1975 Spitfire 1500 Restoration

[Anglefire]

1 hour ago, Radiation Man said:

Those new wheels look pretty decent, nice to see something other than minilights!

I like my Minilights!

Does look good though Carl

[Conor L]

On 08/11/2020 at 20:38, Bordfunker said:

Conor, that is looking amazing.

Great to see it all coming back together.

Really liking the wheels.

Karl

Thanks Karl can't believe all the positive feedback much appreciated! its been 1 long slog just nice to be able to put all the shiny bits back on turning  a dream into reality.

23 hours ago, Anglefire said:

I like my Minilights!

Does look good though Carl

I was thinking minlights at 1 point either black like yours or gunmetal they do suit the Spit probably why they are popular just fancied something different from the norm.

[Conor L]

Got a couple of questions and need some advice, me and my glamorous assistant are going to attempt to fit the windscreen this Friday morning (thankfully she's a car girl so always willing to help out haha) anyway I've been doing a little research into this seems like the easiest way of doing it is by using paracord to pull the seal over the edge of the frame as someone is pushing down on the screen, what I'm a bit unsure about is how thick the paracord is meant to be in order to do this? as previously mentioned we are also going to be fitting the plastic chrome trim which I have read can be a PITA, I know its supposed to be easier to fit before fitting the screen into the car just wondering if anyone can forward some advice in order to tackle this. Lastly I'm searching for a replacement fuel tank and the original decided to spring a leak during Lockdown 1 I have seen that you can buy reproduction tanks however are they any good or will I be better off buying a good 2nd hand 1? sorry for all the waffle sometimes just cant help myself haha.

Conor

[NonMember]

It's more than 25 years since my GT6 had its windscreen re-fitted, so the memory's a bit hazy. I do recall that the "standard" method is to start with the string ends at the top and push the screen upward, but the chap who fitted mine only succeeded after he twigged that it's much easier, on a Mk3 GT6 or Mk4 Spitfire, to start with the cord at the bottom. Lower the screen in so that the bottom lip of the seal is properly located, then push it against the frame as you pull the cord to fold the rest of the lip round. The bottom edge is too inaccessible to do it the other way.

On fuel tanks, I had to replace mine recently (Mk3, so not quite the same plumbing but compatible tank). Initially I bought a "good second hand" one but when cleaned up it proved to be full of holes. I then bought a new reproduction one. As a tank, it's fine, but it needed several modifications to make it fit. The flanges are too large, the fixing holes are in the wrong places, and the filler neck is too long.

[Conor L]

Brilliant thanks for the info Rob much appreciated will have to wait and see what Friday brings hopefully things will go smoothly! It does seem that all of the claimed "good" 2nd tanks available at the moment look rough don't mind doing some modifications to a new 1 to make it fit just don't want any leaks.

[Conor L]

Yesterday morning my lovely assistant came over to help fit the windscreen into the car (thanks again Lucy) and unfortunately things didn't go as well as we hoped, rewind to Tuesday evening I dug the windscreen out cleaned off the old sealant and wrestled the new COH  Baines seal  on to it in the hope that it'll form itself around the screen making it a bit easier to fit, in my mind, whilst I was there I put the rope into the groove ready to go, Friday morning I got the car out the garage brought the screen down and attempted to fit the plastic chrome trim, wow what a pain using plenty of lubricant and patients I could get the sod to go on especially around the corners, then my assistant arrived and we set about trying to install the screen, I sprayed around the rubber with lubricant and following Robs advice we set the screen in place at the bottom of the frame and I started pulling the rope out over the lip while Lucy was pushing/bashing the screen down. this seemed to be working until we got about half way up both A pillars for some reason the outer lip of the seal started tucking under on itself we did manage to pull it out but when I started pulling the rope again it became very tight and the seal tore... Fuming!! so we pushed the car into the garage and went for a walk instead. Just trying to think up ideas of what we did wrong maybe lack of experience fitting windscreen may be to blame. A good mate of mine has offered to help as he has fitted windscreens before in his 40 year career so fingers crossed we can get it sorted. 1 good thing I can takeaway from this is that at least we didn't break the glass. aside from this more progress has been made which I shall update later.

