Stephen's Spitfire Blog

My sagging rear end!

2011-01-16T02:46:00.000-08:00

When I purchased the Spitfire I was aware that the rear drivers side ride height was a little low, but this appears to be a pretty common issue on Spitfires. Its not a big deal but nonetheless an issue that needed to be looked at. The culprit was the rear leaf spring, 30 plus years of driving with mainly just a driver and no passenger had taken its toll on one side. While you can re temper the leafs I went down the replacement route. As luck would have a TCOC member had a low mileage 'fast road' spring available, a deal was struck and the spring was purchased.

Like the rest of this blog I am writing about this retrospectively, the spring was fitted Dec 2010 but I am only getting round to writing about it now. Indeed the the spring had sat in my garage for over 12 months prior to fitting; all the while my rear was getting that little bit lower and the handling began to feel a little wayward in the corners! So time to actually do something about! A little bit of research on the internet uncovered a nice article covering the replacement procedure plus a nice tip on the use of some nylon as opposed to rubber spacers between the leaves (just prolonging the inevitable me thinks!). I also got out my trusted Haynes Manual and read over that too before starting the job.

Now readers of my previous entires may recall the polybush kit for the front suspension, well I also purchased one for the rear and it too was left in the garage for over 12 months! So time to kill 2 birds with the one stone.

The Strip: All was going well until I got to removing the last bolt from the radius arm.

The bolt was rusted to the sleeve inside the bush and no amount of penetrating oil and 'gentle persuasion' was shifting it. Given the awkard location a hack saw was useless and my large angle grinder was out of the question too. So a small 4" grinder was purchased on ebay from a great shop in Norther Ireland. The 4" disc was just the right size for slicing

off the nut, a slight slip however took a knick out of my floor! Not to worry I'll fill and seal that later.

Once the nut was off I sliced off the bolt head and prized out the damn bush. Lots of copper grease was added to the new replacement inner sleves all round as I do not want to have to do that again! The remainder of the removal process was straight forward and the old spring was removed with a little help from my 5 year old.

The Rebuild: I stripped down the new spring and smothered each leaf with copper grease to stop any squeaking. It was missing a few bits so they were salvaged from the old unit. The rear

adjustable Koni shocks were OK but looking a little sad, so I sanded them down, primed them

and treated them to a nice new coat of VW Tornado Red left over from an old MK II Golf GTI I had. Ok so spring ready, shocks ready, radius arms cleaned and painted I decided to clean up the bodywork around the rear spring. It's pretty awkward to get at but was in good shape, it just needed a generous cost of underseal. Assembly commenced and aside from struggling a little to get the main spring bush to line up with the suspension assembly it went together quite easily. These really are great starter classics if you have never done this sort of stuff before. Word of warning, spray painting 2 shock absorbers that are hanging on your washing line while you are in your dressing gown does get you the oddest looks from your neighbours, but they getting used to me now. Before you ask I did remove the other clothes from the line first!

Before tightening everything thing up fully I sat the car down on its new spring to let it settle into position, then jacked it back up and tightened everything fully. Ride height was now identical on both sides. A test drive revealed a marked improvement in cornering and quite a different feel, much firmer but ok on your fillings! Compared to a few other cars I have seen the ride height is close to stock but I am not a fan of lowered classics despite the handling benefits. Anway, another job checked off the list and a satisfying result.

Triumphs Tour Ballinasloe

2010-09-21T01:51:00.000-07:00

A few months ago the Spitfire went on tour to Moy Carn Lodge Shannonbridge near Ballinasloe. This was the longest journey yet for my Spitfire, so given my last long journey saw the demise of my wheel bearing I was a little nervous.

Fail to prepare then prepare to fail, came to mind, so all the fluids were checked including the hard to reach ones i.e. the rear diff and the gearbox. I have discovered that a piece of fuel line can be forced over the tube coming out of a bottle of gear oil and this makes filling those awkward areas a little easier. I also got a very large syringe from the local Glanbia co op which is handy for this job too. It seems the front input seal on the diff has seen better days so it was just as well I topped it up as it was a little low - that's another job for the winter nights. Everything else was tip top so I packed the bags and was ready for the off early on Saturday morning.

Saturday started out nice as I drove to Lucan to meet up with some other TCOC club members. We set off down the N4 heading off to Kilcock to meet up with another member - then the rain began. Now if you were travelling the N4 and saw 5 classic convertibles with the tops down in *issing rain, no we are not totally insane, you don't get too wet once your moving. The worst bit was rain deflected off the sun visor was dripping on to my lap!

Anyway aside from the rain the journey was uneventful, a few wrong turns later we eventually arrived at the Hotel for breakfast with those that stayed overnight the previous night. Very nice spot and a good hearty breakfast too!

Brendan & Mick had gone to allot of trouble planning the route for the weekend and building an observation quiz into it! Armed with a pen that didn't work (thanks Mick) we set off, hood up I might add. The locals in Shannonbridge (which has 16 arches, one question right anyway) were intrigued with the cars and the odd behaviour of the drivers. Niall enlisted the help of some local knowledge to get his answers but he still didn't win!
Our first sop was Birr Castle, I stopped off just outside the town to fill up and put some air in the tyres and came out to find my car getting a good inspection from another customer in the garage, the local undertaker - not much room in back of a Spitfire for a coffin! Birr is a very pretty little town with the castle in the heart of the town. Famous for its telescope a tour had been arranged, our guide really filled in the blanks about the place, the castle is still lived in to this day by direct descendants of its founders, it boasts 100 rooms - don't fancy the heating bills for that place!! The flag is up so that means the family are home, for €200 you can join them for dinner. Tempting but not today. It seems that not only did Birr have the largest telescope in the world for a time but also the first steam turbine used to generate electricity for the Castle. Unfortunately Birrs famous sons have been less creative in more recent times and ground breaking for the wrong reasons - BIFFO (another quiz question I got right!). So if your in the area Birr Castle is well worth a visit, beautiful gardens and walking trails and a playground for the younger ones. Oh and a nice cafe where we had lunch. Across the courtyard from the cafe under a cover is the aforementioned steam turbine, sitting rusting..... shame, still they plan to re install it at some stage.

