Black Cat

Ordered the Dodo heat/sound deadening material from Amazon yesterday, arrived today, couple of minor jobs then I will attempt to fit it on the firewall.

Yes, type of Triumph would have been helpful, sorry about that. It's a 1500 Spitfire 1977. I was looking at sound/heat insulation for the firewall and the tunnel, I have read somewhere that the stuff you can get from B and Q is just as good as the more expensive stuff. I'm thinking Dynamat. Anybody had any experience of the B & Q product or can you recommend something which is a little less costly that Dynamat?

Right, with the body about to be sprayed I’ll shortly be refitting the component back in the car. Generally it seems quite straightforward but what is the sequence for all the items behind the dash? I’ve fitted the steering column and was thinking about fitting the heater unit next,. Is there anything which should be fittered before the heater as my fingers are not as nimble as they once were and I don’t want to fit something then have to remove it to fit something else which should have been fitted first. Many thanks

Thanks Russell, Can you PM me your address and let me know what time would suit. Regards Steve

Hi Chris, The door overhang is fairly consistent along the length of the sill, just measured and it’s about 8 mm. I’m quite happy with the hinge and lock door gaps, they are about 5 mm and you are correct in that the doors do swing in towards the bonnet and the doors miss the bonnet quite nicely. Where the sill curves around the front bottom edge of the door the gap is slightly larger, (last photo is my first posting) probably about 8-9 mm. I’m thinking I will cut the sill vertically down and around the radius then pull it over the few milometers to match the hinge door gap and weld it back up again. But still not sure what to do about the door overhang. I think there is a Suffolk club meet this Tuesday so may canvas some of the members there and see what there opinions are.

If I cut the sill and the rear wing on the underside of the curve, close to the bottom seam where it joins the floor pans and pull it out the 10mm, weld a section in do you think this would work?

The sill appears to lines up with everything, bonnet, front wing and rear wing, all except the bottom of the door. You are no doubt right in that the problem is with the sill but I'm stuck with it now,. If I was to start cutting the sill along it's length and pulling it out it then wont line up with the bonnet and rear wing and that seems like a lot of work which may not turn out very well. By cutting the door it will only be the door that will need working on. I know two wrongs don't make a right but they can sometimes help. I'm still open to suggestions and thanks for the constructive comments.

The back edge of the front wing lines up exactly in line with the front end of the sill, the bonnet sits flush with the top of the scuttle with about a 2mm gap between the edge of the bonnet and the scuttle and the top of the door is correct with the top of the scuttle and bonnet and the fold line in the door lines up with the top of the sill on the front and the fold line on the rear wing and the doors are flush vertical with the bonnet and rear wing, so all in all pretty good I would say, that is apart from the two point I previously mentioned. If the new sill panels which are on the market are not a good match these days, and they are the only option open when replacing sills something will need to be adjusted on my car to improve the fit. I can’t see that cutting the sill and pulling it out at this stage is going to help with everything else lining up so well, the option about cutting the curved part of the sill where it meets the bottom edge of the door and altering the radius may be an option if no other solutions can be found. That would still leave me with the bottom of door projecting out about 10mm. Does anybody think my previous suggestion might work?

I’ve undertaken a lot of panel replacements on my 1500 Spitfire, front wings, rear wings, sills, floor pans and boot floor as well as a few others. Most of the body panel joints are quite good considering it’s a Triumph. I’ll shortly be having it sprayed but there are a couple of joints which I would like to improve on before it goes off to be sprayed and I’m not quite sure which is the best way to improve them. The first one is the door bottom joint, it stick out about 10mm along the bottom edge. What I was thinking of doing was to cut an inverted V joint as in the second photo then bend the door skin and weld up the joint. I’m hoping this will solve the problem with the door, but has anybody done this, will it bend OK on the fold line or is there another solution? The second issue is the gap at the sill on the hinge side of the door, It slightly too large and I would like to close this up a few milometers, how can this be best achieved, with filler, again is there another option. I know the body panels wouldn’t have been great when the car was first manufactured but I would like to get it the best I can. Many thanks.

