:: Partial Body Lift and Chassis Repair ::

:: Body Lift ::

(Disclaimer - the following explains how I carried out a partial body lift and chassis repair on my car. This is purely advisory, and is given in good faith. This method may work for you, and it may not. If it goes wrong, then don't blame me!)

1. I jacked the car up to a reasonable working height - it needs to be high enough to be able to work underneath, but not so high that it'll become unstable when the body is raised a bit. Make sure it's stable - it's very easy to twisy it on the stands as you jack it up. Be extra sure - you're going to be under there!

2. I took all of the wheels off, to protect the tyres from damage and also to provide better access to inspect and repair the chassis.

3. I decided not to remove the bonnet, but I did remove the bonnet strut so that I can get the bonnet right open.

4. Then I disconnect the battery, because arc welding with the battery connected isn't a very good idea.

5. I remove the wheel arch liners, just 6 screws each, and the horror is (at least partly) revealed...

There isn't a lot left of the chassis tube alongside the body plate. The first photo shows the bottom, looking up. The second one is taken from the wheel arch, along between the tube and the body. There is virtually nothing left of the top of the tube. The body plate is held in place mainly by the body.

After a few minutes with a screwdriver and a wee 1 pound hammer, the series of holes in the bottom have expanded somewhat... Most of the top half of the tube was lying as crumbs, inside the bottom half.

This is my chassis tube, now lying on the floor. Or what's left of it.

With some trepidation, I inspect the same point on the other side - but it seems to be ok, apart from the paint falling off in chunks. I put a lever in from the front, between the front of the tube and the chassis, and it seems to be pretty strong.

I go along the rest of both sill tubes with my hammer, and it feels and sounds pretty solid. I have a look and a feel at the tops of the tubes and again, they seem to be fine. I also examine the rear suspension and body mounting points, and there no obvious problems.

I'll still be happier when I get the whole body lifted and have a better look, though!

6. Remove the exhaust - 3 bolts each side at the manifold, 1 each side of the silencer, and 1 at the back.

7. The exhaust has to come off so that I can get at the handbrake lever, which goes through the body and is fixed to the chassis at the top of the transmission tunnel. It's not very accessible, even with the exhaust off.

The cable fixes on to the lever spindle with a splined clamp with a pinch bolt through it. The ends of the bolt are shown by the yellow arrows here. The spanner is on the nut. There just isn't enough room to turn the spanner from below, so I remove the gear knob and gaiter, then unscrew the 2 screws at the rear of the centre console, and remove what's left of the inner rubber shroud under the gaiter, around the gear lever. Then if I hold the gearlever to one side, I can get a ratchet spanner with a 13mm socket onto the nut, and a ring spanner on to the rear of the bolt, braced against the chassis. That lets me loosen the pinch bolt, then lever the clamp off the end of the handbrake shaft, take out a second fixing bolt under the lever inside the car, and remove the whole handbrake lever. I think I'll have to take the prop shaft off to get the clamp back on though, I think it will need a little "persuasion".

8. Remove the seat belts. The seat belt stalk against the tunnel is easy enough - it bolts straight through the body into a captive thread on the chassis. So do the lower and upper seat belt mountings (the bottom end of the belt, and the one behind your shoulder). The only difficulty with them (especially the bottom one) would be if the captive nut came loose, or if the bracket that mounts it onto the outrigger had rusted through... which has been known to happen!

The seat belt reel is mounted on a bolt through the body, into the bracket under the rear wheel arch, and secured by a nut just in front of the tyre. Which means that it gets covered in all kinds of crud, and rusts. I painted mine which helps to stop them rusting but doesn't help you to loosen them later!

They are a nightmare. The nuts are partially rounded so it needs a very good ring spanner on it. The bolt is recessed under the seat belt reel so you need a wee socket extension to reach it. The rust means that the nut is as tight as hell, so it has to be wrestled round 1/8th of a turn at a time. By the time I have done both sides, I am knackered!

