LouisW
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Everything posted by LouisW
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Well I've been up to a fair bit of work on the spitfire of late but still seem to be getting rather lumpy welds with gas-less. However they're OK when ground down and I do have lots of penetration. I rehung the doors to a relatively good position although still getting some paint chip on the inside, but will have another fiddle to deal with this another time. My doors gaps good though. Anyway, I have cut away the sill on the drivers side as there was some rust on the inner a post as well as on the floor of the spit. Cut all this out, welding in some panels onto the floor as well as to the A post. It's not pretty but VERY strong and all metal so a bonus to globs of fillers and underseal. Made another panel for the bulkhead on the drivers side too ready to weld in. Put a small patch in but just waiting on some flap discs to sand down fully. Today I cleaned up the bonnet hanging brackets along with the bolts so it's looking much better now. Also made a start on painting the underside of the spit bonnet but ran out of black gloss annoyingly... Re-filled, sanded and primed the rear quarter again too as I wasn't happy with the join. Ordered a panel from paddocks for the otherside too, just waiting for it to arrive.
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I'll try get some pictures, they are incredibly rusty which must hinder the performance to a certain degree? I don't want to go through the whole rebuild of my front suspension then have to buy new shocks again later down the line. John on here is kindly sending me some springs compressors so I can remove them which would give me a better look at the condition I suppose. I know for definite that the top mounting on the shocks (can't remember the name...) is knackered, the nuts are on their last legs! Where can I go about getting new ones of these?
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I'm after some front shocks as the ones I took off my spit were rusty as hell. I still have them, but think they're beyond salvage although when i bounce tested them they seemed OK. I know there are spax, koni, monroe, gaz, standards new shocks, NOS shocks but I don't know which direction to go. Koni for me are too expensive, and I see there are some spax shocks on ebay that have 500 miles on them for £35 (bidding though). I've heard some bad things about the new shocks which are available from places like rimmers, paddocks etc just with the build quality being poor. I'll be able to save my current springs I think, just need a going over with the grinder and some hammerite. Does anyone happen to have any good NOS shocks for sale? Would this be a good way to go? I would be interested in Spax, gaz shocks if anyone had any used in good condition? I am not looking for any drastic changes, having never driven a spitfire I don't know what to expect anyway! I just want something that will last me a long time and will provide me with good performance.
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I checked today and there is hardly any movement in the hinges themselves or in the frame of the window itself, thankfully. I gave the door a bit more of a shove, and resprayed the areas which had chipped off. I even tried adjusting the latch on the car body by loosening the screws but no position stopped it from rubbing. I have better door gap now and it's inline at the top. The sills have been replaced on this side before by a PO (badly) so I think this is the reason for the bad door at the bottom. Towards the back of the car at the bottom it's flush, but towards the front.. not so much! Here's some pics. I don't know what else to do apart from either elongate the holes or grind down some of the latch so it doesn't touch. Where it's scraping.
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I checked today and there is hardly any movement in the hinges themselves or in the frame of the window itself, thankfully. I gave the door a bit more of a shove, and resprayed the areas which had chipped off. I even tried adjusting the latch on the car body by loosening the screws but no position stopped it from rubbing. I have better door gap now and it's inline at the top. The sills have been replaced on this side before by a PO (badly) so I think this is the reason for the bad door at the bottom. Towards the back of the car at the bottom it's flush, but towards the front.. not so much! Here's some pics. I don't know what else to do apart from either elongate the holes or grind down some of the latch so it doesn't touch. Where it's scraping.
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The strange this is, it seemed to fit better before I took it off. There was no "rubbing" however it did have a slight droop in it. Which i presume is the hinge pins? I can live with that. What is the correct method of actually fitting the door to the spit? I did it with it opened, securing the hinges. Was a right pain in the arse though!
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The strange this is, it seemed to fit better before I took it off. There was no "rubbing" however it did have a slight droop in it. Which i presume is the hinge pins? I can live with that. What is the correct method of actually fitting the door to the spit? I did it with it opened, securing the hinges. Was a right pain in the arse though!
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I have removed the doors, sanded and primed all the edges and made some gaskets up to fit the doors into position on the hinges. I managed to get the door into place (scratching my fresh primer in a few places :'( ) but even with all bolts tightened it "drops" in the door frame. Where the hinge attached to door I saw that inside, the mounted threaded piece which the bolts go into on one it seems very secure, but the other not so much. The bolts portrude through more on one than the other and when i try to tighten it more they just spin. I presume this is where I am getting the "drop"? I also noticed that although I have a fairly good door cap, when I put on the lock onto the A post it hit the door and scrapes off the paint, bummer. I tried loosening the bolts and shunting it across but it didn't want to move. My sills have been replaced in the past, but the door at least fit without any rubbing before. Could the extra paint I applied have been the issue? I am slightly gutted that after all the hard work I put in that the primer has just been scraped again during the fitment of the door. I am glad this wasn't the top coat that's for sure! Here's some pics if they help show you more what's happening. Here's the scraping.
