A long time since my last post

Long time since my last post and a long since doing anything Triumph. My job of 5 years plus came to and end rather abruptly back in November '07 which of course made me focus on getting another job asap which I was lucky enough to do.

I'd been thinking about selling the Spitfire for some time as it just doesn't get the use that it should and a chance conversation with someone at work led to the car being sold and picked up earlier today. This was pretty handy as I was going to advertise it in the TSSC magazine and go through the usual process of entertaining tyre kickers. Anyway I now have some cash to devote to the Vitesse renovation and I have the other half of my garage back.

My new job also revealed a co-worker who has, over the years, restored many cars including a Spitfire and a Vitesse. He originally trained as a panel beater and can weld and agreed to help me out. Prior to me starting this new job I did have some welding done by a guy who attends my local TSSC meet, whilst you can't fault his work he's extremely expensive and there was no way I could afford for him to do any more welding.

Over the last couple of weeks I played hedgemonkey and raided a skip from a local sheetmetal fabricator. I only needed offcuts for small patches so I wasn't going to buy a full 8 by 4 foot sheet. I borrowed some nibblers from work and cut out some shapes for the bonnet.

The immediate plan:

• Weld up bonnet
• Remove remaining body panels
• Remove wiring loom
• Identify what else needs welding

Pics of bits that need welding...

Off side rear wheel arch

Near side bottom corner of windscreen

Near side front wheel arch

Bonnet centre section

Boot hinge

Spitfire Day at Duxford

Sunday and the weather was great. Got the car out and headed out with my oldest son in the car with me to Duxford. The route I take means the journey is always slow, coming up behind Sunday drivers and people content to sit behind them even when there are overtaking spaces... Plus my wife was following behind with my other son in the car so overtaking would have been frowned upon.

Met up with another Spitfire (a nice mk3 owned by John who attends the Suffolk TSSC meetngs) at Haverhill and then 3 more later on closer to Duxford. The aim was to get 50 cars but I think only 41 attended plus a rouge Stag who quickly dissapeared.

As with last year there were only a couple Spitfires flying but I'm told that the air show in September will have more.

Pictures to follow...

Rear valances refitting

I noticed when removing the rear quarter valances (QV) that the centre rear valance didn't fit that well and there appeared to be no holes to line up with the extra fixing points (lower) on the QVs. I refitted the parts to see where I had to bend metal to get a better fit and to mark where the extra holes should be drilled.

The three parts now fit much better and with the addition of the extra fixing points this certainly helps.

Spitfire day and rear end removal

Spitfire
Got an invite to attend the Duxford Spitfire day on August 5th 2007. You have to attend in your own Spitfire, get there by a certain time and not leave before a certain time either. This is fine as the ticket is free - should be a nice day out if it doesn't rain! See here for more info. With this in mind I decided to do a quick service so bought some plugs, oil and filter - should have bought a distributor cap but forgot - doh. Changed the oil etc and took it for a test drive and noticed that oil had collected on the chassis near to the brake union. It turned out that the oil pressure sensor was leaking so I whipped a spare off an old engine and replaced it - job done.


Vitesse
Spent an hour or so cleaning out the boot of all the rubbish and debris that had accumulated. Located the Vitesse log - used to draw diagrams of how things go together as well as a catalog of which boxes have which parts in them.

Parts removed:

• Rear valance
• Rear quarter panels
• Boot hinges

The Spitfire returns

Not really Vitesse but more of an excuse why work hasn't been done on it. Collected my Spitfire from my friends barn at the weekend. Took along two batteries just to make sure as I noticed that one I had didn't take a charge. The first battery was dead and wouldn't even turn the car over. The second battery was fine and after a good number of turns it fired and started o.k.

The brakes are a bit spongy and I noticed the fluid looks quite murky so that needs to be done.

Got home and had a quick look around the car. There was a puddle of oil sitting on top of the chassis just by the turret which is a bit strange as it's not overhung by anything. I cleaned it off along with the, by now, usual drips from the fuel pump. Checked the oil, which was low, so that was topped up.

I need to do a service on it plus change the dripping fuel pump for a new one. A trip down to Essex Triumph is needed at the weekend.

Welding

Discussed the welding jobs needed with the aid of some pictures and gladly Steve agreed to help out. He also took the boot lid and said he'd contact me later when its done. Took the opportunity of looking at the Spitfire. Poor thing, the tyres were going flat and a dead something was under the tarpaulin which stank...

Charged up a couple of batteries in readiness for the getting the Spitfire going again also started to make space in the garage for its homecoming which hopefully will be this weekend sometime.