Spitfire Mk3 Petrol Tank Board Dimensions / Pattern

[Josef]

As @Piglet wanted dimensions etc for building a petrol tank cover, here's some photos and dimensions of my original. Thought I'd post them publicly as chances are someone might find them useful in the future. The oil bottles are in order to keep it as flat as possible as it's pretty distorted... Alex I'd definitely suggest measuring the captive nut brackets on the car and drilling the holes to match. I drilled them to match the ones on the old trim board, but some of the brackets then weren't quite in the right place.

[Piglet]

Brilliant. Thanks Josef!

Alex

[Badwolf]

This is the one from my MkIV, which looks pretty similar

[Josef]

My guess was that the top of the board would’ve been straighter cause of the flatter rear deck of the squaretail. But looks more like the only difference is the hole for the boot courtesy light. 

[NonMember]

2 hours ago, Josef said:

the flatter rear deck of the squaretail.

How much flatter is it, in reality? The roundtail rear deck isn't very curved.

[DanMi]

I think that the deck panel is the same, a round top hardtop will fit a square and vice versa. As for the lower cut-outs I would measure against what is actually there as the pipes and mounts may not be in the original locations if boot floor has been replaced ( mine has been replace twice now)

[Josef]

The rear deck panels have three different part numbers that I can find. Early and late roundtail, and squaretail. There is a slight curve to the roundtail one with the dip down towards the outer edge to match the top of the wings, late cars are flat(ter) especially on that outer edge. There is definitely a slight radius to the top of the petrol tank cover, but I assume whatever internal structure there is remained similar enough not to need a redesign of that bit of trim. 

[NonMember]

3 hours ago, Josef said:

The rear deck panels have three different part numbers that I can find. Early and late roundtail, and squaretail.

Well yes, of course, because the early to late roundtail have different hood fixings, and the squaretail has different hinges.

However, you're right that the Mk4 rear deck continues the single curvature to the wing seam, whereas the earlier one bumps up a little.