blubayou

Thanks Poppyman, I thought I may need to use extra thinners if it had all thickened up or something, but it seemed fine on opening the cans so sprayed it 50/50. As Nonmember says, it may not last so I won't try my bootlid yet!

Ok, thanks Guys, I've used it anyway as I've got nothing to lose apart from a can of thinners. The primer / filler went on a treat, so well I moved on to the top coat. An absolute breeze in this lovely weather. Will leave to harden as I have some runs on the arch edge.

Spraying primer & then top coat on a newly fettled front corner valance using brand new sealed paint stored in various places at different temperatures over the years. Good starting point as the finish is not crucial down there. I take if it goes on ok it will be ok in the longer term? Thanks in advance.

As a Spitfire owner I'm no Herald expert, but having seen my Mate sell his lovely green example to a clown for £150 back in the early eighties, I've always wanted one. In tribute to that car I've painted mine green but I'm sure it had a contrasting stripe which I may be able to do. I can't remember if it was white or light green, opinions please?

If it's any help, when I put my overdrive in many years ago the propshaft that came with it was a strap drive with mangled looking straps. It went to Dave Mac for checking & came back with weights fitted sprayed black and no straps! Like Clive mentioned above he'd chucked the straps away and bolted it solid. It's still like that today with no ill effects I'm aware of & no vibration.

Success! All 7 fitted. Brute force whilst pulling up & holding down seal worked. Pull out bent tool & crimp a little tighter each time to hold clip securely. Chris, I don't have a GT6 but can't see how you could get near the outer door channel at the front with the quaterlight in place. I think I'd be tempted to stick it in place with something as you suggest. Sorry for the thread hijack.

Hi Chris, Are we talking about the outer wind up window seal? (shown here on my Spitfire, no quarterlights). I have just come on here now to find help! I'm just fitting mine with a strip of bent steel made out of an old 4" jubille clip. It's almost impossible. I've removed all the interior door trim which only aids retreival of dropped clips and is no use in fitting. I have three clips fitted and have had to pause for strength. The only useful comment I have is that a blob of oil on the clip seems to help but they take a ridiculous amount of pull up to clip on. I have had to enter & remove the tool from the 'quaterlight end' so I don't know if you can do it with them in place? Any tips anyone.........

Hi Jiggawhat, I remember when I first put the car on the road the heater valve was knackered & the angled pipe kits were really expensive so I configured it out with a couple of hoses cut off & bunged up. That was 18 years ago! The set up shown I've had for about 5 years.

I've used a simplified plumbing setup on my car for years. The rear outlet on the cylinder head is plugged (as on many production setups). The water flows from the front of the head, through the manifold, out to the heater, back from the heater, into a home made bypass tube into the water pump. Saves on ineffectual & expensive water valves & very expensive shaped pipes. Probably not ideal as I'm sure the rear cylinders will run hotter than the front, but it's worked for me.

As a kid living in Canley in the early seventies, I clearly remember lots of grey Spitfire shells outside the Tile Hill factory in Torrington Avenue. Thinking back I guess they were just in primer. Probably got a quick wipe over to get the rain off.

I ran a single 1 3/4" on a modified log manifold for a few hundred miles on a Mk1V Spitfire. This was on a small crank 1300 with Mk3 cam. Worked fine but could have done with fine tuning. Unfortunately it did not fit with the factory cast 4-2-1 manifold I was using, so had to refit the stock MK1V manifold. As a result I found no advantage over the stock setup.

Well my TSSC manifold came last week. Took nine weeks, but I believe they're ordered in batches so I'm probably unlucky. Firstly it looks nicely finished, is a one piece system and of standard diameter, just what I wanted. Most of all if fits very nicely. A little bit springy getting it on to the head, but it drops straight in and clears the chassis & belhousing neatly. However, to answer my own question, it does not mate straight on to a stock 1500 exhaust. It does come with a short extension which brings it out right between the centre rails so you can easily modify the system accordingly.

