The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

IMHO lowering a Spitfire for road use gains precisely zero benefits. They are so low anyway you end up struggling over anything but a flat road! You can gain a good road set up with standard height and uprated springs and/or shocks. Let the suspension settle as Toledo Man says but if you end up with too much settlement you'll end up with road clearance problems.

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Steve and Nic
1979 Dolomite Sprint Brooklands Green.
Ever increasing box of spares.
Larger garage needed

Indeed a Spit is quite low enough as it is....

To correct an earlier poster the front trunions should be filled with gear oil, not engine oil.

Even the OE rear springs start to sag after 50k miles or so...I dont think a Spit rear spring is ever fit and forget.
Mine is on its 3rd...

Jonners

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Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.

Fit and forget as in not having to replace the replacement after six months Jonners. The new springs from BCC are made from scratch in the UK and are carefully tempered according to the BCC chap I spoke with at the TSSC International. I've no reason to doubt this at this stage.

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Steve and Nic
1979 Dolomite Sprint Brooklands Green.
Ever increasing box of spares.
Larger garage needed

Nice to see this coming on, I used to have a P reg Topaz 1500 - great fun little cars All the best with it.

Kind Regards

Russell.

I'm not sure a lowered Spitfire is possible.. I lose enough rear exhaust clamps as it is!

Keep up the good work on the resto

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1978 Triumph Dolomite Sprint (project thread)
1966 Volkswagen 1300 (project thread)
1962 Austin Mini (project)
1962 MGA 1600 Mark II
1965 Mobylette SP50 (project)
2001 Rover 75 2.5-litre V6

Our spit has a 3/4" lowering block on the rear, and an old GT6 spring. Sits low but absolutely no ground clearance issues. At the front it is pretty low too. I am running hard front springs and the front tyres just about touch teh wheelarches,, I had to use 10mm thick spacers to stop contact. Again no clearance issues.
The car has just been around Europe, many alpine passes including Slovenia where cobbled hairpins appear to be normal. And many of the roads in Eastern Europe where worse than Uk roads (east germany was particularly bad, czech republic wasn't good)

So yes, a lowered spit is very feasible and perfectly practical. We were not pussyfooting about. Just pay attention to detail and get the exhaust and so on nicely tucked up and correctly mounted. No dangly bits!

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Clive Senior
Brighton

My dad fitted a pair of new lotus trunnions to his Spitty from Canley Classics:

http://www.canleyclassics.com/suspensio ... ension-kit



No more messy gear oil in grease guns.

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Finished with Main Engines and Steering....

1981 1500 HL man/od
1972 Series 3 Land Rover diesel
2007 MX5 Sport
2010 Citroen C1
1993 Gas Gas GT32

Nice but not cheap.....

I did think about it after I had one vertical link snap its bottom thread...

Jonners

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Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.

I agree - after having one snap while touring in europe,it's a cost effective investment! The steering is better with them too and it's nice to " fit and forget ".

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Finished with Main Engines and Steering....

1981 1500 HL man/od
1972 Series 3 Land Rover diesel
2007 MX5 Sport
2010 Citroen C1
1993 Gas Gas GT32

I bought them too. And for me to fork out that amount.....

However, when compared to buying a new pair of std uprights and trunnions the difference is not as big as you may think
After all, who really likes the idea of 40 plus year old uprights that have lead a miserable life?

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Clive Senior
Brighton

Sorry i've not been very active recently! Life's been catching upto me with university work and the like! I recently purchased a little 1.2 clio as well which has seen me getting back onto the road after nearly 2 years of passing my test and not driving. Going home this weekend and hope to complete nearly all the welding on the spitfire and get the rear brakes sorted. That's if it's dry...

Hopefully post more again soon.