thebrookster

Who had the white spitfire with the red hardtop fitted?

First things first, you do not want the rear wheels to sit completely vertical!! Might look good, but you'll be able to drive round any corner again!! You do not want an excessive amount of lean, but you do want a touch (this is camber, if you weren't aware). I can't recall what the optimum amount is, no doubt someone else will be able to help there :) Secondly, as of yet no-one has managed to get the coil spring mod completely sorted, although there is a thread on here very recently on the subject, so that could well be more of a headache than you anticipate ;)

4526 wrote:hi! i like to install footwell lights at my spitfire ( going to put led strips ) but now i've seen that the right door switch only operates the right original light.. and the left .... how to do it best ?  :-/ I'm impressed, I've not had a Spitfire yet with a working footwell light!! If you have the door switch, then it should be a simple job to wire in some lights. Take a fused outlet from the battery, run the cable to the switch, then to the lights, and then back to battery. Off hand I have no idea if LED prefers parallel or series wiring, or if it matters, but a quick google will solve that. Then, if you wanted to become really fancy, you could wire in a timed relay so the lights remain on for 15secs after door closing, maybe a second switch on the dash......... Plenty of possibilities there.

Goody wrote:Just note you all are lucky as if we could drink on the run their would be NO BEER left for the rest of you!   Always amazes me, this business of hard-drinking Americans. I have tried several of your "beers" that are available in the UK, and if you guys can actually drink it in serious quantities, I doff my cap to you!! However Goody, if you want something challenging, we need to find a pub selling Jennings Sneck Lifter on tap. That'll rock you of your feet!

Trunnion should just screw onto the vertical link, but bear in mind they are handed, to the best of my knowledge?

Not impressed, lying down the job like that!

ferny wrote:The Auto Ecosse could be ideal for you. You do like beer, right? I shall look it up :) Beer? I can drink incredible quantities, and love a good real ale! Just that I have been blessed with a nice trim body that does not suffer the usual side effects of heavy consumption  ;) :P ;)

Or find either a saddlers or a stables in your vicinity, and see if they can help? Chances are they could probably give you a small amount in return for a pint, would solve the problem of ending up with too much. Phil

Richard - I think we briefly said hello, you were busy trying to get yourself and your daughters moving, so I left it that, rather than waste your time introducing myself :) Cook1e - I was stood with Chris when you asked him to sign the photo ;) And Excuse Me, Mr Weaver, but I will have you know that I at least still have hair, and certainly do not have a beer belly! (Though granted my hair is not as vivid as it used to be!) To be Honest with you all, I deliberately didn't wander around trying to introduce myself to people, on the basis that people were quite busy. I am fully intending on doing some more events when I can, be they as a participant or a helper, so I'll no doubt meet you all again under better circumstances! Cheers, Phil

Gaz - watch the temperature gauge!! Whilst winter tyres are commonly well known for driving on snow etc, they are also made from a different rubber compound to summer tyres, that give them vastly enhanced grip in cold and wet conditions. We get the wet pretty much constant anyway, but for cold, it is reckoned anything below 7 degrees Celsius is winter tyre territory, so get em on once you notice your temps dropping down this low. Otherwise, it would be kinda pointless to have the tyres and not use them in the conditions they are designed for  :P :P :P Cheers, Phil

bhuffer wrote: The majority view was that winter tyres really work but that you should really fit them on all four corners.  The other thing that came out of the chat was that winter tyres start to work when temperatures are 7C or less on dry and wet roads and even more when there is snow. I would have no hesitation in saying if you can afford them buy them particularly if you live in an area that regularly gets snow.  But be careful, other drivers won't know you have got them fitted and it will give them unfounded confidence to drive as fast as you or think you are a maniac. I would go the step further actually, and make them mandatory throughout winter. Only real downside to this approach is that we would never get to use summer tyres in the UK ;)

