Mjit

I use Millers Classic Sports 20-50.

Not carried a spare, just a can and foot pump in my Spitfire for over 10 years - though more for reasons of boot space than weight as I take my Spitfire to Le Mans every year.

Never gone in for New Year's Day runs - I believe it to be an afront to nature if you're in any condition to drive on New Year's Day. I also don't believe in locking my car up for half the year. Did London to Bristol on Saturday (with the rear window zipped out - very wrong for December), up to folks near Stroud yesterday, and already done a slightly foggy cross-country run to the supermarket in Stroud and back before work this morning.

Can't say I see the point in brake fluid moisture testers. If you can't remember the last time you change the fluid, it's time to change it. With a bottle of DOT4 under £5 that should see you through 3 changes for less than the cost of the tester, and at a full change every 3 years that's 9 years of ownership - at which point the tester will either have broken/been lost/you'll have forgotten you bought one

Thouse multi-skin pics remind me of the footwells in my Spitfire. Think there were 4 or 5 layers of metal where different bodgers had over-plated to repair rust.

And sometimes in the most unexpected ways. Had real issues with my 2.5PI tramlining in the motorway left hand lane lorry tracks when i first fitted adjustable rear dampers. Softend them off a few clicks and the problem went away.

* And a good quality, ratchet crimp tool so you only need to crimp them once.

Not recommended for connectors in cars these days - crimp is better. With solder some will flow down the wire inside the insulation via capillary action, creating a hidden hard point where the vibrations you get in a car will start to fatigue the wire. This happens with crimp connections too but they are easier to spot as, worst case the connector falls off the end of the wire. With solder you have a perfect looking connector that may be down to just a few connected wires (increasing load) or all broken and only connected by touch (leading to intermitten faults). both of these are much harder to diagnose and require more wire to be chopped to fix.

Hopefully I'm getting this the correct way around but could it just be an old spring that's past its best? The spring will weaken over time meaning at rest the spring eyes sit higher relative to the drive shaft where it exists the diff., but nether the spring bottom leaf (top wishbone) or drive shaft (lower wishbone) change length so the wheel goes more 'top out'. A new spring should fix that.

The basic point is the end of 1972 when the Mk IV got its facelift and the dash went from black plastic to wood veneer/the fuel/temp gause needles went from pointing down to pointing up. Car interiors could have been modified but if it's lower than an "L" it should be short/higher should be long. If it is an "L" then you'll need to look closer.

While many Internat/pub experts will tell you you need to replace everything from the rubber parts, through the pipes, to the altenator/seat overs/tyres in people who actually make the stuff say you don't NEED to change anything. There are two caveats to that though: While mineral and silicone fluids are compatible they will mix to a degree and any mineral lift in the system will still be hydroscopic, so will 'age'. Of course you're talking about 1% of your fluid being 'too old' rather than 100% of it so still better than having a system full of 5 year old mineral fluid. What condition are your seals, cylinders and pipes in anyway? You need to pump out all the old mineral fluid regardless and it doesn't make much difference if you do this mineral->silicone or mineral->air->silicone. Everything almost brand new? Just change the fluid, mineral->silicone. Pipes possibly original and/or looking a bit crusty? Can't remember the last time you replaced the seals so expecting one to start leaking any time? Go mineral->air, refresh anything liiking tired, air->silicone.

Having had the oil guage pipe some adrift on my 2000 you find out it's happened pretty darn quickly, as the oil pressure light comes on almost right away. Mine came off at the engine end which, while it resulted in hours of engine bay clean-up was probably better than comming off at the gauge end!

When my Spitfire 1300 was in standard trim (standard cam/cast iron manifold/HS2 carbs/no heat shield) I didn't have any issues with fuel vaporization. Once it had been tweaked up a bit (hotter cam/tubular SS manifold/HS4 carbs/no heat shield) it was again fine most of the year - but get caught in some stop/go motorway traffic on a summer's day and it would soon be caughing and splittering away for half a mile after traffic started moving again. Added a head shield and not had any issues since. So in standard trim you don't NEED one - but, other than making it a little harder to check the dip stick it's not going to cause any issues either. A tuned car will also be fine without 90% of the time, but it will help for theother 10%.

