Yet another project....The uncrashed spitfire

[Mattius]

Stripped out

A tool everyone should own, ultrasonic cleaner, dogs danglies for things like this.

Taking the last bits out, the complicated bit.

Lower one is the original input shaft, the one above is the rarest thing ever, only 10 exist in the world and this is the last new one, Custom made input shaft converting 1850 mainshaft to 1500.

 

[Mattius]

You cant use the flywheel or modify the belhousing without serious weak points, the whole idea is to make the box stronger as i keep knackering them. The input shaft as std is far too long to go into the clutch/engine so it needs cut short. Its not something that can be bodged up its very very skilled work to get the hardening of the steel right. Not only is it forged but then case hardened afterwards.

Its rare, but that doesnt mean its specifically in demand, most people arent as nuts as me in wanting to do this, there was originally 10 made 15years ago and thats the last one just gone now!

Most people with these cars looking for a gearbox mod would just fit a ford type9, which i have done before but was just all wrong, although it is a strong box the ratios are just all wrong. You need the right ratios or the whole operation is pointless.

 

[Mattius]

Well a normal colour for the box unfortunatly as the orange had run out.

Tis actually a matt black colour when it dries, called black velvet.

All parts built up and cleaned up ready to go back in.

Just waiting on bearings and lots of clips etc arriving.

Then sort this mess out.

 

[Mattius]

The wheels? they are MGF 15" wheels, they are light and cheap. Did have mini lites on it but they werent right size and i cant afford to have the wheels i want made, they need to be custom done by compomotive.

 

[Mattius]

Similar but with a much bigger offset and much smoother look without the lip.


But thanks gives me another model to try and hunt down some centercaps.

 

[Mattius]

Been knocked down with a serious chest infection, so been off sick for the last few days and not much getting done at all.

Have been tidying up a few gearbox parts.

Casing is almost dry in its matt black.

Bellhousing taken ages to get to this.

Rear casing got the same treatment.

 

[Mattius]

Its been a while!!
I havent been slacking just neglecting this thread.

So i will try and update to where i am now.

The close ratio gearbox was a bugger to get back together, the reproduction speedo gear drives are just utter crap and not worth the money, i went through 3 of them before giving up.

But i got it together in the end, minus the speedo drive, it was always gonna be a bugger to try and configure the speedo with such a miss mash of parts so i decided to just go for an electronic one.

However the cost of this was just too much just now whilst trying to also get the car back on the road, so the gearbox is complete and lying at the back of my shed until funds become available to buy the custom speedo i need.

 

[Mattius]

In the mean time i was trying to sort out my carburation problems, the su's just couldnt keep up with the engines state of tune and i was flinging money left right and center at them for not much gain.
So the webers i have had sitting around have made their appearence, this as with everything on this car was frought with problems.
The period manifolds i had for them just would not fit, which was gutting to me, i loved the idea of having original period performance parts on the car, but there was just no way round, so i had to buy reproduction long track manifolds, the difference is clear to see

and finally i was able to clear the exhaust, all be it with a bit of purseuation from a sledge hammer.

Fitting the webers involved refitting some of the cooling system, which itself needed a revamp, so a long time humming and hawing led us to this experimental system to keep flow rate constant and the system under preasure, looks like a mass of twisting blue pipes, but trust me it works damn good.

So allong comes january and allong comes the weather

Not much work getting done under an inch or two of snow.

 

[Mattius]

The coolant system was great the mass of pipework isnt ideal so to cut it down i started to re-design the breather system aswell, the alloy rocker cover was binned (its heavier than the steel one anyway) and a steel one replaced it. The breather pipe on all is on the wrong side though, solution, cut it off re-weld it on the other side.

neat job even if i do say so myself

Then the budget goes out the window, notice the small problem with the weber linkage i had (hint the silver bit moves up and down)

There was no way round this, it had to go.

Whilst aquireing funds, my side project was to rebuilt the fuse box, putting it in the engine bay seemed like a good idea but moisture was playing havock with the wiring, so inside it came, and bigger and better.

Custom housing with 4 low power led's on a switch to allow easy changing of fuses on a dark night.

