Hicks

Hi all, We're moving out of our band house, and moving in with friends for a while, and I need somewhere to put my spitfire (where I could work on it) - I was in the middle of removing bits and bobs from the car, and attempting to de-rust/ weatherproof it, when I ran short of time and went away for the winter. I'm based just outside of Canterbury (Dover direction), and wondered whether anybody had any kind of garage space/ workshop space etc that they were looking to rent out? Any help would be hugely appreciated - I need to move it asap - Transporter trailer and friend with 4x4 is ready to go - I just desperately need to find a space for it! All the best, James

Ah! Ok - Got you - Thanks for your reply again :). OK I will try and get my head in and around that area tomorrow with a torch and see if I can get a better understanding of what I'm dealing with - Now I know the layout it'll make a lot more sense! Thanks! James

Thanks for your reply! I think I understand what you mean - Is the curve I can see in the top right of your photo the curve at the back of the door frame? What is that panel called? Thanks!! James

Hi Colin - Thanks for your reply :). It passed an MOT just before I got it back to start working on it (thinking I only had a bit of rust management to do and I'd have it back on the road.. win some, lose some..) - When you say the inner section looks ok, do you mean the extra sort of 'girder' that's welded to the body? The rust wouldn't have been seen during an MOT test though - it was behind all the inner trim etc..? If I poke something through the holes to where the rust is it does crumble away quite easily, but the actual outside of the car seems fairly solid? There is a seam/ joint between the outer sill and the back arch which looks like its previously had some filler in and has re-cracked - needs a clean up and re seal, but the metal seems ok? When you say to poke the outside, do you mean to poke through from the inside, or the actual outside of the body? Thanks for your help! James

Hi all, Work finally continues after the monstrosity that was winter.. I got stuck towards the end of last year as I came across some rather nasty looking rust in the side skirts of the inside of the car (forgive me for not knowing the correct name for the area). I am assuming that over the years water has got into the body cavity via where the roof frame attaches to the inside - water has then run down inside the body cavity, and this has resulted in rust at the bottom of this area, behind the strengthening plates welded to the insides. I of course didn't discover this until I took all the carpeting etc out to check if any work needing doing on the floor pan - which has allowed it to get a lot worse than would happen elsewhere, when I can see it and immediately deal with it. Has anyone seen this before? How did you deal with it? It's obviously in a tricky place to get to.. Photos attached.. Any help and/or advice hugely appreciated. I hope everyone is getting out and enjoying the spring sun! James

ha - yeah that's a very fair way of looking at it - I haven't been able to work on the car for a few weeks again as I was stuck recording again - the adventure starts again now. Very excited!

😭😭😭 Waaah. I don't want to start grinding off bolt heads :(((. All I want to do is get at some bloody rust hahaha ha

Ah. OK. Beautiful thank you so much for the clarification on all of that. I thought I was going insane! Yep definitely not welded on for me - I've only had a quick look at far right and left side bolt and nuts so far to get an idea and had no luck with either, so walked away before I started causing any damage.. Maybe removing the bonnet completely and working around the bumper at the front with the bonnet off would be a better bet than trying to tackle getting the bumper off.. I'll have another go at it now I actually have some clue what it's SUPPOSED to look like though. Thank you so much!

Also - Just to add - If you actually want to get an answer out the DVLA use the webchat, don't phone them - Same with the HMRC. The people on the phones generally aren't that great unless you super sweet talk them - the people on the webchat portal are lovely - super knowledgable - you get through to them way faster, and you get a transcript of the full conversation afterwards to prove exactly what's been said. I recently needed to sort out a load of mis-matched information on my spitfire (wrong engine size, wrong registered keeper name, changing vehicle tax class etc) - Hopped on the webchat and got all the info I needed in a matter of minutes, printed it all off, including the transcript, sent off a big fat envelope and a week later a nice shiny new log book came back with all my up to date details in ! James

Hi all, I'm trying to remove the front bumper from my Spitfire 1500 - Am I missing a trick here? There doesn't seem to be anything in any manuals or online that implies this should be difficult.. It's a chrome bumper, bolt head inside the engine bay, nut is inside a small square frame behind the bumper - I can't seem to get any kind of spanner, or ring spanner or anything in to go round the nut to hold it in place to crack it off..? Are the nuts supposed to be welded on? They very much are not on mine - I also think they're slightly different sizes on different mounting points as well, implying a previous owner has obviously swapped out the bumper or something at some point, so this job is obviously possible.. Need to get it off to do a load of rust proofing work - Everything else on the front end of the car is done - The bumper is giving me a right headache.. James

And that covers your set up ok :)? You have the same set up right :)? (just been looking at your site)

Does it now 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 Interesting. My housemate has an old BMW from the 80s that has some sort of injection system in it - I'm not sure what he's done to it but the smell that comes out of that car 😂. You can't drive behind him 'cause you just end up getting dizzy.