Hi, I had the steering wheel off my Mk IV Spitfire on the weekend to tick another item off the long-term tweak list and noticed the inner shaft isn't anything like central in the outer column on my car. There doesn't really seem to be any play and the top bush has been replaced using the 'use the new one to push the old one down the column' method, so there should be two in there centralizing things. Is there step in the column assemply or fitting that can skew things - would only take a fraction of a degree between bottom and top to get the top off centre. Thanks

It's swapping from U bolt clamps to the wrap-around type that's given me my leaks - probably where the U clamps have previously deformed the pipes.

Given even car experts have to ask, without confidence in their voices "Are those stainless?" I'd say it's just a way to make Harrington bumpers a lot more expensive.

Anyone got any recommendations for stopping exhaust leaks from the joints on a SS system - specifically something that WON'T make my life a living hell in 6 months time when the system has to come off to change the prop/diff/any other task that needs or is easier with the exhaust off?

Remember the £960 is probably JUST to re-chrome the bumpers. If they have any dents/dings it will be extra to repair them first, as will any holes found in the base metal after it's been dipped at the cleaning stage. A large part of the reason I went stainless in the end was knowning some areas of my originals were JUST chrome, with no steel left below it, and the pair I picked up on eBay to re-chrome weren't much better.

Got the same sort of eBay kit as Doug and Clive on my Spitfire. Rather than doing any drilling to the headlamp bowles I just cut the H4 plugs off the kit and added bullets to connect to the standard headlight wires where they join the car loom. To mount the relays I used the grill mounting bolts. Been there a few years now and not noticed any corrosion.

Actually I think I may have had to elongate one of the bolt holes in one of the rear wings to fit mine too. Wasn't far out, maybe 2mm, so a minor fettle. When you're buying you might want to check out James Paddock as well as Harrington for prices. I can't imagin JP are getting them from anyone other than Harrington, but they were selling them a few quid cheaper when I got mine.

1. Fix your heater - a Spitfire shoudn't be cold (once up to temperature). 2. As Gully said, just drive it. I use my Spitfire all year around. You DO need to keep washing it and giving it a good spray underneath to not give tin worm a chance to get its claws out. Washing the car in winter is about the only time you would need your thermals. 3. If you must park it up, in addition to what's already been said use a length of wood to hold the clutch pedal pressed down. Saves having to fight a stuck clutch come the spring.

I've got them fitted to my Mk IV Spitfire and overall very happy with them. The look great and it takes a knowing eye to tell them from all but the most freshly rechromed bumpers. Had my car valued at Duxford a couple of weeks back and valuer was very complientary about them. It's not all perfect though: While the bolt holes are in the correct place they are both a little too wide (~1cm each side) on my car, leading to little stacks of washers on each outer bolt. I have no fecking idea what random nuts they welded on as captives, but they aren't the standard ones! Overall if your car's there to be driven and enjoyed rather than polished and only taken out when it's wall to wall sunshine I'd say, like me, you'll be very happy with them.

As clive says usually a very snug fit in the diff. and usually the spring's an equally snug fit in the block. You also have to make sure you have enough vertical lift at the middle of the spring to get the spring locating peg clear of the locating hole in the spacer block. I can't remember if it's a 1/2" or 3/4" in my Spitfire but as a result of all the above I've always found it's a full strip-down so you can wang around on the spring enough to get things to separate from one-another.

Just going with the, admittedly more expensive, Dolly 1300 clutch is by far the easiest way - it's what I have on my Mk IV Spit. Gearbox mounts will be 'standard' (in this case standard Spitfire 1500 O/D mounting plate (TKC1407) and rubber (159656), as will the prop. (again in this case Spitfire 1500 O/D prop). In theory you also need to trim the prop. tunnel and fit the screw-on access piece (YKC1486). I seem to remember you can get away with just a little light trimming of the tunnel - and the access plate ends up in the wrong place and DOESN'T give you access to the prop. bolts from above anyway, so adds nothing. Then I think it was just a 90degree angle drive and Spitfire 1500 speedo cable. There's also another option that lets you use the 1500 clutch but I can't remember what car you needed the flywheel from. I DO remember it was a pain because the source car had a different ring gear so you had to put a Spitfire one on.

Having recently had my 4-2-1-2 system apart to replace the prop. and taken the opportunity to replace the shackle type exhaust clamps with band type ones I think a 47-51mm clamp with JUST fit on the main pipe joints. Certainly it's a 43-47mm for the rear box/rear 'Y' joints and guessing the 40-43mm clamps were for the manifold down pipe/front 'Y' joints - which seem to have been welded up on Richard's unit.