Two things. My father bought himself two tyres for his Rover Metro a couple of years ago, when we had the really bad snow falls. His work (night time security at Kielder Reservoir) involves driving to and from work before the snowplough had gone through, and said on several occasions was driving through snow deep enough that the bumper was acting as a plough! He stuck the two winter tyres on the front, on separate rims, and threw the two wheels that had come off into the boot as ballast, but fitted snow chains to these. He then quite happily drove to work, never got stuck once, with the proviso that if the road got bad enough where the back end overtook the front (he said he simply ignored the back end in snow, cause the front had so much grip it towed the back most of the time!) he stopped, jacked the rear of the car up and fitted the two wheels from the boot with chains fitted instead. Saved faffing around with chains, and he could do the swap in a couple of minutes. He swears by winter tyres now. The other point is tyre width. I had this issue with my old Vectra, in that the biggest problem modern cars have is the tyres are simply too wide for snow or slush, and they skate over the top. I would recommend seeing if you can find a set of steel rims (they tend to be thinner) and get a thinner set of tyres for your car. Thinner tyres and winter compound would mean you should nigh on unstoppable!! (This is also a good reason why Triumphs are so good in snow!)

A quick google of "306785 triumph" says it is a standard 2000 MkII camshaft. http://www.chriswitor.com/cw_technical/camshaft_applications.pdf Sounds like your GT6 may have had an engine swap at some point in it's life maybe??

Aahhhhhh!! The Maxspeeding rods!! There was a thread over on sideways a while back regarding these rods, basically they seemed a good idea and reasonably well made, however at the time they did not fit the 6 pot engine!! I was going to get hold of a couple at one point to test them out in the spitfire, but he ended up shooting off somewhere with his work, and it never quite worked out. However, from memory, they guy who tried them had reported the issue back to maxspeeding, who were quite concerned about this (as would be expected, seeing as they were sold for the 6 pot) and said they would look into it and see what could be done, I presume that this has now been done! (On the basis Witor's are selling them!) Oddly enough, the company had sent me an email a while back, they seemed to think kinkyspit was a company for some reason  ;D ;D ;D However, has anyone on here used these yet? And if so, could they send me a pm to confirm what they fitted into, this could well be something that will incorporate into my website at some point! Cheers, Phil P.S - Just to clarify, from what I can remember the fitting issue was something to do with the rod being to "wide" (if that is the right term??) so it touched the side of the block. It is a while since that thread though, so I may well have a couple of details wrong!!

Doug_P wrote: Aye - if doing that one use a BIG screwdriver and hold on to the handle  ;D Would an old hammer (as in the wooden handle type) may do the same job? You are further away from the live bits that way :)

No "easy" upgrade that I know of, but plenty of options out there. I personally recommend upgrading the number of fuses if you go down this route, a 6 block is a good move and allows you to separate circuits a touch. Something like the 6 way block near the bottom of this page: http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/VWP-onlinestore/fuses/holders1.php is what you looking for. (Ref: 5025B)

Reg, a gent named "darrenspitty" on the forum mentions something about ATF fluid on this thread: [Sorry, link no longer available] Could this be who you are looking for?

I was musing on this subject as I was waving people through the barrier at Edinburgh, and I could not help feeling that a fair number of Saloon drivers (these were by far the worst offenders) could possibly have improved their fuel consumption by removing a bit of excess weight out of their cars!! I was amazed at the number that went through with the backs of the cars loaded to the gunnells!! It is amazing how driving a bigger car causes people's idea of essentials to change  ;D ;D ;D

I think you mean the rollback site, that takes snapshots of sites and stores them, tried a couple but not found it unfortunately, I may well have another look at some point though! If you happen to find it, I should be eternally grateful :) Cheers, Phil