So it was back to the Hotel with a stop off in Shannon Harbour and then a beer in Killens in Shannonbridge. Now this pub is worth a visit, its a shop and a pub but its not your Gala or Centra style shop its a 'real country shop'. You can go in and have a pint and get a cutting disk for your angle grinder a tin of beans, hot water bottle and some fishing tackle - all under the one roof, no kidding!

There was a local sports day on a little earlier and the left over sandwiches and cakes found there way into the pub, needless to say we had to stay for another one and help with the sandwiches - it was the only polite thing to do!

Back to the hotel for a shower and a shave and down for dinner, more food! In fact some brought their own as they were unhappy about the lack of custard the previous night Cecil. The events team came up Trumps again with an excellent pub quiz, plenty of anorak Triumph questions and some general knowledge. Out came the guitars next and a good ole sing song thanks to our musicians Gerry & CJ. I was wilting at 2 so headed off to bed but left a good few behind.

I was awoken by the sounds to 2 glorious straight 6s accelerating out of the hotel, Niall and Tom headed off early to Dublin - thanks lads! Meanwhile the remaining crew had breakfast and then headed off to Belmont Mill a beautifully restored Mill & Art Studio . Now this place was fascinating, the owners had restored a wreck to its former glory and uncovered a massive amount of history on the way, their passion for the project was evident in the tour and its well worth checking out. You get a real snapshot of life from many moons ago in particular around the time of the famine of 1847. So a cup of tea and some homemade cake compliments of our hosts and it was time to hit the road. Thankfully the journey home was uneventful and so ended a terrific weekend away in the Spitfire.

That's quite Alarming

2010-09-03T01:19:00.000-07:00

Having watched a video posted on our club website of some £*^ers trying to rob a Triumph Stag I realised how vulnerable older cars are to theft. Given the complexity of the immobilisation devices in modern cars a classic car is potentially easier to steal for the average scum bag. So I decided to fit a modern car alarm.

Now there seems to be lots of cheap options available on eBay, repeated false alarms means you are likely to leave the thing off so I decided to try and get a good brand with some good features. Eventually after some searching I found an Italian system that was nice and compact but had all the features I was after - shock sensor, ultrasonics (that could be disabled from the key fob), immobiliser, battery backup, pin switch sensor and a few more tricks.
Fitting these to older cars is a bit more involved and not for the first time DIYer. You will really need to know a bit about wiring and preferably have a wiring diagram for your car (Haynes manual to the rescue again!). First off I fitted pin switches to the bonnet and boot selecting locations that were out of the way. Not that easy particularly trying to ensure they are triggered consistently. Next I ran the wires from these back to the bulkhead.

I previously fixed the courtesy lights on the car but these were triggered separately (drivers door switched drivers foot well light on), so I wired them such that either door switch would turn on both foot well lights.

I ran the alarm loom through the bulkhead and up behind the dash as this would give a neater final job. Next - where to position the flashing LED and the ultrasonic sensors? I did not want to drill holes in the dash to mount the LED so instead I got a very small black plastic box and drilled a hole in it, then fixed the box onto the dash at the corner of the windscreen base with some double sided tape running the wire down in behind the dash, nice and neat.

The ultrasonic sensors sense movement disturbances between a transmitter and receiver, such as somebody placing a hand in through a window or roof. These were mounted on top of the windscreen pillars and are not too noticeable. The control unit for these sensors is a separate item, this fitted snugly behind the centre console allowing ease of adjustment. One of the nice features of this alarm means I can disable these sensors say when the car is parked with the top down or at show.

So with all the bits and bobs mounted I started the task of wiring them into the alarm loom and the loom into the cars electrics, easier said than done! Avoid those scotch lock things, solder the wires or use spade type connectors. Halfords sell modern fuse sockets that clip together, I used one of these on my spotlights so 2 more were purchased and all three clipped together to keep things neat and tidy. Once this task was complete the alarm chirped into life and went into a test mode.
Testing revealed that the pin switches for the boot and bonnet were not working right, seems the bonnet is not a good earth point so that pin switch was re wired with its own earth spliced off the headlamp earth wire. The boot pin switch was triggering intermittently, so I had to raise the switch height to ensure consistent triggering. The ultrasonic sensors were too sensitive, simply walking by them triggered them - so I moved them inwards and downwards and reduced the sensitivity and that improved things. Pretty cool actually, put your hand in the window and instantly the alarm goes mad. Next I adjusted the shock sensor and that's it all adjusted.

So, once I was happy with that aspect of the alarm next came the immobiliser but the details of that are a state secret, shhhhhhhhhhh !!!

Now it just needs a good shake down and taping of the looms and while it may not totally prevent a theft it at least acts as a deterrent!

What Time is it?

