Mjit
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Posts posted by Mjit
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On my 2500S I just have the 2 relays. Not sure what the/your Vitesse has but the 2500S is means to have a pair of dipped+main and a pair of just main, but I've replaced that with 4x dipped+main with all 4 either dipped or main when the lights are on.
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I've done something similar on my Spitfire, but rather than hacking the heater box about I went for adding some plumbing "Y" pieces into the screen vent hoses to feed both the screen vents and dash eyeballs. Takes a bit of squeezing in and the plumbing "Y" pieces needed a bit of sanding to get their o/d down to match the hose i/d but just about fits behind the dash. Only issue is that just highlighted how asthmatic the aging blower is so on to trying to source/fit a modern motor/fan - along with wiring in a hazard switch to the dash and turning into a Covid hermit which means I'm actually back 3 steps and trying to get the starter motor to turn over and bring the beast out of a 9-ish month slumber...
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If you're really lucky the veneer will be fine and it's just the lacquer that's peeling...and it will all peel off cleanly. Having done this some bits will peel of easilly/others will stick like s**t to a shovel - and no matter how careful you are trying to use a heat gun to soften/separate it you'll end up with some singed veneer/some that comes off with the lacquer. Or you'll try to sand the lacquer and end up sanding through the veneer somewhere - played that game too.
Either way you'll probaly ending up with a reveneer job at which point it's eBay for a good length of "American Walnut Veneer" (non-burr for original look + easier to work with) then follow the instructions at https://www.frost.co.uk/how-do-i-re-veneer-my-cars-wood-trim/ - for the original/non-gloss finish at step 11, rather then "Polish the veneer to a high shine" you go over it with very fine (0000 grade) steel wool, lubricated with clear wax polish.
Having done this on a big saloon:
- While not technically difficult by god does it take an age, working through all the sanding steps!
- It's hard to clamp some of the curved dash parts evenly so tend to get the odd area that doesn't stick - but you can usually work some PVA glue in with a craft knife and just clamp those areas till it's all stuck.
- For gauge holes I found cutting through the hole, across the grain first, then lots of cuts from the line to the edge with a craft knife, then roll/fold then in to the hole from the front with your fingers, before finally filing them from the front through the hold till they dropped off worked OK.
- Sanding curved panels, especially those with thin areas around gauge holes is a real fiddely PITA, especially trying to alternate grades of sanding by 90 degrees!
- With the Rustins just really slap it on rather than trying to brush a smooth surface as you would with paint. It flows and self levels really well - and you'll end up sanding loads of it off anyway so might as well get to that point sooner rather than later.
- Try to give the Rustins a week between last application and sanding so it's fully cured.
- Try to buy a roll of veneer, or failing that multiple (and more than you think you'll need) sheets from the same auction so it's all the same bit of tree and all the same colour.
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On 19/03/2022 at 13:24, rlubikey said:
My S-reg Spit also has the "Triumph" light which I believe is original, whereas my old blue X-reg (actually built Aug '79) had the later button ones like Mjit. It should say in the parts catalogue at what chassis number they converted. I much prefer the earlier style, so interesting to hear that you can convert.
Cheers, Richard
The Moss catalogue has it as FH116000.
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2 hours ago, NonMember said:
It may be possible to fit that earlier type on a late bumper - depends whether it's long enough to cover the existing holes - but you'd need to drill extra holes to fix it.
I can confirm that yes, this CAN be done. The early light does cover the later holes and you do need to drill some new holes for the earlier mountings.
The correct lights for a 1500 are just little buttons. You can see them either side of the GB sticker in this photo:
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Fog Lights
At the back I know a few people have replaced one of the reversing light bulbs with a red fog light LED, so still looks standard.
At the front one of my many (many) daydream jobs is to find some suitable modern fog lights and fab. them into the Mk IV/1500 chin spoiler.Daytime Running Lights
The easy option would be to fit some 'halo' headlights. Well I guess the REALLY easy option would be to rewire so your sidelights via an ignition-switched relay, so they came on as soon as you turned the key in the ignition. Actually if you did that you might be able to use the now-unused 'sidelight' light swiitch position for your fog lights (either using the sidelight position for headlights/headlight position for headlights+fog lights, or sidelight posiition for fog lights only/headlight position for headlights only - I know in the big saloons the fog light position gave fog lights on/headlights off, which was scary as the fog lights did diddly squat on the illumiination front the one time Ii tried them in actual fog!). -
No, M reg is fine for '74, would just mean registered between Jan. and July 1974 , new registrations just coming out once a year, in August back in the day.
