Achtung! 1979 Spitfire 1500 - good news, bad news...

[N Dentressangle]

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?

[grogee]

51 minutes ago, N Dentressangle said:

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?

No, but it is British. And...

[N Dentressangle]

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

[Matty]

More British leyland shite. Excellent 😄

[timolloyd]

I loved mine. The fuse boxes can be fragile, as can the ignition switch. They create all types of gremlins that are difficult to trace.

Look forward to reading more!

[Squarepegroundhole]

Really looking forward to regular reports on this.  From a practical perspective I’ve always thought the brilliant engine bay access and wider door openings make the Spitfire a better proposition for daily use.

[Clunk]

Excellent! I look forward to hear about you using this, British Leyland cars are renowned for reliability and ease of use, I'm sure it'll all go swimmingly* 

[N Dentressangle]

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.

[Back_For_More]

I loved mine.....  took me all over Europe and the only issue was a flat tyre once. 

Then I noticed the standard the previous 'restoration' work had been done to.......  I lost interest from them on and ran it into the ground. It was utterly fucked under all the shininess. 

East to work on though - very agricultural. 

I've still got boxes of new springs, shocks and a crap load of other bits in the back of the garage too..... 

[Matty]

I bloody would be as well!! Bonne chance 👍

[N Dentressangle]

7 minutes ago, Back_For_More said:

I loved mine.....  took me all over Europe and the only issue was a flat tyre once. 

Then I noticed the standard the previous 'restoration' work had been done to.......  I lost interest from them on and ran it into the ground. It was utterly fucked under all the shininess. 

East to work on though - very agricultural. 

I've still got boxes of new springs, shocks and a crap load of other bits in the back of the garage too..... 

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

[Alfaisti]

Had one back in the day, soft top in bright orange, really like to chuck the tail out if you're not paying attention on corners. My soft top leaked so plastic bags on seats to stop your arse getting wet. Total hoot to drive although my old dear couldn't get in the bloody thing as it was so low, use to carry 2 mates and myself,1  in each seat and 1 lying across the back. Eventually managed to get the engine to eject a conrod through it's casing on way to work one morning.

[N Dentressangle]

Collection -2.5hrs

Poo count 0 and not expected to rise. Too excited

[barefoot]

I've only ever driven one of these and it was a recently imported American spec thing which was truly horrible. The emissions stuff hadn't been removed and it popped & banged to buggery. I suspect that a well sorted RHD example might be a whole lot more fun.

[tooSavvy]

Long ago.... In my 'pimply yoof'.... BIL had a 'mate' leave his spit on the drive, then jet off somewhere.

He left vague reference to 'vague steering/wander'... Very Vague 🙄

I popped the front.. BIL heaved steering = rack moved l/r about 1/2" 😱

I unclamped the rack, wrapped several sheets of 'very gritty' sanding disc [folded in half/gritty both sides] in the shagged bushings and whingged the clamps back on.

He collected the car and hooned off....

🤐 Whatevvz

Hope it's everything you Hope 👍

[chris667]

I am very excited for you. And more than a little jealous.

[greengartside]

I’d love to have a Spitty, it would have to be in the Vermillion colour they did. Class in a glass.

Good luck with the collection, your plans for it sound exactly like what I’d do with it too.

[N Dentressangle]

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 😁

[SiC]

I think you've done very well! Also I'm jealous of how tidy and clean your garage is. 

[Mrs6C]

Very nice! I have a couple of Mk2 Spitfires and have always enjoyed the general model.

The colour is very pleasant. As it appears to have been described as a 'Racing Green', it could be the Aston Martin version. IIRC it is around that colour and metallic as well.

[High Jetter]

Nice buyage! Hope it gives you hours of fun. I have a dealer parts catalogue for it if you need any numbers.

[N Dentressangle]

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

[timolloyd]

On lighting, it’s worth checking to see if the dimming relay is still present on the rear lighting circuit. This was fitted to all later Spitfires, but was only needed for the US market. 
 

From memory you can simply remove it and instantly have brighter rear lights.

[N Dentressangle]

1 hour ago, Mrs6C said:

Very nice! I have a couple of Mk2 Spitfires and have always enjoyed the general model.

The colour is very pleasant. As it appears to have been described as a 'Racing Green', it could be the Aston Martin version. IIRC it is around that colour and metallic as well.

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!

[SiC]

Paint colour probably going to be different to what the code says now. Modern paint centres should be able to sample the colour from the part and match to that. 

[N Dentressangle]

3 minutes ago, SiC said:

Paint colour probably going to be different to what the code says now. Modern paint centres should be able to sample the colour from the part and match to that. 

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

[Rightnider]

12 minutes ago, N Dentressangle said:

Glad I didn't pay for that one!

Seems quite reasonable today though 😀

[95 quid Peugeot]

This one is in a "barn" next to Mrs 95's horse, been there years should you require an unobtainium part

[Joey spud]

3 hours ago, N Dentressangle said:

 

 

Stone Street is a very exclusive sort after area between Borough Green and Sevenoaks consisting of large houses with long gated driveways cut into the woodland so i'm sure the Mr Carpenter had suitably deep pockets.

There used to be a restoration place called Classic sportscar services in nearby Otford.

That colour makes it special too.

This is the sort of 'old tat' I used to come across in Stone Street.

[SiC]

36 minutes ago, 95 quid Peugeot said:

This one is in a "barn" next to Mrs 95's horse, been there years should you require an unobtainium part

That looks quite save-able!