Yet another project....The uncrashed spitfire

[Mattius]

Thought i'd show you guys my ongoing project which i have been working on for the past 3 months, Owned the car for a couple of years, finally decided to rebuild it due to various reasons. Main reason is to keep myself occupied while i recover from crashing the other spitfire, nurses thought i was mental in hospital after a car crash that almost killed me to be reading a welding manual.

I have previously rebuilt pretty much all the mechanicals, so now it is just body work and to add some toys.

First problem in the beggining was the bonnet, i fractured and dislocated my elbow and lost most of the strenght and am unlikely to regain it, so i needed some way i could lift the bonnet.
Answer gas struts:

Bonnet now lifts and supports itself, simple mod just went to scrappys and stole them from an MG ZR. And some tiny welded brackets, messy welds as i welded them on the car and its hard to get the welder in their.

The next issue was the brakes, classic cars have much firmer pedals as you dont have any assistance, due to my leg injuries i wont have full strenght for a couple of years.
Soloution, fit a brake servo, pain in the a** to squeeze it onto the bulkhead but its in and works a treat.

Servo is in the middle of the pic with the white disk.

 

[Mattius]

Now i should be able to drive the car, so onto the next problem, the bodywork, it was rusty not too bad but i got a good deal on new panels for the whole rear end so thought i would just replace the lot.

Sills are first, before doing them have to make sure you brace the doors, sill is a structural part of the car and without bracing the door gaps would be horrible and worst case the door wouldnt fit.

Now the fun bit, angle grinder out and an hour later its off

Luckilly my inner sill was fine small patch at the front but nothing to worry about.

 

[Mattius]

After tidying up the flanges and Por15'ing the inner sill and insides of the new sill its time to offer up the new sill and make it fit.

Luckily it was a pretty good fit, so i could start plug welding, placed a weld ever inch and a half and a couple of seam welds in a few strategic places.

The fit for an amateur job is awesome, shut lines are great.

 

[Mattius]

Next up, rear wing.
Angle grinder and frustration lead to a very quick job getting it off.

Unfortunatly i wasnt as lucky as with the sill, this rust at the bottom of the wheel arch was pretty terminal for that section, so it was all cut back.

And then i fabricated a new lower wheel arch from sheet metal, a real pain but replacements are £200 so no question what i was gonna do, the lower corner of the boot floor needed replaced aswell, luckilly repair panels are cheap so that is what you see in black

 

[Mattius]

The wing could then be offered up, good fit again, so it was plug welded again

Finished with seam sealer on the seams

The day after we got cracking weather, so i decided i would get the side of the car in primer, looking good i hope you agree.

Gonna get all the welding done before applying colour to the car, so it was primered so i can do the rest and not worry about rust.

Currently i have cut out the rear valance and am waiting for good weather to add the new one on.

 

[Mattius]

Not happy sitting idle due to rain, i've been playing with this lot

It is a complete megajolt setup i have assembled, electronic 3d ignition on a classic car thanks to a ford escort and a box of gizmos. Actually really simple if you take your time with the wiring diagrams. Just waiting on my trigger wheel arriving to attact to the crank pulley and we are good to go.

 

[Mattius]

to be honest the first things i would have done would have been-


-rollcage
-side impact bars
-airbags
-more airbags
-giant rubber dingy




fair do's getting back into it so quickly.

Side impact bars are incorporated into the new doors im fitting, specific reason i bought these particular doors, and the fact they have no rust.

The car will have a rollcage, im just saving up the pennies to buy one just now, it will not be driven without this and 4 point harnesses fitted, im expecting the car to be finished in november at which point it will be tucked up for the winter.

Other safety features the car will have that i learned from my accident is:

Strengthening Struts in the under floor of the bulkhead.
Re-inforced Seat Mounting Points
Fuel Cut off switch close reach of steering wheel.
Electrical Cut off switch in similar position


You will never make a car completely safe, in fact the police said that had i been in a normal car when i crashed i would have died.

 

[Mattius]

Build a Gitfire...

Destroys the handling of the car and completely transforms it, if i was gonna do that i would just buy a GT6 prefer their styling as it is.

Im sticking with the 1500 engine despite having a 1300 full race engine sat here in front of me, idea is to keep the same engine and try and keep it within classic racing regulations. Engine swap would definatly rule that out.

 

[Mattius]

Update:

The weather here has been totally crap so unpredictable i didnt want to start any bodywork i couldnt finish, so the rear end is still naked.

