Peter Truman

Yep the most stupid of things catch us out, needed 9 stitch’s on the side of my hand because Whilst using the bench grinder the small vice that sits on the drill press plate started to fall off went to grab it missed and sliced the top and side of hand little blood just very jagged around 1.5 in long. Murphy is always there just waiting for an opportunity to wreak havoc! Wimpus hope all goes well and sorry to hear about your accident but I must admit when using angle grinder I do now glove up and glass’s, even a Dremmel cutting disc sometimes fail by the disc tearing on the spindle and flying off.

Magnetic good idea how about gluing a fridge magnet to one side of the inside face.

I find I pump enough EP90 thro the trunnions it oils the bush’s too but the again I don’t live with the English weather. I do find the poly can squeak in a dry summer ever with initially using the black assembly grease

I can't find the previous thread anywhere but someone was looking for the later original fitment Spit Seat Belt Plastic Holders, I came across these 2 units on a USA ebay site, item 334415056563, postage ain't cheap but overall not too expensive if you want originality. I'll attach a copy of the ad/item hope I'm not breaking the rules, pls forgive me but I work on theory that someone will be interested!

Lets face it Pete your doing the job right and I for one really appreciate your attention to detail and your weekly updates ensuring Katie will be better than new and go on for years with just ongoing maintenance, remember the saying no one does the job better than you! you can be very proud of the job your doing

Heat transfer from the exhaust manifold to inlet? the Spit 1500 has two such bolted lugs between the cast iron exhaust and alloy inlet manifolds. I don't think it has anything to do with structural support of the manifolds, the Mk2 Vitesse has no such lugs or boss's, and its a lot heavier. When I built up a 1500 engine for the daughters Mk2 Spit (not fitted yet) the exhaust manifold lugs fouled the inlet manifold boss's rotating the inlet manifold up, so I had to trim the inlet boss's back and left a gap that I could fit an adjusted washer in the gap so there was no undue stress.

Looking at the two photos the bracket appears to be in different locations ie above and below the manifold lug, On aside I Never liked those inlet to exhaust joints as when tightened unless there an engineered fit they must try and rotate their manifold to head joint.

good luck, I think the hound is saying "What have you done Dad, don't think I'll fit the back seat!!"

Daughters Spit was only earthed thro throttle and choke cables when we got it, now got a good earth from a bell housing top bolt to a bulkhead bolt, a short length

Here's my pennyworth from my 68 Mk2 Vitesse, which I've had 52 years. Now I've not modified the cable inner or outer sheath in any way I have replaced the original thin rubber washer under the brass bulkhead ring clip with a cable grommet, so I've obviously drilled the hole thro the bulkhead slightly larger. Why did I fit the cable grommet so as to stop any water ingress thro the bulkhead and better grip locate the brass clip which is locked/crimped to the outer sheath. The cable is original, note how much of the outer sheath protrudes into the cabin right down to the top of the pedal, also note how long the brass locating ring/sleeve is it protrudes quite a way thro the bulkhead. I modified my daughters Mk2 Spit throttle from rod and lever to bike cable and the later MkIV/1500 pedal eons ago, I used a similar cable grommet thro the horizontal bulkhead and crimped on a retaining clip to stop the outer cable pulling thro, I left around 1in free inner cable from the outer sheath to the to the pedal cable mounting. Colin ref your earlier bulkhead and the tube/nipple fixture, do you want to retain the earlier bulkhead style on the later 13/60 model or retain the cars 13/60 theme, I think I'd cut off the nipple close to the bulkhead and drill out its remainder from the bulkhead & modify to the later type cable setup with a good length of the outer sleeve protruding into the cabin, whether all the way to the pedal etal my Vitesse or as you see fit, There's plenty of ways to lock a locating clip on the outer sheath, you could remove a short length of the plastic outer protection and solder a retaining ring on, or crimp/dimple the ring on, or maybe a simple cable tie to the outer sheath but that's a bit heath robinson!

Yes from memory the reinforcing plate is handed it’s not a proper rectangle only goes in one way & fits neatly

The anti burst catch’s come up on eBay quite regularly either as seperate parts ie the male hooks or female catch’s but the inner door strengthening plates that the female catch’s bolt to are seldom seen the plate is around 3 in wide and is as wide as the rear door face with 2 captive nuts in it. My 62 conv tear tub (Aus CKD) had dimples on it where to locate the hook but my 68 Vitesse Mk2 saloon doors had no tell tale indication where to mount the female locating catch.

