Lora, the '67 Spitfire

[Piglet]

Apologies! Yes of course it's 12v. I blame the lateness of that hour lol. Ordering some now.

Alex

[Piglet]

Today revealed a few more issues. Oil leak for one. I have yet to own a Spitfire that didn't but there was no evidence of this when I first saw the car. It seems to be coming from the sump, either the gasket (oh oh) or the sump bolt...if the latter then it might just need a new copper washer. And the offside front coil is slightly twisted, though it works fine. Never seen that before. Plus the squeak is back from the bonnet so I bit the bullet and ordered a new latch. On the plus side I have fixed the number plate light! So a little bit of progress (sort of).

Alex

[NonMember]

10 hours ago, Piglet said:

And the offside front coil is slightly twisted

Do you mean the road spring is kinked? If so, that's normal, especially when jacked up.

Squeaking from the bonnet latch is also very common. Check the height of the rubber cone - a slight adjustment of the tension may help quite a lot.

[Pete Lewis]

bonnet squeaks are very often not the bonnet ,  

if the cup washers on the shocker top mount are worn the shocker shaft squeaks on the hole in the turret can be a right pain to locate without a lot

of  jumping and levering 

if you get an incessant  squeak when driving it will be the shocker top mount  not the bonnet 

bonnets give a rattle more than a squeak     took me ages to solve mine but got there in the end 

Pete

[Peter Truman]

one set of Herald Vitesse poly bush's I got had little lips/annulus's on them that located in the upper spring mount centre hole to ensure the shock top rod/spindle was correctly located thro the spring mount.

[dougbgt6]

Just a trivial thing for the bottom of the list. I notice bullet wing mirrors, very pretty, I have the same.  But are they convex or plain mirrors? Plain were absolutely useless until I replaced them with convex. £6 on Ebay.

Doug

[Piglet]

Pretty mirrors yes and totally useless. I had no idea you could replace the glass with convex! Do you have an eBay link? 

Good to hear the shock is okay though it does look a little odd. The nearside one is fine.

Bonnet squeak is the latch...well, I'm pretty sure it is. It wobbles about and I put a circlip in to stop it moving and that cured the noise...until the circlip fell out!

Still annoyed about that oil leak. I was seriously considering contacting the seller about this and a host of other things. One of his claims was that 'everything works'. It simply doesn't. However I do love the car dearly so I can live with her little foibles and will fix them as I go along. Not looking forward to taking the dash out and, of course, my new Haynes manual only shows how to do it on a MK4!

Alex

[Pete Lewis]

if you go searching oil leaks be aware the front bridge to cover the front  main is alloy   

there are long and short bolts on the sump  fit a long one into the bridge and they bottom out and strip .very common oil leak

also any gorilla hands on these will strip them quite easily 

so dont go wrenching  up the front  bolts  6lbft  is just a nice nip

steel bridges are available or some up to M8 or 3/8"unf   as a repair 

Pete

 

[Piglet]

Thanks Pete. I didn't know about the different length bolts so best to place them in order when removing! I'll try the sump bolt and washer first though. Hopefully the easy option might work.

Alex

[Peter Truman]

I’ve repaired several bridges with heli coils using the short thread inserts they work well I replaced ALL the threads just for longevity.

[Piglet]

I agree helicoils are very good. Done a few on bikes and all have worked perfectly.

Alex

[PeteH]

Hellicoil`s. They where even used in the factory!!, The first batch of a (very) expensive 9ft+ dia, dredger bearing ring, stripped several on assembly, the torque calculation had been wrongly calculated. The "official" rectification process, was to helicoil the entire ring!. And then use the correct torque. To my knowledge that ring was still in operation 40 years later!. In Poole Harbour.

Pete

[Piglet]

The saga continues and it's the usual one step forward and lots in reverse.  The new bonnet latch arrived, fitted perfectly and the squeak has gone for good! Went off for a celebratory espresso nearby, went to change into third and the clutch went down to the floor and stayed there. Thankfully some frantic leg action got it working again. Got home and decided to adjust the brake light setting on the pedal as they only work when you really shove your foot down and I noticed the door latch...oh dear. Gave up. Went inside and had a glass of red. I shall resume the normal chaos tomorrow.

