Ian Perry

Another thought re the structural contribution from the lower part of the rear wing (or otherwise), is that Canley Classics refer to alloy rear wings which would be suitable for racing (where body/chassis rigidity is important for handling), which would be held onto the car by nothing more than a few pop rivets.

Thanks again, you aren't really very good for other people's peace of mind, are you? :-D I've had to rebuild the whole back RH corner of the floor (where the seatbelt anchorage is) including the bottom of the inner wing panel as well as the floor itself and the inner sill, so I'm aware of the risk of the GRP hiding a moth-eaten steel structure behind it. The corresponding NS corner is not much better. But I've had a good rummage in the dark recesses of the boot corners, but not seen anything horrifying yet. 

Hi Michael, In principle I agree that steel would be preferable (that's a horrible image BTW, thanks for that. There isn't enough brain bleach in the world to remove that one)... … but, having already spent my daughters' inheritance on bits, I was going to leave that bit for now. I am not planning a full nut-and-bolt restoration on this car, getting it back on the road in a good state - not looking or feeling like a rat - is the short/mid term aim. Plenty of opportunity to put steel wings on again at a later date. Having said that, the GRP wings don't look bad. They are a good shape and apart from the lack of rust, not obviously not steel. Incidentally some idiot has for whatever reason stuffed all the cavities with some sort of rockwool type insulation. That's all coming out, as I've already set light to some of it with the welder :-D

Sorry if this has been posted/answered before! Latest issue on Project Gruyere* is that it came with GRP rear wings and outer sills. I'm (obviously) replacing the sills with steel as these do have a structural role (just a little... ! and I'm baffled to know how/why anyone would get GRP sills...) but am planning - for the time being at least - to keep the GRP wings, on grounds of cost and hassle of changing back to steel. A question, though. Conventionally, the outer sill joins onto the rear wing at the front of the wheel arch. I'm not sure how much of a structural function that area of the outer wing/arch has. So, do I: 1. Chop out the GRP at the bottom and put in a steel "repair panel" to connect the sill to … something? 2. Chop out the GRP at the bottom, put in a hidden triangular steel 'closing panel' behind it connecting the sill to the heel-board and inner sill, and then refit/repair the GRP section? Or 3. Just bond the sill and wing together at the natural joint, and not worry?   * Project Gruyere. So-named by - erm - someone, who thought that Gruyere (cheese) also came full of holes. Sadly, as I pointed out to her (oops!) last night, the holey cheese is actually Emmenthal… :-D

Having been told that MX5 seats were a shoo-in for the Spitfire I bought a pair, only to find that they are a blimmin tight fit, to put it mildly. It's been suggested that they will however go nicely in a 2000/2500. So, any takers? Black velour/leather, separate head restraints. VGC apart from one small patch of wear in the driver's seat. £40 the pair, or £75 with generic runners fitted. Located in Hungerford, can deliver/meet part way within a reasonable distance. Pls PM me if interested.

Thanks all, hmmm, this is all starting to fit together! Thankfully I didn't pay a lot for the seats (in fact two sets of generic runners at £35 and some pence cost more than I paid for the seats themselves...). Aesthetically, I think the tombstone seats look wrong in any car, I think they are hideous! The seats I have, I thought, were much more in keeping, but I am definitely unhappy with the height/width. If they work better in the big saloons, I'll try a cheeky advert over in that part of the website :-) The problem with the original seats is … the car didn't come with any. And the prices I've seen so far, for decent s/h seats, are a bit on the steep side. Hence looking for an alternative/aftermarket option. I would quite happily put a pair of generic black buckets in, but for the fact that come RBRR2020, we'll want something that the co-driver can recline and sleep in.

Taylor, hi and thanks for replying. I don't have a photo at the moment, but I'll take one hopefully tomorrow and post it. The seats are a design with a separate head restraint, not the (IMO uglier) "tombstone" style ones with an integral head restraint. The mounting points for runners seem to be the right spacing for the Spitfire floor, but - again - I'll confirm that once I get back to the workshop tomorrow. Cheers

I'm sure I have read - more than once - that MX5 seats are a popular upgrade in Spitfires. So I bought a pair (very cheap, thankfully!)… But they seem a bit wide. The space between the tunnel and sills is quite narrow, I acknowledge, but the only way these seats will fit is if they are mounted fairly high up, in which case not only will my shiny bonce be rammed hard up against the headlining with the hardtop on, but it'll probably stick up over the windscreen when going topless. What will be slightly inconvenient for me, will be impossible for Anthony on the 2020 RBRR, as he is taller than me! Am I missing something obvious? 

