March's Car of the Month a 1999 TVR Griffith provided by member Steve Bowden. In his own words:
"Despite a career in IT, I’d always had a mechanical interest and during 2014-15 I felt the need to rebuild a car, to have the sense of achievement from restoring a vehicle. But what car should I choose? Well having owned a TVR Chimaera for 20 years at that point, I had the knowledge to strip and rebuild one of those. But did I need another Chimaera? My first ride in a TVR had been a Griffith 400, and I’d always hankered for one, but if you are going to go into a rebuild you ,might as well make it a 500 (5 Litre Car!).
So in 2016 I set about finding a car. I didn’t mind a car that needed chassis work as that was within my scope, things like interior trimming and full repaints would be expensive though so started a search for a car that needed chassis/mechanical rebuild but had fundamentally good interior and paintwork. After a year I found my car, a 1999 Griffith 500, fundamentally sound with an MOT but at the point some TLC would really improve it.
Having driven the car for a few months the rebuild was started.
Taking the first parts off of a serviceable car had the voices asking how long this would take? The strip down took weeks, with no service manual for these cars, every thing was a new venture, which parts to take off first? So seats, carpets, fuel tank, exhaust, antiroll bars, exhaust headers, radiators, engine ancillaries, rusted bolts galore, and days where work stopped whilst a plan of action was formulated. Eventually time to remove the body to chassis mounting bolts, and hope any captive ones weren’t seized.,
Using my Scissor lift the body left the chassis for the first time since 1999, and the tubular chassis was stripped of sus[pensipon, brake pipes, engine, transmission and differential. The chassis was then taken for blasting, and despite the corrosion being not too severe, I decided it was time for new outrigger tubes to be added both sides. The chassis was solid again so now time to decide on how to protect it. Originally powder coating was used but that tends to wrap rather than adhere and once broken rust creeps underneath, A Tubular chassis can twist it hot dip galvanising is used so I decided on a hot spray galvanising, two pack wet sprayed zinc primer, and two pack polyurethane top coat to give it marine grade protection. A finishing touch of grey stone chip on the exposed areas gave it the final protection. It looked great but now I had to get it all back together.
Restoring, improving and replacing Brakes, suspension, diff and gearbox mounts/seals as I went, day by day it started to come back together. Eventually I had a rolling chassis, and the big day came to get the body back on. Had I measured correctly, were the new outriggers in the right place? Thankfully all was good and the body slowly lowered and settled back onto the chassis and I could start to reinstall the new mountings.
Eventually wlth it all back together , first start came and the relief it still worked! Tweaks and time spent setting up alignment transformed the drive. A few niggles took a while to sort but the experience of bring a car back to life and this condition was the satisfaction I was looking for.
Nearly 30 years on, The Griffith still excels in magazine tests as a great v8 driving experience and having this restored 500 that I know is better than new underneath"
