Badwolf
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Everything posted by Badwolf
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Thanks Gents. You have all given me hope. I will report back good or bad. Shame I can't make it tomorrow to 'Twiddle 0419', you could have had great fun doing the re-align on site!! Hope the sun shines for you all. -
Make sure your heater and blower work. It may cook the interior but the heater matrix is a secondary radiator when you are desparate, stuck in a jam with the temp needle hesding for red.
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Bacon sarnie everytime. If there is no easy way to adjust I will try adjusting by bending the door panel. I have done this before when I had to refit the door of my old modern when I... wait for it... tried to reverse through the gates of the drive with the door open, bending it back against the A post!!! Fitted it by putting a cushion at the top/bottom and pushing until the door fitted again. It worked well, but whether it will work on the Spitfire..... I will let you know. I am sure that when the replacenent panels were fitted the B post was out of alignment and it was welded up like that, so nice and solid... but wrong,
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Have a good day everyone. Wish I could make it.
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Hi Pete. Alresdy tried that - see earlier post. B post solid and doesnt move. Probably the most solid part of the car. Any other thoughts please.
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Good idea but after taking off the door seal, which indeed was new... 30 years ago (!!) it has made no difference except for a dreadful gap where the seals was. Will put it back in the morning.
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Thanks Pete. You never fail to help. Bolts ordered. Now... what can you advise about my ill fitting drivers door!!!??? ADDITION: Simples!!! ... Of course my nut cutter from 30 years ago was too small for the nut in question so, working on the same principal as the cutter, and knowing that the bolt was scrap I drilled the side of the nut with a 1/8" drill and when it had gone into the bolt moved it to a very acute angle to drill along the side of the nut. Then, turned it around and did the same on the other side. A whack and twist with an old screw-driver and off it fell. The inside was smooth, I mean, it looked like a drill had been run down it. I have never seen a nut or bolt so badly stripped. Either my torque wrench is goosed or this nut was well damaged before it went back on. Mind you, most of the other bolts around the radius arm were the wrong size... and before anyone says it, I didn't rebuild that bit. That was left to a professional mechanic!! They will all be replaced with new bolts washers etc just in case. Now to see what the other side brings. I am still a little worried that the side with the new shock is 1" higher than the other but will see how it turns out after the other side is done and a few miles covered.
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Just out of interest, what price was he asking for it?
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Thanks Gents. I'm having a little trouble sourcing replacement bolts from my usual source. They only have high tensile steel versions or stainless. I know stainless will be to soft, are the HT any good for this. I suspect that when the original bolts were replaced during the rebuild, they were damaged then. I will try to remove the old bolt later and advise you.
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Pete thanks . Wrench set tp 48 as per Haynes manual. What is the best way to remove the bolt without damaging the vertical link. I think I may hwave a nut splitter someshere but dont know if t will fit in the gap in the vert link.
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Welcome. Looks very nice
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So.... before I even take a sander to the paint-work, I decide to fit the new shock absorbers. So armed with poly-bushes, I fit the new shocks and replace the radius arm bushes at the same time. Everything goes well until, while I have the wheel jacked up, having read a post on the forum somewhere about torquing up the spring-eye bolt with the car on its wheels and having poly-bushed the swing spring eye (see previous posts) last year, I slacken it off, tighten up and despite being careful about the torque wrench settings, strip the thread. Right, now, R. Bros say that this is a standard bolt (not HT or anything special) 7/16"UNF x 3 1/2". Also when I let the car down it is 1" higher on the side with the new shock, than the other, even after rolling the car back and forward a few times. So the questions... 1. How do I get the old bolt out? 2. Can I order a bog-standard bolt off my normal bolt supplier who is only down the road from me? 3. Will the level settle (obviously it will even up when I do the other side after a few miles?
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Welcome. Hope that you will find the forum as useful and informative as I have.
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My gear lever was very loose and I ordered a refurb kit. When I got the gear lever out, it had been put together (not by me!!) with a single undersized nut and bolt. This means that, with wear, the hole at the base of the gear stick is now oval and the metal very thin. It either needs the metal building up and re-drilling or a replacement gear stick, if I can get one. I put it back together with the new bushes etc, but how long it will last, who knows. I don't think overdrive gear sticks come up for sale very often and, with the 'hybrid' nature of the car I'm not even sure its the original one.
