Bainzy
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Everything posted by Bainzy
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Got one of these double sided decals today (well Dad picked one up for me from Moss), it seems like its paper with no obvious means of sticking it on the car. Should it be wetted then stuck in place? Or am I not seeing it and it should be peeled apart? :-/
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5938 wrote: thanks for the advice was that an uprated or standard spring? I've been told it was by the previous owner (he seemed to think it was for a GT6), though wouldn't know the difference to be honest. All I know is it sat a lot higher than Spitfires did out of the factory!
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To get mine on I used the 4 studs and a load of brass nuts to compress it. Still had to wiggle the through bolt sleeve with a screwdriver and hammer it through. To get the actual spring on I finally did it by taking out the fuel tank which made it significantly easier to get the studs into the diff.
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I've always thought my stainless twin sports exhaust hung too low at the back, and it's never been kind on the bobbins that hold it up at the back of the car. The new rear spring makes the car sit high with no negative camber at all, so before I add a lowering block I decided to turn my attention to the exhaust. For 6 quid I picked up a pair of universal exhaust hanging brackets from Halfords, and these bolted on really nicely to the diff mounting holes as you can see in the photos. Unfortunately, when I'd raised the exhaust Y piece up a substantial amount here, I realised this was then lifting up the backboxes too high - pressing the tailpipes tightly against the rear valance; not good. I thus had to drop the mounts down enough to avoid this, and it's put me not much better than when I started in terms of ground clearance. At least the bobbins at the back aren't taking all that weight, but I'm no closer to fitting a lowering block. The lowest point you can see in the photos is 4 inches off the ground, and that's unloaded. It doesn't ground out every time I go over a speed bump, but it can do sometimes. If the car gets lowered further it'll probably be a common thing. As you can see, the Y piece is far from straight - it's been made with a kink before it reaches the backboxes in order to rake the tailpipes upwards. Is this fixable such as heating it up and trying to bend it, and is it something I could conceivably do in the garage at home? Comments/suggestions welcome. :)
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Bloody gorgeous car. John, did you get the Serck style numberplates or did they come with the car?
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Is that a blanked off distributor... Megajolt? :) Looking fantastic, really love the colour and the photos so far!
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Don't think the trip cable bracket is original (could be wrong as your cars 6 years earlier than mine), but on my 1500 its supposed to go on a bracket that swings out from around that area. Your bracket is better though, the original one on mine would make it far too tight for the trip reset to work if used, it kinks it too much so I just leave it hanging loose.
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You have an older column style to mine so it may be different, but light bulb on mine is under the speedo, either on one of those hidden support rails or the steel dash panel (can't remember which, can check tommorrow if you're desperate). Passenger courtesy lights came in quite late, after my 78 was built but a previous owner fitted one anyway. The switches and courtesy lights are brilliant when you're out at night, trust me! They're not hugely bright but very convenient. My switches are wired to function both as courtesy lights AND to trigger my car alarm system, so I couldn't do without them really. Mine are tied together (so both lights come on with just one door) but originally worked independently, to do this with an alarm you might have to use diodes (not hard).
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Has anyone seen this months practical classics? Bodywork expert Martin Thaddeus shows how to fix badly fitting doors without doing any metalwork whatsoever, using a hydraulic ram to lift the sagged a-post panel and retensioning with a hammer. Anyone else tried this? The car he does it on has worse gaps than mine, yet he ends up with door gaps I'd be ecstatic with. I'll be trying it myself once the hardtop comes off, though I can't help but wonder, should you remove the center radio console when doing it?
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Mine aren't bad, here's a pic of the car shortly after I bought it: This differs from the factory method a bit in that the pipe goes almost straight to the P clip after leaving the master cylinder. As you'll see in the photo I sent you, originally the pipe ran flat along the bulkhead for about 2 inches (past the rubber boot for the cluch MC), THEN turned at a 45 degree angle right before the P clip. I think mine also leaves the bulkhead later than the factory installed pipes did, yours looks about right as it is now in where it drops down.
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Yeh there's a factory way of doing it that looks really neat, will try find a pic for you Scott. Edit: PM sent
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So knocking doesn't necessarily mean the UJ is on its way out? I've got one knocking that the previous owner replaced fairly recently...
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That looks so tidy, it's almost a shame to cover it up with vinyl!
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Lacquer won't really protect against fading as it's clear - so light gets through it, although the lacquer itself won't fade. What tends to happen is that over a long period of time, the lacquer turns yellow - which will change the colour of the car a bit. Modern cellulose is a lot more resistant to these things than it used to be, so it would be a long time before you had problems. If you use the car plenty it'd be up for another resto/respray by then anyway. One advantage you will have is that putting lacquer over it gives you a lot more breathing room to get a fantastic shine (you can cut it deeper), and also when the car gets scratched, if it's light then colour matching is a non-issue - you just fill the scratched area with clear lacquer and it matches perfectly!
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If you use a mechanical one, you don't need a sender - just a pipe.
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I have one of these, never thought of doing the trunnions with it. My method is a grease gun stored upside down in a bucket, as it doesn't leak if stored like that!
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Will get you some more photos Anthony. As you might expect, when I take photos of the car, I usually tend to avoid photos that show the imperfections in the gaps! Interestingly the gaps aren't as bad now without the hardtop on, only a slight difference but you notice it. The car never had a hardtop until I bought it, so when the sills were done, there won't have been one to use.
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2597 wrote:The front of the sill may be sticking out further than the bonnet/wings - indicating poor sill repair. It does, and the bonnet arch seems to have a bit of trouble staying straight - you have to pull the bottom corner of the (new heritage) bonnet assembly outwards to properly close the catch. I got this car knowing its slight fault, but it was still a great deal and just what I was after. When you're 20 and its your first car, who cares about panel gaps when the cars likely to get damaged anyway? But I'm thinking years ahead for how this will eventually be sorted, as the only thing this car has left to teach me about cars is how to weld! So when that time comes I'll be a bit nit picky about gaps and such. Clearly the door gaps at the front and back were caused by lack of proper bracing, but do you think using non-heritage sills used may have affected the gap under the doors? Could it be 'tub spread'?
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Where the hell would you start with this one? http://www.simoncars.co.uk/triumph/slides/u_Triumph%20Spitfire%20MkIV%201500%201977%20side.jpg Aside from this misaligned door, the car is practically concours. Observations include: front edge of door, gap too narrow at the top, too wide at the bottom rear edge of door, gap too wide at the top, too narrow at the bottom door kicks out at the bottom, would probably bang the bottom rear corner against the bodywork IF you were able to get it fitting flush it's almost like the sill is too narrow as almost the entire length of the door-bottom sticks out wider than the sill It'd seem such a shame to take the sill off and redo it considering there isn't a spec of rust on the car, however I guess its a blessing in one way as it gives an incentive to drive the bloody thing without caring about preserving the sills, as you can then eventually have an excuse to redo them. The sills aren't heritage as they don't appear to have that curved lip round the front. Also, the rear wing has a repair patch that is rectangular in section and is fitted at the bottom, ahead of the rear wheel. Its height is in line with the top of the sill, you can kind of make it out in the photo. I'm guessing the bulkhead has sagged due to inadequate bracing when the floor and sills were replaced. The a-post bottom corner patch is original, as is the entire door assembly and most of the rear wing. How would you guys tackle this? I'd be tempted to replace the entire outer rear wing panel with a heritage one as well as getting heritage sills, but then again changing the rear wing may bring more problems than it solves?