Josef

Path of least resistance at this point might be to just replace the water pump housing. One on eBay, or breakers such as Spitfire Graveyard and Spitbitz are worth a call https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225089997171?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=Ksh36BaPRvq&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=en_MztWYTyu&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY If you don’t want to go that route yet, taking the housing off and gripping the sender in a vice is worth a try. Also possible to completely destroy it by drilling it out and using a tap to clean the brass remains out the threads, though there’s a risk of damaging the threads in the casting, or them being so rusted to be of no use.

Same reason they’ll make synchro rings that’re not round… I do have no experience of this myself, so can’t say it’s true for certain, but I can believe something like this would be done as a cost saving exercise.

With regard to 1/4 tooth adjustments, I think more modern gears can only manage 1/2 tooth? Obviously we don’t yet know what the OP has though.

Oh dear… Full respray will be ballpark £2k If the paint is a mess though it’ll likely mean it all needs taking off first. Of course though paint is just paint, you can still enjoy driving it even if the car’s not looking its best

Looks very neatly done. The double brake master is interesting.

You’re right, the oil pressure light should come on at first start. The switch on the RHS of the block is a pressure sensor, and for the first few seconds of running you won’t have built up enough oil pressure to trigger it and extinguish the dash light. Check the bulb first, then the wiring, and if they’re both OK it’s new switch time.

You have the wrong speedo then. Not that it makes any difference so long as everything works as expected, but all Spitfires had the oil pressure, main beam and ignition warning lights at the bottom of the speedo.

Bernard Littlewood, who the OP has now taken his car to, is the TSSC TR4/5/6 reg sec (unless there’s another person of the same name in S Wales!) so I’d imagine we don’t have to worry about behaviours such as you mention. But yeah, there are plenty of crappy garages out there

If you need some more hands on assistance then also consider getting in touch with your local area group. It’s probably Worcester in your case https://www.tssc.org.uk/tssc/areas_final.asp?area_ID=23&area=Midland, Worcester but check out the full list too https://www.tssc.org.uk/tssc/areas_google.asp (my geography of the midlands is pretty shocking, and besides I don’t know exactly where you live )

Guess that makes sense as the 6 cylinders got full synchro earlier.

I don’t think the 3 synchro and 4 synchro baulk rings are interchangeable. They’re not between the 4 sync and 3 sync three rail boxes for the 4 cylinder cars.

I use a mini amplifier intended for a raspberry pie or arduino. This I have housed in a wooden box that fits in the radio cut out, but it’s a tiny circuit board so would definitely sit inside a radio case. Something like this. It requires basic soldering skills, and will give you a 3.5mm Jack socket to plug a phone / iPod / whatever in to. You should be able to hook it up to the original volume pot on the stereo and use another of the switches for on / off.

Yeah it was just the coincidence of two from two known to be separate sources looking remarkably similar. Which I thought odd as, as has been said, I wouldn’t have expected the brass to be painted.

Just a proper nerd question here! Were the small chassis trunnions originally painted black? I’ve a second hand real Stanpart one I ended up fitting to the passenger side of the Herald which had the remains of black paint on it. Last night I removed the drivers side and after scraping years of filth off of it, found it too was a proper Stanpart item and had traces of black paint. Unlike the rest of the suspension which is just rust colour Just out of mild interest rather than anything else.

These’re the close to OEM 5.5Js, that I believe are formula Ford in origin, I have on my Herald (the ones people commonly think were a GT6 fitment but were not). Though from your description you’re thinking of something different still?

They look rather like standard late Spitfire wheels, are those the ones you’ve seen? For example:

The rust always comes for free

You really only need the reference number from the new keeper section of the V5. I just got that over the phone for my modern (was a car supermarket deliver to your door type place I bought from) and never saw the old V5!

The Spitfire and presumably GT6 (I’ve never crawled under one of those!) have welded eyes on the rear of the chassis. I’ve always assumed these were for tie down when they were shipped abroad.

I’d be interested to know what you find. My impression was that anything feasible was available on special order, but I’ve no actual evidence for that…

I made a mount out of two bit of U channel aluminium and a flat bar. The bar pushes on top of the brackets for the under dash mill board, and the U sections run to the upper of the dash lip. It’s all riveted together, then a box to hold the radio is held underneath by self tappers. There’s enough clearance that you can even get the gearbox out with it in place (though if there is a next time I’d probably remove the radio box).

I think this is probably something you could get second hand relatively easily, if you are referring to what I’m thinking about. Have you given the various breakers a ring?

I’ve not managed to find them I’m afraid. Garage is a bit tight with two immobile cars

No, and it’s not very photographable with the seats in the car. However, I’ll try and illustrate with a spare set of runners I have.

I have the same seats in my Herald. If I was to do this job again I would not modify the MX5 runners, rather would just drill suitable holes in the floorpan. You can get them to fit the original mounting points but it involves slotting the holes where the seats bolt to the runners, cutting bits off the runners, and it will make them super awkward to fit to the car. Note too that the runners are asymmetric! So the bolt pattern for the left and right seats differs very slightly.