9. Then I lift what's left of the carpet behind the seats, and wedge a ring spanner on to the top of each bolt that goes down beside the transmission tunnel. The nuts on the bottom come off much more easily because they are out of the tyre spray crud.

10. Remove the two bolts on top of the transmission tunnel under the dash. First I have to remove the radio, mainly because the wiring is catching on something and preventing me pulling the centre console far enough back.

With that out of the way, the console can be pulled back as far as the gearlever will allow, and that lets you see two bolts through the transmission tunnel, shown by the yellow arrows. You can see them, but you can't get a spanner on them!

I found that the easiest way was to use an offset combi spanner upside-down, by pulling out the front of the console and slipping the spanner underneath. Both bolts go straight into captive threads, no nuts to reach underneath.

11. Disconnect the steering column from the rack, by releasing the clamp bolt from the upper UJ, and make sure that the position is marked - then it's just a case of turning the clamp out of the way and releasing the joint.

12. Remove the 4 bolts across the front of the footwells. You'll either need a mate to hold the top of the bolts inside the car, or set up some way of holding it while you undo it rom underneath.

13, The last holding down bolts are in the boot, and go through the metal trim across the back edge of the chassis, above the exhaust. These you can reach (just!) both ends at the same time.

So let's recap on where all these body bolts are:

2 in each front footwell;

1 in each rear wheelarch, which also holds the seat belt reel in place;

2 more holding each seat belt, 1 beside the seat and 1 behind the shoulder;

1 holding each seat belt stalk into the side of the transmission tunnel;

1 underneath the seat belt, downwards into a captive nut in the same bracket;

1 each side of the chassis just behind the centre exhaust mountings;

2 on top of the transmission tunnel; and

2 in the boot.

Remember that the seat belt ones are UNF thread and the other body bolts are metric. Confusing eh?

13. Final main item - the petrol filler. The filler is metal, with short lengths of rubber hose at the top and bottom. Peel the carpet back off the neck to get to the hose clips.

Disconnect the hose clips and pull the cap out. There is also a short stub for a smaller hose, which I think is a breather connected to the "carbon purge canister" on the S3C - take off that clip and pull off the hose as well.

I think that's just about it!

I tried putting a jack with some load-spreading blocks of wood under the body in the front passenger footwell, and managed to lift the body about an inch or so, but didn't want to risk cracking it. I also tried the back of the body just in front of the outrigger, but it wasn't for budging and again I didn't want to damage anything. I'm pretty sure there's nothing holding it down though, it just needs more even lifting rather than one corner at a time.

14. There is a cable tie that holds the brake pipe to the top offside chassis member, at the front. I cut it off, to allow the pipe to flex a bit as the body lifts. The clutch pipe has a big bend in it so shouldn't be stressed. Not as much as I am by this stage.

15. You need to disconnect the wiring to the petrol tank sender. There's also a small earth connection to the end of the top crossrail just in front of the petrol cap, and that has to be disconnected too. You can see it in this photo just in front of the block of wood between the chassis and the body. I put one long bit of wood across from side to side, then pack it up between the wood and chassis with thin plywood. There are a couple of rubber pads just at that point, and I'll need those when I put it down again, so I put them away safe.

You can also see the cloth stuffed into the neck of the petrol tank to stop any stray sparks dropping in!

16. Before lifting the body, make sure there are no tiny stones wedged between the outer edge of the outrigger and the sill, they can prevent the body lifting. Push a scraper between the tube and the sill, all the way along.

I used two trolley jacks, so that I can lift one end at a time, and not just one corner. I put a jack under the rear edge of the floorpan, on each side of the main chassis. I have a couple of big blocks of wood on top of the jack heads to spread the load so that the fibreglass floor doesn't crack. It lifts easy, a bit at a time on each side. I put a block of wood on each side, between the body and the top of the chassis (just in front of the top of the petrol tank)

Then I lift the front end and pack that up above the inner front body mounting, with little squares of wood and thin plywood. A quick crawl underneath with a light, confirms that nothing is becoming overstretched. There is a cooling hose from the heater that goes down the bulkhead to a pipe under the oil filter, and that looks like the main constraint. We'll see how we get on without draining the cooling system.

