N Dentressangle

Proper halogens will look much better than those nasty LEDs. I've had good results with Halfords 200% brighter H4 bulbs.

Help yourselves. Plenty to go around

My brother in law has many fine qualities, including: he's much nicer than my sister in law he's nice to the sister I'm married to he has an engineering degree, and is very practical / mechanical / can make stuff he does triathlons, is v fit, flexible and dextrous in a way I will never be he enjoys a challenge Guess where this is leading? Ultimately towards an hour this afternoon lying under the Spitfire dash for my BiL, fixing the demist pipes. Passenger side was easily sorted with new hose from Gates. Drivers side was a right PITA. It was still attached (luckily) at the vent end, but when by BiL tried to refit it to the heater box it cracked. A plan formed. I found some 40mm white plastic waste pipe left over from a job and made a 50mm joining piece. We then used that and a couple of jubilee clips to attach a length of the new Gates pipe to the old pipe, and then fitted this onto the heater box stub: Job jobbed, and we have demist once more on both sides of the car! According to my BiL, the flap operating the air direction in the heater box needs some cable adjustment: but mindful of the liklihood that the bolt securing the cable would snap if we tried anything we decided to leave well enough alone. Still, happy warm days! 😁

No, no servo but the brakes are pretty good. It's had EVERYTHING replaced in the last two years, from the M/C to the drums and calipers, so they should be! Travel was a little long so I adjusted up the rear drums which I hope will help a bit. Adjusters still moved freely, which is a sure sign things are OK! My next priority for making this a usable car is sorting out the heater / demist. At the moment it's basically shit, with no demist obvious and not much heat to the feet either. It's another one of those things that folks with old cars often seem to put up with but which prevents them being actually usable. So, they sit in the garage, everything seizes up and they gradually become even less usable... Bollocks to that. First off I pulled the centre dash panel to see what was up. Tiny grub screws in each of the lever knobs and a couple of screws - S Class Merc this ain't! And we're in! Wiring looks reassuringly unbodged (bear in mind I'm used to Series Land Rovers which ALWAYS resemble an unstable, sparking rats nest of splices and 13A house wire). I'm looking for the outlets from the heater box to the dash vents, and you can see the passenger one in the dark at the centre left of the pic. Without anything resembling a air duct attached to it. Hmmm. Let's have a bit more light: There's yer problem, right there. Using tactics any gynaecologist would be proud of, I unscrewed the clips on the end of the stubs of the heater box and demist vent and extracted this: 1 3/4" ducting has now been acquired from Clarke's in Stroud, and maybe we can sort this one out. However, there are some other 'challenges': The driver's side has similar problems and is much harder to access. I need to remove the driver's side dash panel for access, which looks more of a PITA (as much as anything is on a Meccano car like this) I'm really wary of mission creep on stuff like this. Having another old car in bits in the garage for months is not part of the plan. So, time for a cup of tea and a think about how to attack this... ...which has produced the plan of lying in the driver's footwell looking up underneath the dashboard. The hose seems to be in one piece (phew) and still attached to the demist vent. The heater box end is flapping around unattached. I reckon with a bit of patience I can re-attach it and tighten the clip. Against this is that I'm 15 stone and as flexible as Vladimir Putin. #prayfornorbert

No problem. Here are the receipts: That's as much as I know about what they are. They seem comfortable enough. They're a bit short in the back for me, and I'd prefer more shoulder support. The bum part seems fine, and I managed over an hour in the car yesterday with no ill effects.

Yes, they're fine. Got the receipt for them in the history somewhere - they weren't cheap. I just prefer things original.