I give up gracefully! Anyway she looks after the money and gives me my pocket money as I need it.

I get a handful every time SWMBO goes to the Chanel shop here but it costs dearly! Amazing what makeup costs

Sliding wedge looks as if it’s jammed to !

If you extend membership to grumpy old fogeys I’m in!

I always use Girlock for brake & clutch slaves even buying from a reputable UK supplier, Due to NOS I strip them down and remove the dried out rubber grease, pull the seals off check for seal flexibility and no cracking/damage clean the bore and reassemble then fit, never had an issue. On rear brake slaves you know that the Girlock recess is deep enough for the handbrake lever pin not to foul the backplate. On clutch masters I and other members here have used new aftermarket trailer master cylinders $25 vs well over a hundred from normal suspects, or 120 for sleeving, & none of us that I know have had a problem with the cheapies. The Mk2 Vitesse has the original clutch and brake masters but both have been SS sleeved. The pistons were a bit tarnished but cleaned up, it's the seal that does the work. I've been using Silicon brake fluid over 15 years it's not an issue, tho I have changed it once and silicon wasn't to dirty, so seals appear to have been compatible.

I think something like that to mount the older style Kenlowe electric fan, had something similar in the late 60’s

It’s the one that the needle goes spinning around as you descend far too quickly anticipating a crash well that’s what happens in the films.

Same on daughters Spitfire, brought a Lucas replacement ex UK eBay when postage was cheap, Lucas made in Taiwan, Ha but on checking it against the original as well made and exactly same construction. A couple of months later we were in Taiwan attending my sons local wedding to a Taiwanese lass, whose dad was VP in a large engineering & manufacturing company, we got to know the Co Pres very well and because a video of the Aus wedding was shown at the wedding where a fleet of club Triumphs were used for the bridal fleet we discussed the indicator switch and assuming the item had been thro 3 wholesalers at 100% profit each the item must have cost under $5 to produce, his comment was we can build/copy anything for a price BUT the difference between poor quality and good ie fit for purpose really wasn't that much! They produce power tools for a lot of the top quality names, as well as unaligned products, during Covid they were shipping over 500 containers weekly to the USA full of state of the art exercise equipment, running 2 shifts daily.

Or layback Irish! I have a Vac gauge never fitted it because its too active and I'd get bored quickly trying to work out what it should be doing, & I'd never change my driving technique anyway! A Co I did some consulting to had a fleet of Prius Hybrids the centre LCD screen pictorially showed the mode of drive ie electric, ICE driving the gen to electric motor and power train activity all very dangerous as you looked at it all the time and bluntly too much info!

Ref comments about keeping with the original mech fan or go electric I suppose it depends on where you live, here in Aus on a hot day OR in traffic the slow mech fan is inadequate and sitting in a traffic jam with foot on the throttle keeping the engine at around 1800rpm so the fan runs at higher revs to help cooling is a pita, where as the electric fan is fast and more efficient with more cfm output. A few years ago we were in the Spit in a traffic jam for 45min on a peninsula freeway heading home from the beach on a 40C day, fortunately we were getting some shade from the gum trees along the roadside, but there was no way with just a mech fan we wouldn't have boiled but the electric fan (in those days hand on off only) controlled the car temp, but the gauge did get up to near hot, mind you we were bl***y hot too. I'm always envious of those in Merc's BMW's etc with their hoods down and air cons on full blast, seems odd but is the best of both worlds!

I brought a kit locally here in Aus consisting of the temp sensor switch (82C), relay,a make break thermal switch & wiring plus Pete’s hated scotch lock for $24 here delivered its fitted to the daughters Mk2 Spit with a manual over ride switch in parallel works a treat! I subsequently brought 2ea spare temp switch’s 79c and 84C just in case they were not good quality but pulling one to pieces I’m totally happy with their construction. So the conversion is relatively cheap.

Prefer our model, much more exciting Aussie 12/50 Coupe by AMI (Aus Motor Industries), note chrome bumpers too!

I repaired one with new brush's, all was ok till I really tightened the two long bolts up and it bound the rotation of the motor, slackening off a little but still tight it was OK, have it as a spare as I switched to a Isuzu model high torque reco starter around $100, very happy with the conversion.