Tumeke's Spitfire

[Tumeke]

It's a 1972 Spitfire Mk IV with 1296cc's of rubber band twisting power through a four speed gearbox. It's a typical "nice from afar, far from nice' car. It's sat at the back of my shed since purchasing as I have had too many other projects to finish. Now that there is more space, this has been dragged forward. 

This wasn't a car I wanted, or pined. It was just at the wrong place at the wrong time for very little folding. I was going to just on-sell and buy a Cortina, however unfortunately funds didn't agree. Thought I'd better make it earn it's keep now that there is a bit more room in the shed. It's sat since 2014, so I can expect out of round tyres, stale fuel, seized godknowswhat and other such pleasures to be sure. Please excuse the lines through the photo - the phone died very shortly after this.

Things to achieve WOF / make it run / dort:

Cut obvious rust out and glue new metal in.

Look at Motor. Aware of dodgy fuel pump etc. Make run.

Replace all fluids. Check all nuts and bolts.

Do a skid. (actual results may vary)

Profit. Wonder if I can get this done for Hanmer....?

 

[Tumeke]

Disgust 

 

[Tumeke]

Since nothing is going to do itself, I decided to tackle the obvious rust holes. These are on the surface where the front hinging bonnet meets the sill near to the door hinges.

The procedure I used was like every other time. Cut out, clean up, paint as much of the inner guard as I can reach etc. I also rigged up a piece of garden hose onto the vacuum and gave the inner sills a good clean-out first.

Fashioned a replacement panel with holes to butt-weld into upright

Glued in.  I was gifted a bottle of Argo-shield and I'm never going back to flux cored wire again. What a difference.

The other side wasn't nearly as bad.

I didn't take any in-between photos. But now in wet primer.

Next step will be to smooth both of these out and get some colour match spray paint. The previous owner of the car has squirted pink primer on quite a few panels so this might be a car I attempt to paint, or paint bits of so I'm gonna need some advice from @yoeddynz  and @sheepersas to what kind of primer and paint to buy that I can use at home.

While paint is drying I will attempt to get the motor running as well.

 

 

[Tumeke]

Been plodding away with this when I can, but no major developments.

Engine:

@Threeonthetree sprinkled his honing skills on the crabs.

Previous owner has put some fancy green filters on 'em so that'll do.

I came back and balanced them up:

Had a play with points gap and found a fancy dwell meter / tachometer that @Mr Burns gave me.

Car now drives perfectly. Until 3000rpm. It also isn't a fan of starting. More diagnosis needed. Distributor got a good lube up. It's a Delco Remy D204 instaed of the more reliable later Lucas ones. (What?  - That's what I thought). Unfortunately the thread in the hole holding the points in needs re-tapping, however I wanted electronic points like the rest of my cars anyway so sorted that out.

Before (already repaired cables as they had worn through / crimp was loose etc)       & After with new pixie wrangler doohickie.

It then rained and got cold and my battery was dead, so I'll report back on that at some point as to success.

Other stuff:

Since the battery needed charging I did some very important other stuff:

New window winder thanks to @GuyWithAviators's stash of all things BL.

Pulled dash. Replaced bulbs in tachometer and speedometer. Fixed 'speedo cable (it had just fallen off) and lubed both 'Tacho and 'Speedo cables. If you look closely you can see the mustard original paint colour under the crash pad. Pulled out chooched dip switch and replaced with a cheap toggle switch until I find a reasonably priced dip switch. 

 

Rusty screws in bonnet pin turrets bugged me. It also doesn't need bonnet pins... but oh well. Replaced these with stainless ones and cleaned up metal. Then didn't take a photo.

Needed some colour match paint, but having no removable small parts I thought I'd just take a bit of panel off.

It appears there was no primer under the boot lid bog / paint. So turned it into a pile of samples.

Cleaned boot lid back and primered for future work (photos in wrong order). Not really a priority but I was there. Needs a little metal gluing in on the underside but not a WOF / Dort priority so it can wait.

 

 

 

[Tumeke]

Turns out the battery wasn't flat.

Starter motor taken apart, Can see 4 x spots where solder no longer exists. The same points where the brushes want to park each time of course. (Kingfisher Beer = 5/10)

Due to amazing Lucas technology, the same heat transfer has of course melted the contacts at the other end.

Gonna see if I can swap the innards for something else, or if anyone has a 1300 Herald or Spitfire starter drop me a line. 

Today's episode has been sponsored by Motorvation Auto Electrical. Thankfully due to my brother being an auto Sparkie there.

[Tumeke]

Boot lid looked worse underneath.

 

Mess.

Mess removed

Big Hammer and small hammer. Took out back to real steel. Half of this had been replaced in the past by the looks. Inside then painted in zinc etc.

(Yes, I use old Hard Drive magnets for welding - have a pile from when I made a rocker-cover racer)

I often forget to take the above progress photo as I just get it done and paint it, however tonight when I took a break from grinding back welds I took one. Top line looks bent - it's not. Just the reflections of grinding. I've since completed and little holes filled. I'll do the other side of the boot tonight if I can be bothered. I'm starting to channel my inner @yoeddynz / @azzurro - It's quite nice to see progress in metal. Further to @tortron's comments I'll be putting drain holes in this ridge to avoid this happening again. Also will check on starter motor status tonight with my brother. 
 

[Tumeke]

Starter-motor now has new guts.

Anyone seen my growler?