My 1973 TVR 2500M : Renew and Restomod

In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) : Send me a PM with spring and shock info, please! 

Sent

I did some hemming and hawing, and some considering of how to add in chassis stiffeners.  I pondered triangulation, and looked at my supply of various materials.  I did a little measuring and clearance analysis.

And then I did this:

The grey is not as dark as I expected, but I really like it.  Took forever to brush in all the little nooks and crannies.  I used a 4" mini roller for a lot of it, and that worked very well.  My fancy brush cleaned up just fine in a big bucket of acetone.

I'm going to do a second coat tomorrow, and then look at my suspension parts and see what I want to paint there.  I was planning to polish the parts and then have it all plated, but I don't really feel like making the outlay of labor and money.  And I have a whole gallon of metal paint at my disposal.  And I have a huge yearning to actually put stuff together!

I also rattle-canned the differential frame with the dark grey I'm using as an accent color.

So you decided against the reinforcement plate under the tunnel that Slow_M suggested?  My understanding is that just required tabs welded onto the frame.  The plate could be replaced or left off entirely.  It makes sense that it would stiffen up the chassis quite a lot, sort of like the FM butterfly brace on a Miata.

JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) said:

So you decided against the reinforcement plate under the tunnel that Slow_M suggested?  My understanding is that just required tabs welded onto the frame.  The plate could be replaced or left off entirely. It makes sense that it would stiffen up the chassis quite a lot, sort of like the FM butterfly brace on a Miata.

I decided in favor of it.  Just not now.

It's going to be a big sheet of aluminum riveted (or riv-nutted) to the frame.  I don't remember exactly where I have clearance and where I don't, so I'm holding off on that fab work for now.  I feel confident that I can add it in later after I've reinstalled my engine and exhaust.

And if I need to grind off a little paint for welding, that's no big deal.

Well there you go, Scott. In one fell swoop you've shot past me and have more of your car in paint and sorted! I haven't even ordered my front suspension rebuild components or gotten my R200 diff yet. Have you decided which coil-overs you'll go with yet?

In reply to Stu Lasswell :

Have not decided on coil-overs yet.  I heard a guy had good luck with using some 2x4's, so I thought I'd look into those.

TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Stu Lasswell :

Have not decided on coil-overs yet.  I heard a guy had good luck with using some 2x4's, so I thought I'd look into those.

Different types of wood have different spring tmrates. As a helpful guide, see below.

Cypress for best ride.

Pine for grand touring

Oak is perfect for dual purpose leaning towards sport 

Race will be ash rear, hickory front. 

TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) said:

I decided in favor of it.  Just not now.

I wholeheartedly support making forward progress.  Carry on.

Something I'm going to regret one day is powder coating my frame.  It holds up very well, but does not support modification.  Once you break the coating, it tends to come off in sheets.  It's much easier to fix paint.

In reply to JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) :

Touch up any scars with epoxy.  It should wik into the interface to prevent the peel and protects the exposed metal.

JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) said:

Something I'm going to regret one day is powder coating my frame.  It holds up very well, but does not support modification.  Once you break the coating, it tends to come off in sheets.  It's much easier to fix paint.

I'm really torn on powder coating - I've had really mixed results with it.  More often than not it seems to crack and chip and scrape off.  And then it's basically impossible to repair.

The sand-blasting guy swore that powder would stick like iron to my blasted frame, and that might be the case.  But then I'd have had to have him blast it again so that the new metal would have the same surface prep.  Too much money and trouble for a coating I don't necessarily trust.

Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) said:

Different types of wood have different spring tmrates. As a helpful guide, see below.

Cypress for best ride.

Pine for grand touring

Oak is perfect for dual purpose leaning towards sport 

Race will be ash rear, hickory front. 

I love this so much!

In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :

As I recall the 2x4 suspension exhibited very little roll, but a stiff ride. I think we can do better. slow_m implied he had some shock/spring data that could help us. I didn't see it on his Pistonhead build thread. Maybe he can chime in with some helpful information for us?

