Peter Truman

You can convert to a top hung pedal eg Spitfire Style I believe it’s been done by some

Ultimate loading is a 2lt Vitesse full lock wonder how many trunnions have been broken that way!

Hey we’re kosha too, basically those living island who can remain isolated from the hoarding mobs & can remain RHD.

The daughter Spitfire Mk2 US Robbins vinyl soft top is nearly 20 years old now & whilst not leaking it is getting a little raggy around the front windscreen sealing pocket esp at the ends. I could get it repaired, but I also have a NOS, but old now vinyl Robbins Mk3 folding soft top. Looking at it the modification necessary at the rear to fit the steel bar to slot into the two chrome rear panel anchor lugs should be easy and there is enough loose and spare vinyl at the front to make the seal bar pockets which fit under the upper windscreen frame aluminum lip. Has anyone done such a conversion/modification and if so what if any are the pitfalls? I had intended to convert the hood arrangement to a full Mk3 folding arrangement and over the years I've collected all the parts eg to fit a Mk3 folding frame, header, clamps and hood onto a Mk2 except the inner panel of the B pillars which require a different profile and anchor plate to mount the Mk3 folding frame onto it. In retrospect I just think this is an unnecessary amount of buggering around compared to modifying the hood itself. Any advice would be welcome Peter T

There’s a Maccas ad on tv here just like that, chap walks past rubbish on the nature strip see’s a side light on an old table writes $2 on it some one stops and buys it he then buggers off to Maccas for a $2 burger!

Re the GT heater esp the demisters has the dash top been recovered the early Spit & GT had the same windscreen frame and the daughters Spit had the dash top recovered when we got it on one wet club run I’d shut the cabin heater vents putting all the heater air to the windscreen, there was no effect. A bit of a bugger to manually keep the screen clear on the 200klm home run. When I got the car into the garage and dried out dropped the hood I looked down from the top of the windscreen with a small torch and to my surprise the vinyl dash cover had not been cut under the demister vent. I obviously with great difficulty due to the windscreen rake got a razor style knife thro the demister slot and cut it, Ithen with greater difficulty removed the demister covers and with a seriously bent small electric soldering iron blade carefully melted the vinyl along where I’d cut the slot. The hardest job was yet to come putting the demister covers back all very tight and you have to hold the demister trumpet below the dash in place whilst you put the screws back. In retrospect probably easier to remove windscreen glass or even the full windscreen frame. I’d love a GT6 but at a bulky 6ft 2 once in I’d be in it for life! I drive my mates E Type conv/roadster quite a bit and with the small doors, very wide sills, and ridiculous short leg room that’s quite a challenge, but hopefully his medical condition will improve so I don’t have to continue being a contortionist. By comparison getting into and out of the daughtersMk2 Spit is easy just have to take my hat off and comb my hair every time, and once in the leg room is fantastic, I can easily drive 3 hrs without a break.

When we first got my daughters Mk2 Spit 20 years ago the engine sat to high at the front just clearing the bonnet and the top hose wouldn’t align, it took me couple of years of measuring and research to determine it had Herald front turrents not Spit, I couldn’t find the offside one in Aus, but I happened to be walking the dog over the over side of Dingley Village at the hard rubbish time and low and behold I passed a house where I knew a chap had previously had a Spit and low and behold there was a RH turret on the rubbish. I grabbed it hoping it wasn’t a Herald/Vit/GT6 version got it home measured the engine mount offset Yipee it was a Spit turret. Had it powder coated red and fitted, engine dropped down so all aligned, sometimes the stars just align up! And for nix too. I’m not usually that lucky!

Our beagle dog Baron was a bugger at crawling under the car when I was working on it and pinching my spanners then he'd race off and bury them, easy enough to find, but wasted a lot of time, I reckon he came back from the after life and taught the rottie Nelson, but he buried them deeper! Baron would also pick up the 2.7lb lump hammer (pipe lead jointing caulking hammer) and run round with that by the handle thumping you in the shins as he ran past, I'm sure he had a laugh on his mouth, Got Ya! Still got the lump hammer with his teeth marks on the handle end, and TVCWB (Tees Valley & Cleveland Water Board) burnt into the handle.

Here some councils once a year have a hard rubbish collection where you can put your bigger rubbish out for them to collect eg old TV's, fridges, BBQ's, 3 piece suits, carpets, beds, kids toys, car rubbish (got rid of old wheels, gearbox casings etc), except tyres & building material, the total size that your allowed to put out is relatively large 4mts long by 1mt square. My two kids usually bring their rubbish over and put on our pile! There's a continuous stream of illegal hawkers trawling round picking the best parts out (interesting seeing we're supposed to be in Covid lockdown & curfew), before the council pick up what's left. One mans junk is another's treasure! Whilst it's illegal to pick thro, we locals don't normally object if they leave it tidy. We currently have a pick up next Monday the 2mt high mains pressure hot water heater has already gone, must remember NOT to park either the Vitesse or Sprint on the nature strip! Ha! Also I've opportunetly replaced all the old grubby carpet tiles from under the cars in the garage with new and the old ones have gone out, 4 stacks each around 750 high, job well done!

he could of replaced the door card with plywood and stained it but even then the self tappers in cup washers would still have been over the top!!