Instead i've been digging stuff out of my parts bin of a shed. And playing with them.
3D Megajolt ignition is ready to go, i'll try the electrics tomorrow for the first time on the car, crank sensor scavenged of a zetec fiesta (what a pain they are to get out) from the scrappies and rubbish bracket made up today, but it will last just now until i make a better one.
Trigger wheel arrived and was measured, aligned, measured, measured, measured, tack welded, measured......you get the picture, it has to be totally concentric with the pulley otherwise the sensor will get messed up.
I got it to within 0.01mm which is good enough for me.

Still raining so i dug this lot out my shed:

Its a Davies Craig electric water pump and thermostatic controller.
had to sort through all the wiring and make sure if was good, re-wire a few bits, but we are all good to go now.

Finally installed a Peugeot 205 alloy radiator and fan combo, should make a massive improvement over the stock and ken lowe, took a while to mount in the right position and days to try and find hoses and fan belt to fit.
Finally got it sorted tonight, just needs a few wee tweaks to the hoses, mainly cause i forgot i'd need a sensor for the temp gauge so had to add one in the middle of the hose.
Fingers crossed the System should be filled up tomorrow and wirring tested on the car, maybe even start the engine if it doesnt leak.

 

[Mattius]

Forgot the pics:

Will go the silicone route with hoses eventually which will make it tidier plus allow me to get my heater plumbed back in by using some of those hoses with the intercooler take offs.

Sold the race 1300 engine, gonna spend the pennies on the fia spec roll bar and harnesses, roll bar comes in at a shade under £330 which aint too bad for fia spec.

 

[Mattius]

yeah im still learning with my mig welding but im getting there, nurses thought i was mental sat in hospital with all my injuries reading a how to weld book. lol. My welds get good penetration, just dont look pretty, mainly cause im too lazy to change settings on the welder. Described by mates as Gorrilla welding, not pretty but strong.

Havent driven a classic again yet, im ******* bricks about doing that but i will eventually when i have to take this thing to get its mot.

DONT SWEAR

 

[Mattius]

Finally found a fanbelt that fits after going nuts at halfords for selling belts which are the wrong size. Whats the point in selling a 915mm belt when its only 905mm!!
Got the hoses all clamped up fanbelt bolted up, sensors in place, water pump bolted in ready to test, then it started to rain and i couldnt shut the bonnet.

arrrgggg..... water pump catches the wheel arch by a bawhair, will need to modify the mount tomorrow.

Still hoping to fill the new system tomorrow, check the water pump flows and there is no leaks then i can test the megajolt.

fingers crossed i get a day without problems.

 

[Mattius]

Well after much frustration and spanner flinging, she runs, a problem caused by carbs of all things stopped it firring.

Such a good feeling when all this wirring comes into its own and the engine springs into accurate 3D mapped ignition which i edit on the laptop.

Very Cool

 

[Mattius]

Realised its been a while since my last update, took a couple of weeks off bodywork cause i was getting impatient, finally started again on thursday.

Got the new rear valance on which is a pain in the behind, and got the whole rear in primer! im round the corner at last! yay literally, just one rear wing and one sill to go.

Still lots of prep work to do once the last panels are done, but im finally seeing progress, its nice to have the car back on four wheels and driveable.
First time i've driven it in 5 months, it runs like cack, smokes like hell but it bloody goes and i've got one heck of a cheesy grin.

heres the front end, no change here:

 

[Mattius]

its about £100 for the actual megajolt unit, then about £40 for all the ford edis bits from a scrappy, then £20 for a new set of ht leads from a ford orian and £20 for the trigger wheel. Then your laughing.

 

[Mattius]

Ooooo new toy arrived custom roll cage FIA spec.

 

[Mattius]

really? i know of 5 or 6 racers who have been using welded trigger wheels for a couple of years now trouble free.

 

[Mattius]

hmmm, this one is just a temp one anyway, im not happy its completely true.

 

[Mattius]

Well the rush is on before i have to go to work.
Started on the other corner, here is the second rear wing off.

Just a wee bit of rust to repair this time

Quite impressive how rust free the inner sill is.

 

[Mattius]

Here is the new wing on, the quality of the replacement wing was crap and it had to be flexed quite a lot to get it to fit right, hence i had to use lots more power on the welder and hence the amount of bird poop around the weld.