My Griff complete rebuild
I
picked up my Griff in March 2004 from a guy in
Due
to working abroad I was only in
My
car outside my apartment in
I
continued to use the car every other weekend when I was home up until
Christmas. On January 5th 2005
I was reading a thread on Pistonheads about body off chassis restores, knowing
that mine had some rust on the outriggers I was interested in the topic. By the end of the thread I’d decided to
undertake the task, on the 6th of Jan the project started!! I had no intention of doing this until the
day before!
My
plan was to ‘simply’ remove the body, cleanup and paint the chassis and replace
the body. Things don’t always go to
plan!
The
process started with removing components from the engine bay so that the engine
could be lifted out
My
engine before the strip started
I
don’t seem to have any pictures of the engine just before I lifted it out, but
here it is partially stripped.
After
disconnecting everything necessary (including the propshaft, exhaust Y-piece
and some other items) it was not too difficult to lift the engine out, if a
little tight (manifolds are a close fit to the bay). The biggest problems I had were with
detaching the engine and gearbox mounts.
The
engine was now out and sitting on my garage floor
Empty
engine bay
I
detached the gearbox from the engine and set these both aside for now (must
have been pissed whilst taking this!)
My
next step was to start stripping of all of the suspension components
It
was a bit rusty under there
I
then removed the drive shafts and the bolts holding the wishbones and continued
to dismantle.
Under
RH rear arch pic with the wishbones removed
LH
shown below
Front
right hand
Front
hub with brakes
Rear
hub with driveshaft and brakes
The
wishbones were in a bit of a mess, lots of surface rust
Someone
had already treated the front wishbones with what looked like Hammerite, but
they made a bad job of it
A
couple of the front wishbone bushes were in a really bad way, the rubber was no
longer attached to the metal outer casing.
The inner (with rubber) could freely be moved away from the outer!
With
the wishbones now removed it was time to separate the body from the
chassis. Because I was going to be doing
this alone I followed a method used by Phil (AKA Wheeljack888 on Pistonheads)
on his Chim
This
method involves getting the body and chassis up high, the supporting the body
and lowering the chassis down and out.
The
body is held on by 28 bolts in all; 2 near the radiator, 2 below the dash, 4
behind the fuel tank, 14 underneath on the outriggers, and 6 for
seatbelts. I also removed the radiator
before the engine. The brake lines were
all disconnected from the right hand side of the engine bay, speedo sensor
wiring disconnected, fuel tank removed (to access the chassis bolts behind it),
fuel pump wiring removed and probably a few other bits which I can’t remember
right now!
The
chassis was wedged quite tightly in to the body and would actually hold there
under its own weight! But with a little
persuasion it came out (I wish it was as easy as writing this to actually do
all this stuff!)
The
chassis looked quite bad in some areas
The
underside of the body was in need of a clean as well
I
then removed the diff and realised now would be a good time to have it and my
gearbox reconditioned. After a bit of research
I found that ‘Competition Transmissions’ specialise in these units and were
more than happy to do the work for me
I
then stripped the chassis down to a bare frame and took the surface rust of with
my angle grinder using a knotted wire wheel and found that it was indeed only
surface rust and the integrity of the metal was actually very good. It was good to find out that no welding was
necessary and that I’d caught the dreaded rust in the nick of time! J
I
continued cleaning the chassis up with my trusty knotted wire wheel (gone
through 3 by now!) but came to the conclusion that I was getting nowhere fast
and also the surface was way to smooth for paint to key to. So I sent the chassis away (and the wishbones
and anti roll bars) for shot blasting J
The
diff and box was now back from gearboxman, the result was a hefty bill because
the box needed a whole new gearset due to excessive wear. The diff was a
straight forward rebuild with new bearings.
I fitted new hi-tensile bolts to the diff mount bracket and also changed
the old bushes for nice new purple poly bushes.
I gave both of them a lick of paint with POR 15.
While
the chassis was away I polished the brake and fuel lines up! Yes I am that sad!
Brake
lines before
Brake
lines after many many hours of polishing, this is a crappy job and I also did
the copper fuel hoses! (All were flushed
out before being re-attached)
For
some reason I didn’t take any photos for a while now, I think I just wanted to
crack on once I’d got the chassis back.