2010-09-03T01:01:00.000-07:00

Since I purchased the Spitfire the Kienzle clock has never worked so I decided to have a go at repairing it. The first problem was getting the thing open! Internet to the rescue, I found a site which explained how to do it - brute force really. I prised off the chrome bezel on the front of the clock and out popped the glass and the by now crusty rubber seals. Inside I could now see all the mechanics of the clock. Interestingly its a mainly mechanical clock that requires winding to operate. The winding mechanism is a spring loaded arm activated every so often by a solenoid. There in lay my problem, manually winding the clock proved that it was working fine, the issue was a burnt out solenoid. Nought I can do about that.

So I sent a call out to my colleagues in the Triumph Classic Owners Club that I was on the hunt for a clock. It is identical to the one found in the Dolomite Sprint. Damien and Jack came back to me with some options, thanks gents. Jacks clock was too small but Damien had two possibilities, one was a slightly different version of mine, indeed it was a better match to the other gauges and also a quartz based clock. I left it on test and it didn't drop a second - perfect. Jack had also given me a voltage meter, given a previous owner had installed 2 oil pressure gauges I decided to remove one and replace it with the volt meter. I gave both a good clean then set about fitting them.

When wiring the radio I had labelled all the wires and used multi block connections, this meant adding other items was much easier. While fitting the gauges I also fitted a light that was missing from another gauge (thanks for the bulb holder Jack). A relatively quick job and now I can tell exactly how late I'm going to be!!!

My thanks again to Damien & Jack for the spares.

Polybush Kit Part 2

2010-09-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

So with the drivers side stripped I set about refurbishing everything I had taken off and I mean everything. A wire brush was the weapon of choice to remove surface rust from the suspension components such as upper and lower wishbones. I sanded down the shocks but sanding the springs was rather tedious. All of the parts got a generous cost of Triflow followed by a 2 coats of Hammerite Stone Chip, the only exceptions were the shock and spring. The spring was given another coat of black smooth Triflow, the shiny smooth finish looked good and to set it off I sprayed the shocks a rich Tornado Red. The neighbours thought I lost it altogether as I hung the parts I needed to spray on the washing line! Still the end result looked very nice. In order to reduce the risk of scratching I wrapped the shock with strips of newspaper and placed card board inserts on the compressor claws, still I needed to touch things up afterwards but it was still soooo much better than the mucky mess I started out with.

I also cleaned off the suspension mounting area it was in excellent shape and it too was treated to some fresh paint. I used my bench vice and a large and small socket either side to push out the old bushes, likewise to insert the new ones. A little copper grease was added inside the sleeve to avoid it rusting itself to the bolt in the future. All the brake shields were cleaned up and painted too but I left the calipers alone as they were quite new and cleaned up well. The green stuff pads had plenty left so they remained. I carefully reassembled all the bits of the puzzle and made sure the shims behind the lower wish bone mounts were re-inserted in the correct spot, otherwise the tracking would be out. The new nuts and bolts in the kit set off the fresh paint nicely. Finally it all came together and I'd say it had been 31 years since the suspension looked so clean.

Out on the road it was difficult to tell much in the difference with only one side complete, I think I'll get a few miles in before I tackle the other side. I also bought a kit for the rears but they can wait as I want to change the rear spring too but that's a winter job!

Polybush Kit Part 1 - The Strip!

2010-08-31T01:36:00.000-07:00

The final area of the front of the car to refurbish was the suspension. I sourced a nice kit on eBay which gave me every nut bolt and washer used on both sides plus some new standard road polyurethane bushes to replace the rubber one. One of the Triumph Club members came to the rescue with a set of spring compressors as I wanted to clean up absolutely everything.

I decided to tackle one side at a time, completing it in full before starting on the next side, this meant I had a good reference just in case I needed to check which way something fitted. I spent a good while reading thru the steps in the Haynes manual too just to familiarise myself with the sequence of steps. OK so off we go........wait, major spray of all nuts and bolts with penetrating oil and leave to simmer!

Hub, disk and brakes off first, I hung the brake assembly off the bulk head so as to avoid disconnecting the brake lines. Then disconnect the track rod arm and remove the complete hub carrier. Next the spring and shock absorber - a little tricky as one of the bolts holding the upper section of this assembly in place had broken a weld to its head (which was not accessible). So I filled 2 flat sides on the end of the bolt shaft and used a vise grips to hold it in place while I undid the nut - bingo. Now to the upper and lower wish bones, oh dear the inner sleeve of the lower bushes seems to be rusted tight to the the bolt thru its centre no option but to cut the buggers out. Armed with only a hack this was a royal pain in the butt as access was limited. Anyway some time and lots of cursing later out they came. Thankfully the upper bushes came out OK - mental note LOTS of copper grease inside the new sleeves Stephen.

Right, next job is to get the shocks out. If your doing this try to get a spring compressor suitable for small diameter springs, while the one I had worked it was really too big for these small springs. Its another time consuming task but be careful doing it as the springs end up under considerable pressure. I did it with the springs on their sides and at 90 degrees to me just in case they decided to let go. Finally it was all stripped down and ready for a clean up.

Frontend Dismantled

2010-08-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

So with the bulkhead cleaned up, this in turn showed up how dirty and untidy the front end of the car was. Armed with my Haynes manual I set about dismantling the front of the car.
It was surprisingly easy to take it apart stripping it back to the front chasis rails in no time at all. All the wiring has convenient push in joins making it easy to disconnect the lights.
Once the front of the car was in bits I kept going back and stripped off the oil cooler, horn and the over flow bottle, electric cooling fan, indeed pretty much everything as far back as the radiator.