Also be aware of the curvature of the metal pipes from the servo to the the front brakes: they will flex a little, but don't lift the body so high that you kink them! Also check the wiring harness at the rear of the nearside wheelarch: it's clipped to the chassis and needs to be released to allow it to rise a little bit as the body is lifted. So far so good!

Then it's back to the rear, and lift that a little more, then the front again.

This is about as high as you can get it without disconnecting that coolant pipe at the front offside, or a fuel hose at the rear nearside. Should be high enough to get around it to repair it though.

:: Chassis Repair ::

So - time for an inspection and assessment of the repairs necessary.

The damage is revealed! Not pleasant, but I'm glad I noticed it!

Then a job I hate, I haven't forgotten the last time I did this 3 years ago. I wire brush all the paint and rust off the outriggers, the outer body mounts and the seat belt mounts, using a rotary brush in my angle grinder. Fortunately, the rest of the chassis is in reasonable nick.

This is the full extent of the rust repair required. The mounting plate is only held on with about 5mm of wafer thin metal at one corner!

Then it's on to the other side, again using the wire brush to clean off all the rust and paint. This unfortunately shows that the drivers side, which looked perfectly ok, is actually worse than the other side. Although the damage is only to this inner corner of the sill tube (where crud gets caught on top of the mounting plate), the front tube, that goes out from the main chassis beside the wheel arch, is also rusted through in the same place. Although you can't see it in this photo, there's a hole along the top of the plate, from the corner to the point where the diagonal bracing strut comes down.

Here's the rear edge of that front sideways tube on the offside - as you can see, it's well gone. I'll have to cut out and rebuild that whole corner.

After I've removed the rear shock absorbers, I wire brush a mixture of paint, rust and waxoyl off the chassis and the vertical spring hangers at the back - again, it's easier to reach the back edges while the body is lifted. So - there's the damage!

I'm disappointed during this job, how little Hammerite and waxoyl is left on these tubes. It's fine where the chassis is reasonably protected, but exposed bits have been stripped bare where the paint has been chipped off by stones and grit. I've read recently that Hammerite is too brittle where metal might not be protected from flying stones or grit, so I think that, once I've repaired it, I'll try a different paint system on these bits. POR15 seems to get good reviews and is far more chip-resistant, so I'll get some of that, and a topcoat paint (POR15 is light-sensitive and needs to be covered).

The offside outrigger is stripped back to bare metal, and apart from the damage I'd already found at the front (that started me off on the damn fool project in the first place), the rest of it is fine.

Not so the offside. The wire brush removes a clump of dust and muck from the end plate of the rear outrigger, and exposes a tiny pinhole. I have a poke at it with a screwdrive, and it seems to be pretty localised. I hammer a drift into the pinhole and this is as wide as it gets. So I need to put a tiny plate over that, but it can't stick out too far or the body won't go back over it.

I've also stripped the body mounting plates in the rear wheel arch, and they seem to be fine. The spacers that were between them and the body have crumbled away to nothing, though, so I wondered if they were originally metal (to spread the seat belt load). Other owners say that theirs were plastic though so I'll have to make new ones. I am pretty sure that the plates aren't any thinner than they should be - I did notice that the bits that fell out still had the original powder coat sticking to the back edge of them, so that would suggest that they weren't part of the bracket, and have flaked off.

I measured up both sides separately: where the chassis tubes join, where the mounting plates fit, where the mounting holes are, all the dimensions I need to make sure the new bits line up. Important tip - DO NOT measure one side and assume that the other side will be the same - mine wasn't - it was close, but it wasn't right (as that guy Roy Walker used to say on "Catchphrase"). Measure twice, cut once. Or in my case, measure over and over again because the numbers don't add up, and you can't work out if it's the numbers or your adding that's wrong.