I spent a lot of time removing all the bushes, the best way I found was
to heat the inner part of the bush up with a blow touch and then push this part
out. Then I’d carefully cut two slots in
the outer to relive the tension and then hammer it out. There are a lot of bushes and the process is
very long.
I
bought a few metres of high pressure stainless braided fuel hoses and have used
this to replace all of the rubber stuff (even the low pressure), it should last
far longer. I also bought a set of
Goodridge stainless braided brake lines.
I
them prepped the chassis and wishbones the POR 15 Metal ready whish is a
etching acid, this totally cleans the metal of grease and eats into the surface
providing a great surface for the paint to adhere to. After several coats (must have been nearly
ten on the out riggers!) of silver POR 15 here’s what the chassis looked like
once the diff was fitted. A vast
improvement I’m sure you’ll agree!
Fitting
the diff bushes was great fun! (nearly as much as removing the old ones) I
discovered that they needed trimming down a little. Here’s the bush before trimming
And
here it is again after I’d turned some material off (put it in my drill and
used a chisel on it!)
The
underside of the body and the wheel arches were not looking great and needed a
good clean. Scrubbing the under side of the
body was a horrible job and took several hours (over a few days) with white
spirits, rags and brushes. But once it
was done I topped it with a coat of wax to protect it and make it easier to
clean in the future. I painted the wheel
arches in a special stone chip resistant paint and topped it with black POR 15.
It
was time now to fit the new wishbone bushes, I decided to go for the harder
compound Red poly bushes from Superflex, this should help make the chassis a
little sharper (certainly can’t be worse than the ones I removed anyway!).
After
fitting the wishbones (using new nuts) it was time to mate the chassis back
with the body. I layed cardboard on the floor
under the body and dragged the chassis under and in to place. With the aid of a few jacks and friend we got
the chassis back in to the body. This
was a milestone for me J To see your pride and joy in so many pieces
can be quite worrying, now the major items were back together I was much
happier J
While
the chassis was away being blasted I removed the heat shields from the engine
bay, they were well past their best by now anyway.
Now
that all the bushes had been changed I decided it would be a half job to put
the original dampers back on, they were the original items and at 10 years old
were probably not performing as well as the day they left the factory.
Choosing
a damper to suit my needs took a while. I
asked around after other peoples experiences with certain dampers and suppliers
and eventually came to conclusion to use the latest generation of GAZ
dampers. I went for the nickel coated
option on the damper, 275lb rear springs and 325lb front springs. I may have to change the springs at a later
date to suit the type of driving I do but I thought this to be a good starting
point. I purchased the springs and
dampers from Derek at absolutely Shocks.
Recent reports from people suggest the dampers are very good; I can’t
wait to find out J
My
next step was to re new all the brake disc/pads and buy new tyres. But I’d always fancied a set of spider wheels
in Anthracite, so I set about researching how to approach the task of
converting my 4 stud hubs to 5 stud and at the same time bought a set of silver
16inch spiders with the intention of having them powder coated Anthracite
The
Spiders were second hand but in great condition. But after weighing up the cost and hassle of
having the wheels coated, hubs converted and buying new disc/pads and tyres all
around I decided it was not for me. So I
splashed out on a Spider conversion from the factory J They came with everything I needed:
Anthracite
wheels
5
Stud hubs
Rear
discs
New
brake line (which I have still not used because I already fitted new Goodridge
items)
Big
discs (I have now painted the unswept area and inner centre part to prevent
corrosion, but I don’t have a pic of it)
4
Pot AP Racing callipers
AP
pads all around
Here
a pic showing the new 5 stud hub fitted with calliper adaptor bracket awaiting
fitment of the calliper
And
here with the disc and calliper fitted
And
here it was with the wheel on
New
bottom ball joints, track rod ends and top ball joint have been put on the
front. The steering should feel better
than new after all this work J
I
then proceeded to clean all of the parts that were going to be going back on
the car:
Header
tank before
Header
tank after a few hours polishing
Steering
rack before
Steering
rack after cleaning and polish and refitting to chassis (not the best pic, it
had got a bit dirty by now and needs a wipe down)
Alternator
before
Alternator
after (fan and pulley powder coated, body polished, blue paint was awaiting a
second coat in this picture)
Plenum
and throttle linkage before
Plenum
and throttle linkage after
Linkage
powder coated
Plenum
after a lot of polishing
Rocker
cover before
Rocker
cover after polishing
After
polishing the rocker covers I wasn’t happy with the finish so I sent them away
to be powder coated, I am much happier with this finish
I
then prepped a few parts ready for chroming but decided to have them powder
coated as well
(Before)
(After)
And
a few more bits polished
Wiper
motor casing machine polished
I
also bought a few bits from ACT J
As
well as the bits above I also purchased a stainless exhaust system from Tim at ACT,
I specced it to look totally standard but be completely straight through. Basically the same as having the silencer
sleeved but instead of being sleeved it was made that way by JP. I needed a new
exhaust (well would have soon looking at the state of the old system) anyway so
this is why I went this route. My old
silencer was already sleeved.
