NonMember

You're actually pretty much spot on. The problem with "white" polymer is that it's really quite translucent, so the UV propagates all the way through and degrades it to the core. Adding carbon as a black pigment makes it nearly opaque, and only the very surface degrades. Since carbon does not degrade in UV, it's perfectly safe for it to absorb the UV energy. It will warm up slightly and dissipate the energy in forms that are harmless.

The number we need is the one that is stamped on the face I've arrowed:

The direct switch ought to be fine but then I've not been impressed by the quality of some of those currently available and might prefer to give it as easy a life as possible. Decent automotive relays are cheap and readily available.

I assume this is a later type with the breather pipes into the carbs rather than the manifold? The crank case is intended to be mostly sealed but "purged" by this breather arrangement. The hoses connect to the "constant depression chamber" of the carbs, which runs at a fairly steady, small "vacuum". This chamber is a fundamental part of the carb's metering mechanism and must not be disturbed. The crank breather flow is small enough to not worry it, but if you open the cap or disconnect the pipes then you have a huge hole straight into it. Big air flow, loss of regulated vacuum, metering system goes all to pot and the engine stalls. It's expected.

Yes. The 1600 Vitesse had a 3-synchro box very similar to the roundtail Spitfires. The 2L got synchro on first. If you can see the number stamped on the top flange of the casing then someone will tell you what that gearbox (at least the casing!) was originally built for.

I thought the spoiler was fitted to the valance, not instead of it.

No. That is so utterly unlikely as to be... well. The J-type solenoid is OK without a relay because it only draws a few amps instead of the 20A pull-in of the D-type. It's in headlight territory, albeit probably single rather than a pair. It's a big beast that needs a good electro-magnetic pull-in to operate it. A Lucas 6RA winding only draws and eighth of an amp - most modern ones are even less.

I asked the guy at Bailey Morris about this when I had my GT6's new propshaft built. He said it actually doesn't matter at all. They recommend fitting the lighter end to the diff on cars with live axle, but for a Spitfire he said to fit it so that the grease nipple on the sliding spline is easy to get to.

I think if you wrap the manifold it will promote cracks. You may even be better off fitting the spare as it is - don't blast it and don't paint it - because the blasting may expose micro-flaws that will then become cracks, and the paint (especially the black stuff) radiates the heat into the under-bonnet area thus making your underbonnet heat problems worse.

The white ones are not fused, they're just ignition switched. The fused ignition switched feed is green. That said, you probably want to take a feed off the white but then add your own fuse, so that making a mistake with the USB port doesn't take your brake lights out. And I'd recommend the white (or, alternatively, take a separate feed off the ignition switch's "radio" terminal) for a USB power socket so that you don't flatten your battery by accidentally leaving a sat nav plugged in when parked in your garage. The radio terminal is good because it lets you choose to charge your phone while parked with ignition off, using the accessory position of the key.

Well, that and the fact that the bearing isn't really taking any of the cornering loads, as it's fairly loosely located in that axis, so the drive shaft transfers cornering loads to the diff. The weight of the car does go through the bearing but perpendicular to its location on the shaft.

They'll be visible in the day time. You may need to add a "night dimming relay" to them for nocturnal use!

I've seen more than one car where the boot hinges have been swapped. They're handed. Getting that wrong leads to nasty alignment issues stressing the pivots, and can even break the hinge.

That plate is supposed to be incorporated into the hood, so that the middle part of the hood is semi-permanently attached. You can remove it when removing the whole soft top (to fit the hard top) but it stays in place when the hood is merely folded. The poppers for the tonneau and hood bag are fitted through the hood vinyl into that plate.

But surely the rubber boot isn't there just for water. It serves to keep grease in and to keep abrasive dust out. Neither of those needs are removed by stainless.

The thing that really bugs me about it is that I use computers professionally (I'm a software engineer) and VERY OFTEN need to leave things in a working state overnight so I can resume where I left off in the morning. Real operating systems let you do that. Windows 10 just arbitrarily decides to sabotage you, and there's NO WAY to turn this "feature" off.

The heat won't directly affect the copper - it's not hot enough - but it does aggravate other effects. For example, the current capacity of the wire is derated when hot, the corrosion caused by water ingress occurs faster when hot, etc.

I have 063 batteries on all three of mine and they work great. If you're on a budget, get the second cheapest from Tayna (general principle that the very cheapest probably isn't great but the next one up will be fine). You don't need to worry about Ah and CCA ratings - any modern 063 battery will be plenty for a Vitesse.

Well, if Silverstone turns you on, that's fine, but don't go dissing those who aren't you. All you're actually arguing for is "forget the relevance, just look at the size", which may well work for some people but to sneer so dismissively at those who aren't of that mind isn't very nice.

It was a known failure on Stag engines back in the day. Apparently Unipart had a batch of very poor oil filters on which the cardboard gaskets came unstuck and moved, blocking the oil passages, creating enough back pressure to stop the pump and twist (or even break) that drive shaft.

I'm a little puzzled as to why you think the BMIHT museum - a museum of the British Motor Industry, including Triumph - is less suitable than Silverstone - a race track with no connection to the marque.

That's a very nicely presented example in "a classic 1970s colour".

The cables can fail in a way that produces that bouncing needle behaviour. It's normally a strand of the inner cable breaking free, which then catches on something and makes the motion at the instrument end jerky. Whether you'd feel that catchiness with it disconnected isn't always clear. You can also get jumpy needles due to a bit of grit in the gauge mechanism, but that's normally associated with it reading very high, too.

Correct, but that's white with a red tracer. The instrument illumination (on Heralds, where it's independent of the sidelights) is red with a white tracer.

It may well be the opposite. The Weber is likely to be even worse than an SU at delivering the right mixture at idle, so the engine's probably even richer than a standard one would be. That cokes up the plugs, and when you pull away you get poor spark and misfires, until they've had a chance to clear out.