The chasis was in great shape, with only a minor amount of rust in the lower part of one of the bonnet support sections. This was a little difficult to clean out but with a little patience I managed it. This area was definitely in need of lots of waxoyl into the box section to preserve it once the painting was finished. The usual wire brushing, sanding and cleaning with white spirits followed with a few liberal coats of Triflow ensued. The engine and bonnet were masked up with a few old sheets and out with the Hammerite Stone Chip!
All the items removed were also cleaned up. The lower front body sections which house the side lights had been upgraded to fibreglass so no rot here! However they too were sprayed with the usual mixture of gunk so this was removed. The fronts of these sections had been poorly sprayed and had a few runs so I sanded these down and resprayed them blowing them in to blend the colour. The back sections were sprayed with a gloss black as was the top of the radiator, the under riders and the expansion bottle (it was a nasty brown colour and would not clean up!). The grill, electric fan and oil cooler were just given a good clean up.
I sourced some new nuts and bolts from a local hardware store and set about putting it all back together trying not to scratch the new paint!

The Bulkheads Next

2010-08-29T08:46:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how one clean area shows up another not so clean area. Having cleaned and painted the interior of the bonnet the rest of the engine bay and front end of the car looked rather scruffy. So on with the rubber gloves and out with the spanners.
First area of attack was the bulk head. Yet again previous owner(s) had liberally sprayed this area with 'stuff' which added to the usual dirt and muck under the bonnet was now a nice gunky mess. I was getting pretty used to scraping this muck off. I disconnected everything off the bulk head; brake master cylinder, clutch cylinder, wiper motor, washer pump and bottle, battery, coil and anything else that I could remove. Scrapping, wire brushing and sanding with lots of white spirit and elbow grease removed the gunk revealing surface rust and lose paint particularly around the master cylinders from fluid leaks over the years. One small hole required filling but other than that all was well. Bare metal areas were treated with Rustbuster then primed. Given I could not get a good paint match plus the bulkhead was pitted I decided to paint it black. So I applied 2 coats of Triflow with a roller and then a few coats of Hammerite Stonechip to finish the job. I went right down to the sill end caps and front outriggers too. Finally I cleaned up all the brackets I had taken off and painted them too. I fitted a new rubber boot (that came with car) on the clutch mater cylinder and used white spirits to clean up all the other bits and bobs. Once reassembled it looked a hundred times better. So another job off the checklist.

Hot, hot, hot..

2010-08-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

Well I had my annual breakdown the other day, almost 12 months to the day since I purchased the Spitfire (which, if you read my other posts, broke down on its maiden voyage). Did I say breakdown, well more of a rest really.

I noticed an odd noise eminating from the engine bay but it stopped after a while, this was followed by a drop in voltage so I pulled over to check out what was going on. As soon as I pulled over I could see the steam coming out from the engine bay - not too much mind you, but still an oh sh*t moment.

The pulley on the alternator had worked its way lose and just before it flew off the fan belt popped off. It was likely that as the pulley became lose the fan belt was not turning the water pump pulley hence the minor boil over into the expansion bottle. However, I had not noticed a significant rise in temperature on the temp guage - strange. Anyway, I put it all back together and hand tightened the alternator pully nut, let it cool for a while then turned around and headed home, with the vibration return by the time I arrived at my door. Back in the garage I tightened it properly this time and popped a small bit of paint on the bolt in order to see any movement in the future. I shorted the wire from the temp sender and the guage rose fully so why did I not see a rise in temp?

Well it could be the sender or the voltage stabiliser (varying voltage will give incorrect readings)or the guage or a bit of all 3! So I decided there had to be a better way to keep an eye on things. Time to go digital, well I'm an eighties kinda guy after all......

I sourced a small self contained digital thermometer with an external sensor good to 127 degrees. The digital display was in a grey housing so I took it apart (as you do with new things) and resprayed the case black, I added some bolts to the case to enable me to mount it under the drivers side parcel shelf as I did not want it to be too noticeable. I used a metal clip to fix the sensor to the water pipe feeding the heater matrix just as it runs thru the inlet manifold feeding the sensor wire thru the bulkhead. A bit of wiring to the ignition later and now I know EXACTLY what the temperature is despite what the old anlogue guages are telling me.
It's a little bright at night so I think I will put it on a separate switch, I have a 2 stage pullout switch for my electric fan so that will be perfect, one click for the thermometer, second click for the fan.

Ok so I know its not in keeping with the vintage of the vehicle but its a whole lot better than overheating and doing some serious damage, anyway given the other modifications to the car the concept of originality is long since gone!

Bend it, shape it.

2010-08-08T01:42:00.000-07:00

While the outside of the car was very presentable under the bonnet was in need of cosmetic attention. The large bonnet had some rust spots that had been sprayed with waxoyl by the previous owner, looks like he got a bit carried away and just started to spray the stuff everywhere. So I began the laborious task of scrapping off the excess gunge and then using white spirit to remove the remainder. Next a small sanding disk in a dremmel like drill was used to remove the surface rust. More white spirit followed by my trusty friend 'Rustbuster' and the area was prepared. Writing this was soooooo much quicker than the actual job, still given the design of the bonnet I could at least stand inside the engine bay and stick my head in at the back of the wheel arch - not too many cars you can do that in!
The wheel arches were next, again they had been treated to a sticky mix of waxoyl and and some type of soft stonechip stuff - it all had to come off. It was at this point that I noticed part of the inner righthand wheel arch had been cut out - but why? Fouling perhaps on the wheel, seemed ok to me on full lock - anyway. The remainder of the inner arch was rust free so did not suspect the tin worm either. I could not figure it out but for sure it was causing other areas to get covered in road grime so I needed a solution.