Gradually bringing things on the car back to life. It's always surprised me that people who are not handy with cars sometimes choose to buy old ones, given the way they inevitably need maintenance and attention. Even the relatively modern Berlingo was a relief to see sold to two lads who knew what they were doing, given the ease that a 20 year old French car can throw a £4-500 garage bill. The Spitfire has been owned by a mixture, but thankfully mostly people who paid professionals to sort it out. Sadly the PO but one was not that kind of person and did a lot of work on the car himself. No need for Holmes and Watson to know that electrics weren't his specialty. First the Kenlowe fan I sorted yesterday: The red wire is the live feed from the fuse box to the fan thermostat switch. The white wire is the switched feed to the fan from the thermostat switch. Our hero had shonkily squeezed on a couple of spade connectors and then mummified the lot under yards of insulation tape wrapped around the main loom you can see running towards the headlights. In the pic, I've unwrapped all this mess and wired things in correctly - I'll tidy up with fresh loom tape and secure things properly with cable ties. I much prefer it when you can see what is connected to where and how. Next job today was the windscreen washer pump. Connected were a black wire (usually earth on old Lucas stuff) and a brown wire with a nasty yellow modern insulated spade connector. According to the wiring diagram the live feed should have been light green with a black trace. Hmmm. The brown wire isn't live when I press the washer switch, so clearly something's afoot -maybe there's an alternative switch wired in somewhere I haven't spotted. However, I noticed the loom spur leading to the pump is oddly bulgy under its generous wrapping of insulation tape, and so I start to cut and unwind it to reveal... the stub of a light green wire with a black trace! Which once bared gives 12v when the switch is pressed. What the brown one does I have no idea, but it's been taped onto the loom and disappears through the bulkhead. Hey ho - I fitted a nice age appropriate insulated spade to the proper feed, attached the black earth and we now have windscreen washers: Next up was the smell of petrol. Suspect #1 was the tank filler, as it had got much worse after I filled up. Took the tank cover inside the boot off and found the leak was actually coming from the stub on the tank for the breather pipe, which was uncapped and happily sloshing fuel out. There's no need for this on UK cars with a vented filler cap, so I fitted some 8mm fuel hose and plugged it with a hose clipped bolt. Stink gone. Whilst in the boot I filled some of the holes with grommets and tidied up the wiring to the number plate lights: It's all been painted in there with some black Buzzweld shit. not my taste but I suppose it keeps the rust down. I'll sort some card trims out eventually. Made both reversing lights work too by taking the bulb out, cleaning up the white fuzz and bending the contacts so it worked. Boot lamp doesn't work yet - needs the switch playing about with and I couldn't be arsed: Next up was the comically lazy wiper motor. Removed, dismantled, lubed, commutator cleaned and worn brushes noted - new set ordered. Re-installed and not much better. We'll see what new brushes do, but might be a question of getting the wheelboxes to move more freely: I'm mostly happy with the car's underbonnet. The engine is oil tight, has electronic ignition and runs well, although the garish yellow HT leads might get changed for something less offensive and there's a second hand genuine battery clamp in the post. It was being run without one : I'd like to change the oil and filter - filter doesn't seem to have any anti-drain properties and the oil looks fresh but thin to me. Probably semi-synthetic 10-40 or something these engines really shouldn't have. Interior needs a good going through. I need to find a centre radio console / dashboard support thing - fuck knows where that's gone. New steering wheel centre badge is on its way. Ungrateful bastard that I am, I also don't like the £500 worth of 'Clubman' seats that someone has fitted. Anyone got a lead on some original houndstooth ones?

Brilliant, thank you - is it these guys? https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063601209399

Here's the previous owner: https://www.bdbpitmans.com/our-people/toby-richards-carpenter/ Obviously a poverty stricken working class chap 🤣 I'll drop him a line and see if I can get more of the story. I've also found his old Interrailing ticket which he might fancy for posterity!

Underneath is OK, really. I'll put it up on the ramps tomorrow and have a proper rummage, but most of the welding looks quite professional compared to all the pigeon shit I've seen over the past couple of weeks. There's an isolated rust hole on one of the sills, and some of the repairs aren't as neat as I'd like but overall I'm happy enough with it. Pics tomorrow!

Interesting - thanks. This is the place that did the resto: http://www.performance-cars-directory.co.uk/classic-sports-car-services No longer in business I suspect, but maybe the one you're thinking of?

Does, doesn't it? I think I'd drag that out, fix it and drive it. I likes the yeller ones!