Conor

[Pete Lewis]

you need to use a 3mm woven sash cord  type to string it in  and plenty of soft soap 

a corse rope/string will grip the flip and yes a tear is likely  so a nice smooth woven string is best

Pete

[Conor L]

On 14/11/2020 at 19:23, Pete Lewis said:

you need to use a 3mm woven sash cord  type to string it in  and plenty of soft soap 

a corse rope/string will grip the flip and yes a tear is likely  so a nice smooth woven string is best

Pete

Thanks for the info Pete much appreciated as always fingers crossed me and my mate will have better luck.

[Colin Lindsay]

On 14/11/2020 at 19:23, Pete Lewis said:

you need to use a 3mm woven sash cord  type to string it in  and plenty of soft soap 

a corse rope/string will grip the flip and yes a tear is likely  so a nice smooth woven string is best

Pete

Or electrical cable from an old wiring loom; the outer coating helps avoid damage too. It should not require massive amounts of pulling, just a gentle, firm and most importantly slow regular movement should work. I've done it on my own on a Spitfire, one hand inside pulling the cable and the other outside applying palm pressure to the glass, so no force is required. 

[Pete Lewis]

i always use an old glove or bag filled with dry sand , makes a nice gentle whacker 

to bed the screen in . no mallets or heavy persuaders 

if the corners pull in shy you can pack the glass channel out with a slice of screenwash tube or similar packing to push the corner  radius outwards 

Pete

[Conor L]

Bit of an update on the progress I have made over the past week or so. Pretty much finished fitting up the bulkhead now just need to fit the starter solenoid, make some battery cables along with making another brake pipe for the brake master cylinder as I manage to kink it (numpty) Here how things are looking 

 

 

 

The eagle eyed among us may have noticed that a new wiring loom has also been fitted, although there was nothing obviously wrong with the old loom some of the connections looked a bit crispy so for my own piece of mind thought it was best to fit a new 1. For anybody thinking about buying a new loom I can highly recommend seems to be made to original spec and quality is great. I have trial fitted my dash to make routing the loom easier. very thankful that I took reference pictures now.

 

 

running the rear loom through the hole in the sill was a bit of a fiddle but managed it in the end and wired up the rear lights

 

1 thing I am a bit unsure of are these 2 wires here, thinking maybe cig socket or map reading light?

 

Next up exhaust. 1 evening after work I jacked the rear of the car up and set about trying to fit the exhaust starting at the manifold working my way back I manged to get the system loosely fitted in place 

 

Moved the rear box and ive having some difficulty, Why don't new boot floors have pre drilled holes for the exhaust mounts? Not too impressed considering its a £200 panel. thankfully a guy I know has sent me some measurements for these so no big deal really but I wanted to offer the box up in place so I can get it looking roughly right before I start drilling here's where the big problem lies. I can't get the box to sit right as can be seen in these pictures

 

 

its sitting far too high on the nearside, I cant bring the offside any higher as the tailpipes hit the bodywork I also think its sitting too far forward again I have no reference points to confirm this is the case. I brought the box 2nd hand a little while ago hopefully it'll scrub up with a bit of polish & elbow grease however I think the main issue for it not sitting right is the bend on this pipe is incorrect just doesn't seem right to me looks like it should swoop down more than it does.

 

So there's plenty for me to think about there. Tomorrow my mate is coming over to help try and fit the windscreen fingers crossed it goes better than last week. That's all I've got sorry its been a lengthy 1.

Conor

 

[poppyman]

Looking nice Conor, Best of luck with the windscreen tomorrow. I used to fit my own many many years ago, but now i get someone in to do it..... Far easier   I will keep my head down now and wait for the flack for daring yet again to suggest it.....