Glass fibre was the ideal choice, I have never used it before so this was a chance to try this stuff out safely given the area was out of sight. I moulded some wire mesh into the right shape and clamped it in place then started to add the sheets of glass fibre to both sides overlapping well with the wheel arch. Pretty sticky job not to mention smelly! I hung a vice grips on the trailing edge of the mesh to keep it taught. A few smelly applications later and I was very pleased with the results (I think everything looked good given the effects of the fumes from that stuff). A smal cutting disk in the dremmel and I trimmed the piece into shape, great stuff this glass fibre. A bit of sanding later on both sides and the results was fantastic, you could apply a light skim of filler and sand back for a smooth finish but I was going to apply underbody sealant anyway so I did not bother, just gave it a good sand particularly where it joined the metal.
More sanding and cleaning followed, and then the laborious task of masking the bonnet vents and and edges. The bare metal areas were sprayed with primer then the bonnet and wheel arches were liberally painted with Triflow, a roller was used to achieve a smooth finish. A second coat was applied and left to cure. I lightly sanded the area once dried and then went again for black Hammerite stone chip in a rattle can for the final finish. I really like this stuff as its easy to use and the matt finish is forgiving on imperfections. It also gives a hardwearing finish. Two coats of stone chip were sprayed on and then I decided to apply some underbody sealant to the inner wheel arches as they would need some extra protection. My preferred sealant is Tetroseal, this was liberally painted into place and finished with a small long haired roller to give an 'bumpy' finished. Once fully dry (still wet in the picture) the finished job was terrific, only problem now is it shows up the rest of the engine bay!

Do you know your A B C's ?

2010-07-24T03:38:00.000-07:00

The Spitfire came with those lovely chrome door tread plates, the kind that can hide 100 sins underneath! So a deep breath and I removed them. The drivers side needed some work, following an attack with a wire brush and my drill a few holes at the joining of the lower A frame to the sill showed up. A quick chat with some members in the Triumph Classic Owners Club and the advice was that the area was not structural, the strength needs to be in the sides of the sills and A frame where they meet the floor, this area was fine having been repaired some time prior to my ownership. So I decided to clean it up, treat it and fill it. Some of the paint was also lifting in other areas under the treat plate and indeed further up the frame at the window drip rails (see left). So I stripped down the whole area, sanded and prepared it with rust buster. Some wire gauze was fixed over the holes and some filler applied. I sanded back the filler and applied 2 further lighter coats sanding between applications to get a nice smooth finish. The area was masked off and primed a few times. Then off to Halfords again for a special brew of BL Pageant Blue, this time we reduce the amount of blue paint and increased the amount of white paint in an attempt to get a closer match. The result was pretty good, blowing in the adjoining areas to get a gradual transition. A light polish with some rubbing mild compound and I was very please with the results. I cleaned up the tread plates and popped them back on, I also sprayed generous amounts of waxoyl up through a hole in the sill (that's supposed to be their!) onto the back of the lower A frame where I filled the holes, hopefully this will preserve this area for another few years. After letting the paint dry fully for a few days I bought some heavy duty double sided tape and stuck the rubber seals back on the drip rail panels and another little preservation job is complete.

Fingernails very dirty

2010-07-24T02:59:00.000-07:00

When I was inspecting the car prior to purchase I noted that the under body sealant was past its best before date, but this was useful to enable me to see what lay underneath. Quite a bit of welding had taken place over the years and the usual areas were repaired i.e. sills and foot wells.

While definitely not concourse they were solid if a little tatty with peeling sealant. So this was a big job, remove the sealant, treat and rust and reseal. Easier said than done let me tell you.

I decide to bite this job off in sections, working underneath the car on your back scraping sticky sealant off is a very tedious task! I found the best way to remove the old sealant was to scrape off the majority of it, then use white spirit to remove the remainder and then sand / wire brush the area underneath. Wire brushing first juts gummed up the brush. I had a selection of different wire brushes to enable me to get into all the areas. Also used a few different size attachments of wire brush for the drill plus some old fashioned sand paper and elbow grease.

Once the area had been prepared I cleaned it off with white spirits and then liberally applied rust buster. After that 2 coats of hammerite with my halogen light used to aid the curing process! Finally when that was all dry, a light key and a generous coat of hammerite under body sealant. I opted for Tetroseal as the final coat for the wheel arch areas as Tetroseal provides a harder finish which would stand up to the stones and muck thrown up in these areas.

This was a tough job and took many nights under the car covered in muck! Anyway I finally got the job completed. The finishing touch was to renew the black edge around the bottom of the car. This had been damaged during my vigorous preparation of the underneath edges. Any lose paint was removed and the area masked and given a light key and cleaned off. After some primer I went for Black Hammerite Stone chip as the top coat, its hard wearing and gives a matt finish thus not showing up imperfections as much, plus it comes in a great big rattle can! A few coats later along the sides and at the rear boot panel and that's it, phew!

Finally I could remove a ton of sealant from under my fingernails - not looking forward to that job again!