6059 wrote: When I took the Grease nipple off I found it full of grease not oil as the book says! I am sure if i do a search i will be able to read why it needs oil and not grease.... As a very simplified explanation, grease by itself is not a lubricant, however when it is heated up it turns to oil, which then does the lubricating. In most cases it is used where there is a lot of movement, creating fairly localised hotspots (think bearings, U/Joints etc). The grease melts at these hotpoints, creating the oil, which a) lubricates the bearing, and b) removes heat out the object. Both of these tasks essentially prevent seizure. You will have noticed however, that most of these devices have greasing points (or nipples) to replenish the grease, as it burns and drips away (hence one reason why people fit U/J's with grease nipples over sealed U/J's). A trunnion does not move anywhere near as much as a bearing etc (it only moves when you turn the steering wheel), so it never builds up the heat required to melt the grease, so the grease never really does it intended job. Using an oil here instead gets round this issue, so it is always lubricated, and the oil can cope with removing the lesser amount of heat out of the trunnion. Now, no doubt several people will disagree, this is a point that has been debated many times already, but that is my elementary understanding is likely to be going on. I did a while back create a tutorial style piece on this, however I lost both my website it was on and the only backup I had at the time, so I need to rewrite it again. I might just attend to that in the near future actually, now you bring the subject up! Cheers, Phil

xyv wrote:Edinburgh Airport is a prestige control we have used for quite a few years. The authorities have been very kind to allow us our own barriered area right in front of the terminal building. If you follow the instructions given at the the drivers meeting, ie " head right for the main terminal building" you shouldn't have gone wrong!! ;) . Many thanks again to the marshalls and of course the Airport Authority. I can see where you are coming from with the instructions Dave, though whilst I have not seen them I did wonder how clear they were? Both Nick and myself noticed that we had to wave a lot of drivers into the correct lane, we suspected that the fact it was an "Authorised Vehicles Only" lane may well have thrown a few people. Unfortunately, due to where the raised separator bits where, if someone came down road with a taxi next to them (meaning they were in the wrong lane), it was quite a job trying to wave them to go behind the taxi without confusing the poor taxi driver! This was compounded by the fact it is a night time stop, which always throws people anyway. Only a minor issue really, we managed to get everyone in as far as I know, but if this place is used next year then maybe scope for improvement, I believe last year was in a slightly different place so you expect these wrinkles to pop up!!

From an Edinburgh point of view, why did you use the Taxi Rank? Whilst it worked reasonably well, it does require a man on the barrier, and for a while parking space became a minor issue, did not see this becoming an issue for the RBRR Drivers (who may be used to this kind of thing), but I got the impression it didn't go down as well with some of the taxi drivers, whose facial expressions at time were bordering comical! Can you not get part of a car park allocated in future, Edinburgh Airport has enough of em!! That was the only thought I came up with! Cheers, Phil

Fraid so Colin, for the first half of the allotted time anyway, I shared the duties with a gentleman called Nick (he had the rather nice TR3 sat at the top end of the parking area). Tim - no worries, hopefully in future if I am around I shall be able to forewarn people when my assistance is available, but I was not certain if I was going to be there this year until pretty much the last minute. Thoroughly enjoyed the night, I second Colin's call for some sort of ID system, I knew a few guys from Stoneleigh but a lot went unrecognised! Turns out I spoke to Andy Cook, Richard Brake and few others and never knew who they were!! Not counting the number of people I passed though the barrier!! Cheers, Phil

Heck, this one has given me a good chuckle!! Jim, you have recalled that Mr Weaver's car is effectively a brand new car now, and such deserves a christening/naming ceremony? You know, the kinda thing you do with ships? Certain you can think up something on similar lines  ;D ;D Cheers, Phil

Nick many thanks for the name corrections, I said I was bad with names, didn't I :B :B :B :B :B :B :B :B :B :B :B It was an excellent night, and I can say I was very grateful for the donation of a yellow high-vis jacket, it is quite an experience to be cycling along a main road with juggernauts thundering past you at 4 in the morning!!! tiggrr, I have to confess the ride was actually quite comfortable temperature wise, I managed to choose wisely in clothing and so was neither too hot or too cold. Bit nippy whilst standing at the airport, but that was too be expected. Can't wait until I get a car of mine own again so I can enter!! Cheers, Phil