Alex

 

[Josef]

Oh dear… I’d stick with treating that door check strap gently for now. I’m afraid that repairing that area is potentially pretty awkward. It might be possible to do it without removing the skin, damaging the paint visible from outside the car is likely though. From the photo you’ve definitely got rot through both of the layers of the shell and it extends under the top hinge plate at least.

However, it is an issue you can put up with, and nothing that should upset an MoT tester, so something to stick on the long term list  (If you were closer I’d say I’d take a look at it in the winter, as shown in my resto thread I’ve rebuilt much worse!)

[Ian Faulds]

It looks to me like metal fatigue. You'll need to take the door off cut that section out and weld in new metal. Take some reference positions for the hole from a decent door. 

[chrishawley]

The door strap is really important. If it lets go (as it's on the very cusp of doing) a freely swinging door can result in a lot of secondary damage (as well as being unsafe).

It's been subject to prior bodgery: There's evidence of prior use of a welder and there is recent paint on the edges of the ripped metal (i.e it's received paint with the failure already evident). Close inspection of the photo show not only rust crawling up behind the upper hinge plate but also a crack extending down behind the lower plate (again with paint in the crack). All repairable - but intricate and time consuming and potentially £££s if not DIY.

But before embarking on repairs I'd have a serious look at the front seam (door skin lip to door frame). It looks markedly decayed, but has been painted nonetheless. It may be that more general repair is needed or to source a door in better condition (do you have a paint code or paint name for the current colour of the car?)

On an easier note: Have you sorted the oil leak? If not, have you excluded a leak from crankshaft seal on the timing chain cover? Usually evident after a hot run and a teardrop may be visble, as the car cools, which may either drip to the ground or track around the sump gasket.

 

[Josef]

True @chrishawley, but I’d not put it in the ‘take the car off the road immediately category’. It will likely be rotten all the way inside as the double skin construction if the shell is a superb rust trap, and water can run in from the top. I was thinking the door skin looks like it has been replaced, but not very well crimped though. But you’re right, could be rotting out. 

[Piglet]

It's not pretty is it? I'm fairly confident a small plate could be knocked up to fit in there and then welded in. Not done the oil leak yet. I need to get her up on some ramps and degrease the engine first to see for sure where it's coming from. I did go for a drive today and did some emergency brake tests to try and bed in the (new) pads. Slightly better and yes they are green stuff ones. Also surprised to notice she has drilled discs. Not sure of the point in that. I've tried them on bikes (and wavey discs) and they make zero difference in the wet or dry. But it's nice to see that they are new. As are the hoses and the calipers look very good. Might try different pads and see what happens. 

Alex

[Pete Lewis]

ive only found green stuff is easy to clean the wheels but dont stop the car 

Doug says drilled discs are just ...noisy 

if you want braking  get some mintex1144 or similar on your wish list 

 

Pete

 

[NonMember]

I'm with Pete on the Green Stuff - my Vitesse was fitted with them when I bought her, and they were awful. I replaced them with nowt-but-very-ordinary (possibly even unbranded) that I had lying around and the brakes suddenly actually worked!

[Chris A]

3 hours ago, Pete Lewis said:

ve only found green stuff is easy to clean the wheels but dont stop the car 

 

58 minutes ago, Mathew said:

The green stuff in the 2500s were terrible.

Did they make the brakes all spongy?

Sorry, it's raining . . .

 

[Piglet]

Mintex it is then!  Found the right ones on eBay. Wow. is everything expensive on a Spitfire? 😀

Alex

[Piglet]

Edit that. Just bought the mirrors Doug suggested...not expensive at all.

Alex

[Pete Lewis]

get a tube of Mintex Ceratek  paste for the anti squeal back of the pads 

club shop sell M1144 for type 14 calipers not always the best price but good for comparing ££s and no fakes 

you must seriously bed in 1144 

 

 

Pete

 

[Josef]

Missed at first that the three lines for the different grades of pads were not the whole of the instructions. Thought 90mph bedding in instructions were a bit much for road pads! Belting up the inside lane and then breaking down to 30 a few times is unlikely to win many friends