DVD3500

So French chalk is the chalk that gives up at the first sign of aggression...? (sorry...)

My wife has that knack ... granted the answer is always "you're wrong" but worded in "we could do it that way but how about..." 🙂

I had a post from him on Monday that he is doing fine (his wife's funeral was on 9 April I think) but there was a post on Facebook today about leaving NGH/NGH (whatever that is... maybe a hospital...?) for home so he is around just not moving quickly...

My favorite is leaving the light on in the kitchen because "I'll be back there in a minute"... Mythbusters showed you are wasting electricity but letting it burn.. granted, LED ligths are a lot better but its the principle...

Mark Field (of Jigsaw) is still selling parts... You can contact hime in Facebook or eBay as r-lemans spitfire I think...

Washing your car in your drive is illegal in most places in Germany. (it always amazes me how the average German seems to know what is and isn't legal).... When I asked why they said because it would hurt the water table. In the US my Dad used the old oil on a lot of things like treating fence posts, borders around the garden and as lubricant for things like the lawn mower etc. We almost never dumped the oil directly into the ground (though accidents do happen). We also had our own water well (i.e. we were not hooked up to any city water works) and our own sump out back. So anything we dumped in the ground went straight to our drinking water (we did have a water softener and the salt did absorb some bad stuff...). I asked my geology teacher about the risks and he had a nice scale model of how the earth filters things. He could modify it to represent different types of ground, rock etc. He put 100 ml of oil (which on a scale must have been something like 100 liters) in the top and added water and we waited and tested the water that came out the bottom. The impurities were barely measurable. So in a country where the cars get checked regularly and leaky oil less than pubescent teenager I highly doubt it is an environmental catastrophe if you wash your car. IN fact, the water likely flows into the sewer, which is sent to the water purification plant and then dumped back into nature... Needless to say before I started tearing my Spitfire apart I did wash it in the driveway because there was no way to move it (no motor or gearbox) and I did not get a citation. I had a bottle of dishwashing detergent in the open but used car wash soap so if something said something about the soap I could say it was the same stuff you do your dishes with. 🙂 I consider myself very green. I use solar heating for water even though it will never amortize in my lifetime. I ride my bike everywhere. I am draconian about turning lights off and try to stay abreast of new technology advancements but I realize things have to remain practical and realistic hence whey I highly doubt a few people washing their cars is going to kill us all...

My sister-in-law (German) works regularly in Switzerland. She has been asked multiple times to be a "mule" and bring things over the border. DHL also has these "Packstations" that are essentially PO boxes out in the open (usually next to supermarkets) and the ones on the German side of the Swiss border are full all the time. To be able to use one you have to have a German address so she has also been asked to be a "mule" of sorts for that as well... I hope to re-visit the UK in year or so when this is all over. I regularly attended the "Slot Fest" in Gaydon in the past (I wish the was a ladder or something so I could get a proper look at the "last" Spitfire). It is of course out of pure curiosity that I measured my suitcases to see what parts of a Spitfire would fit in them.... Oh and the space where the spare tire should be is the same shape and depth as a diff.... what a coincidence!

In a world where people easily spend a grand of their favorite currency on a device that they will likely throw out in 3 year's time I find 26-30 of my favorite currency to keep a part worth several hundred of my favorite currency alive a bargain!

It was under the trunk/boot because I discovered it dangling there and I pulled it through the rubber grommit from inside the boot/trunk...

I just took out the tank of my '72 MKIV and there is a short goose-neck shaped piece of pipe from the tank to the fuel line that goes all the way to the front...

I thought Dinky only Made the MKII Spitfire?

Cool idea!

Only if you get caught...

I wave at total strangers all the time. Usually goes ever well... unless they are taking a shower.