Dear John, Michael, Firstly, thank you so much for your kind wishes, I'm mending albeit slowly and still handicapped by a ridiculously large thumb in all its glorious bandage... As you probably guessed "Whige pins" (sic) were actually supposed to be "(W)hinge pins", that joke fell slightly flat with my typo (and I am not sure I can actually blame the super-size thumb for that!) I was very surprised at the head of the pin deforming plastically. I used to be a metallurgist, and hardened steel generally doesn't 'do' plastic deformation. I had bought 4 pins from (ahem) an aftermarket supplier on fleabay, so they are probably made of cheese, which I guess serves me right! I ended up buying a couple of spare hinges, and was able to get their pins out and press two of the new pins in (I did indeed freeze them, thanks John). One hinge is now satisfyingly tight, the other one is looser but doesn't 'rock' so the door may be OK - I will re-hang it temporarily tomorrow to check. It has plenty of grease in so hopefully won't degrade too quickly. The offending one? I cut it apart using the angry grinder (I love that name) and found that even with the press and a blowtorch, I couldn't shift the remains of the pin out of the 'door' half of the hinge (the part that goes in the middle of the hinge, and the bit that the pin should actually move in!). If the pin had actually got as far as the bottom 'jaw' I probably would indeed have cut off the outstanding (swollen) part and whistled nonchalantly :-) Now, back to the sills and floor... Meanwhile, have a great Christmas and New Year!

OK, so I'm slightly handicapped by trying to hack my left thumb off with an angle-grinder on Monday (eight stitches, but hopefully the cuts are starting to knit back together now). But this is ridiculous. Project Gruyere (it's cheesy and full of holes) is a rusty Spitfire 1500, needs sills and floor sections** and I thought while the driver's door is off, I thought I could replace the worn hinge pins one-and-a-half-handed. I've access to a press after all, if that doesn't work... As soon as the door can go back on, it'll help work out the alignment for some braces to keep the body straight when I do the sills. The difficulty removing the first pin should have warned me. Needed a bit of heat, but eventually it tapped out. But the new pin simply will not go in. Hammer and punch, vice, 10T press. No go. It's about 3/4 of the way in, but the splined end has now mushroomed enough that there's no way it'll go any further. So if I want to recover the two plates, and have another go, I'll need to get the swine back out again. Meantimes I have bought a couple of "good s/h" ones, but does anyone have any suggestions for changing pins to make it easier - no, sorry, to make it POSSIBLE? ** Long shot, but does anyone have a spare driver's footwell lying around? Mine is almost completely absent without leave, and I want something better than a crude flat sheet, and a replacement half floor is nearly £200... ! :-(