Me
being me I wasn’t happy with how shiny the exhaust was so I set at polishing it
up further
The
radiator and fans were looking a bit tired so I cleaned up and resprayed the
rad and spent a lot of time cleaning the fans up
To
finish them off I polished up the aluminium fan holders and spacers and used
stainless stain cap head bolts to attach them (this is an area that is hardly
seen in the car but I still had to do it!)
Distributor
with new cap and rotor arm
I
painted the rebuilt gearbox in silver and topped it with POR 15 Glistern clear
lacquer; this should provide a durable and easy to wash finish
I
fitted a complete new release arm and bearing assembly
Here’s
one of the same shot before the rebuild
Bottom
pulley assembled with powder coated parts
It
was now time to start the engine strip and see what I was dealing with. The engine was strong before removal without
any poor running problems, and with only a very slight tap from one of the
tappets when the engine was on over run after the throttle was blipped and this
noise only occurred when the oil was very warm.
Why rebuild then I hear you ask?
Well the engine was out already sooo…..
Removal
of the rocker covers didn’t turn up any surprises
Removal
of the heads and valley gasket also turned up no problems
The
coke on the piston tops was lifting off; probably due to the amount of time the
engine was left standing before the strip commenced
The
cam didn’t show any obvious signs of wear after 40000miles
Combustion
chambers turned up no surprises
The
oil strainer had a fair bit of sealant in it, probably due to over zealous use
of the sump sealant. Fortunately this
had no adverse affect of the oil pressure
The
valley and the bottom end were looking quite clean, indicating regular oil
changes (backed up by service history), which is good news.
A
bit of slack in the timing chain (annoyingly blurry though)
And
wear on the teeth
Ta
daaa, one stripped engine!
I
cleaned the block up myself to start with; I did this with white spirits, paint
brushes and a jet washer. When I’d
finished washing it I poured hot water over the block to make the water
evaporate faster. I then droves all the
excess moisture out with an oil spray
I
then took the block along to my local machine shop for them to fit the new cam
bearings, hone the cylinder bores, and fit new core plugs. After the machine work they chemically washed
the block
I
bought my engine rebuild parts from V8 Developments, I ordered the following
items:
Full
engine gasket set
H404
camshaft kit (includes cam, vernier timing gear, hydraulic cam followers, valve
springs)
Big
end and main bearings
Core
plugs
Piston
rings
High
torque clutch
Oil
pump gears
Head
bolts
Pushrods
The
cam choice was the only difficult decision during the engine rebuild, I knew
the H404 was as wild as I’d ever want to go but would it be too wild. That I’d have to find out!!
I
polished the pistons up and fitted the new rings to them
I
then fitted the new big end bearings, the old ones were not bad but obviously
showed signs of wear
To
ensure the bottom end stays together (touches wood) I bought a set of ARP big
end, main bolts and flywheel bolts, I also bought ARP stainless manifold bolts
to go with them.
Unfortunately
the big end bolts were not the correct type, so I went to TVR power for some
new original items.
Once
the block was back I painted it and started to assemble it
I
spent a weekend working on the cylinder heads, I cleaned them up then decoked
the valves. I also reshaped the valves a
la Vizzard J and the
ground them in nicely. Then the new
valve springs were fitted. This took quite some time but it’s a job I find it quite
enjoyable J
The
pre-cat on the one side was totally loose in the manifold, I already intended
to remove them but this made sure I was going to have to do it. The loose one came out without too much
trouble but the other one was fixed in solidly, this took quite a bit of
persuasion to remove!
The
removal of the pre-cat won’t make a massive difference; it will mostly be a
noise thing. But what it will do is
prevent them getting blocked up and losing me power.
