Homersimpson

Depending on how much the tool costs could you just remove the hub and driveshaft assembley from the car and then use a press to push it apart? Most garages and engineering shops will have a press and i'm sure you would find someone to do this for you for a reasonable fee. Apologies if this isn't possible as i'm not yet familiar with the Spitfire rear hubs as I'm a Jag guy who is about to start his first Triumph restoration. I've had to do this on MK2 Jag rear hubs in the past when even the proper tool wouldn't touch it, they are quite hard to get off though as they need you to smash the brake disc apart on those to unbolt the end plate so the hub and halfshaft can be removed and then put in a press.

I think the issue is that we have people who had the cars when they were new and then those people who remember them because their dad/mum/uncle/neighbour/school teacher had one but they are all getting older (myself included), now the younger generation don't really know what they are and so are less interested. Coupled with the fact that we now live in a disposable society and people don't fix anything these days, especially something as complex as a car. I was talking in my office a few weeks back about putting some brushes in the motor of my mums washing machine and people were gobsmacked and couldn't understand why she didn't just buy a new one, the brushes where £15. The price of classic cars has gone up and the days of being able to buy one for a few hundred quid, do a small amount of work and drive around in nice looking car are behind us, now you need a lot more money to buy a classic and it will need a lot more work because they are older. I also think peoples expectations are higher which again increases the costs, people now want their classic to look as good as their new modern car with really good paint and panel gaps far in excess of what they were ever manufacturered to when new. One other thing is that older cars have less/no safety features and you need to concentrate a lot more when driving them. People now are used to front wheel drive cars with ABS, DSC etc. which keeps them all out of trouble and convinces a lot of them they are Lewis Hamilton, give them an old RWD car and a wet road with no electronic stabilit aids and most of them would be in the hedge before they got to their destination.

I'm not sure you should put epoxy on top of filler primer and ideally not even on top of existing paint. I've always put epoxy on bare metal and then filler primer on that (allowing the epoxy to dry for a week or so before the filler primer). It may have cracked because there is too much paint on the panel now or because its reacted with what you have underneath it. In these circumstances its better to take everything off back down to bare metal and start again as you don't want it to happen again once the top coat is on.

I have the Clarke 150TE which is basically the same as you don't use the top end of the welding power for normal car bodywork, i've had it a round 20 years and restored an S-Type Jag (1960's), two MK2 Jags, a VW Camper, a Frogeye Sprite plus loads of other welding with it and its been great. Only issue I had was the torch wasn't great and after a few restorations and about 10 years I changed it for a slightly bigger one which I think was called an MB14. I would also recommended the auto darkening helmet as it really helps. As mentioned above the most important thing is to get the metal really clean and i've also found that getting the gas quantity right is important as having too little makes the weld poor.

Thanks very much thats a grear start, i'm just finishing off a few minor bits on one of the Jags and then will be moving it to my mums and will start bring up bits of the Spitfire and no doubt will have a lot more questions then!

Thanks for all the helpful advice, looking at pictures of Spitfires a lot of them seem to have a large gap between the bonnet and scuttle/doors, is there a reason for this or is this just the result of the original build quality from BL? Are there any mechanical bits that are difficult/hard to disassemble and rebuild, any nuts/bolts that always snap or give trouble etc? On the MK2 Jag the rear hubs are an absolute pain to get off and if you don't have the special puller its a case of luck, heat and/or a big press!

Thanks very much for the reply, I did wonder about the sills as they seem substantial on the car and the chassis has nothing on the sides so I assumed they were structural. I guess once i've checked the chassis dimensions the best thing to do would be bolt the body back on to do the repairs so its all one unit? If anyone is interested these were my last two restorations: https://imgur.com/OCscXhs https://i.imgur.com/ruKMvUn.jpg I did all the welding, body work, paint etc. on both and to give an idea of how bad they were, this was the drivers side wing on the blue one (used to be beige) that was repaired not replaced (wings are around 2.5K which is well outside of my budget!). https://i.imgur.com/LYiRlyj.jpg

Just to add it seems to have been repainted in a brighter shade of yellow than the original, I assume its now Inca yellow or something similar.

Back in 2014 I was picking up a part for a friends car from someone near where I live when I noticed (couldn't really miss it!) a bright yellow spitfire bodyshell in his front garden. The shell looked to be in reasonably good condition and upon enquiry it seemed he had bought it, stripped it down and then didn't really know what to do next so just left it. After a bit of negotiation it was purchaed and transported to my parents house where my dad and brother helped me put the shell up on some tressles in the garage with all the bits it came with pilled in and around it and there it has sat since. At the time I was in the middle of restoring a MK2 Jag and when that was finished l bought and restored another MK2 Jag for reasons that are still not entirely clear to me! Fast forward to 2023 and the second Jag is complete and i'm thinking about the Spitfire, my knowledge of Triumphs is very (very) limited and although i've restored dozens of cars over the years i've never done one with a seperate chassis. As the car came in bits I don't know if I have all of it but it seems to be reasonably complete, no doubt though some bits are broken/missing as the guy who stripped it was a bit heavy handed. Does anyone have any tips on things that I should be aware of that are specific to these cars, known weak points (body and mechanical) requiring extra scrutiny etc? All advise, tips etc. greatfully recieved. Sadly I don't have any picture of it, the best I can do at the moment is a photo of the rear wing from when I was moving another car out of the garage, hopefully I will dig it out soon and make a start. https://i.imgur.com/UaX1DFm.jpg