Tony.

[Anglefire]

I remember many years ago I took the glass out of my beetle to do something. Spray it probably. 
front came out easy enough. As did the rear. 
the trouble came when I placed the rear screen on the floor - just touch the ground and there was a bit bang and I was left holding some bits of glass. The rest being in a pile on the floor!

I left the side glass in. 😂

[Colin Lindsay]

2 hours ago, Conor L said:

 Moved the rear box and ive having some difficulty, Why don't new boot floors have pre drilled holes for the exhaust mounts? Not too impressed considering its a £200 panel.

Cause they're made for a variety of vehicles that use the same panel, so instead of having a selection with holes in different places, they just make one and you drill to suit. It's nerve-wracking on a freshly painted panel, but you just have to grit your teeth and make a pilot hole. My GT6 panel didn't have the hole for the fuel pipe either, so had to drill two in mine, one almost an inch wide. In fact, looking at photos, I've remembered it needed a third for the spare wheel bracket... 

[Conor L]

2 hours ago, poppyman said:

Looking nice Conor, Best of luck with the windscreen tomorrow. I used to fit my own many many years ago, but now i get someone in to do it..... Far easier   I will keep my head down now and wait for the flack for daring yet again to suggest it.....

Tony.

Thanks Tony need all the luck we can get, my mate has fitted windscreens before most recently into his Clan Crusader so at least we are in with a chance. if all fails I will probably resort to reeling in a professional 😕 

15 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Cause they're made for a variety of vehicles that use the same panel, so instead of having a selection with holes in different places, they just make one and you drill to suit. It's nerve-wracking on a freshly painted panel, but you just have to grit your teeth and make a pilot hole. My GT6 panel didn't have the hole for the fuel pipe either, so had to drill two in mine, one almost an inch wide. In fact, looking at photos, I've remembered it needed a third for the spare wheel bracket... 

Not sure why I didn't think that perhaps I just like moaning instead haha. definitely need to take a brave pill before making that 1st hole just need to figure out why the rear box isn't lining up 1st so I can get them holes bang on. You've jus reminded me the I need to drill the hole for a fuel pipe the list just keeps getting longer lol 

[NonMember]

12 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:

It's nerve-wracking on a freshly painted panel, but you just have to grit your teeth and make a pilot hole.

There's an easy fix for that - make the hole before you get it painted 😛

I think the exhaust hanger was originally on a small bracket welded to the floor, in fact. That's certainly how both my Spitfire and GT6 are.

[Pete Lewis]

Ive fitted many sun roofs to cars when they were popular 

so armed with drill jig saw , template , lots masking tape and a  vacuum  

its making the first hole in some ones  pride and joy's   roof that raises the blood pressure a tad 

Pete

 

[Conor L]

9 hours ago, NonMember said:

There's an easy fix for that - make the hole before you get it painted 😛

I think the exhaust hanger was originally on a small bracket welded to the floor, in fact. That's certainly how both my Spitfire and GT6 are.

I have purchased some brackets from Moss that bolt through the boot floor to replace the welded bracket just need to get it all looking about right 1st.

2 hours ago, Pete Lewis said:

Ive fitted many sun roofs to cars when they were popular 

so armed with drill jig saw , template , lots masking tape and a  vacuum  

its making the first hole in some ones  pride and joy's   roof that raises the blood pressure a tad 

Pete

 

Have never done anything as big as fitting a sunroof that really must take guts but i have fitted rear parking sensors to customer cars before, trying to get 4 of them things level and evenly spaced was a bit of a mission.