Ok thanks Iain! When I've got the car back I'll have a look - I know the RPM and Speedo are both actually pretty much bang on so shouldn't be too difficult! Can do Pete's method above as well to clarify :). I'm trying to remember off the top of my head what it used to run at but it's been such a long time since I bombed it down the motorway.. I feel like it used to sit at around 3000 at 70, but that was with OD engaged.. Can't remember.. Also now I want tacos - I made refried beans for the first time a couple of days ago and they were extremely tasty (if I may say so myself).

I'll be 100% honest - I don't know the answer to either of these questions and I wouldn't know how to find out! Is there a way I can find this information out easily? James

I'm really interested to get the car back, get the manuals out and see how it all used to go together with this PI set-up. I'm also tempted to try and get hold of the previous owner who did all the modifications and see if it was him that converted it from PI to carbs, or whether when he bought the engine it already had carbs bolted to it. Really cool that they had the original fuel injection system on them though - Is it something people the began to change back once they discovered it was actually a good system, or had it just got to much of a band name by then? James

Apologies for the lackluster response - Life took over for a couple of weeks there.. Perfect thanks - Going to start ordering all these manuals now - Car should be back with me soon :)!

huh! How cool! Got some reading to do it would seem :). I guess it would be kind of fun to have the car running on fuel injection.. I do love fiddling with carbs though - it gives me a good excuse to make a disgusting amount of noise on the driveway and annoy the neighbours..

hahahaa - sounds like I may have got away with a better option then.. 🤔 Sounds interesting though - I'll have to look it up! Would be cool to see what the original injection systems looked like!

I'm all ears for any ideas people have to make things safer/ better/ more robust James

Hi John! Ahh well, its already on there now, so if it ain't broke I guess? As for everything else you mentioned.. I think I'm going to have to wait 'til my manuals turn up before I know what you're talking about 😬!! It's a beaut when it's running, that's for sure! Did the PI engines not normally have Carbs then? Thanks John :)!

Ha. Exactly! I don't think any new bolts have been made since the 80s. Just everytime someone takes a triumph apart, there's enough leftover that go back into the system and keeps the automotive industry going!

Hi Pete :), OK perfect! Thanks so much. That sounds like a great starting point to get my swot on :). Time to have a trawl through ebay and see what I can find. Thanks all!! James

Hi Colin! Ah ok nice! Don't need to do anything as such at the moment - I just have a brain that likes to know how everything I'm using works - With a modern car I figure I don't have a chance because it's all ECUs and chips, but with mechanical things I can actually read about - great! The thirst for knowledge only ever rises! It would be nice to know all the little things I can do to make sure I'm keeping in the car in peak condition as well - and how to do that without taking it apart and then putting it back together and being left with 4 bolts sitting on the drive.. 🤔 James

Hi Kevin :)! Yes GT6 suspension front and back and big juicy ventilated discs at the front 👍. Ok so 2500 saloon manual, GT6 manual and dolomite manual for the gearbox i guess? 😬 Thanks for your help! James

Hey Pete! Thanks for such a quick response! Yeah I knew it was going to be a bit of a deep dive when i went for it - but hey - that's the best way to learn right :)? Everything on the car has had major major upgrades to handle the engine upgrade - there was a huge list that came with the car - it stops faster than most modern cars I've owned 😂. In terms of the gearbox - that's a minefield - that's a hybrid as well (quote) "Dolomite 18/50 gearbox mated to a GT6 bell housing. J type overdrive. " The car is actually off having a bit of TLC at a friend's garage at the moment because it had been off the road for a while - so I want to start reading up so I can tinker going forward and finally get myself good and stuck in! Ok so the 2500 saloon Haynes manual will be for the engine I have? Then I have various bits of GT6 for suspension throughout the car.. There's some Dolomite and some Vitesse in there as well I think.. When it works it's bloody gorgeous - I just need to know how to gently tend to it when it doesn't 😂. This is the car :)! - (should auto start at around 1:40..) Thanks for your help!! James