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TVR 3000S restoration

by Nigel Warner

May 2002

I have cleaned the engine and checked over a few things like the clutch (which showed very little signs of wear) but as the engine was running very well I have decided just to give it a good clean followed by a coat of engine enamel. I have also cleaned and painted the gearbox. The only fault I have found with the gearbox is that the only part of the reversing light switch left is the casing which is badly cracked. The internals are missing completely and explains why the reversing lights didn't work. I seem to remember someone saying that these are N.L.A. so I expect it will take a while for me to track one down.

The engine, gearbox and prop. shaft are now back in the chassis. There were no real problems fitting them as I connected the engine and gearbox then hoisted them both into the chassis. I have drained the old oil out of the gearbox and refilled it with new. The old oil that I drained out looked as though it hadn't been in there long and was very clean. I've also refilled the engine with oil and put on a new filter.

I decided to get the starter motor and exhaust manifolds fitted. I first of all fitted the starter motor, which was straight forward. I then connected the battery earth strap and the battery positive lead making sure that this wasn't going to be near the exhaust manifold. When I came to fit the exhaust manifold on the starter motor side I had a job getting it into position because it kept fowling on either the chassis, engine or starter motor. I eventually managed to fit it from the top with a bit of fiddling about. It is now bolted up to the engine and I have double checked that the positive cable is well away from the manifold down pipes. I've still got the other side to fit but hopefully this should be easier.

June 2002

I haven't done much this month as I've been busy sorting out a problem on my Vixen and doing DIY jobs round the house. I did however get the other manifold and exhaust on and I put some pipe insulation, cut in half, on the rear chassis tubes in place of the felt that was originally there. Also I managed to get the body back on to the chassis with the aid of my wife Caroline, my 2 sons Nick & Rob and one of Nicks mates. It went on surprisingly easily and only took about 10 minutes. All the bolt holes line up too.

July 2002

I have bolted the body back down to the chassis which was quite straight forward especially as all the holes line up perfectly. I have decided the next stage is to strip off the paint so I set about removing it from the boot lid as this is a reasonable size and has some small gel coat cracks by the hinges and a large crack in the middle at the point you shut the boot lid. I used my tried and tested method of using a hot air gun and a scraper. This method is quite easy when the paint is thick i.e. after a re-spray or two. Unfortunately the paint was thin around the hinges and where the large crack was because these had been repaired in the past by slapping on some filler to try and get rid of the cracks and therefore proved a bit more difficult to remove. Time wise it took me about 1 hour to remove the paint from the boot lid. The next stage is to grind out the cracks and fill with some fibreglass tissue and resin.

I have ground out the cracks and filled them with some fibreglass tissue and resin. This was finished off with a skim of filler. I also managed to spray on 2 coats of primer.

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