It's a site that will bid on your behalf in very last half a millisecond before an auction ends. While, in theory, they shouldn't work because if everyone puts in the highest bid they are willing to spend then the "highest bidder" would always win but in reality by "sniping" people can "undercut" other bidders. The sites give you tools like by how much to increase if your initial bid doesn't win etc. In my experience at least here in Germany not many parts go up for auction and when they do they usually are asking sky-high prices. When you ask they claim the item is "worth" that much but it is hard to accept that when a brand new item is sometimes within 10% of their asking price and sometimes lower. Granted, the glut of sub-par "OEM" or "Original" parts could mean that a good used bit of kit is better than something "new" but in a lot of cases I doubt it. As I only recently joined a few clubs I can't really speak to whether the internet has made things better or worse. I can speak for my other hobby slot car racing (Scalextric to most of you) and that while it has seen a massive upswing in recent times 99.76% of the questions asked are the same ones over and over and over again and they usually get asked on platforms with no or poor search functions meaning the "longevity" of any responses is lost in the ether like so much methane from a group of cows in a pasture. I went on a rant online recently berating people for not using two synapses to try to figure things out for themselves. The backlash made me laugh. I was accused of being "elitist" because I told people how to help themselves. I tried eventually to try to get banned on purpose but it never happened. In fact, a few days later a few people contacted me privately and thanked me because they could figure things out on their own. There has always been a disproportion of "take" to "give" on any platform but when people show absolutely no interest in trying to figure things out themselves (and especially if things are so poorly worded I can't understand what they are saying) I get very grumpy. There are parallels in the two past times in that you have to have a modicum of an interest in cars and there are lots of ways to resolve the same problem. Real cars though tend to do more damage than a slot car when it comes off the track though.... I personally don't think it's an either or situation. My Mom is in charge of the public relations for a Jazz Club and she spends most of her time promoting things on social media. Where I think clubs fail is they only post about events or the odd question. Most clubs have newsletter or magazine and the same type of editorial process has to go into your social media presence. The advantage of the online world is interaction and I think this gets overlooked a lot. Each printed article should have a link or QR code to a place where the topic can be discussed online. Will people discuss ? Not every time. But when they do it gives you a "pulse" of what that chat is about. An online presence can also be used to promote or inform things that happen adhoc. We seem to have drifted far from the MG / Triumph topic...

Gosh... when I started this thread I didn't expect it to go in this direction but I am glad it did! Being not yet 50 I grew up with computers and my first job after high school was actually Internet -based. So I played a lot of video games and I actually watched the whole online world evolve. There are many points I could make here about whether or not the Internet is killing off interest in classic cars (I personally don't think so, at least, not directly), low membership as well as thing such as swap meets etc. but I need time to gather my thoughts...

Would that we would always greet every human with kindness... what a world that would be, eh? For me Triumph is also a lot about the "what could have been" like the Fury or even a Stag that had been less of a bother to maintain. I also prefer the styling of Triumphs. I feel they are much more unique than even Austin Healeys or MGs but maybe I haven't seen enough of them...

In another forum there was a discussion about MG vs Triumph specifically Spitfire vs MGB. I have never owned an MGB bit I never saw any at a racing event where they seemed to do very well! (SCCA and European sports car) I have to admit I don't know MG that well but I know Triumph from many books and videos and I always got the impression that Triumph did extremely well under extreme circumstances. Maybe MG did as well.... I don't know... I do know that before they were thrown together there was fierce rivalry for market share but I don't know what MG had over Triumph (if anything)... Did MG make saloons? Did they rally? Just curious I guess... no agenda and no need to start a feud...

I actually picked up something like that in France for 1€... Thanks for the tips!

600GBP is cheaper than a respray though... isn't it?

Thanks! I have an official manual (in German) as well as Haynes and the Restoration Guide... I getting a 50/50 split on whether to take the glass out first or last...

Thanks... so you are suggesting glass out first? Spitfire's don't have quarterlights I think...

My '72 Spitfire is almost completely naked. The plan is to remove everything and acid dip the body and chassis as we have no clue if rust is hiding the frame or inside the sills etc. While I know how to take out the locks, handles windows etc. I have only ever done this to repair something and put it straight back in again. As the parts all have to come out and will be out for weeks, maybe months I am trying to figure out if there is an ideal order I should take them out and also how to be sure none of the small, fragile parts get lost or broken. The biggest question is when to remove the glass... Should it be done first, last, in between? Am I overthinking this?!

I have the "California Air" and Kas Kastner Cup 2015 DVDs and I really wish could have met him. He was all about fair, open competition. Something missing in a lot of (formula) sports these days. I also love "never let the equipment beat you" comment/attitude.

The filler cap is attached to the tank by a short piece of hose. There are hose clamps holding the cap to the hose and the hose to the tank ...