Thanks all, some good ideas there. I like the idea of the header tank approach, it always seems weird to me that I can change the thermostat without losing any coolant. Incidentally this idea came about due to boredom, there was nothing wrong with the existing factory set up, I just seemed to remember someone saying a herald rad was a straight swap but with superior cooling abilities, plus it had height to give a proper head of coolant.. Having now compared the two, I find the Mk1V rad has a matrix area of 144sq/in and three rows of fins (39mm thick), the herald has 199sq/in two rows (30mm thick). Pretty comparable in cooling area I would have thought, plus with the Spitfire rad it is better placed, directly in the path of the fan airflow.

Now the bottom hose is too short, to the point I am unable to get a seal. I could extend the hose with an insert? A new flexible 30mm hose would cost a bit & almost certainly chafe on the engine mounting. Best bet is to cut the bottom radiator outlet & extend 1" or so with a bit of 28mm copper. But for now I've refitted the original. It's old and tatty, but does not leak. Or have clearance issues. Or overheat for that matter.......

Ok, Just modified the radiator mounting holes upward. I now have 0.5mm clearance from the bottom frame to get 2.5mm at the top. I fear this may be a bit tight when it all gets hot!

Thanks for the prompt replies. I imagined it would be a straight swap, but the now central radiator cap is fouling. The bonnet fit is spot on so I'll have a look at dropping the mountings.

Anyone done this without issues? I've just dropped one in to see, fits perfectly (after removing the two tube clips on the side) until you close the bonnet, I'd estimate it's about 1/4" too high. I don't actually know if it's leak free yet so loathed to do any real mods if I'm wasting my time.

As you can see it looks ok, I may try & seal the boot with mastic. Maybe another day.....

Well all fitted & working now. I opened up the ally to match the original hole. Neither the original boot or a repro would fit properly. you can see the difference in length of the old & new. The old was too distorted to stay in place. I cut all of the flange off the new one except for the toe end, hoping this would dig in & hold it fairly well in place.

Hi all, Having had the brake master cylinder start to weep again (second time in 17 years isn't bad) I decided to replace the old Girling unit with a modern replacement which has the definite benefit to my eyes of a translucent reservoir. To complement this & save the old paintwork I have also fitted a drip tray. As you can see it fits very well apart from the hole for the boot. I didn't consider this an issue at first & have now sealed the tray to the bulkhead with mastic. The boot now obviously does not fit the hole, but then again it's an original item, probably 46 years old & didn't fit before. Any ideas? Steve.

Thanks Clive, As a last attempt I've fitted another downpipe I had with a new gasket, the fit in terms of chassis clearance is much better, the old one was extremely tight to the bellhousing. Just nipped up the third bolt, start to tighten a bit, 1 good , 2 good, 3 good, then a bit more, 1 good, 2 good, 3.....it's getting looser. One pulled thread. I'm ordering the tubular manifold now. I'll let you know how I get on.

Hi all, The 1500 style cast manifold on my MK1V is blowing at the joint to the 2 into 1 steel tubes. This is mainly because the cast face is simply not flat. I'm considering junking the manifold & replacing it with the club Bell manifold, hopefully this will then be a permanent fix. The real question is can I mate this to the stock system which is fairly new?

Hi all, Went for a quick thrash out round the local 'B' roads today, partly for fun & also inevitably to test my newly fitted intermittent wipers. Something I have tried to fit & failed in the past. This time I stumbled on http://www.tssc-devon.org.uk/technical/149-intermittent-wipers-v2.html. Absolutely excellent fix, many thanks to the author. To anyone who find this does not work, I did find on my MK1V Spitfire that the wiper switch, marked on the diagram as 1 2 3 4 was in fact 4 3 2 1 on my car. Attached is a pic I took 5 minutes before I used my new wipers & headed home.....

Hi Guys, The car is a MK1V 1300, currently running the standard single down pipe. This is rusty and old but works fine. I also have a slightly less rusty 1500 manifold & twin down pipe system (stock 1500 set up), slightly better condition, which I could fit. Is there any real advantage to this system? I assume cash strapped Triumph thought so as they spent very little on development in general? Steve.

Adjusted & road tested: Nearside 0' camber, 0.3' toe in Offside 0' camber, 0.3 toe in Full tank, no passengers. Drives just fine, self centres nice, not too heavy, just like before really, but now looks more even side to side. Camber set using homemade plumbline / trigonometry gauge, toe in using Trakrite, very to use. Thanks for everyone's input, will keep an eye out for tyre wear & attempt the rear set up at some point. Steve.