sparky_spit

It's worth buying the book for RBRR background. Its a good read and having your car pictured is a nice bonus, Just £10 from:

Books & Literature - Club Triumph Ltd

Typical Yorkshireman Mike 😉.......

We paid more than that 3 (or was it 4?) years ago, so I reckon you have got a bargain.

But then us softy southerners do like our comforts.

There is a colour picture on page 124 of one of the two works TR8 cars on the 1980 event, overtaking a milk lorry. It is dark in colour (British Racing Green?) with the registration NWK 988W.

See pic below.

..... and I remember the Lichenstein border guards looked as though they would stand no nonsense either; pistols, body armour, dark sunglasses. It felt like we had strayed onto a Cohen Brothers film set in Bolivia.

I had one as a teenager and thrashed it back and forth to college every day. I had no mechanical sympathy in those days and broke several front driveshaft CV joints and rubber donuts. Take plenty of spares!

As above..... someone borrowed my Mk3 Spit to do an autotest and completed the 1st course as if she was riding a kangaroo. On the second she just used full throttle or  brakes.

World's Greatest Motorcycle Rides - Riding England - TheTVDB.com

I blame Darren....😉

As said above, my Spitfire has had just an electric fan, with no mechanical fan in place, for many years now and has been absolutely fine, even in 34deg heat in the south of France.  I use a manual switch to control it rather than a thermostatic switch, but that's just my preference.  You may even get a tiny amount of extra BHP due to the engine not having to power the fan 😉

Okay - apologies...I think I have the wrong end of the stick, so just ignore the old fool.  "Nurse! it's time for my medicine!"

Are we talking about the brackets that hold the speedo/rev/fuel/temp gauges?  Mine have 2 nuts each which hold the bracket tight up against the back of the dash. Or have I misunderstood?

I have a thin cheap spanner that came with a DIY kit of furniture which I filed to the correct size.

Do make sure you put some insulating tape on it though. I'll let you guess why this is a good idea....

Your saloon is looking good Tim.... very nice.

Is that Dolomite Bill Goodwins' old car by any chance? It sort of looks familiar?  Again, very nicely prepared.

22 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

 I remember being roused from a fitful doze in an Austrian lay-by at about 3am after a very long day by a “lady” offering “services”. 😳

 

Services?  You should have asked her if she could do a quick oil change 🙂

I'm sure I spotted a Casu Mini C in the back of Colin's garage....

3 hours ago, Clive said:

 

Like you, I like (need) a half decent sleep every night. That is unachieveable in a spitfire with a rollbar.... hotels are a necessity. 

Not necessarily Clive...  1500 reclining seats, with the headrest modified so that you can remove it, and the roll bar (Safety Devices) carefully fitted so that the seat back still fully reclines and with the headest re-inserted, works well.

Thanks gents.  I have been collecting a few panels when I see them cheap and will soon have no excuse to not get round to fixing the "built by a five-year-old with a glue gun" look my car currently has.

Apart from obvious things like external door handle holes, internal handle holes, drillings and probably window winder holes and associated internal bits, are Mk4/1500 Spitfire doors the same as the earlier roundtail car's doors? Basically, will a later one physically fit in the gap of an earlier car and would the hinges line up?

There's a 19 page feature on Spitfires in this month's CC mag, including Dave Pearson's ADU 4b and loads of others. Looks pretty interesting with quite a bit more than the usual stuff that gets written about them. Might be worth the fiver (I get mine "free" from Lloyds Bank) or you could always lurk in WH Smiths "library"....

Yes... His current creation is a Ford 100E with a 220bhp V8 engine, which is pretty rapid. He gives me various unwanted trinkets in return for using my lathe.

That looks like Dolphin Grey?  Just like my first car which got hammered backwards and forwards to College every day in the 1970's also with no mechanical sympathy at all. But I was only 17 or 18. It got through rubber doughnut couplings and CV joints (pot joints?) like they were going out of fashion, but never really let me down. Great little car.

As Tim says above, the MK1/2 Group 4 Escort items are very good. A friend of mine builds Ford based hot-rods and gave me a UJ type steering coupling when he found out that they also fitted a Spitfire. It has been perfect for at least 10 years or so.

Got there in the end then.... Via a different Mike.

John, I'll give Mike Helm a ring and ask for Andy's contact details.  Assuming he wants to be found....😉