Sounds

2010-07-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

Next job was to add some audio to accompany the fruity exhaust note.
A poke around revealed 2 good speakers mounted in the rear but the holes cut were oval and speakers fitted were round, not pretty - but a good set of Kenwood speakers nonetheless. A nice chrome aerial was already fitted on the rear wing and the coax wiring was intact and routed up front. The centre console had been re trimmed in black vinyl, covering a slot for a radio, so all I needed was something to fill the gap! I toyed with idea of sourcing a period unit but given most of my stuff is on CD a more modern unit was needed. The very cool retro units with modern internals were beyond my budget, so EBay to the rescue. After 10 mins searching I found a Clarion head unit, 6 CD changer small enough to fit in the Spit boot, complete with remote control and the original manual! It was ending in 5 mins so a last minute bid and it was mine for €37! It took a little while to arrive and I was beginning to think I'd been robbed but eventually it showed up just as described. It was missing the CD changer mounting brackets but this was not a big deal.
I removed the centre console and went to work fitting the head unit. The slot was bigger than then head unit so some creative woodwork and auto sealant and soon all was a snug fit. I carefully cut the vinyl and glued the excess flaps. While the console was out I tidied up some wiring, prepared the power for the head unit, and removed the remains of an old alarm, I also found a cigarette lighter socket and 2 bulb holders hidden in the mess! I left them in place to be sorted later. I made up some mounting brackets for the CD changer and fitted it into the boot, not too many options on location, just as well its was a small unit, but I was pleased with the end result.
Speakers next, as the rear panel had oval holes already cut I need to find some larger speakers to correctly fit these holes. But given the petrol tank sits directly behind the panel speaker depth was an issue. I found a pair the right size in Lidl, I reversed the mounting shells so the speakers sat quite proud of the panel with the rear magnet fixing itself to the tank, tight fit but it worked. I trimmed the oval holes to the correct shape and fitted the speakers and wiring. I also found a great spot for the Kenwood speakers in the base of the side panels but they had to be positioned perfectly as the speaker magnet needed to fit in a cutout in the metal behind the panel. In fact this cutout allows you to see into the inner of the sills and thankfully all was well.

So with wires all laid under the carpet to the head unit I powered it all up for a test drive prior to refitting the console. Bingo, worked perfectly even the remote control worked, not that it will ever be used! Refitting the console was a pain as the head unit was a tight fit over the recently carpeted gearbox tunnel. Also trying to find the location for the console base bolts through the carpet took ages. Eventually another job was complete.

Boot area tidy

2010-07-18T02:51:00.000-07:00

The boot interior needed some TLC, evidence of previous work was clearly visible. A new floor and inner wheel arches had been fitted at some point in the past and appeared sound. Surface rust was removed with a drill with wire brush followed by some sanding. No holes were found other than the ones that were supposed to be in floor sections.
The after market twin exhausts fitted required 2 holes to be drilled in the boot floor, one was lose and had stretched the drilled hole. I removed both rear boxes and tidied up around the holes. The old mounting bracket for the original exhaust was present and very rusty so the angle grinder was taken out to permanently remove this fixture, I'll plug the old hole with a rubber grommet. Rust buster was applied to all exposed metal and left to try. A few coats of primer followed with a light rub down and clean between coats. My preference is to use Hammerite primer, it goes on well and gives an even finish. I used a black autosealent to seal the seams. A trip to Halfords and a bit of searching of their paint codes and the guys mixed me up a spray can of BL pageant blue. However it seems that the previous respray used a lighter version so the colour match was poor. Anyway as this was for the boot it was not a big deal.As the paint was a mixture of 2 colours, navy and white, it would just be a case of reducing the blue and increasing the white till we got the right shade next time.
I used a large halogen work light to heat up the area before applying the top coat and also left it on the sprayed area after the top coat was applied a DIY oven bake! A rub with a mixture of polish and rubbing compound and the job was done! I found a little waxoyl on the rubber grommets helped to ease them back into position. I also sprayed the lower inner panels of the rear wings with waxoyl while I was at it.

The first job

2010-05-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

So the first of no doubt many jobs was to repair the front wheel bearing, a few phone calls and a little research later and James Paddock in the UK came highly recommended, good price and good quality. Reading through the history of the car in more detail it seems that the little Spitfire has an appetite for bearings. A strip down revealed a stub axle that had seen a lot of action. Judging by its condition this may not be the last bearing it will gobble! So a stub axle and 2 bearings (I always carry a spare now) were ordered online on Thursday and they arrived in Monday mornings post, impressive!
Further research revealed that a bench press was required to extract the stub, and as we did not have one we decided to rub it down lightly to remove and sharp edges, grease it well and fit the new bearing on the old stub for now. A fairly quick job all in all and she was back on the road again, care was taken not to overtighten the bearing as this was the likely cause of the failure in the first place.
So aside from fitting a bearing I started to examine the car in more detail now and thankfully nothing sinister, just tidying really:
Underseal strip and reapply
Boot area tidy
Source and fit some sounds!
Bulkhead tidy
Bonnet underside tidy
But first, a good clean and polish!