My two penn'orth, having only got as far as Carlisle on the way back dahn sarf... Overall. Excellent. Gutted that we dropped out when we did, and I am already planning "2020-the old fart's revenge". The amount of work that went into planning the event is obvious and paid off many times over. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I hope that not too much changes regarding the overall format; the 2000 miles/2 days challenge and the combination of motorways, trunk roads and country lanes (Scottish A roads in particular) are all integral to the character of the RBRR. Route. The spacing of the controls that we got to seemed OK, though Knockhill at that time of the morning might as well have been just a random industrial estate, it wasn't like we could see anything of the circuit. Loved the bits round northern Scotland (my last RBRR was 2002 and the top of Scotland was every bit as lovely as I remembered it), even down to the cows standing in the middle of the road. Slow tourist traffic along Loch Ness held us back a fair bit, but it is what it is. We struggled with pace on the motorway drag from Stirling, but I suspect that was down to the engine thinking more about when to execute its retirement plan. Comms. Pre event comms - I thought very good, though I think the idea of volunteer mentors is a very good enhancement. On event comms - the list of other entrants' phone numbers was really useful to us. However, neither Anthony and I was willing to download the approved messenger app, and neither of us goes on "Twit" or "Faceplant" (all for work reasons). I don't know if there was any/much chat and banter as we went along, if there was any we missed out. I understand in previous years WhatsApp may have been used; that would have been OK for us, is there any reason why that was dropped in favour of the other messenger app? Road book. Very good, I particularly liked all the stuff on opposite pages. Most of the route information was very well presented, but I didn't find the little map sections as useful as I'd hoped; if they had included slightly more of each area, and had the directions been marked differently I would have found them more useful. I've done a lot of rallying and am used to particular ways of marking routes which might colour my views! Entry - I would argue - esp with the diminishing numbers of such cars remaining on the road - that the event should be open to as many as possible. Breakfast halts. JoG were brilliant. The staff I saw were good humoured, friendly and quick with the food - which was spot on. The only improvement to my breakfast would have been if I'd brought my own homemade marmalade! We didn't make it to LE so no comments there. Along the route, on Fri evening, we saw a few people here and there waving at the cars as we went past. I don't know if the organisers sent messages to local historic/classic car clubs close to the route, to say "we're coming, do please pop out and give us a wave", but it would be a nice little boost to find people waving at you like a mad thing in random locations between the actual controls :-)

Thanks all. I like the idea of thin cheap oil and a run up/about, then if the augurs are good a more comprehensive clean. I have a lot of (I think) 5W40, decent quality but I have lots of it (the hillclimb car uses it) so I wouldn't mind sticking a bucket of that in and chucking it away afterwards.

Thanks, Clive. Considering the horrors in the bottom of the sump pan when I took it off (this despite it having had two oil changes in my ownership, and not counting the fragmented big end and piston skirt), I think that dropping the sump off is a good call on any engine. Is there a particular good reason not to try a flushing oil? I would expect there to be a fair risk of gunged-up oilways and drillings, and a flushing oil should help clean that all out. And I already have some :-)

After the much-lamented demise of the Toledo's original engine on the RBRR, I am currently planning to buy a S/H engine and put that in* - but of course that could have been standing for a while, could have had the same oil for 30k miles, could be full of gunk or simply bone-dry... So, would it be a good idea to chuck some flushing oil through it, or chuck some thin-ish "normal" oil in, run it for a short while and then drop it back out, or just put some good quality multigrade straight in? Are there any other things that the assembled brains would recommend before starting it for the first time, or after running it for a short while?   *SpitBitz have quoted me £225 for an engine (I assume MkIV) in "good serviceable condition" - with 28 days approval/warranty so long enough to get it clean, in, running, check compression and oil pressure etc. - and take it back if not happy. I assume it'll come with no ancillaries, but obviously all those can transfer over from the dead one, along with the sump (Spitfire and Toledo have the "well" at opposite ends).   VMTIA

Alex, thanks - one of the other guys in my workshop (we are a little "community" workshop, everything from US muscle cars to a Kawasaki Z1300) has come up with an option that might get me out of trouble tonight, but if that doesn't bear succulent fruit I will be beating a path to Moss' door!

Sam, Clive, thanks. Clive, I have just e-mailed Spitbitz in case they have any new gasket sets, I could be there first thing if they do. If not, I'll try Moss in Bristol (it's six and two threes as to whether Feltham or Bristol is closer, but traffic in west London first thing in the morning might be - erm - challenging! Sam, thanks for forwarding. I'm not on facebook myself, so this could be a big help. I will try TDC (I am a member of that as well) too. Thanks again both of you. Sheesh, nothing like a relaxed start to the weekend...

Help! Car 25 begging for help to get the car back together in time for tomorrow. Head gasket failure last weekend, new gasket fitted this morning, no compression. The gasket is wrong for the engine (the block has shallow recesses round the combustion chambers so the gasket needs a prominent 'lip' on the reinforcement rings) so unless I can get a new gasket tonight/very early tomorrow, we're stuffed... Does anyone have a spare HG please? I'm based in Hungerford, Berkshire, willing to travel! VMTIA 

Oops sorry, meant the blind "pockets" are in the block, not the head. Duh-brain...

