[New member...and looking for a car ..]

Lovely.. enjoy. Welcome to the forum.

[Vitesse Dashboad]

There was nothing in the original listings that I could see about tobacco sales.

[Newbie in central Scotland]

Welcome. There is a wonderful panel of experts here for you to beat!

[** ON TO THE NEXT BIT ** Nose to Tail - 1972 Spitfire MkIV restoration upgrades!!]

Adrian. Thanks for that. Gives me a starting point to look for a cap and appropriate adapter ring.

[** ON TO THE NEXT BIT ** Nose to Tail - 1972 Spitfire MkIV restoration upgrades!!]

Have any Spitfire owners come across some sort of locking petrol tank cap, or converted their old one to take a lock?

[Courier Binders?]

If the shop/club staff are reading this or if someone could redirect it, the supplier is selling these boxes for £25.49 inc carriage for 25 and making a profit!! If the club source a similar supplier, have self adhesive stickers printed in club colours with crest (which could simply be put inside the box for self stick)  the club could still sell out at a decent price and make a profit. I have just made a dymo label for the edge and put them on my book shelf. They take up less space on the shelf than the binders.

[Courier Binders?]

I bought a load of A5 clear boxes off fleabay (current item number 200953626720). Price at the moment £12.95 for 10 (Oct 2017) including postage. They just take 12 copies but as the top just drops on they are expandable to a point so will also take the shop stock booklet etc. Maybe the shop should get a job lot, add a logo sticker and sell them on.

[Spitfire bonnet fitting]

I have just attempted to adjust mine as the catches wern't catching properly. Bit scary when then bonnet comes loose even at low speed. All the adjustments are inside the front chassis strut, under the plastic overider but take alot of fiddling to get right. Haynes manual was good for guidance.

[Instrument lighting - Vitesse]

Heater control lighting looks really good, but needs extending to cover the three points where the clear plastic with the lettering on fits through the dash. While I had the center section of the dash out it suddenly occurred to me that the main beam bulb may be the same as the general gauge illumination so I checked and it is. My main beam indicator is notoriously poor at night, never mind in daylight with the top down, so I put in a white led. Literally brilliant so the others are getting replaced as well.

[** ON TO THE NEXT BIT ** Nose to Tail - 1972 Spitfire MkIV restoration upgrades!!]

I have seen some on fleabay that attach to the radiator mounting bracket. The club ones mount on the quarter valance bolts.  Has anyone tried the ones that mount on the rad bracket? Now that would need some heavy duty support.

[** ON TO THE NEXT BIT ** Nose to Tail - 1972 Spitfire MkIV restoration upgrades!!]

Kevin. Thanks for the warning. The metalwork on the bonnet is in very decent condition but I see your point. Everyone I have spoken to about these think that they are a great idea and actually stop distortion of the bonnet when doing a one man lift. Maybe further research is needed??!!

[** ON TO THE NEXT BIT ** Nose to Tail - 1972 Spitfire MkIV restoration upgrades!!]

Is anyone using one of those battery isolators with a separate lead to maintain radio settings, burglar alarm etc. Apart from having to lift the Spitfire bonnet (must put bonnet rams on my Christmas list) they look useful and would stop some little oick reaching in and turning on the headlights for fun and flattening your battery,

[Considering Silicone?]

Doug. No, boots are still only half fitted. Love to know how they fitted them in the factory. I did read somewhere about fitting them like a windscreen, by running a string around the rebate and pulling from the inside. After hanging upside down doing the brake light switch, no thanks. As for the brakes, no problem, I just make sure all loose items are fastened down whe I brake in the modern!!!

[Help - Park Lane]

Has anyone been in direct contact with Owen since his scheduled operation? His web site is unchanged after his posting about closing for two weeks from 13th September. Hope he is ok. I can understand him taking longer off work but it would be good to know how he is.

[Considering Silicone?]

By the way, can anyone recomend the best way to neutralise spilt silicone fluid. Spilt some on a tyre and it is proving difficult to shift. I don't want to use anything too strong in case it damages the tyrewall

[engine side valances or mechanical fan?]

The ones I have made are 3mm aluminium with the angled top piece rivetted along the top all to be finished in black POR15 once I have decided whether to add some venting holes.

[** ON TO THE NEXT BIT ** Nose to Tail - 1972 Spitfire MkIV restoration upgrades!!]

So, on to the next bit.  Now the car is on the road, does anyone have any words of wisdom about an alarm system. It has an old Moss unit which works well but I only have one key fob for it.

[engine side valances or mechanical fan?]

Yes.. but did they work or was it just something convenient to lean on when working on the engine?  To narrow to put a cup of tea on!

[engine side valances or mechanical fan?]

Forgive me for resurrecting an old thread, but I have just made a pair of engine valances out of aluminium. Not fitted them yet but then I found this thread. Now the question, is it worth fitting them or should I use the aluminium for something else? Would they be more efficient (or efficient at all for that matter), with some holes/slots drilled in them towards the back or down the sides?

[Instrument lighting - Vitesse]

Paul - Looks good. I have just made a small 'light box' to go over the plastic center of the heater control indicator, at the back of the middle dash-board. I am hoping this will turn it into a 'light pipe' to illuminate the control position indicator when viewed from the front. I found a spare bulb holder in my bits boxes and just have to solder the bullet connectors on to supply power from one of the adjacent dials to finish it.

[Instrument lighting - Vitesse]

Paul. Have you managed to try the LED bulbs yet?

[** ON TO THE NEXT BIT ** Nose to Tail - 1972 Spitfire MkIV restoration upgrades!!]

Obviously you start them off young in your family

[** ON TO THE NEXT BIT ** Nose to Tail - 1972 Spitfire MkIV restoration upgrades!!]

Doug. You appear to have a problem with tools in your dressing gown pocket. I recall reading in another post that you had found a tool that was considerably bigger in your pockets on another occasion. Are you trying for a full set?

[Instrument lighting - Vitesse]

Paul. Are those from the link I sent you? That was quick. You should notice a substantial difference in both light and heat output. Just make sure that the heat sink fins are pointing away from the point you want to light. I found that they kept rotating when I put the glass over the top of the bulb. I am now going to try to fabricate a holder for one of the dashboard bulbs to backlight the heater controls on my spitfire with some plastic pipe. The low heat output can be really useful for confined spaces

[** ON TO THE NEXT BIT ** Nose to Tail - 1972 Spitfire MkIV restoration upgrades!!]

The brakes appear to be sorted. Popped the cylinder which was weeping and found that the internal seal had two areas where the rubber had bits missing. Looks like I hadn't seated the seal properly before pressing in the piston and it had shaved some slivers of the seal which had stated to weep. Replaced and bled. Now appears to be ok.