A Lift Home

2010-03-13T04:18:00.000-08:00

We waited, and we waited and still no tow truck. I guess trying to find a tow truck in Manchester that was willing to go to Wicklow was a struggle. We abandoned the car and took shelter behind a large sign as by now we were getting cooked in the sun!
At last a tow truck arrived, seems he had been driving about for ages looking for us.
He had a quick look at the car but knew there was nothing he could do. "So where do ya need to go?" Oh dear, nobody told him. "Ehhh Wicklow in Ireland" came the reply.
"Beep hell, your jokin mate?".
Turns out this was the guys last call out and he was none too please, but we agreed that he just dropped us to Holyhead and we would get another truck at the Dublin side. The car was loaded on to the back of the truck and we sat into the cab. This was the trucks first day back on the job after a full engine re build - gulp - now it had to get us 120 miles to Holyhead. To say that the truck was under powered was an under statement, any slight incline and it dropped to a snails pace. We were in for a long journey home.
The welsh coast eventually arrived and was so pretty in the evening sun, would have been a lovely drive in the Spitfire, I was feeling pretty down. Still as the tow truck guy said, its only a bearing and if that's all that goes wrong your laughing.
We arrived in Holyhead at 10, naturally we had missed the boat so next one was at 2 in the morning. Holyhead is not the ideal place to wait for anything, never mind a boat. Thankfully the cafe was still open so we got a sandwich and a hot drink.
Loading of the ferry starts a good bit before departure and it seemed like a long drive on to the ferry with a continual crunch and wobble from the bearing. Still we made it this far, off to the lounge for a snooze.
Half an hour before docking in Dublin I called the help line again, I was on first name terms with them by this stage! Another tow truck was on its way to pick us up from the Dublin Port. Finally, almost 24 hrs after we left Wicklow we made it back home with the Spitfire. Not exactly the start I was hoping for, my co drivers parting comment "well I warned you about old cars!" Yeah yeah, I'll never learn.

Good Vibrations

2010-02-10T10:24:00.000-08:00

Well with our Pitstop complete the tummies were full and no leaks observed, aside from ones required by the 'crew'! We set off again for Holyhead.

After about 10 miles I was picking up some not so 'good vibrations' thru the steering. They became progressively worse and we had to pull over on the hard shoulder. Before I got out I could see the smoke smoke rising from the front drivers side wheel - my heart sank - I knew this was a terminal problem.

The previous week the car failed its MOT on a wheel bearing, the owner said his mechanic had fixed it, while checking the car indeed we noted no play and it spun freely. It seems though that Mr Mechanic over tightened the bugger enough to get it through the MOT. After 90 miles it got nice and hot, cooked its grease and then disintegrated resulting in those 'good vibrations'.

So there we are stuck on the side of the motorway, what now?
I called the vendor, that was waste of time - how nice, he had the money so I was on my own. My passenger was rather quiet, given he had checked the bearings, but it was fine at the time so what can you do - at least I wasn't getting a slagging (well not yet anyway).

Right so, we needed a tow truck, but where am I exactly? I wasn't really too sure, so off I trotted to find an emergency phone. You don't really realise how fast cars and in particular trucks travel until your walking along a motorway hard shoulder, its enough to blow you over, scary stuff! At last a phone.
Looking back on my phone conversation with emergency services it was comical. I pick up the phone and the guy answers;
Paddy here says " how are ya, ehhh can ya tell me where I am "
Emergency services man says " on a phone sir "
P " well I gathered that, I was hoping you could be a bit more specific "
ES " at the side of a motorway "
P " ok we are makin progress, which motorway and where on it exactly please "
Only joking the guy was very helpful.

So having established my approx location I called my insurance company and thankfully my policy had a european roadside assit with a recover to home facility. Thank you Carole Nash!
So all they had to do was find a tow truck that was prepared to bring me home to Wicklow!! "Ehhh we will have to call you back in a few minutes sir and see what's available"......... ok, well I am not goin anywhere.

Ah the open road......

2010-02-07T03:37:00.000-08:00

There is nothing like that first drive in a new car, the sun was out, the top was down and twin exhausts provided the sound track. First stop was for fuel, having just purchased the car from a Yorkshire man lets just say there was plenty of room in the tank for fuel! In fairness he did give us some fuel additive and a box of spares, did he know something I didn't?

Filled her up and the first of many compliments for the day from the young girl in the garage, these little cars seem to put a smile on every bodies face. We set off for our 180 mile trip from Doncaster to Holyhead, I opted to stay on the motorways to give us as much time to make the ferry at 8 that evening.

80 miles in and we were just south of Manchester, I was having fun but my passenger was feeling a little cramped, not to mention the wind noise playing havoc with his hearing aid! We had no problem hitting 120kph but it was more comfortable to cruise at 80 to 100 kph - temperature OK, oil pressure good, fuel fine, stomach empty - pit stop.

Pit stop is right, motorway service stations are really the pits, nasty food at inflated prices. Anyway, we filled up and sat in the sun for a while, I estimated we had another 3 hours of driving and then we would have time for a bite in Holyhead before the ferry.

The Inspection

2010-01-09T02:13:00.000-08:00

So we made a trip to Doncaster in the UK to take a good look at the car.

A good check of the car revealed a sound body. The paint was very presentable with some small blemishes. A magnet and visual check revealed little filler. The sills appeared sound and the door alignment was good. The welding in the floor was where the floor meets the sills and while there was quite a few areas welded it all appeared sound. The bootlid appeared to have quite a bit of filler in it but overall was sound. The engine bay was grubby with some surface rust in places. So while the body was not totally perfect no major remedial work was required, it only needed tidying and that was well within my skill levels.