The std alloy spacers frequently come up on ebay

I used a Holden/Isuzu Rodeo/Trooper Hi Torque starter the spacer had to be reduced to nearly half normal thickness as per the US Telglizer website modification all works well at a very reasonable cost around. $200 or 100 quid UK.

No fun running out of brakes due to boiling, it happened to me in the early 70's in the Mk2 Vitesse crossing the St Goddard Pass and doing battle with a Alfa, he finely nailed me coming down on a straight section. I limped into Como and after booking into the hotel I took the car to the RR garage next door to get the brakes and steering sorted, left the car with them overnight they changed the brake fluid and bled the brakes, and welded a bolt onto the sheared U bolt that holds the rack, they wouldn't change me, saying they'd get it back on the next Rolls service! The owner asked who won, I told him the Alfa on the way down, I'd held him off all the way up and most of the way down the pass, he said I hadn't tried hard enough, he'd taken the Vitesse home overnight and was very impressed with it's easy revving good torque and roadholding, great car for driving the alps. I then dropped a UJ in the tunnel at Monte Carlo, being a smart arse, well the GP had only finished a week earlier, and I gave the car some real wellie when I entered the tunnel, now that repair did cost me a lot, only a UJ, but the Frenchie garage in Nice charged 50quid!

Cars in Canada have a built in engine emersion heater & usually owners have a stand alone electric fan heater which is switched on to heat the car before driving off in the morning, its a coooold country, & why I live in Australia!

Re the felt hub seals somewhere in the past I read when fitting new ones soak them in oil for a couple of days, then squeeze the surplus oil out and leave compressed for a period (I left a week) then fit and reassemble hub and adjust, this process worked for me.

I fitted permanent grease nipples to the Vitesse 50 years ago and used to bugger around emptying the wanner of grease, filled it with diff oil “oil them trunnions” then empty the wanner of oil and refill with grease what a faff that was, so around 15 years ago I removed the spring and ball from the 45 degree grease nipples and converted an old lever oil can with a grease gun hydraulic nozzle filled it with diff oil and easy peasy now to pump clean oil thro both the Vit and Spit trunnions then to seal the grease nipple I simply push on a cut down plastic emission small bore pipe soft plastic sealing caps which stay in place to the next service. I have noticed after 15 years the caps are getting hard so I’ll need to check my stock of spare or buy some new ones and replace them a few cents only. Oh I’ve also soldered the bottom sealing washers to the brass trunnions body to stop the oil draining out over time ie so there’s a reservoir of oil kept in the trunnions.

I use Irwin pozidrive/phillips bits in the impact drill and they last well even with my abuse! just put hundreds of screws in the back fence palings where the nails have walked out!

Seconded for Mick Dolphin, always helpful and will put you in contact with some else if he can't help.

I recently upgraded to the poly bush's in the std insulated joint can't advise if any better due to Lockdown No.6. PeteH I know the UJ joints are probably all metal thereby hopefully providing some earthing across it, but shouldn''t there be a earth wire across the two bolts to ensure a good earth for the horn, similar to the insulated joint, the rack itself has it's own earth strap/wire to the body even tho' it's of all metal construction, maybe belt and braces.

I did some lateral thinking re what other cars might have used Type 14’s and came up with Marina and Escort/Capri/Cortina so I found a set of Escort calipers in Sydney after checking with the Gumtree seller mounting lugs correct and pistons same dimensions so at the price of $45 the pair they were worth the risk. They arrived yesterday externally quite clean but couldn’t move the pistons even with compressed air so had to revert to the grease gun using a modified bleed nipple internally threaded to take a UNF 1/8in grease nipple ex UJ, process worked well pistons pushed out piston bores OK but some heavy rust on the bottom which has cleaned up. getting the grease out has taken some effort but in practice the pressure the old Wanner develops does the job! might have to space the disc off the hub to get the offset correct 1/16 to 1/8in should work. But I need to check if the later Spit upright with 3 bolts has the same mounting offset as the earlier Type 12 Herald seperate mounting bracket. Now to buy a set of 4 pistons and seals to reco the calipers, I found some for around $100. Well it’s keeping me occupied during our current lock down.

On the Vitesse I just unclip the dizzy cap pull it forwards and use the std 1/2in drive spark plug socket

Here too, the roads were sprayed we always had black feet when down at the beach house in summer, it was done to keep the dust down.

Yep in the mid 60's & early 70's living in the NE of England I kept the oil change oils and once a year plugged the 2 heralds we had & later Vitesse chassis drain holes pumped the old oil into the chassis frame box's then drove up onto the York Moors near Osmotherly pulled the plugs out and let the oil drain out, well there was peat up there on them moors, so it was earth to earth and all that!

I always understood/thought it was the quickest way to a divorce was to get SWMBO to operate the pedal when bleeding the brakes or clutch, very challenging, down, sorry I let it off, BUG88r! Start Again! Eons ago I had trouble starting the lawn mower so I got the wife to hold the plug to earth with a screwdriver whilst I pulled the starter cord, I told her to hold the driver by the handle, but her finger was in contact with the shaft ZAPP! well you'd think I had tried to kill her. My close friend did similar with a car, but thinking the plug lead was insulated got his wife to hold the lead, similar reaction, but she's a lot more vocal than my wife being a British Sgt Major's daughter, she may be small but can she bark!

Wonder what the Triumph car said to the Rover both being born on the same assembly line, seeing they were arch enemies!