Stu Lasswell said:

In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :

As I recall the 2x4 suspension exhibited very little roll, but a stiff ride. I think we can do better. slow_m implied he had some shock/spring data that could help us. I didn't see it on his Pistonhead build thread. Maybe he can chime in with some helpful information for us?

Sent you a PM requesting your email addy. Already emailed a care package to Scott. 

Bernard sent me some stuff.

Rough specs on shocks and springs:

16" unloaded length

Travel - roughly - 5-1/2" (about 1" of bump stop too)

Springs - 2-1/4" ID,  14" free length, 12" installed length

His springs are 225 lb/in front and 130 lb/in rear

He also shared a spreadsheet with some set-ups of street and race M-series.

For street driving, spring rates varied from 250 F / 200 R to 350 F / 225 R.

Road / track use, spring rates were listed as 300 F / 250 R and also 225 F / 190 R.

Differences in anti-roll bar sizes and tire sizes would change the feel of those cars a bit.  But there's definitely some good input there.

TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) said:

His springs are...

Um, were. Those are the Spax units awaiting the endtimes in the shed.

Current ones are Aldan Eagle 

4 x Part #754 

Urethane bushings on 1/2" ID sleeves (to be 1 1/2" wide) (ALL)  

Corner weights should be approximately 575lb-front and 550lb-rear. 

Front springs 375lb/in  

Rear springs 275lb/in   

Front ride height to be 13" 

Rear ride height to be 12.5" 

Separate jounce/rebound adjustable. 

Good info, thanks.

Are the Spax shocks old and blown out?  If they still have some good life in them, I'd put them to use for the time being!

They shouldn’t be blown out (never saw high mileage), but the subhumans who were ‘welding’ on my chassis didn’t protect them, and the rods looked like they were affected by welding sparks. They’re going to have to have the springs removed, and the rods checked and polished. 

I still have to check if I could swap them into Porky, the little racer.

By the way, this is a ‘standard’ way of upgrading the M rear suspension. 

This is overkill. 

In reply to Slow_M :

I can follow that advice:

Got the tubes coped and fitted this afternoon.  Will weld them tomorrow if I have the chance.

Wheel restoration is my topic of interest this evening.  In the not-too-far-off future I'll be needing to be able to roll the complete chassis around, so time to start thinking about getting the old wheels cleaned up and new tires put on.

I dug out one of them to get a better look.  The front:

This one actually looks pretty darn good on this side.  It's either chromed or just highly polished aluminum, but the surface looks fine.  The black accents look to be in nice shape too.

Back side is not so pretty:

Pretty oxidized.  What do you all recommend for clean-up here?  I'm thinking wire brush to get the surface cleaned up.  Then what?  Wheel paint of some sort?  Use some of my giant can of Valspar?  Aluminum protectant of some kind?

A few details.

I saw there are little press-in inserts for the wheel nuts to bear on.  Kind of a cool design that I've not seen before.  From the outside:

Looks like a conical seat, though I'll need to figure out the angle and all that.  Also will need to switch to an open nut since I got the ARP studs.  Any opinions on wheel nuts?

Last, the valve is an old bolt-on style.  Looks cool.  That's all I know about that.

I'm tired.  It was hot today.  Ugh.

Im reasonably certain they are polished,  not chrome. In that good of shape at the start,  here's what I would do.

Remove tires

Eagle all wheel cleaner. Scrub brush front,  green sos pad rear.

Front, mothers power ball and mag and aluminum polish,  followed by wenol and wax. Rear, i would tape off and spray with satin black to hide dust and make the open holes pop better. Period correct mopar from late 60s would do backside of wheels and drums red if that's your thing. 

Those look GOOD to start with. 

That's encouraging!

Dumb-ish question: would you remove the tires yourself or would your run them over to a tire guy?  Special tools required?

In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :

Go ahead and Pay the man. Save the hours of frustration you will have trying to break them down yourself before you pay the man anyway. 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

That was roughly what I was planning.  I may order tires at the same time and then take them all back in for mounting once the wheels are ready.  They'd likely give me a break on removal then.

My tire guy usually breaks them down for 0-3 each. Add another 2 in for disposal of old ones. Really depends on the day for him.