I
sent the manifold and Y piece away to Camcoat. They cleaned them up and coated
the manifolds internally with their highest spec (black) ceramic coating; they
then coated the manifold and the Y piece externally with their ceramachrome
coating. This looks great I sure you’ll
agree and hopefully will help reduce under bonnet temps
(Inlet
manifold only resting in place in this photo)
Due
to various horror stories about the standard aluminium rocker I decided to
change them for a set of steel ones.
Before
fitting the new rockers I timed in the cam on the new timing gear (timing wheel
missing on this pic)
With
the newly painted front cover on
After
the sump was fitted the engine was now nearly finished so it was time to fit
the new clutch. First the flywheel
needed de-glazing then clutch was aligned and torqued up.
The
gearbox was then mated to the engine
While
the engine was out I got hold of some heat resistant aluminium matting and made
some new engine bay heat shields. The new
rivets are stainless so won’t go rusty like the old ones
Looking
a little better now than they did before!
Due
to working away and not being able to use my car regular a lot of strain was
put on the battery. I used to jump start
the car every two weeks when I was back home.
This killed the battery, which was not much cop anyway to be
honest. So I decided to replace it. Due to the nature of the engine (large
capacity, relatively high compression) it can take quite a lot of amps to crank
it over strongly. I spent a lot of time
researching what would be the best battery I could fit in the standard
position.
The
conclusion I (finally) came to was a 096 type Bosch Silver Star, these
batteries are supposed to be superb. The
cold cranking amps on this battery are 720amps!
And it also puts out 75Ah as a bonus (not that it’s needed on this
car) The CCA sold it to me.
I
bought the battery from my local GSF (German Swedish French car parts) for £55
after using a 10% discount card (from another car club).
To
fit the battery in to the standard box required the extra feet at the side of
the battery to be cut off (this is really easy being plastic) and a bit of
filing of the corners of the battery box.
The terminal are also the opposite way to standard, this is not a
problem on my car because the leads are long enough to reach. If it was a problem I would have simply
mounted the battery the other way around, it is no trouble at all reaching over
the battery to connect it.
I
have now tested the battery and found that it cranks VERY strongly, and I have
yet to add the Mod wise hot start kit I have bought for it!
It
was now time to add a few more bits to the engine, clean the wiring loom up and
drop the engine back in to the chassis.
Actually manoeuvring the engine and box in to the chassis was not too
hard but mating up the gear linkage and the engine mounts was a real pain. It should not be too difficult but for some
reason it was, you win some you lose some L
The
next step was to fit the propshaft (cleaned and greased) install the
exhaust. This took a while; the rear
mount on the exhaust was no where near where it should have been so I had to
fabricate an adaptor for it.
The
gearbox was then filled with Silkolene fully synthetic after getting advice
from an oil expert.
After
adding a few more shiny bits to the engine it was really starting to come
together and I was starting to see the finish line J
And
now complete as per when I ran it up
The
engine started second attempt after swinging the dizzy a few degrees. It sounds bloody marvellous J it’s a great feeling having completely built
this beast with my own hands J
The
idle is a little lumpy due to the cam but I haven’t had chance to drive it yet to
find out have bad it is. I will be in
need of a remap shortly which will help smooth the low speed running a little.
I’m
looking to go to fully mappable fuel and ignition in the near future, I have
built a Megasquirt ECU ready to go on to another car of mine and I think I may
take this route with this car as well.
I
have also changed the dashboard for a Leven stainless item (along with all the
other bit you have to but when you do this)
Whilst
doing the dash I wet and dried all of the black paint off the dial surround,
the now low massively better and more modern than before.
Dashboard
before
Sorry
about the dreadful picture (updating soon, it looks a lot better in real life)
Also
notice the column cowl in the above picture has a flocked (I said flocked J ) finish now
Flocked
cowl
I
wasn’t going to show this website until the car was completely finished but due
to there being a few other people out there doing or thinking about doing a
body off I felt bad holding this back any longer because this may help them.
When
I have properly cleaned the car I will upload some pictures of it.
I
have missed quite a lot out but I will continue to update the site when I have
photos of things.
Thanks
to:
My
mates for listening to me talk about it all year!
Neil
for helping set of this site, top bloke
My
sister for the use of her garage, thanks Fay
Guillotine, wheelJack888,