Josef

The Rimmers body mounts are milled from 99.9% pure platinum though…

For each mount point for the bulkhead you’ll need what’s shown in the attached photos. The thin and thick shims are fitted as required. Mine had a thin one on each rear mount and none on the front. After my manipulations this has changed to thin at the front and thick at the rear on one side… Depending on the condition of your car you may be able to rescue some or all of these bits (the thin shims I’ve not seen for sale, but they’d be easily made from a suitable washer, and the slot is just for easy fitment).

Or go for the other period technology and find some letraset. That’d have the advantage of no edges as a sticker label would. I’d guess the originals were a screen print as you’d be able to have a mask the size of the dash and not have to have people align the individual words.

I agree, it’s looking great. And I remember seeing your first posts when you were starting with tiny wheel arch patches so it’s also great to see that progress to a repair that’s pretty challenging to get right!

I’d understand this to mean the diff is that as fitted to an overdrive equipped GT6, which would make it the same as all Vitesse at 3.89.

Any chance you know how the white one’s bonnet functioned Colin? That’d be interesting to see given the hinges have been deleted.

I was under the impression you only have to not have remains of bumper irons sticking out or similar. I can think of several examples of cars that never had them too, D type Jag, Bugatti type 35 (both initially racers I know). Even the first Heralds had more bumper shaped panels than actual bumpers!

For the racing look of your car, personally I like it without. If you do buy bumpers, the new rears made by Bastuck (bought from Paddocks) have the wrong shape brackets and mine is already showing rust spots after a year and a bit. So find second hand and re chrome…

I heard Mike Papworth’s method for refitting the gear clusters and pressing in the bearings to the case is to zip tie the whole lot together till everything is close enough together there’s no chance of it falling apart again. Will be trying that one next time.

The bonnet to scuttle / door gap does end up being a little larger to allow the doors not to hit the bonnet. The expected measurements are all in the manual though. You also need a special puller for the rear hubs on the Spit. You’ll destroy them with a three leg before they move! (It’s possible I’ll have one of these to sell shortly, or know of a source at least) They also changed spec close to 1974, well the driveshafts did, so you’ll need to be careful identifying exactly what you’ve got. The exhaust manifold studs tend to have welded themselves on to the manifold, the manifold to head studs can be a pain for similar reasons. Trunnions need to have been oiled not greased, and if the threads on the vertical link are at all suspect replace them. The alternative is them snapping and your wheel falling off! Generally this is a low speed failure, still not desirable though. The handbrake wears in to the rear brake backplates, the wear should be welded up and ground down, and all the handbrake links and levers at the rear replaced. If you do that the handbrake is perfectly fine, otherwise it’s usually terrible. Err, can’t think of anything else just right now!

Even with a genuine NOS Rover stickered sill I had to do some work to get it to fit well! Though I had also replaced pretty much all metal on that side below the line of where the bonnet meets the sill so…

Yep, bolt on the body, set up the bonnet (there’s adjustment at the hinges in all dimensions) and start to work from there. Those Mk2s look great, especially seeing the picture of the wing you had to repair! Panels for the Spit are muuuuch cheaper, but personally I’d still aim to repair where possible. It’s easier to maintain the structural integrity, and some of the panels available are not the best fitting things. Not that I could with mine in many places

Known weak points are only really rust related. The Spitfire is semi monocoque, the sills are structural. So you probably want to start off checking the chassis is straight (dimensions can be found in the factory workshop manuals, reprints are available and you can find originals for non insane prices if you shop around). If your sills are rotten, then the body can bend, especially with no chassis underneath. But this is fixable with door spacers, ratchet straps and lots of jacks to position everything sensibly before welding. Most panels are available, and most parts. Canley Classics, TD Fitchett, James Paddock for new and some secondhand / NOS, Spitfire Graveyard and Spitbitz for secondhand. Rimmers and Moss have plenty of Triumph stuff too but tend to be on the more expensive side. With a couple of Jags under your belt, you should be fine! Looking forward to seeing how it goes!

It is welded on, and covers a seam. So you can’t just take it off. Well, you could it’d not look great, any you’ll definitely damage the paint.

Sounds just like a very knackered clutch to me. Though have you checked all the things you can see? Slave cylinder, release bearing pivot arm and so on.

For the re-shimming, this video shows what I think you’re describing, and you can do that without removing the rack. Might have to make your own shims though. They’ll be from thin enough metal that you’ll be able to cut them fairly easily.

It’s only recently (late 2000s I think?) that the DVLA obliged owners to inform them if a vehicle has been scrapped, so it is quite likely that if you enter the possible registrations into the online MoT check service that you’ll see a result.

I believe the neoprene ones the club sell are better than the original cork. Though sticking everything together with Hylomar or similar will also do a reasonable job.

Aristotle, if you have a suspicion, or memory, of where the car started life you can perhaps narrow the field of possibilities to a more likely set of letters. The letters on the plate are a ‘random’ one and two representing the registration office. However, the first letter is not random, and the sequences are known. For example my parent’s first car, a a VW Beetle was VRS516L. Looking up RS https://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/registrations/rs.htm we can see that VRS—-L was issued from sept 72, followed by W, X, and YRS—-L before the reg year changed. So if you know the reg district you may be able to infer both the missing letters, or at least smaller number of options. Even checking through all AD, BD, CD etc wouldn’t be a massive amount of effort.

I was intending to learn gas welding as I’ve been given a welding torch and cutting torch (former NCB kit!) but the price of acetylene is putting me right off, plus having two more gas bottles in the garage.

Your repair area itself looks great though!

I can recommend just cracking on with the car. Start with bits that will be hidden when it’s finished, but where you can see both sides so you’ll be able to learn to judge when you’re penetrating well and go from there. I’d say that actually welding is the easier part, the making / fitting of repair pieces takes up the most time, and I feel requires more learning. I seem to remember Guildford College did metalwork evening classes of some sort. It’s been about 15 years since I moved up north though so that may well have changed.

Yes, and if you do buy used boxes don’t over pay, especially for an ‘overdrive’ one. Everything but the mainshaft is the same. Also be aware that some gearbox casings are interchangeable, so something that purports to be a Vitesse box has a chance of no longer being one!

Four figures is steep… The biggest thing to get acquainted with will be measuring all the components and recognising what wear looks like. The components in question are things like thrust washers and gear bushings which won’t come in a rebuild kit. Having a hydraulic press will make your life easier but is not absolutely essential. There’s people on here who have had new synchro rings that’re not round. The County brand one I had from Paddocks in the last year or two was fine though and still running happily. I found the linked video series helpful for giving me a view of what to expect. The guy does make a mistake or two though (such as reusing the circlip on the front of the mainshaft) so don’t take it as gospel.

Huh. I was wondering if I’d imagined the CNC version, or if it was out of production… I’ve two distorted and stripped ally ones and need a replacement. So at a tenner over the original style one I know what I’ll be getting!