My 1973 TVR 2500M : Renew and Restomod

All that beautiful work now covered in glassfibre crap

TurnerX19 said:

All that beautiful work now covered in glassfibre crap

I know!

It was almost depressing, because it showed again how much work I still have on the body, interior, and wiring.

Wow, Scott! I understand what you mean by being depressed when you think about body, interior, wiring... but you've accomplished so much. The major hurdles are behind you (the engineering, fabricating, general problem-solving) so what's left is basic automotive restoration. It's all down hill from here (in a good way)!

Fantastic effort so far. It's easy to be overwhelmed by the work still to be done, but this is going to be spectacular when finished

Definitely major progress on this impressive build! The important stuff is behind you, that will affect how the car performs and drives. The rest is just cosmetic. This car will be truly sensational to drive , no doubt about that!

The finish line is close!!!!!

By the way.  While looking for "inspirational" photos,  GRM kept popping up!  Good on all you guys that are arse deep in projects.

Thanks everyone!

My friend Dave was the one helping me out, and he took this timelapse video:

Hopefully this works ok.  I'm no pro youtuber.

In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :

That looked easy.  Like only took you 26 seconds to do it all.

Today is another anniversary of me getting this car.  Year #3 is complete!

I had great plans for a super awesome victorious first start, but that didn't happen.  We'll all just have to get over it.

Mind you, it won't be very long...

I was looking at the past years and reflecting on this one.  Looking at pictures from March 2020, it's hard to even process just how much has changed and how much I've gotten done.  It's very heartening.  I'm really looking forward to bringing this little critter along and eventually getting to drive it.

Thanks, internet friends, for your support and encouragement.  It really does help.  I loved getting to meet some of you in person, and very much look forward to meeting more of you in the future.

Anyway, throw me a thumb-up if you like what you see, and here's to kicking off Year #4!

It's amazing how the time gets away. I see guys do a full frame off resto in 8 months and I don't see where they find the time. 

You definitely get a big "thumbs-up" from me, Scott.  Seeing you do things just before I had to do them made it seem more like something I could do. Your descriptions of what you faced, listing the options, and choosing an approach often made my task easier, although I know that wasn't your goal. I look forward to seeing you start in on the wiring and interior!

Great work getting to this point.  The chassis looks fantastic and the rest will follow.  If you need any help with first start, I'd love to help or at least be there.

My TR6 is coming up on 7 years of work and over 10 years of ownership.  Where does the time go?

Awesome job, big thumbs up!

I can also relate to things taking much longer than expected. I first turned a wrench on the Healey when I was a sophomore in high school and it wasn't "done" until I had gone through college, gotten married and had a kid. 

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the kind words.

In reply to JoeTR6 :

I will definitely let you know.  I've not started a fresh engine since about 1997, so I'd love someone with your experience lending a hand.  Not this weekend - snowpocolypse and all - but maybe the next one.

Stu Lasswell said:

You definitely get a big "thumbs-up" from me, Scott.  Seeing you do things just before I had to do them made it seem more like something I could do. Your descriptions of what you faced, listing the options, and choosing an approach often made my task easier, although I know that wasn't your goal. I look forward to seeing you start in on the wiring and interior!

I forgot to mention this earlier, Stu, but one of the really cool thing in "Year 3" was you and the other 2500M owners joining in and starting build threads.  Also, there's a lot more EcoBoost activity too.  It's been great to have more people doing similar projects.  Thanks for that!

Buzz, buzz, buzz:

Got the TIG welder set up this morning and burned in that MAP sensor mount.  I haven't welded aluminum in quite a while - year and a half maybe?  Went pretty well.  My hands were super shaky, but I'm fine with how it worked out.

Cleaned up the whole pipe with a SS wheel.  I like the uniform brushed finish for now:

Lunch time, then I'll do some more stuff this afternoon.

The other task for the day was figuring out what to do with the MAP sensor port on the other side.  This is the one I put on the pipe between the turbo and intercooler.  It needed to be plugged or removed or something, since that's the wrong spot for any of the sensors.  Here's what it looks like:

I thought about making a plate and little plug that would act as a dummy sensor.  I thought about tapping the port for a pipe tap.  I considered grinding off the port and patching the hole.

Ultimately, I decided to cut the whole straight section out and weld in a new fresh piece.  Chop, chop!

Lots of grinding with the baby-belt-sander, and the elbows were cleaned up and ready to go.  I was happy to find the penetration in the old welds looked really good.  Full joint and no porosity.

And all finished here:

Still too hot to clean up, so I'm going to go extend the wiring to MAP sensor #2.  Once these are in and bolted up, the intercooler pipes should be all finished.

Nice clean work.  Welds look fine to me! 

Ok, last update for a busy and satisfying Saturday.  Labeled the MAP #2 wires before cutting them:

And, all wired up and wrapped:

Man, that weld on the sensor port looks good.  I'm really happy with how that one turned out!

And one more beauty shot with the fenders back on and the intercooler piping clamped in:

I'm happy that I replaced that whole tube.  I would have been annoyed every time I saw that mistake sensor-port.

Nice TIG work. Looking great!

Work like that makes me think I could learn to TIG.  Then I realize I'm a redneck hack.

2Girlsracing (Steffi) said:

Nice clean work.  Welds look fine to me! 

You're one of the pros, so I take that as a high compliment!

Wow, Scott.  If you ever want to compare your welds to third rate, I'll fire up my MIG welder on some aluminum.  That's the opposite end of the spectrum compared to yours. 

It's looking really good.

In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :

Man, you do nice work!