I nip along to the local steel suppliers and buy 2 metres of 1.5 inch, 1.6mm wall thickness steel tube, They didn't have any ERW, only seamless, but that'll do! I also bought some slightly smaller diameter tubing to fit inside, so that I can make strengthened joints. I also got a square foot of 3mm steel plate to make a new body mounting plate. The Whole lot came to �12.00!

The next step is serious - get a cutting blade in the angle grinder and start cutting bits off the chassis!

First cut is through the 45 degree joint at the front of the chassis, and also cutting off part of the body mounting plate that has almost rusted away. I left enough to show where the bolt hole should be though! Then cut through the chassis tube nice and straight. I cut mine, and then decided that the metal was a bit thin, and cut another bit off to get to thicker metal to weld to. Get the end nice and square, and make final adjustments with a hand file. So that's the chassis ready for the new bit.

Then make up the new bit to fit in. First cut the length, then mark on the angle of cut for the front edge. We deliberately cut it a mm or two too long: it's easy to shorten a tube, but not so easy to lengthen it! After various trial fits and gradually filing or grinding bits off, we're happy that we have a good fit.

Then cut a bit off the smaller diameter tube, to fit inside. Another check fit, check the dimensions, especially the width to the outside of the tube (too wide and the body won't go back over), then tack weld the inner bit inside the outer bit. Make sure it's straight, and then seam weld all the way round.

Then I tidy up the welds, using a grinder first, and then a hand file. It fits almost perfectly inside the other section of tube, with a nice even (weldable) gap all the way round.

Then I make a cardbourd template of the body mounting plate, to help me make up a new one to butt against the new tube. I cut a piece of 2mm plate to the shape of the template (a 45 degree angle at one end) and file it straight. I think that I should weld the body mounting plate on to the tube, before I weld the tube in place. That lets me get to both sides of the weld, see? So I wriggle the tube into place, and tape it in position for now. Then I take my cardboard template and try it in place, and mark off its length to the other side. Once I cut the template to size, I hold it in place then mark its position on the new tube using a permanent marker along its edge, with crossmarks at the ends of the plate to fix its position.

Then I mark the bottom of the tube so that I can work out the angle to fix the plate on.

Then I put the tube down, upside down, between two blocks of wood, with the bottom mark at the top. Then I use the plywood packing pieces to lay the plate level, so that it just touches the marks. Then I tack weld the plate at both corners and in the middle.

Then I waggle the whole assembly back into place, and check that everything lines up. It does, so I mark the position of the hole for the body bolt, and remove the whole lot, and seam weld the plate onto the tube along the top and bottom, and drill the bolt hole out.

Then I mark the length of the internal joining tube onto the old outrigger, and drill two 7mm holes on the outside, 2 on the inside and 2 on the bottom, to plug weld when everything is in place.

Then I put the whole assembly back in place, clamp up the body plate, and tack weld the front corner. Check all the alignment again, then seam weld the front joint and fill in the plug welds.

Then I seam weld the join in the chassis tube (the outside bit - the other bit is also upside-down!

Finally I weld the top and bottom of the body plate.

Then I grind down the main welds (the body might not fit if the welds stick out too far). You can see the two plug weld behind the seam.

And here's the repair in place!

And here's what's left of the old outrigger, just for comparison!

So then it's on to the other side, which needs a bit more fabrication. I started to make up the tubing for the right side, by cutting a tube at a 45 degree angle. Except it turned out to be a 43 degree angle or something, so I had to do a little bit of grinding and filing to get the two bits to fillet together.

But they did!

I welded the two tubes together using one of those magnetic right-angle thingys, then ground the weld down to make sure the body would fit back on. Unfortunately I find that the angle between the tubes has pulled in slightly, by maybe a degree or so. Nothing to worry about (I don't think!)