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Ok, so I have now had a swing on the B post. I doesn't move and is probably as solid as they get. I think that the problems may lie in this! When the bodywork was done 30 years ago, I had no idea that the door gaps had to be strengthened while the sills were replaced (photo shows near side which, ironically is not too bad). This picture shows the top of the drivers door, which is pulled in a little to much and the bottom, which sticks out about 1cm. I suspect that there is little that I can do in the way of adjustment apart from physically twisting the door along its length the try to make a better fit. As mentioned previously, this could cause problems with the window mechanism also, obviously any 'adapting' would be done with the window extended or the glass will probably shatter. The door wasn't re-skinned at the time of the previous work and I can only assume that the sills and rear wing were not fitted correctly in line with the door. Any thoughts from any of you, especially those who have suffered similar alignment problems would be greatly received.
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Thank you for all the useful comments. I only enquired as it will be a little while before the steel bonnet is ready to fit and it seemed a shame to leave the struts sitting in the garage. However in view of the more helpful comments, I do agree that the fibreglass will probably not stand up to the pressure of the lifts. As for any damage they may cause, I feel that if opinion is that strong regarding the possibilty of damaging either a rusty or pristine bonnet, then the club should clearly mark the packaging with a warning and include this on the shop web page, especially when a member closely associated with the club has such grave concerns. These concerns should investigated by the club shop before selling them.
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Hi Kevin. I am very much aware that you don't like them from several other posts, but there are many other users about who do! Sorry but your reply doesn't really help me very much.
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Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but has anyone fitted these to a fibreglass bonnet? Got a set of rams recently and thought that while I am prepping my steel one for painting etc, that I might try them out on the fibreglass one. I do suspect that the power in the rams will be too much for this, so thought I would check before ripping the bonnet/wheel arches apart!
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Thanks Pete and N/M. Only realised this morning H&V-Herald and Vitesse!!. Sorry. I will have swing on the B post later and report back. If anyone has any experience in 're-aligning' 'bent' Spitfire doors can you let me know please. Several of the Spitfire panels were replaced in the original refurb and I am pretty sure that is the problem. I am also sure that it would be a very expensive job to correct. I will dig out some photos for you all to go "ou nasty" at later.
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Following on from my last post, I have just been attempting to get a better alignment on the doors/body panels before I set to on the repaint job, thinking that any damage done by realigning is best done before painting. However no matter what I try, the bottom section of the driver's door sticks out about 1/2". The top is nicely alligned but there is a gap inside at the bottom of, again, about 1/2". Either the door is twisted or the sills were put on badly (I fear the latter). Does anyone have any words of wisdom about correcting this before I try anything drastic like packing the top of the door with a cushion or similar and pushing in to try to twist the door in at the bottom. I realise thuis could have serious implications with the window and door latch mechanism!!!
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I have just taken delivery of new rear shock so I think I will check out everything when I fit them. Thanks Clive, would not have checked otherwise.
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Clive - Thanks for your comments. I doubt that this was done when my spring was replaced (see previous post from 3/07/18). Although settled down well I may go through your instructions just to check.
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That really looks very much like what I took off my Spitfire (left) and what I was supplied with from Chester and fitted (right). I did have to go back to get the box section and other hardware, but it all works. I must add that a garage fitted it all.
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So, after collecting all the paint, tools and knowledge (!!??) together, it's time to get going with the new paint job. However, before I break out the paint stripper, a look around the car shows up the fact that the doors don't fit particularly well. The gaps are uneven and the nearside sticks out at the bottom. Yes, I know that they probably do need adjustment but looking at the photos supplied for the valuation, I noticed that when the sills were replaced with the body off the chassis, the door gaps weren't reinforced so the body is very likely to be out of allignment, and has been for 30 years!! Now the question... is there any point in worrying about it, can it be fixed in any way without a major welding job or do I just leave it alone, live with it and paint it?
