For all things Rover V8, the TVR Griffith and Chimaera and TVR T-Cars
The Factory
The Factory, as everyone in the TVR world knows it, was in Blackpool. If, as seems possible, TVR production will start up again, despite them being built in, if the rumours are correct, Germany, the TVR Factory will always be in Blackpool.
Back Homes are no longer what they were, a visit to a car producer, and instead are now just nostalgia fests: fun but sad. Had the consortium’s bid been accepted it could have been so much different.
Here is an excerpt from the visitor information pack in 1996 decribing the production process for Griffiths and Chimaeras.
Chassis Fabrication
Chassis components are cut on site from mild steel tubing, jig formed and welded. The chassis is then de-greased, etch primed, and hung on an electrically charged conveyor where it is sprayed with polyester-epoxy powder. After powder-coating it passes through a 200°C oven for twenty minutes.
Chassis assembly is completed by fitting the wishbones, uprights, springs, dampers, steering rack and fuel and brake lines.
Body Construction
The body is initially built up in about eight different moulds made from epoxy resin (for good release properties) and triaxial glass matting (for strength). The production moulds were taken more or less directly from the original polyurethane foam buck produced by the designers.
The body panels are laid up by hand using polyester resin and chopped stand matting. Biaxial matting is used on stressed areas such as seat belt mountings, and a layer of coremat incorporated in large panel areas to stop them resonating. When it is sufficiently cured each panel is trimmed in its mould and the moulds for the top half of the body are bolted together so that they can be joined with more chopped strand matting. The complete top mould assembly is then inverted onto the floor pan mould and joined, and the whole thing left to cure overnight.
When the body has been broken out of the mould the flash is removed by angle grinding and generally cleaned up, before being bolted to the chassis and cured in a low-temperature oven for eight hours. The final step before painting is to finish flatting the shell and trial-fit and prepare the bonnet, boot and doors.
Painting
The shell receives four coats of primer with a 30 minute bake between each coat. This is then flatted by hand ready for the colour coats. Before going on to assembly the paintwork is buffed and polished and sprayed with a protective coat of Transeal.
Assembly
This proceeds in eight stages:
1. Fitting small parts such as the tail lights, petrol tank, pedal box and radiator.
2. Doors and boot lid, door wiring and boot wiring.
3. Main wiring loom, heater box and hoses, fuel sender and wiper motor.
4. Interior trim.
5. Steering column, seat belts, door seals and windscreen.
6. Engine, gearbox, gear linkage and gear lever.
7. Battery and cables, alarm, door electrics and dashboard.
8. Onto ramp for propshaft, exhaust and airflow meter, tighten suspension bushes, adjust geometry, add fluids and check over.
The final step is to start and adjust the engine prior to a 30 mile test drive, then the Transeal is pealed off and the car got ready for the transporter.
How Long and How Much?
The whole build process takes about four weeks and 450 manhours. By far the largest single item is 160 manhours spent on making the bodyshell.
NOTE: Don’t get too carried away by the estimates of the time and cost of construction. When talking to a person very high up in the TVR management I was told that all such figures were guesswork, and without much inspiration. 450 and 160 seem suspiciously round figures to me.
I once asked how much it cost to make a Speed 6 engine. I was told that the figure was somewhere between 40 and 400 hours. When I asked how these times were come by my informant laughed, saying no one ever did a proper estimate. When I asked how the figure to charge was arrived at there was a sort of shrug of the shoulders. “No one knows. They just sort of appeared.”