Mmm, nice! Hope that's sorted in time too, I once rewired a Ford Prefect where the switches on the steering wheel went down a sleeve inside the steering column...  Well the head's off, clean and waiting for the new head gasket. I don't know what the Big Six is like, but on the 4-pot motor there is a couple of blind "pockets" in the head beside no.1 cylinder (2 o'clock position relative to the car centre line) and no.4 cylinder (4 o'clock). They are blind, don't go anywhere, and there is no corresponding opening or gallery in the head. Yet for some reason, on the dead HG, the outer layers of the gasket had cutouts matched to the blind 'pocket' beside the no.4. Natural weak spot and of course it failed*. Though not sure exactly how that led to coolant in the sump... * might be worth a quiet conversation with the sellers!

In answer to the question "what do you still have to do for the RBRR?" at this time yesterday, my answer would have been "Fit the new back box, road test, get drinks and nibbles" Now, the answer is "Change the head gasket. Again"   Car 25 (Ian and Anthony - Flat Mouse Racing) - now looking rather less likely to make it to Knebworth :-(

Now have one - advertised as "good s/h" in mild steel, delivered for £75. As opposed to Rimmer's SS at double that. TBH a sound MS one will probably outlive the car ;-)

So how can I edit the thread title?

Gaaah, mea maxima culpa... my mistake, really sorry - it's the DOWNPIPE  that I'm after, not the manifold. What an idiot I am. I don't suppose you have one of those kicking around instead? :-D

As per title, really - it's the two-into-one downpipe, not just a wiggly single pipe. I'm based in Newbury but can travel - within reason! Many thanks in anticipation

Hi all, Grateful for thoughts opinions and suggestions... Just spent a few hours (warm-up for the rugby!) trying to fault-find on a 1500 Spitfire that won't start/run. I've posted this in the general technical section as the problem may be a hybrid of several problems some generic some more specific... Sorry this is a bit long-winded! Starting set-up. Owner bought it with a bodgey looking installation of a contactless electronic distributor (I assume Hall Effect (HE)). According to the Repair Operations Manual, the car as original* has a ballast resistor wire and 6V coil; however it now has an aftermarket coil of unknown parentage. Overall mixed condition with evidence of bodged maintenance/"restoration" * difficult to gauge age as it has a personalised plate and owner has lost the V5 (temporarily I hope). Commission number is FH104631 Investigation to-date. Put simply, it was running and now isn't. The engine turns over, and there is live 12V to the coil, but according to my timing light there's no HT spark. The normal set-up at the coil would be - positive side - a white/pink (ign switched ballast resistor wire delivering constant 6V) and white/yellow (temporary feed delivering 12V while starting). Negative side should have the white/slate feed to the rev-counter, and with a normal distributor the black "signal" from the points. However, in reality... On the coil +side is an ignition-switched 12V BROWN feed, and what looks like the OTHER end of the white/yellow (which should actually have been on the solenoid). The combined female connector that has the white/pink and white/yellow, that should plug onto the coil, is floating in mid-air. So the only source to that connector appears to be the ignition switch via the white/pink, but the voltage is 12V not the 6V you'd expect from the ballast resistor. The HE sensor in the distributor has red and black wires connected across the coil, but not having anything to go on I am struggling to know how it SHOULD be connected (it was disconnected and reconnected in a hurry as part of another problem, might have been reversed then). I assume the HE sensor needs constant 12V supply (red?) and sends a 'chopped' earth to the coil (black?) to energise/de-energise it - but if it is wired wrong way round, will that have damaged it?  So my initial diagnosis for non-running is the HE sensor. Two options are to fit a spare standard distributor to test that theory, though I might just try a test lamp instead of the coil, should see it flashing if the HE sensor is working? But separately the wiring is a worry. The brown wire to the coil - ign switched 12V, but brown? That normally signifies constant 12V. The ballast wire seems to be delivering 12V. And there's also a green/brown wire coming off the solenoid that I can't account for. The Gods alone know what else is connected/not connected... I'm now wondering where I can safely put the multi-meter test probes! Any comments, anyone? VMTIA