My 1973 TVR 2500M : Renew and Restomod

In reply to TurnerX19 :

You should listen to this man... no one knows more about rust than a FIAT owner! ;-)

TurnerX19 said:

I would like to remind you of a post I made very early on in this thread..... I saw a Vixen 2500 have a rust induced control arm failure in the mid 1980s. The arm in question looked fine on the outside, all of the corrosion was internal. That part was 1/3 the age of yours. The car crashed gently as the front wheel buckled under.

I remember that post well.  Was thinking about it constantly yesterday.

I did some looking yesterday afternoon and found a NDT place not far from me.  I'll call them today and see what it would cost to have ultrasound and/or magnaflux done.

Part of me wants to order up a bunch of DOM and remake these parts completely.

Honestly,  id smack the E36 M3 outta them with the rounded part of a ball peen hammer in multiple places. If the tube caves/dents, no bueno. Just rattles your teeth? Send it. Why spend a ton of money when you can smack it with a hammer for free? (Note, im not a structural engineer and i DID NOT sleep in a holiday inn Express last night)

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

There has been some hammer-tapping and tone-listening going on...

Just ask yourself "how hard am I going to drive this car?".  My guess is pretty hard.  Better to be certain.  I'd at least have them magnafluxed.  There may be fractures you can't see waiting to kill you.

Left a message for the NDT guys this morning.

I'm about *THIS* close to building a bunch of new parts...

Dropped off a mountain of suspension arms and the cast rear bearing carriers.

The steel parts are going to get magnafluxed for cracks and ultrasound scanned for thickness.

The bearing carriers get UV die-penetrant for crack inspection.

Only going to set me back about $350.  Ugh.  At least I'll know if these are usable or if they need to get thrown in the trash.  Double ugh.  We'll find out later next week.

And just to add to the ongoing orgy of spending, this arrived today:

Big box of airframe bolts to use for the suspension. 

They are pretty, aren't they?

I mean, if you like that kind of thing...

And I do...

$350 well spent. And how much faster will it (you) be when you're not worried about structural bits folding? Cheap speed!

   Hey Scott, did you order your GAZ shocks/springs directly from them, or use a distributor?

Stu Lasswell said:

   Hey Scott, did you order your GAZ shocks/springs directly from them, or use a distributor?

I ordered them thru Jack McCornack at Kinetic Vehicles.  Nice guy.  Usually sells to Locost builders.

FYI, GAZ is apparently pretty backed up, so they said 6 weeks to ship.  Lucky for me, I have mountains of crap to do before this damn thing will be a roller again.

Ok, I did some unpacking and inspection of the brakes / hubs / axles from Good Parts yesterday.  I'm going to get that stuff assembled while I'm waiting for the suspension parts to get inspected.

I also want to run new brake lines.  I'm going to get a roll of Nickel-Copper tube and make all new.  So that brings on some questions.

It appears the original version is a bubble-flare.  The bulkheads and flex lines that come with the Wilwood brakes are all #3 AN 37 deg single flare.  How should I go about adapting?

Or should I just flare one end bubble to match the old TVR fittings and the other 37 deg to join up with the Wilwood parts?

Anywhere I just rent a nice tool to do the flaring?  (Cheap tools aren't good, good tools aren't cheap...)

If working with a coil of brake line, here is a fun way to get a long straight lenght to work with

Straighten the coil as much as possible by unwinding it. Then clamp on end in a vice that is attached to something solid. On the other end, make up a slide hammer that grabs the end of the tube and give it a few good whacks.

Goes from this

To this

Works with MIG wire also if you want to use it for small diameter TIG filler wire.

In reply to NOHOME :

I did some searching on brake flaring, and found your recommendation in some thread.  Will definitely try it!

Also, I found at least one joint that has a 45 deg double flare.  Mix and match, apparently.  That one may get replaced by the Wilwood stuff, though.

I know its it's not cheap,  but my mastercool hydraulic flare kit has been some of the best money ive spent. 

Nicopp flares easily through. Especially with bubble and an flares. Ive even managed to get leak free results with the parts store rental flare kit!

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

Cool! Now I know I have a local authority on making brake lines... and he has the right tools already!

At least you aren't flaring stainless steel lines.  That takes quite a bit more accurate tool.  I had issues with the CNC bent lines from Classic Tube, and they are very good.

In reply to JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) :

I don't suppose you have a sweet fancy brake flaring tool I could borrow?  Because Michael's place is a bit far for me to just swing by...

TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) :

I don't suppose you have a sweet fancy brake flaring tool I could borrow?  Because Michael's place is a bit far for me to just swing by...

Sorry, but no.  I borrowed a decent kit years ago and went pre-bent for the latest project.

In reply to JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks anyway.  Had to try!

In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :

If you want to borrow mine,  ill buy you a sammich. But i don't ship....

Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :

If you want to borrow mine,  ill buy you a sammich. But i don't ship....

The sandwich.  I wouldn't ship that either.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

Hey! Don't let that tool leave town!

Got some stuff done this morning.

I regrouped on the jack-points.  I decided that Plastidip probably wouldn't last very long at all.  Since this has been discussed a lot in other threads, it can make another appearance here:

1-Shot really is pretty nice to work with.  First coat went down yesterday.  I think one more coat should cover well.  The long view:

Moving on to the front uprights and brakes,  here's the right-side hardware going together:

Please tell me if I'm doing something wrong!  Inside shot:

And the hubs, top-hats, and brake discs are coming together too:

It all snugged together with mallet taps on the hats and the bolts pulled down the disc very nicely.

Next up I'll be fitting the bearings and figuring out the axle preload.

Looking great! Nice progress! Glad you were able to determine what compromise you wanted, for the springs and shocks.

With aluminum hubs the bearing pre load gets tighter with heat. I go to just zero play and back off one cotter pin slot. They should rock enough to upset the tech inspector when they are cold. If you check them fresh off the track the play will be gone from brake heat. If you set them tighter (because street car) you will be over loaded after a long mountain decent, looser is better !