1970 Spitfire resurrection

[Howard81]

I may have already located one, we'll see tomorrow

[JPB]

On a less silly note than my last post (sorry ); how on earth, when the different driveshafts were fitted to opposite sides of the car, was there not a massive and very noticeable difference between the camber angles when viewed from behind?

[Howard81]

It isn't really that noticeable as the difference is just under an inch. I noticed it as the brake cylinder was really close to the suspension upright, yet further away on the other. Also explains why the handbrake was adjusted all the way in yet only just passable for the MoT! I have a correct (shorter) cable to go on.

As for the handling, I now I've rebuilt the suspension I realise the car handled so badly in every way the dodgy suspension was the least of my worries

[Howard81]

The passenger window has always been a nusience, but I guess as it's on the passenger side it gets largely ignored

The main problem is that the window isn't attached to the lift channel, due to that being a rusty and mangled mess. Usually when a non-triumph-owning passenger rides in the car, they're not over enthusiastic about the whole "warm underseal soaked in oil" smell, so the window gets wound down. Lift channel winds down, glass stays in place, then gradually falls into the door an angle and gets stuck.



I've been on the look out for a decent passenger window assembly, but they are actually very hard to find. Most have a completely trashed lift channel and are useless. All the good ones are driver's sides, and it's not possible to swap them over!

Finally I found one:



They're a bit complicated to fit. You remove the door felts, undo a couple of spacer blocks, then unclip the regulator. Sounds easy, but it took me over an hour to figure this out! New window in and bolted up. The little spacer blocks are very important, they cause the window to tilt inwards when fully would up so it makes tight contact against the hood and door seal. No surprise mine was missing these.. but luckily the new window still had them on!

With the door panels off I then looked at the locks and latches. They're very intermittant, and the inner locks don't even do anything. On looking inside the door the connecting rods looked like this:





Soon straightened those up and adjusted as best I could. Another thing was that the outside and inside locks seemed to work completely independandly of each other. The reason for this was that they also weren't connected up It looks like someone had attempted to solve them by making a linkage out of a big split pin. Goodness knows why as I found the correct parts in the bottom of each door

I really need a couple of rusty old doors I can strip the insides out of and transfer over, but at least for now they work.. most of the time.. at least on my car, except a bit of surface rust, the doors are lovely and solid (and original!).

Finally, the last bodge. The window had been fitted with the springs the wrong way round, and on the outside of the door panel! Winder handles had been connected by hammering short bits of screw into the hole. Took me ages to get that little lot out!!

[Howard81]

Here's a good tip when installing those nasty little clips on the window scrapers. Make your own tool out of a PC expansion slot blanking plate! It worked a treat

[JPB]

...Those also make excellent letter openers for envelopes with narrower than average flaps.

[tinweevil]

You're a legend Howard, every fault & niggle be it major or minor analysed, dissected and dealt with. First the sprint, then the 1500HL (unfinished project but it did benefit) and now this. No wonder your beetle has never failed an MOT.

[Howard81]

You can't compare to the Beetle, that was a one-owner, 36,000 mile car! Yes it was tired, but it had never been abused or bodged in any way.. Which reminds me, the MoT is due in three weeks and I've got the advisory track rod end to replace!!

The bodges I find on the Spitfire boggle me. An extra 15 seconds of brain time would have had most of them them done correctly! The car came with a copy of the factory repair guide, so it's not like they didn't have any references

Anyway, it's very satisfying to see it coming together nicely, especially after I failed to get my 1500 back on the road last year. I don't know what it was about that car but it just hated me and fought back on everything I did

Considering my Spitfire has been abused, scrapped, dismantled, reassembled with 1500 running gear, re-registered, "restored" , stolen at knifepoint, abandoned, rescued, re-registered back to original.. I think it deserves a chance

[Howard81]

Look what arrived in the post this morning



Still waiting for the tie rod to arrive.

Why is it that every purchase I make seems to be "the last one"

[Howard81]

The replacement rear radius arm came in the post today. However, more problems..

1. The body bracket on the car is a 1500 one (different angle)
2. The bracket that came with the radius arm is for the passenger side (I need driver's side!)
3. The bracket on my car has been welded on

No power at the car so I'm off to the DIY shop to find a big chisel and an even bigger hammer!!!

On the plus side, my cans of stonechip arrived, so the rear wheelarch has been scraped, scrubbed clean, any surface rust treated, primered, painted and seam sealed. Then the stonechip sprayed on, so everything is now lovely and black

[Aar0sc]

Haha that window was hilarious!

Speaking of Spitfires; I went out for my first run in mine today!



Shiny!
The first 500 meters I was just sitting there thinking "this is awful"; it's not comfy; there's a stupid offset to the right for the pedals and to the left for the steering wheel; it's noisy and I think it's on the crab....

Then Pink Floyd came on; I donned my aviators and joined the open road!


LOVE IT!

To make this slightly relevant to this club, I also saw this blue Toledo at the village hall! (I went there purely to have a look at the Toledo, you understand; having never seen one before).

[Howard81]

Glad you've got your car working again, Aaron!

The new rear radius arm has been through the regular routine of being cleaned, rust cured, primered and top-coated before being polybushed and bolted on the car:





Once again, this has made a HUGE difference to the way the car drives and handles! The rattles have almost completely gone and the whole thing feels much tighter, sharper and it all together feels a lot more solid. It's actually reasonably comfortable now The other side will come off for the same treatment at some point, but I now need to focus on other priorities like the rattly engine and the holes in the floor!!

[Howard81]

Ooooooooooohh!



Don't panic, it's an FR-code Spitfire 1500 'box so no Dollies were harmed in the aquisition of this gearbox

Now I need to find the correct prop and chassis mount!

[Aar0sc]

Ooooooooooohh!



Don't panic, it's an FR-code Spitfire 1500 'box so no Dollies were harmed in the aquisition of this gearbox

Now I need to find the correct prop and chassis mount!

Just watching you unwrap that... place it in the middle of the room; visible through the South facing window and hide for five minutes. I'm about to do a magic trick and make it dissapear.... !





Kidding!

[tinweevil]

I just got one of those too.

This is rather handy as over the last week it's become almost impossible to get 4th gear in the one in the car.
Like yours the new one has a bolt wanked into the pivot hole


Postie delivered a correct pivot pin and tolerance ring yesterday. The push pin seems ok on this box but will get inspected properly while the release fork is off and so postie also brought a push rod and lever pin. These are worn on both the box in the car now and the original NOD box. Mine also came with an OD adapter to 'box bolt missing and the filler plug missing

On the plus side there's next to no play in the input bearing and the filter and magnet in the OD weren't at all bad.


The gasket is NKC76

It's the right one for a 3.63 axle too - yay It's a couple of years at least since my speedo last read right.

Richard Old's article in DM 131 is worth a re-read.

Don't panic, it's an FR-code Spitfire 1500 'box so no Dollies were harmed in the aquisition of this gearbox

Where is that code?