Buying a Car

[ShaunW]

... Sorry I just read you've got a tame mechanic, ignore that but about driving around a few. 

Hood fit looks as good as it gets. The gap is for ventilation, to help dry it out when it leaks! Tbf they're more watertight than they look unless you get a lot of rain at a certain angle. I had a newish one in early 80s, it fitted much like yours, and I don't remember having to cover it up when it rained. If on doubt leave an old towel at the door bottom, it'll only be a few drips rather than gallons. 

[watsona6]

Cheers Shaun. I’m lucky in that I have access to a mechanic through work and he’s keen to get his mits on it. He’ll probably teach me some of the basic jobs too if I book some time off. I think exhaust rattle sounds plausible but does seem to get quieter on the gas (maybe the engine/exhaust noise just drowns it out somewhat). Do you guys have a ‘list’ of serviceable items on the Spit? Read quite a bit about nipples to grease which sounds right up my street 😉

[Pete Lewis]

Service clues

Grease normal muliti purpose

Steering rack,  propmamd drivenshaft uj ( if greaseable),  rear hub bearings   front hub bearings

The rear bearing and steer rack may be fitted with plug , you needna nipple tomscrew in

EP90 GL4  oil for  front trunions , gearbox and diff,

20/50 engine oil for engine and  carb dashpots amd for oil can stuff like  throttles door hinges or  anything that  moves

Tappets 0.010" cold  points 0.015" for lucas  0.018" delco,  plugs  0.025",

Handbooks and manuals available from club shop 

Pete

 

[Paul H]

When I bought my Vitesse 3 years ago and with no experience I found the owners handbook available from the club shop very useful and it stays in the car and is referred to regularly . I then purchased Haynes second hand from Fleabay and the Workshop Manual from the Club Shop .

Paul 

[dougbgt6]

I would start with a Haynes, cheap and cheerful. The workshop manual has it all, somewhere, but is typical of it's era and wouldn't get many points out of 10 if written like it is today. Also it's expensive and reproduced print and photos are poor. I'm pleased I have one, but Haynes is first port of call.

Doug

[watsona6]

Cheers. Have a couple on order. 

[watsona6]

Well the Haynes arrives today and the mechanic checked her over. All seems pretty good, but we are going to start with the following;

Welding a ft square patch to the drivers side floor which was repaired with fibreglass. Otherwise the chassis is sound. 

Waxoilng

Drain and refill the diff oil. There is some play in the diff when you play with the drive shaft. Think this is where the noise is coming from. The UJ looks ok, new and with the correct pins. Diff probably on its way out but has some miles left in it if I can cope with the noise. 

Will do a full service and drain and refill the gear box oil. 

I’ll be fitting some new bolts and hinge pins to this dodgy door in the hope it will be more secure. Might remove the barrels too and try and get keys cut. 

Fancy adding some if not all of the badges back. At the moment it’s naked. Want to start with the number plate light badge but, the badges have 2/3 notches and there isn’t any holes on my bumper fitting. Any ideas of where I’d get a stickable one? Rimmers are oos. 

[Pete Lewis]

There will be free play on the diff planet gears this can give quite a free turn at the  the prop  its not unusual and unless a sunmor planet gear in the diff has a problem some play here is quite normal , its nothing to do with crown wheel and pinion settings and should not create any noise when driving , 

Fibreglassed floor   duff door locks , and all other did this  have an MOT when you bought her ???  

Pete

[watsona6]

Ha. It passed its MOT. Fibreglass section is pretty small in the drivers footwell - maybe a ft square maximum. The door appeared ok for the first few days - like I say it’s only when you give it a firm nudge with the shoulder that it pops open. Maybe the MOT’r didn’t check it?

[watsona6]

Resurrecting this thread more for my benefit than most others so apologies in advance. Just over a month since I bought the car, so a bit of an update and list of planned work (some more desired/needed than others). Overall really pleased with it and love driving it, kids love it too and my old man has enjoyed helping me tidy some bits up. Only down side is as soon as i put my money into an occasional car, my daily driver decided to go wonky (fuel injector and now the DPF)! At least I have a back up! Work done so far;

Repaired the door catch. 

Renewed the hinge bolts and shims and made the door fit more reasonably. 

Repaired the hood

Full service including dropping and replacing all oils. 

Small patch of welding to the drivers footwell. 

Waxoiled (controversial I know).

Fitted an immobiliser.

Re-sealed part of the windscreen. 

Rebadged the rear number plate assembly. 

To do

Fit an expansion bottle to the radiator.

Replace the diff (think I’m going to put up with the noise until it actually fails).

Repair passenger side minilight alloy (MOT advisory). 

Re paint and/or replace the seats and buy some head rests (holes are there).

Remove, repair and re varnish the dash. Replace/fix all dash lights and footwell lights. 

Replace the hood.

 

Once all this is done I’ll consider looking at the paint work - maybe a full strip down and re paint - we will see!