Yet another project....The uncrashed spitfire

Mattius · 17 Sep 2007 at 18:22

On to today, tackling my last body panel! whoohooooo!!!! its been heck of a quick job to completely re-shell this spit, taken me 3 months and half of that i was one armed with one in a cast.

here shown with the POR15 applied to the inner sill, wee bit of rust to weld up tomorrow but should have the sill at least tacked in place by the evening.

Mattius · 18 Sep 2007 at 12:37

The old sills were full of waxoyl but if they arent done properly in the first place then it has no affect, these old sills the waxoyl just collected all the rust.

Weather has beaten me today, just as i got the new sill to fit with the help of a rubber mallet, they really dont make pattern parts as they used to.

Anyway, new toys keep arriving every day.

My new harness arrived, im impressed feels like it should be attached to a parachute, so much better quality then the old sabelt one i was cut free from.

Mattius · 18 Sep 2007 at 19:09

Finally the weather gave up and let me play.

got the sill clamped on after a day of persueding it into place with the hammer.

Mattius · 19 Sep 2007 at 17:57

ITS DONE!!! yayyyyy!! woop!!

Exactly two months after i started, i have finished the final sill and completely re-shelling the spitfire, will post pics when the primer dries on the bare metal and i can get the door back on.

Mattius · 19 Sep 2007 at 21:21

crap photo cause i just realised my flash was smashed in the accident aswell, bugger!!

but heck look at the gap lines!!! Im goooood!

Mattius · 20 Sep 2007 at 19:37

Im sure a lot of bits could be patched on it, but thats not my style especially when panels were cheap. It needed a re-spray anyway so perfect time to give it new shell.

Heres the pics from this evening now its all in primer.

Its back on four wheels and the gaps are better than i expected, appart from my malformed bonnet, which will hopefully be fixed by a new frame i have up at chics.

Mattius · 21 Sep 2007 at 17:52

em in total i think i have spent about £600 on new panels.

new wings were £100 each ish
new sills were £45 each
new rear valance was £65
new 2nd hand bootlid was £100
new 2nd hand doors were £220

the 80s cars are very easy as they left the seems open and covered them with a capping. Go to the earlier shaped one and its more tricky.

best thing about a spitfire or a herald is the space under the bonnet is massive and easy to work on, so you can fit bigger engines. worst thing about all BL cars is rot, its always present take my latest endevour, the floor pans for instance.

Mattius · 27 Sep 2007 at 22:55

floor now sorted, interior painted and the roll bar is now secured.

As promised the pics

Mattius · 29 Sep 2007 at 17:44

anyway back to the car.

Good day today, got the drivers seat back in mounted with some extra plates underneath to beef up the mounting. Really chuffed with it, managed to get them to sit an inch lower.
Also managed to get the harness in and the eyelets secured with more plating.

Not too sure about the mx5 seats they may have to go in the end cause im not too happy with the way the harness lies on them, its good when your in the seat but just a pain in the ass the harness drops off when your not.

Mattius · 1 Oct 2007 at 19:51

Second seat in, second set of harness' in. Really shows the difference between the 3 point eec thats in the passenger seat, and the 4 point fia belt in the drivers.

Mattius · 2 Oct 2007 at 14:13

got the engine running again today thought id take a vid.

here ya go

burble burble

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO-6EW7tAYE

bit smokey but should clear when the car goes on the road.

Mattius · 2 Oct 2007 at 19:11

Celly, its the only celly i could get dont have a garage so 2 pack is a big no no.

Emm well it aint the best i have used, it took me 2 hours the other day to mix it well enough to get a decent colour match. Service was great price was great average quality paint. But its only for the bits that will be painted by hand anyway so should be cool.

Mattius · 2 Oct 2007 at 19:15

Forgot to post the pics with both seats in, you really can see the quality differences between the usual harnesses most folks fit eec marked ones and the fia ones.

Mattius · 11 Oct 2007 at 22:13

No more pictures, been busy trying to prep the car to get it through its MOT. Needs to get through the mot soon so i can get it sprayed before the cold sets in.

Mattius · 12 Oct 2007 at 09:34

unfortunatly the previous owner resprayed the car craply with a non std colour, whilst the car is far from std having a std triumph colour makes it a lot easier in the long run.
So the car will be painted Triumph BRG which is the interior colour, it is very very similar to original colour but a bit more green.

Mattius · 26 Oct 2007 at 19:54

Problem is primer is porus and the metal will rust under, thats the nightmare im going through at the moment. With the cold weather setting in here the car needs painted asap, but unfortunatly the engine is giving me soo much gip i've given up and the car will be collected soon by the triumph specialist to have the engine looked at.

I have constant smoke coming out the exhausts, which would suggest a head gasket althouth that has just been replaced, the compression on all cylinders is good, it aint using water, aint using oil but still plooms of smoke on acceleration which seem to have every colour possible. Replaced the inlet manifold after not having much vacum, replaced the carb jets, replaced all gaskets. timing is perfect, drained the fuel replaced it, drained the oil replaced it. Its got a brand new skimmed head with new valves and guides.

So im stumped, at the moment its either looking like piston rings, or poor valve guides or another head gasket.

Mattius · 28 Oct 2007 at 23:35

Found the problem appears to have been a slight blow in the headgasket combined with crap new guides. Car has only run for 4 hours without moving a mile and the gides are letting oil down!!
Triumph lump runs without valve stem oil seals and although you can fit them, you cant with the valve springs im having to run for the race camshaft.
But hey gives me a chance to show off the seriously modified head im running

you cant go much bigger than these valves. But look at the mess the oil has made sob sob

Valve covered in oil

Mattius · 29 Oct 2007 at 09:14

The marks are wet oil, oil is coming down the valve guides.

Mattius · 29 Oct 2007 at 17:18

nah it doesnt have them and as mentioned earlier i cant fit them due to larger valve springs to cope with the pottent camshaft

Mattius · 1 Nov 2007 at 13:33

new machine shop today took my cylinder head in to replace the guides and re-cut the seats again. Whilst chatting to the guy he reaconed he could get valve stem oil seels to fit, sure enough after trying a few VW golf ones can be made to fit. Big discovery as no-one has managed to fit them to a spitfire running double valve springs.
Just 1mm needing shaved off the guides, tripple cut seats this time like was supposed to have been done last time.