The "first registered" issue is probably down to shit record keeping at the DVLA and it getting miss-typed when they computerised everything/nobody noticing in the years since.
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https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185329982606
An admittidly tidy looking Spitfire Mk IV...for £16,995?
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22 hours ago, Mjit said:
If you get an electric shock, it's the wiring.
16 hours ago, Papa Smurf said:Could I use a multimeter to test this instead of myself? 😉
Yes - but I found it wasn't really a matter of choice, more flick o/d 'in', touch metal spoke of steering wheel, swear and stop touching metal spoke, flick o/d 'out' and think .oO(That will be the wires up the gearstick shorting then)Oo.
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Do you have the 'sprung button' on your car? Parts 106388 and 22G2286.
It only seems to be listed for the non-o/d gearbox but have a feeling it's on the o/d version too - certainly replacing the equivalent part on my big saloon made a huge difference to the gearstick feel.
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1 hour ago, Pete Lewis said:
its quite common the spool valve piston inside the solenoid sticks , you need to unscrew the solenoid (1" af thin spanner )
A special spanner most Triumph parts will sell you that has a 1" 'handle' with a 1/2" drive hold in it...that I've never worked out how you're meant to use! Thankfully hand tight (with the special, stubby spanner) is tight-enough.
1 hour ago, Pete Lewis said:access is easy remove the small 10mm circlip in th end and shake the plunger out
Easy he says! Had to work through all my pairs of circlip pliers to find a pair that would go small-enough to fit and still squeeze enough to compress the circlip.
And as for "shake the plunger out"... Done 3 recently* and 2 of them would rattle back and forth quite happily...but one of the O rings would catch somewhere inside and they were buggers to get more than 1mm of the piston to expose past the end of the solenoid body!
* Done 3...to discover it was an intermittent inhibitor switch 😒
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Check you're getting power to the O/D solenoid. Engine off/ignition on/in 3rd or 4th you should be able to hear the solenoid make a faint 'click' when you flick the switch on/off. If no click try a more direct 12v feed to the solenoid. If you get a click with a direct feed but not via the switch change it so your direct feed goes via the switch.
If you get a click from the switch but no drop in RPM when driving it's probably the solenoid seals that have perished, so it's switching in/out but rather than changing where the oil flows to engage the o/d the oild just flowing around the seals. I'd have to hunt for the 3 different sizes but you they are just 'O' rings and you can pick up oil proof ones easily on eBay in packs of 5, then replace them (straight forward - though disassembling the solenoid piston is a bit fiddly, first getting the tiny circlip off and second getting the piston out).
If it works for both it's probably the inhibitor switch on the gearbox that's at fault. You MIGHT get lucky and find it just needs tightening or a shim adding/removing but I'd just replace it as they are cheap and don't last forever.
If it works direct but not via the switch, it's probably the switch so replace it.
If you get an electric shock, it's the wiring.
If there's no click, even powered direct you're probably looking at a new solenoid.
If everything works and clicks wire a tell-tell bulb across the solenoid, so you can see if it's still getting power when you're driving and flicking o/d on/off.
If that's working then you probably need a recon overdrive - probably just the oil pump but o/d units are very much marked "Here be mosters" on my DIY map.
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4 hours ago, clive said:
You need to wind them down. With the same weight (ie the car) on the springs they compress to the same length, so a lower start point lowers the car.
Don't you need to wind them up, rather than down to reduce ride height (OP said too high)? Winding up will compress the spring, making it shorter and so lowering the car.
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The obvious first point to check is the fuse box, as I think it's a single fuse for all the lights (should be the middle one).
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Where did you get that USB socket panel from? I'm looking to do something similar but that's much neater than what I had planned!
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When I did this it was a case of some very careful tab bending out, not all the way, just enough that you could then compress the foam enough to twist the bezel on before pressing tabs back down.
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On 05/02/2022 at 15:41, Bordfunker said:
These guys were featured on the last series of Wheeler Dealers.
https://invictaspraychrome.co.uk/
It’s a paint process, but leaves a perfectly chromed finish.
