Neil Clark

Interesting range of views. The PO's 2015 professional rebuild used what look like properly crimped connectors on a brand new loom. After it was driven into a tree and the front end chassis and bonnet wrecked, I bought it and after unpicking the loom from the squished bonnet found that every crimped connector was sound and secure and unaffected. I threw away the wires showing any sign of damage and yesterday plugged in two new headlamp looms with bullets into the old loom. And there was light! I've got the correct wires for the side / indicator lamps and I've got a set of the correct bullets and connectors (single and double) and I'll play around with them to check if the wires I "crimp" really are secure when given a sharp tug. If not I'll get the ratchet crimper £££££ but I really don't want to pay that out for so few connections. Everything else electrical on the car is fine it seems. By the way - the bumper in the photo is only loosely fitted hence the droopy look.

I really don't have one. I am most inadequate in that respect

Any thoughts on crimping? I only have a ratchet type spade terminal tool with three jaw sizes. I've tried it on some bullets (I've only 10 or so to do) and while it crushes the entry end for the wire, the bullet point looks OK. I don't really want to buy a special tool or a soldering iron just for this.

Excellent, I find them so helpful.

Try Spitbitz in Woking. They have an enormous number of parts stripped from old Spits. http://www.spitbitz.co.uk

Thanks Colin. After Joseph Lucas, I am the runner up for Prince of Darkness title! I'll try the link>

Does anyone know where I can get a part loom made up? The front n/s and o/s sections to the lights were too badly cut about in the PO's smash. The rest of the loom is absolutely fine.

Thanks Josef - that makes good sense, I'll have a look later

The body shop has filled (perfectly) the screen washer nozzle holes and I didn't notice until I had the car home. Does anyone know the positions where I should drill new holes? Thanks

Got it. I see it now thanks.

When I trailered the car up to the body shop in Birmingham bonnetless a year ago the rain was biblical and everything in the engine area got soaked and it has stood in the dry ever since. I assumed the distributor would have got wet and rusty inside. Yesterday I charged the battery and checked the distributor - everything looked OK inside, to my surprise. So I ran some oil through the engine, put some petrol in the tank, turned the key and it started. Ran it for twenty minutes till hot and all seems OK. It's a bit lumpy and dies away at tickover unless hot but I'll wash out bodyshop dust from the K&N filter next and check the tickover settings on the Weber that had been fitted. Next job to refit the windscreen wiper wheel boxes then move the later model accelerator pedal a little away from the brake pedal as suggested on the forum.

Thanks - no it doesn't clip securely. I'd return it but it has to be two years since I bought it. I'll have another look to see if I can improve it then may have to try SpitBitz or suchlike for an old OEM one.

Now that I've got the car back with its bonnet fitted I'm not too impressed by the bonnet stay I bought a couple of years ago - it doesn't really seem to lock well into place and I suspect that in any wind it might blow down. Other than a length of wood while I work on getting the car finished any thoughts for improving on this?

At last!

It keeps slipping every phone call but I hope this month and the photos prove progress!

Slower than I had hoped .......... but serious thanks due to TJR Bodyworx near Birmingham who picked up the baton from the previous non-doing restorers and are nearly finishing the re-spray.

I've already changed that slightly. Can easily adjust some more. Moving the pedal mounting holes is a far better idea than mine was to bend it..

Ah! Excellent, thanks.

The more we dig into these old cars. The PO's restorer of my Mk1 Spitfire had fitted a Weber carb and an absolute dogs dinner of an accelerator linkage modification, which jammed easily and may have been the reason the car and the tree met each other. I've now got a much better cable linkage running to the Weber and fitted what I think is a Mk3 or 4 accelerator pedal to connect it, the Mk1 pedal assembly not being suitable . So far so good. But the footpad on the new pedal is now closer to the brake pedal and clearance is very tight between accelerator pedal and brake pedal. I think if I can introduce a slight "S" bend in the pedal to move the footpad to the right an inch it will be OK for driving. Is the metal likely to be fairly easy to bend with heat applied carefully? I don't really want o change the mounting holes etc on the bulkhead.

Thanks Pete

Thank you. They are aluminium. I'll have send them away I guess.

I've salvaged my damaged Spitfire Mk1 grilles. Does anyone know what finish they had originally? Chrome, anodise paint??? None of the photos I can see on line are clear enough.

I've been back through the many boxes of parts I put away when dismantling the damaged bonnet and found the damaged ones. They look as if a bit of gentle forcefulness and maybe a bit of heat could get the visible part straight enough. This is the least damaged and I've made some progress.

Thank you Josef!

This may well be a forlorn hope but does anyone have a spare left and right front grille for a Mk1? Neil