Thanks Pete.

Just received my new heater control valve and it came with a fiber gasket for the flange joint, when I removed the old one it had an ‘O’ ring sealing (Item 78 in the attached) and no gasket. Do I need the ‘O’ ring if I’m using the fiber gasket and if not should I also use some sort of gasket sealer with the fiber gasket? The old ‘O’ looks a bit shot away.

Did the job today, fitted half nuts and cut the studs flush with the nuts and it looks as if the cover would just fit but as a precaution, and as the door gaps at the top on the lock side were a touch wider than the bottom I added some additional packing plates to the rear body bolts ( Hadn’t tightened them up at that point) which raises the body a few millimeter higher over the spring bolts and this gives a little more clearance and also made the door gap better.

Hi, Is there an alternative product that can be used for the door hinge and striking plate shims rather than buying purpose made one off the shelf? I was thinking something like a sheet gasket and cut them out myself.

Had a look at it this afternoon and had some half 9/16 lock nuts which I used to replace the standard lock nuts and I think it will just about work. Need to remove the fuel tank so I can cut the bolts down but you could have saved me a lot of work trying to adapt the cover plate. Good job I hadn’t started any adaption work Many thanks Mjit

Yes, think I can manage something like that. Thanks for all your comments.

And the road dirt. The previous owner had a plastic bag taped over it.

Yorkshire_Spam A photo of the modification would be useful.

Hi, I have a 1500 Spitfire and the rear leaf spring has a 1” lowering block fitted. With the lowering block in place I’m unable to fit the axle cover plate mainly due to the nuts and bolts protruding above the body. How have others overcome this problem? Thanks

Thanks gents, looks like I’ll just have to try another supplier.

Hi, I fitted new trunnion sets to my 1500 Triumph Spitfire during the restoration last year, the car is not yet ready to go on the road and the trunnion seals now have cracks in them. Could it be the trunnions are too tight on the seals, there is movement in the trunnions so don't think that is the problem. The trunnion kit came from Moss Brothers so I would expect them to be of merchantable quality. Any ideas to why this is happening. Also, is there an alternative to the rubber seals? I see you can get poly ones for some Triumph models but can't find a listing for the Spitfire.

Gents, thanks for your reply's. As there is no weight on the spring at the moment, there is some play between the top and bottom of the spring on the shocks. How tight should the center top bolt on the shock be, hand tight or is there a torque setting and if the spring is loose on the shock when the center nut is tightened up will there be any knocking as there must be times when there will be no weight on the springs, such as if the wheel is not in contact with the road at some point. lastly, should I fit a spacer to take up the slack or don't you think this would be necessary? Many thanks

Hi, Trying to sort out my front suspension. The chassis is supported on blocks so there is no weight on the suspension at the moment. With the shock bolted in place the spring doesn’t sit flush with the upper mounting plate, I suspect when the weight of the car is fully on the shocks and spring there may well be a slight bend in the spring, would you say this is what I should expect or am I doing something wrong here? The parts are from Moss and the shocks are telescopic Spax adjustable. Ref. TT3301PR and the springs are uprated fast road. Ref. TT4301PR. Many thanks

Thanks for your response Pete. As I will need to extend my wiring in the boot to supply the second LED light, one will be on either side of the boot, would 8 amp be OK to use as I have a few reels of this or should I buy some 5 amp wire?

Hi, Looking to install two LED lights in the boot of my 1977 Triumph Spitfire 1500, apart from connecting up the wires, do I need to do any other electrical work like installing a fuse or a relay and what size wire will I need? Many thanks

I'm thinking about doing some powder coating to some small body parts on my 1500 Spitfire, like brackets etc. The car is painted in Inca Yellow and the paint code is 94 FAB. Dose anybody know what the RAL code is for this colour or can confirm what is the correct powder colour I should use? Thanks