May not be as long lasting as decent chrome, but has the same resilience as normal paint.
Was trying to remember what that one was called and it actually has some advantages over chrome. Yes if you have good, solid bumpers that just need rechroming then that will be better but if, as after 40 years is quite likely you instead have slightly dented ones that have rusted from the back rechroming means quite a lot of expsneive metal repairs before they can be rechromed. With the paint you can just treat the rust and hide some of the more minor sins with a skim of body filler before spraying. I ended up going with stainless bumpers because I couldn't get my hands on any originals that were worth rechromoing without working out more expensive than stainless.
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20 hours ago, DVD3500 said:
Ahh.. only rub there is both cars are in bits and will remain so for quite some time... 🙂
So you have a choice:
- The cars aren't drivable so you don't need bumpers yet, and when they are you can do a tour.
- Sounds like you need to buy another, drivable Spitfire so you can collect the bumpers then... 😈
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For stainless bumpers you could take your summer holidays to the UK next year, buy/fit them while here to save postage. Then it's a question of how old and forgetfull you're getting wether you remember to declare them at customs...🤫
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I've used AES too in the past (https://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/)
Oh, and if you go for "thin wall", which I'd recommend you do don't worry that the new wire's thinner than the old one - it's just the insulation that's thinner, not the wire inside
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14 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:
The photos would be much clearer if I used it in the dark, there's a lot of reflection off the laptop screen, and if I could read the Chinese instructions I reckon there's a recording program and some facility to directly save photos, rather than take pics off the screen, but it's interesting. I'll improve with practice but at least I don't need to spend a lot of cash for the limited use I'll be giving it.
There's always the good old "CTRL+PrtSc" keyboard combo. That should copy an image of everything on screen to the clipboard and you can then just open Paint and do a "CTRL+v" to paste it into a new image document.
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On 17/10/2021 at 09:28, Badwolf said:
If the night dimmer is like the Spitfire version, simply disconnect the power energising lead. Not sure which one it is but someone will be along soon to tell. Then you can leave everything as is.
As thescrapman said it's the black earth wire you need to pull of the night dimming relay. From memory it's the light circuit that triggers the relay so removing that would both leave you with a live wire (with lights on) dangling in the metal rear wing but also no rear lights!
Remove the earth and the trigger winding can't ever activate, so can't ever trigger the dimming winding. Much easier then the other option of bypassing each lighting circuit from one side of the relay to the other!
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I don't know what the truth was behind the whole Ant Anstead/TR7 thing - I hope he was just unable to take part in the final filming, maybe due to shooting over-running the end of his contract with Discovery? so they just scripted the whole "I hate TR7s" narrative as a cover. Whatever the reason I'm guessing Mr Anstead regrets it as he just came across as a complete and utter dick - especially when you consider there was basically nothing wrong with the car and from memory all they NEEDED to do was replace the carb!
WD is a bit better with Elvis but still suffers from the "too much scripted drama" that lead to Edd China leaving and infects so many of these shows, especially Car SOS. Cut out all the transparent "I'm going to sneek in and pull a fast one on this supplier, who's going to be suprised to see me (despite the 30 man film crew standing all around them and the fact the filming has been scheduled for months)!" and "We bought the car for £100 and only spent £3 on string and look at it now (trying to ignore the 4 new tyres, replaced chrome, full bodywork detailing, etc)!" nonsense!
Have to say I can't stand Shed and Buried. It's like a cross between Wheeler Dealers and American Pickers but made by a few guys from the pub on a budget of £6.
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And watch out for the "Chrome wiper blades" that sould be better described as "Chrome razor blades with rubber attached".
If you currently have black blades fitted make sure you keep the bit of plastic that goes on the arm/clips to the blade - that version is missing from 'normal' wiper blade boxes these days...but the bar they clip to is the same size so you can just transfer from one pair to the next and save a few pennies by buying from a mainstream seller.
How good is the GT6 heater compared to the Spitfire? (Probably a flaw in my thnking ....)
in Cooling System
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You mean the seemingly unbtainable standard GT6 Y pieces? No, just some standard plastic plumbing Y pieces from the local DIY store. Not original but hidden out of sight and cost pennies rather than an arm and a leg!