Yep, Bailey Paints round the corner from me will be able to sort it out. Car was originally white - pics later!

There's a photographic record with the car of the restoration it had in 1998. I'll post some of the pics up if anyone's interested. I was hoping there'd be a mention of the paint colour so I could get a code and sort out a rattle can but all there is is this: Glad I didn't pay for that one!

First fix completed. The PO but one had fitted a Kenlowe fan. Nice idea, but they'd wired it up to run all the time ignition was on. Duh - waste loads of power and make your engine run cold all the time... Quick bit of re-wiring and removal of about 57899 miles of insulation tape and we now have a fan which kcks in more or less where it should. Can always do some fine adjustments later. Now need to order some halogen headlamps. It's on sealed beams, and they were friggin scary in the Series LR so fuck knows what they'll be like in something capable of more than 40mph

It's home! Had a fiddle with the fuses and as predicted, fuse #1 was the problem. Although it looked undamaged when tested with the meter it wasn't passing any power. I'd taken a bag of glass fuses with me, so popped a new one in after cleaning all the contacts and everything came back to life - indicators, lights, the lot. A quick twiddle of a screwdriver on the twin SU's and we had a decent idle too, so off we went. First decent straight I came to I tried the overdrive switch and bugger me but that works too now as well! Stopped on the A46 for some Super Premium (no pics, sorry) and did all the way back to Stroud with the hood down. Got hailed on a bit in the last mile but otherwise brilliant. So, what's it like? remarkably solid to drive - my last Spit was much more wobbly, crashy and shaky. This one feels much tighter by comparison plenty fast enough for modern traffic - pulls really well, and although I didn't go over 60mph it does that at a canter in OD top. My last one didn't have OD, and now I realise I was really missing out light, direct and fast steering - bear in mind I'm coming from a Land Rover, but it bears good comparison with Mrs D's Metro and feels pretty planted in the corners. I didn't push things as it's new to me and the roads are wet and filthy snug interior but much more room than the Midget - feels more like the kind of space in the MGB Will now do some fettling this afternoon and report back with more pics 😁

Collection -2.5hrs Poo count 0 and not expected to rise. Too excited

Once I've made it actually work properly again, fix #1 is probably the seats. Currently black vinyl buckets with no headrest. They should look like these: Obvs the nasty and wrong B&W stick on front plate will be going, and the correct Spitfire 1500 decals stuck on bonnet and boot. Sorted the insurance - £74 🤣 And taxing historics is always such a pleasure too

Collection scheduled for 1030 tomorrow. Luckily the weather seems to be OK - rain overnight but dry by 10am, which is important when the car has no wipers. Ideally we'll get them working in some way before we set off, but if not then I'm well prepared: Driving up there with a mate, then planning on doing A46 all the way home. Got breakdown cover with recovery if I get an irretrievable FTP. No idea why. It's a crappy old car. But I am.

Exactly. Which is why collection is planned for daylight hours on Wednesday 🤣

Tale of the purchase is here: Collection is scheduled for Wednesday. Engine runs like a great, and drives fine. However, most of the other stuff like wipers and lights are AWOL. Was looking at trailering it home, but the nearest trailer hire place is 20 miles away on the other side of Gloucester. Fuck that. So, Plan B coming into effect is to just go and make the electrics work then drive it back. From the stuff that's not working, I'd say there's a fuse which is suspect #1: http://www.triumphspitfire.com/Fuses.html Not the frigging Space Shuttle, is it?

👂 do tell

Here I am in the blue Series the other weekend on a lane in the Forest of Dean: Trailwise is definitely the way to go. You can work things out with patience and an OS map, but TW2 is much easier

I know, I know. I got off lightly.

Well, this question decided itself. P38 shat its head gasket in Weston super Mare a couple of weeks ago, following its first good motorway run. As any fule knos, you might get away with a £300 + loadsoftimeandswearing cost to replace the HG, or you might find a liner has slipped, the block is scrap, and there's now a P38 shaped folly blocking your garage. I paid £800 for the car, breaker offered me £700 = no brainer. £100 for 4 months of V8 fun: what's not to like?