N Dentressangle

That engine looks fantastic. Top skillz! 😎

It's amazing how smart this car looked when you bought it, given all the horrors you've found underneath. Great to see it being fixed properly. Given how far you've gone with it, I'd be tempted to have it blasted and return it to its original colour. The blue is nice, but the original yellow would suit it well, too. It's noticeable how much more complex the monocoque structure of the Midget is than the separate chassis Spitfire, with so many more built-in rust traps and assemblies of different panels relying on each other for strength. Makes me think about the bullets I probably unconsciously dodged looking at rough Midgets a couple of months ago!

It's back! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/385305208124?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=nmPCYxvMS_e&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=3fVYaSNwS9a&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

This looks smart: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/385303628851?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=nmPCYxvMS_e&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=3fVYaSNwS9a&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY No O/D, but that can be retro-fitted and wouldn't put me off it otherwise

So, today's thrillz: Made sure we had adequate potions in stock: I usually try for 50:50 in cars, but this one will be much weaker than that. Started by removing the world's most accessible bottom hose: What came out looked like mostly rusty coloured water, which is why I've kept it in the garage for the past week. An optimist would say it was longlife antifreeze, but I say bollocks. Orange antifreeze doesn't leave orange deposits all over the top of the radiator core. It got a really good flush through, including removing the 'cold' hose from the heater matrix and back flushing that. Must have been a fair bit left in the block and matrix as it only took 2.5l or so of the 4.5l it's supposed to - that'll bring the antifreeze concentration down a bit so I'll be topping up with neat for the foreseeable. Ran up to temp, stat opened and fan kicked in and all is good. Happy days. Whilst I was doing this, Pat and Jess arrived with a parcel. It was the bits I'd ordered on Nov 23! Packhorse would have been quicker. So, I set to replacing the sexy little rubber boots on the clutch and brake levers: sprayed up and fitted the original battery clamp (no pics, it's just too exciting), and then replaced the missing (why? WTF?) nice chrome door pull escutcheons: This is the passenger door, which also needed a hinge pin for the release handle making from a suitably sized nail. The gibbon had used rivets to attach the handle top and bottom rather than a pin, and only one was gamely hanging on in there. With the trim removed, I also freed up the locking mechanism and adjusted it so the door can be locked from the inside. If you're sharp eyed you'll have spotted the only MoT worthy rust on this car - the tiny localised hole in front of the tread plate. The sills are otherwise sound, so the plan is to carefully chop out that matchbox sized piece, let in some new metal and then fill the whole thing with waxoyl.

I'm guessing they're the same as the Midget I tried. Fab drive once you're in, but I really had to origami myself to get my legs in. And I'm 5'11'' and 15 stone, so not massive. The Spit is slightly easier, and noticeably less snug once you're installed.

But who is he? A dealer, I'm guessing?

Sprint prices are crazy. You'd get a fantastic Spitfire for Sprint money. It's also why I went for one that's not a project - too many already. Tinkering and gradual improvement is fine, but it's not coming off the road for anything.

Who's Mr Grumpy?

I found there were very few 1500's around. Mk 4's seem much more common. I know not many Spits are going to be advertised at this time of year anyway, but maybe the later full-on BL cars like mine rotted especially badly? Who knows

Tracking feels good - light, direct steering so you can flick between lanes like a bike. Plus the advantage of being able to identify by feel anything you run over 😉 I forgot to mention the best thing about this car. Driving can be such a misery these days. People are so grumpy and aggressive, with mucho competitivo attitude. Riding a motorbike takes you out of that particular rat race / willy waving contest, but I'm normally reminded of what cunts some people are when I drive a car again. The Spitfire is different: everyone lets you out, no-one gets angry with you when you fuck up or pull out on them, folks seem to allow you room. I've been really pleasantly surprised how easy getting in and out of Bristol is in this car, and how nice it is to drive something utterly uncompetitive with modern cars but which is such a laugh to drive. Should be available on prescription.

Brilliant - thank you! I'm pretty sure mine is missing this bit. Given that the installing gibbon couldn't figure out how to wire the fan up properly, I'm not that surprised. Current top hose is one of those hardish canvas type ones rather than the squishy rubber black bellows type original. I'll be generous with the silicone sealant.

That's cheap - thanks. However, I'm going to resist hardtop thoughts. I'd like to get the hood down when I can, which thanks to climate change might be sooner than we'd think. And a hardtop is another thing to have to store somewhere. I'm really a biker, remember 😉 Something like this in canvas / mohair is probably what I'll go for in time for next winter: https://prestigeautotrim.com/uk/triumph-spitfire-carhoods-1971-1980-aftermarket.html £350 at the moment! Tempting.

So what's been going on? Not that much really - still waiting for stuff to arrive in the post, as well as for the weather to get a bit warmer... Spit has been doing good service to Bristol and back. Here it is ready to set off on Friday: Thanks to the Kenlowe it warms up really quickly so no issues with misting up or hypothermia. The soft top is crap. Badly fitting and probably badly fitted too, so plenty of drafts at motorway speeds. Not really tried it in the rain yet, but my right leg is going to get wet, that's for sure. Luckily the new Bosch wipers do a good job of clearing the muck off the screen in this weather and the washers are good too. The outside lane of the M5 might not be its natural habitat, but it's certainly happy mixing it with the Audis and BM's when needed. It's actually getting quite satisfyingly filthy! Now a few teasers for future instalments. My dream interior would be Pasha cloth, but the original Spit houndstooth is a reasonable substitute. New seats are £500+ which is not the way of the true shiter so I have picked up a pair of very tatty original seats, complete with runners: Refurb currently in progress, report to follow. I've also picked up a stainless exhaust which will get fitted when the weather's warmer. Finally, courtesy of Moss there's a new rad top hose to fit which I'm hoping will be squishy enough to stop the Kenlowe sensor from leaking. Stay tuned for more exciting* updates!

That part of Feeder Rd is anything but easy to get to. Right PITA.

Handily round the corner from Moss

Tell me that's Mrs DavieW

Looks fantastic. Much want. Would nearly swap for a Spitfire 😉

Does it have sexy* SE stickers down the wings?

It's how chassis were. Spitfire is no different, and that's hardly a paragon of torsional stiffness.

Nice work. Disco rot is a never ending work in progress, but at least it's all weldable with plenty of repair panels for the trickier bits. A properly sustainable car! 😉

Now that's a garage

I like these. And the K series gasket is actually pretty easy DIY - I did a thread on replacing the one in our 8v Metro. Sweet engine, decent handling and a good car.

The day of the Scimitar has got to come soon. They've never seemed to be worth what they ought to be. Pretty, fast for its time and practical - what's not to like? Plus the electrics are brilliant* and they never* catch fire 😉

Pretty much. They riveted (riveted? I ask you) the bowl on about 20 deg rotated wrongly. It should be fitted like this: so that the alignment screws are at 9 and 12 o clock, with the fixed screw at about 4-30. Nasty rivets drilled out and proper self-tappers fitted into the holes already there in the wing in the right places. I mean, it took effort to fuck this up, but even more effort to work out wtf they'd done wrong and how to fix it. They'd added an extra third adjustment screw at about 4 o clock just to confuse me - god knows where they'd got that from.