Engine appeared good with few oil leaks, but it is a 30 year old Triumph so a few leaks are to be expected. It started from cold on the button and sounded sweet, just slightly tappet'edy, no blue smoke, and clean clear sludge free oil. Running the engine for some time did not reveal any further leaks. Oil pressure started at about 60/70 PSI and went down to 40/50 as the engine warmed so that was fine for an engine with 86K. Temperature gauge was slow to rise which was good, with the engine idling for quite some time it eventually got to half way, engaging the manual fan quickly saw the temp drop. Twin stainless steel exhaust in good shape and sounds great.

So off I went for a drive, no nasty bangs or whines, all gears fine, no clutch slip, overdrive OK, brakes OK (well for OK for the era) no pulling. Temp was very low while on the move. Wipers, lights, indicators all working, hood in good condition, just 2 poppers missing from the tonneau cover. A light whine from the diff but this is pretty normal, no prop shaft vibrations. The clutch master cylinder was almost empty so possibly a leak there somewhere, we topped it up and no immediate leaks evident - the clutch also felt OK. So maybe a slow slave cylinder leak but again a fix that was within my skill levels.

Door locks OK, window winders OK. Fan OK, heater OK (no radio) seat belts OK, seats worked in all directions.

So all in all it seemed OK and was pretty much as described - we checked the paper work and numbers against the car, flicked through the history and it all stacked up. Lots of money had been spent on the car over the years and many receipts available. So the deal was done, paperwork signed and we set off for the journey home

Questions and more questions

2009-11-25T10:59:00.000-08:00

Having found a good candidate I proceeded to ask the owner lots of questions about the car. He had lots of history for it and was able to answer the questions quickly, which was reassuring.
A previous owner had replaced the sills and repaired the wheel arches & replaced the boot floor. There was however welding done on the floor in a number of places, not ideal but not a deal breaker once its solid. It had lots of new parts most recently a new set of carbs and the receipts to back it up, plus it had some useful upgrades - extra wide radiator, oil cooler, braided hoses, vented discs, green stuff pads, spax shocks, twin stainless steel exhausts, walnut dash plus extra gauges including 2 oil pressure gauges (to be sure to be sure!)
The interior had been refurbished by the present owner, new good quality carpets, new leather seat covers, indeed he stripped the seats back, painted the frames and renewed the foam and fitted the nice new leather covers. New door cards were fitted and the gear lever and hand brake surrounds were re trimmed - very tidy indeed.
Lots of close up high resolution photos of some key areas revealed a fairly good car with some cosmetic issues. But would the reality live up to the pictures and the talk???

The search....

2009-11-25T10:22:00.000-08:00

Once I decided upon which classic car to go for I spent many hours on the Internet learning what to look out for when buying a 30 year Triumph Spitfire.
There are many good guides out there, such as:
http://www.triumphspitfire.com/Buying.html
I guess to summarise the guides there are 3 things to watch out for rust, rust and rust. The mechancials are pretty good and even if they do go wrong there is a good supply of spares available and if your handy with a spanner you can fix it yourself.
Bodywork on the other hand is not a DIY skill, it's best left to the specialist and can cost serious money, way more than the value of the car. I use the term value with caution when your talking about a 30 year old car!
The term 'restoration' is also one to approach with caution, my idea of restoration and others can be vastly different. I looked at one car that was 'restored' and in 'good condition'. It looked good in the pictures but when I saw it in the flesh the paint job was a DIY spray job with a poor finish and full of lumps and bumps. More worrying was the quantity of filler, in fact there was probably more filler than metal. For example I noticed that the drip rails around the windscreen were missing, oh actually no they were full of filler! It got worse driving it, bang and clunks on gear change and pulling upon braking. No this was not for me.

So I soon realised after looking at a few cars that to get one with a good body where most of the usual rusty bits have been replaced (sills - inner and outer, floors, inner arches - well just about anywhere really) I needed to up the budget!
So back to saving again, while still watching out for potential cars.
Finally I found a car that looked like a contender.

Once upon a time....

2009-11-22T02:39:00.000-08:00

Let me see, where did all start?

Cars, cars and more cars, big ones small ones, doesn't really matter once they have 4 wheels and an engine I'm interested. My Dad is a retired mechanic, well I say retired but he does make exceptions for yours truly. So I guess it was his influence and day job that over exposed me to oil and petrol and its now firmly 'under my skin' well my finger nails at least.

My first car was a Renault 4 F6 Van with holes in the floor Flintstone style. I believe they were a clever design feature to aid the drainage problem it had. After that I had a few other vans then on to my first MK II 8V Golf GTi - a real car. Following that more GTi's and an Astra GTE (great in a straight line but not too fond of corners).

So with 40 looming large midlife crisis etc etc I purchased a Mazda RX8 - wow 231 bhp, six speed box, 9500 RPM in a chassis that handles like its on rails, oh and 4 four doors and room'ish for the 2 kids. Magic piece of Japanese engineering and a future classic, assuming there is enough oil and petrol left on the planet to satisfy its thirst for both over the next 20 years!

Regardless of the car on my driveway I always hankered after a classic. It even influenced the house we bought - it had to have a decent garage! Anyway, given I have the RX8 a classic soft-top was preferable. So I saved up a few bob and browsed the Internet and classified ads.

But what to go for, MG? No, not my style. Lotus - lots of trouble usually serious, no. I needed something stylish, with straight forward mechanics and ready supply of parts and ideally one that somebody else had spent the money on.

As kid walking to school everyday I passed a house with an orange Spitfire slowly decaying in the driveway. I hoped that one day I would see that magic little car out on the road but alas it never happened. So when it came to selecting my first classic that orange Spit again popped into my mind. So, decision made, a Spitfire it is.