Then I need to make up the body mounting plate. Now it's not as simple as sticking a plate across the angle (well it is, but it needs to be at the right depth from the top of the tubes). The plate on the car is 27 mm from the top. I find two bits of wood, one 12mm thick, the other 15mm, and I turn the assembly upside down and wedge them into the corner. Then use two bits of cardboard against the tube at that height, and tape them together to get the angle, and draw on the tube with a permanent marker along the top of the card.

Then I used another piece of card 100 mm wide (the width of the plate) and marked on it, the angles of the tube, from the other two bits of card, then cut it to the shape I need. Another trial fit and it's fine. Then I mark round the card onto some 3 mm plate, and cut out the shape with a jugsaw, using Fairy Liquid as coolant / lubricant.

This shows the plate in position, at approximately the right height (bear in mind this is upside down, so the body sits in the gap where the wood spacers are. I decide not to weld it up yet, for 2 reasons: First I want to cut the old one off, turn it over and check that height.

Second reason is that I will be cutting the cross-leg shorter, so that it fits on the outside of the join where the diagonal cross-brace joins the tube from the top. Both the cross-brace and the rest of the chassis tube are ok so I am not replacing them unless I have to. The mark on the tube half-way between the ends of the plate, shows where that brace joins on.

The plan is to cut through the chassis tube outside the brace join, and through the chassis plate, and then cut this new plate along the same line, and join the two together. So I don't want to weld the plate on just yet, until I have cut it to shape.

I've also marked where the bolt hole has to be, but I'll check that on the car after I've welded the plate on, and before I drill it.

Then I clamp the new joined pipes into place so that I can check the approximate fit, and it looks good! You can see in these photos how the front tube extends past that cross-brace, so that I have options on how to join that all up, depending how rotten the back of that front tube is.

Then I mark up my cut line on the sill tube (allowing 3mm for "adjustment" later - it's easier to file 3mm off, than it is to add it on if it's too short!) Then I cut through the front tube with an angle grinder, and then at an angle through the body mounting plate. I cut through the side tubes with an ordinary hacksaw - nice straight controllable cut!

And here's the bit I cut off. In addition to the obvious big holes, there are two cracks - one in the front tube from the edge of the hole into the angled welded join, and another underneath that goes under the sill tube and halfway up the other side. It was only just holding together. Bear in mind that none of this was apparent while the body was on the car!

That leaves me with this. The metal at the back of the tube has almost rotted away and is wafer thin - it resists finger pressure but there's no point welding anything structural to that - I've seen thicker Kit Kat wrappers! So a change of plan is required.

Now that I've cut through the tube, I can see that the front, top and bottom are ok, it's only that back edge that's rusted away. How about if I cut through the chassis to leave the cross-brace in place, and then cut the new tube so that it fits on? There would be a smaller diameter joining tube inside, plug welded to the existing chassis and the new repair. That removes all of the old body mounting plate, so I can put my new one on.

Again, careful measuring and cutting is required, to make sure that the new bit fits on to the old bit perfectly. After a few trial fits and a bit of angle grinder action, nicking tiny bits off the chassis progressively, I have it fitting not too bad at all.

And here it is looking from behind. This is when I think to myself that I would be better welding the body mounting plate to the tubes BEFORE I fit them to the chassis. I will have to weld the plate along both its top and bottom edges, so that's about 2 foot of welding, with the top welds almost inaccessible behind the tubes, and the bottom welds upside down. That little bit of horizontal weld at the back of the front brace isn't going to be easy if the plate is in place, but it's about 3 inches long and a lot easier to faff about with than the alternative which involves 2 feet of awkward welding.

So again I check the old corner I've just cut off - the plate is mounted lower than the plate on the inner side, well below the tube centre line. I turn it over and find that I can pack 5 layers of thin ply pieces (which I brought to pack the body off the chassis) between the floor and the plate. So - put down the new corner (upside down), put down 5 layers of ply in the corner, lay the plate on top, and check it lines up with the marks I made last time. A couple of wee tack welds than try it in place again - perfect!