[alan.gilbert_6384]

Here are my brackets, I think they are original, did these pictures whilst refurbishing the underside in the kitchen  

 

[Pete Lewis]

have to copy  the link  into browser to see the pics 

why not load them direct so all can see ???

pete

 

 

[Conor L]

Success!! After about an hour of bashing, pulling string and swearing the windscreen is now in... Result

In the end we decided not to fit the plastic chrome trim simply because we couldn't get the thing in however i think it looks good without it anyway. You may notice that there is a little orange Spitfire sticker at the top of the screen this was on the car when i purchased it so I'm quite reluctant to remove it i know its only a small sticker but in my eyes its part of the cars history, got to leave something right? Anyway soon after this milestone was achieved i fitted the wipers,

I then dug out the dash top cleaned with some Autoglym vinyl and rubber care before fitting it to the car

Thankfully the vinyl is in good condition so that's 1 less thing i have to worry about. Still need to fit the speedo + Rev counter but the dash is starting to look more like a finished item.

Ooo arty 

Shall be making some more progress over the next few days so stay tuned and thanks again for all the lovely comments, help and advice it really is appreciated.

Conor 

[Pete Lewis]

thats good   

Pete

[Conor L]

37 minutes ago, alan.gilbert_6384 said:

Here are my brackets, I think they are original, did these pictures whilst refurbishing the underside in the kitchen  

 

Thanks for the pics Alan confirms my suspicion that it was sitting too far forward the brackets I've got look like that just bolt on instead will upload a picture of them.

1 minute ago, Pete Lewis said:

thats good   

Pete

I dont normally have an issue with pictures using Imgur on other forums will have to upload direct from my phone in future.

[Colin Lindsay]

On 22/11/2020 at 08:39, NonMember said:

There's an easy fix for that - make the hole before you get it painted 😛

 

If I was that organised, Rob, I wouldn't be on here twenty times a week looking for tips and answers to problems!

[Conor L]

More progress has been made. Managed to find some suitable bolts for the starter solenoid which enabled me to get it all wired up, bulkhead is now pretty much finished just need to make up a brake pipe to replace the 1 I kinked.

tried to keep the wiring as neat as possible but there's only so much you can do. Next up glovebox. I wanted to get this fitted as I always intended on fitting an isolator switch and I thought this would be the best place for it. Purchased from a well known supplier that rhymes with Dimmers I cant say i'm impressed with the quality had to trim the corner a bit and redrill some of the holes as they weren't quite in the right places. Never mind all sorted now and isolator installed.

Nice to know that the car has some form of security now. With this out of the way I finished off the dash by fitting the speedo, rev counter and speedo cable (my poor fingers) also wired up the wiper switch.

Hazard switch not installed just yet for testing purposes. then the time came to stick the battery on and see what happens, wipers, heater blower and rear lights all working with no fires, even the engine was turning over... result. With my confidence levels high I decided to splash some fuel into the float pots, rig up a temporary fuel supply as I'm still trying to source a pick up pipe for the fuel tank and see if she'll fire into life.

Started 1st time... Get in. Still needs tuning up and properly setting the ignition timing but not sounding too bad. Few niggles to sort exhaust still needs messing around with to get it sitting right, temperature gauge isn't showing a reading, I put the feed wire straight to earth and the gauge works thinking the sender isn't working. So all is looking good and going relatively smoothly until today. Had the afternoon off work so I decided I'd go and play in the garage and see if I can get the engine running a bit smoother, wouldn't start. Pulled the plugs and they were very sooty now surprise as the car has only really ran on choke, cleaned them up and it fired it up. Left it to warm up a bit and I decided I'd just take the revs up a bit as I've only heard the engine on idle and unfortunately the news isn't good. I held the revs at just 2k rpm and can hear a knock coming from the rear end of the engine... absolutely gutted. Switched it off and put it away. I'm frustrated and confused as everything was measured, cleaned, new bearings, bolts, pistons, rings, cam, chain, seals, gaskets, oil pump, skimed head with unleaded conversion all costing around £700. Guess the only thing that can be done is to strip it all down again and see whats going on.

Conor