss if I didn't let you know.

Copied and pasted from your junkyard thread.  I'll be in touch.

---

Oh. My. God.

I'm a bit stunned at the moment.  Many thoughts going thru my mind.  They are organized something like this:

1. Holy crap, that thing has intact fender liners and a complete heater box.  I need both of those things.

2. That car is worth saving.  What would it cost to get the whole thing from the junkyard?

3. Yes, Stampie, you should save it.  They are cool cars and deserve to be preserved.

4. Maybe I should try to save it?  Where would I put it?  Why wouldn't I want two TVR M's?  One street car and one track car?

5.  There's that old German guy Heinz who came by over the winter and I showed him my TVR.  He was wanting one.  He should save it.

6.  The glass would be expensive.  A lot of people do a lexan rear window to save money and lighten things up.

7. I wonder if the frame is rusty?

8.  If anyone does buy it as a project, I can give you lots of info.

9. Holy crap, that thing has intact fender liners and a complete heater box.  I need both of those things.