Then I weld it, about an inch at a time, along both bottom edges. Turn it over, and weld into the top edges of the plate (even although the weld on the bottom is almost right through the plate).

Another trial fit - and it's perfect! Well almost - now that the front tube is fully in place, the side tube is a mm or two too short - that's fixable though, no problem.

So here's how it goes together:

First, there's a bit of smaller diameter tubing inside the front outrigger. The front outrigger gets drilled and that gets plug welded in place.

Then the new section slides on, and that also gets plug welded in place, and a seam weld right around the join.

Another bit of smaller tubing fits inside the sill, and that also gets plug welded and seam welded. That bit of tube will have to be manouvered through the join after it's in place, either using a screwdriver or a sacrificial gerbil.

So that's all worked out then, so we can get on with fitting. I put the inside tube in, and mark how far it goes, then transfer that measurement to the outside of the chassis tube, and also the outside of the new bit. That tells me where I need to drill the holes for plug welds. Then I do the same on the sill tube - mark the length of the inside tube on the outside. Then I drill holes for the plug welds in the chassis and in the new bit I've made up. Make sure the holes are on the bottom or the sides where you can reach them with the welder when they are on the car!

Then I drill a hole in the body mounting plate, for the bolt to go through.

Right - this is a tricky bit. I can put the connecting tube inside the front rail, and push the new bit over - but I can't then get the connecting tube into the sill, at the same time. Vice versa, if I put the tube into the sill first, I can't get the front section over the inner connecting tube. I need a way to slide the sill tube into the joint, after I've put the front tube on.

Surprisingly, given my usual thickness, I come up with a solution after a minute or two. I cut off a couple of feet of welding wire, and put it in one of the "plug weld" holes in the chassis, and out the other side. Then I push the inside tube into the sill tube, so that it takes that welding wire with it. Then I pull the welding wire, and it pulls the inside tube back out. Trial fit works, so far so good!

I need to work out how I can tell when that inside tube is in the right position, as I pull it out of the old sill and into the new one. I put it half-way into the sill tube, and make a wee mark through the furthest-away plug weld hole, with the permanent marker. Then I take it back out, and make a slight mark right round the tube with a hacksaw.

Final check that everything fits, all plug weld holes drilled, because once I take the next step, I won't be able to get this back off again without cutting it apart. I check particularly that the sill tube is straight and will fit when the body is dropped back over it. Yup, everything fits.

So. Welding wire in place, push connecting tube into sill tube, grooved end first. Then insert the other tube into the the front tube, and slide the repair piece over, make sure it's properly fitted. Then hold the new sill tube into position, and pull on the welding wire, and watch the connecting tube slide into the joint, until that groove appears in the rearmost plug weld hole. Perfect!

Then it's simplya case of welding up all the joints, and then the plug weld holes. Although access isn't easy, especially to the top of the side tube and the back of the front tube, I get what seem to be good strong welds all round.

I start to grind down the welds (to make sure the body will fit over) but realise that it's getting near tea time (I've been at this 3 hours although it feels like less than half that).

Then I grind down the welds (to make sure the body will fit back over). It seems to have all gone to plan. You can see here the welded joint along the lines I explained before, and the shiny bits where the top plug welds are.

Here's the same bit from underneath.

And the join in the sill tube, again with a section of smaller tube inside, and plug welded.

I also remembered to weld that little patch into the end of the rear outrigger tube.

I've also made up a couple of metal spacer plates for the rear body mounts. In usual TVR fashion, each side is a different size and has to be measured and cut separately. Great!

So that's the welding and metalwork finished! I'm going to put the car in an envelope and send it off to see if I get the Standard Grade metalwork I never got at school.

The next step is painting and reassembly, but that's a whole new story!