 

[Mattius]

Now the weather improved and i desided to clean the car inside and out, which led to a discovery i wasnt banking on, the outside of the car had a full respray, the interior didnt as i was watching the pennies, 3 years since i painted it had taken their toll.

nothing major, just surface rust in places. Fed up of bodging the job i decided to go all out and do it proper once and for all.

Whole floor pan stripped to bare metal, treated with a rust inhibitor and left to cure for a few days. Kinda like the bare metal look!

Acid etch primer on top and lots of it!

Then 4 coats of 2k custom mixed colour to match the car.

And then....

yep more snow!

 

[Mattius]

Now this made me extremely paranoid, the moisture in the air with yet uncured paint is not a good plan.

The tunnel was painted in the warmth inside

Luckily it all survived the return of the snow, and the interior is now as stunning as the exterior.

The rear tow hoops got a coat of mandatory yellow to make them stand out.

And its bonus time so the webers got themselves a wee present too.

A stunning piece of kit, beautiful in looks and execution.

 

[Mattius]

With the linkage sorted, i was time to fire it up, bare in mind, new carbs, new cooling system, new breathing system, and new fuel lines, not to mention not being started in 6 months, i expected the worst....

for once i underestimated the old girl, after priming the fuel system, priming the oil pump, it fired first time! whoohooo!

Air filter plate was next, as usual no one makes one to fit, so i had to buy a blank and measure a million times before eventually plucking the guts to cut it.

Meanwhile the boot gets lined with alloy bulkheads (with led lights to illuminate the fuel pump and battery if needed)

And the exterior gets some tender loving care from the mop.

A custom camera mount is knocked up (took me 6 months to finish lol)

I sold the old Su's on ebay which allowed me just enough pennies to finish the whole thing off with a nice and expensive itg airfilter (of course no one stocks it so it had to be custom ordered from itg)

 

[Mattius]

And we're done!! phew!

It went back on the road last week and its a different car, the torque is unreal, still working on some ignition map issues and some fueling issues but they will be ironed out soon.
Temporarily off the road again just now whilst i await a new lambda boss arriving after the old one fused itself to the plug that was in it.
But that will be sorted by the end of this week weather permiting.

Its turned into a gorgeous car and im well chuffed, whats next with it? not sure, i do have a subaru impreza lsd diff lying around though

Happy reading.

 

[Mattius]

not too bad actually, its nice and quiet until you boot it, the exhaust system is designed that way so as i can get through noise regulations.

 

[Mattius]

Funny go back ten pages or so and you will see someone warning about welds snapping on the trigger wheel.....

taaaadaaaaaa....

 

[Mattius]

im ashammed to say yes! Just goes to show how poor my welding was back in the day, hardly any penetration at all.

Gonna modify the pulley on the lathe, then re-weld it back on with my new welder and imroved skills, and a couple of bolts as a security blanket.

 

[Mattius]

Well well well, another summer, and i thought id revive the thread again for another year.

Winter work has been postponed for a while as i was in hotel nhs for 4 months having my leg extended as a result of the crash years ago. Should hopefully be my last operation.

So, whats changed this year...

Well the megajolt was declared race illegal at the end of last year for my class i was aiming for, so that had to go. The electronic water pump controller gave up the ghost and blew the headgasket so that had to go aswell.

So i now have a 123 ignition electronic distributer, petronix flame thrower coil and some nice magnecor leads. The water pump was replaced with an alloy waterpump and housing, when you add up the weight it actually worked out almost the same weight saving as the electronic one. This of course ment the complex water system had to be re-worked again.

So anyway, roll on a few months of tinkering and on drive it day last weekend it was back on the road. Its almost driving perfect, just a few wee issues to sort out and i plan to drive it this summer not work on it like the last few years...

famous last words!

The end of drive it day.

Next issue to sort, heatsoak evapourating the fuel at traffic lights, the problem...

Hmm need to find a way of heatshielding them, wrapping the exhaust as i type.

 

[Mattius]

Bit of a funny day today, feel quite emotional, 4 years ago today is when i almost died for good in the wreck of the old car, very miraculous survival, by all means i shouldnt be here today.

Raise a glass tonight!