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I have removed the doors, sanded and primed all the edges and made some gaskets up to fit the doors into position on the hinges. I managed to get the door into place (scratching my fresh primer in a few places :'( ) but even with all bolts tightened it "drops" in the door frame. Where the hinge attached to door I saw that inside, the mounted threaded piece which the bolts go into on one it seems very secure, but the other not so much. The bolts portrude through more on one than the other and when i try to tighten it more they just spin. I presume this is where I am getting the "drop"? I also noticed that although I have a fairly good door cap, when I put on the lock onto the A post it hit the door and scrapes off the paint, bummer. I tried loosening the bolts and shunting it across but it didn't want to move. My sills have been replaced in the past, but the door at least fit without any rubbing before. Could the extra paint I applied have been the issue? I am slightly gutted that after all the hard work I put in that the primer has just been scraped again during the fitment of the door. I am glad this wasn't the top coat that's for sure! Here's some pics if they help show you more what's happening. Here's the scraping.
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Well I'll take dodgyish welding which can be sorted with a grind and a bit of filler over any rusty holes any day . Do you think I should dress the welds on the underneath of the door or leave it as it is? It is just awkward to get into the tight areas with a grinder and my dremel doesn't work very quickly.
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Well after cutting out the rust from my door, and removing said door, it was time to weld in some new sheet metal! Not flawless but I was able to recreate the bent seam over at the bottom aswell as creating the hole for the door trim. Do I need some sort of sealant along the bend at the bottom of the door? It's not welded here but I could easily weld it on all the way along. Abit of filler and some more weld dressing and it'll be fine. Better than shelling out for a new door anyway. Was quite chuffed with it really. The only thing I still do with my welding is not hold down for long enough, so build weld up instead of into the metal... All a learning curve though. Maybe not up to some peoples standards of welding on the forum, but it'll do for me
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Hi Hazen, The drivers side sill really is wavy, it's much worse than the other side. Strength wise it's OK, but it's clearly not right and will do with a new middle atleast. The front of the sills seems to be in OK condition actually. I will look into getting a new sill then I guess, or atleast a part sill! Thanks for all the help. Louis
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It took me a minute, then i looked at the pictures... 😀
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Well I removed the door today to get a better look at the sill on the drivers side. I removed all the rust I could and sprayed it up with some zinc phosphate. Looks much better than before which I'm happy about. I'm glad I'm now not looking at rust when dealing with my sills though! One more job down. Wasn't too difficult as i thought it'd be to remove the doors. My skills with welding are OK with spot/ plug welds, better than with my seam welding anyway! I still have some gaps in between with my seam welds which I need to deal with.
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Thanks for the replies, you're probably right! I don't understand why when these new sills were put on, they were not the full size extending up as to in your first picture Bainzy. I knew they weren't right as soon as I started removing that filler/ underseal. Strangely enough along the bottom seam the sills are indeed spot welded against the inner (which maybe was replaced aswell?) so why not do a proper job all the way along? I wouldn't say they were really "tack welds", more like 5-6 welds close together, but they don't extend all the way along which is the issue here. In my current position (on the drive) where I do all the work I don't feel I would be able to replace the whole sill. Nor do I have confidence in my own ability to put whole new sills on. Do you think I would be able to take this somewhere to someone who would be able to weld all the way along to complete a seam weld? I understand new sills would be the correct way though don't get me wrong. Even as they are they seem strong with no cracking etc until I disturbed it, obviously 😀 Don't you just love these cars?
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Discovered the sills have been replaced on both sides but along the top, instead of welding all the way along/ spot welding it's just been tacked in a few places then bondoed. After attempting to weld all the way along, the gap is just too big for my capabilities and I just build weld up instead of across. Something I did get done which was alright, was the other side of the bulkhead primed. I also welded in a piece of metal which needs dressing soon. Found a nice glob of filler inside at the front too... Must have been over an inch thick.
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Surely with adjustment from hinges it will become out of position to how it originally was? I thought there was some adjustment in the hinge itself so taking it off completely will lose the adjustment made?
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Well, started tackling the drivers door yesterday and today. Unfortunately I've found small holes on the bottom of the door and have had to cut out an area. Is this is an easy place to make a repair panel for? Has anyone done it in the past? I had to cut underneath off due to the level of rust. It could probably do with the whole bottom of the door replacing to be honest. Would it be a smart idea to completely remove the door from it's hinges and carry out the work off from the car? Would save me from doing any upside down welding. My doors are sat almost perfectly panel gap wise and I dont want to lose this... Anyway, here are some pictures.
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Hi Brendan, I think they may be a bit too big for my spit. I checked and the ones for the vitesse are the same as for the spit thus leading to me thinking they'll be too long as OP found out? Don't hold onto them for my sakes.
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Hi Jon, I'm around 3 hours away from you unfortunately. I will have a look around for dimensions or wait for someone else to reply. I'm not 100% sure what condition my shocks are in (havn't got there yet) but suspect they're probably on their way out. I'll let you know though ASAP.
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Do you know whether these would fit a mkiv spitfire?
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Easily done! And cheers.
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Yeah I wrote that under the first picture. Was just something to cover the hole where a dealer speaker was put in.
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Took the hardtop off today and cleaned up all of the rust underneath it. Removed the door cappings aswell... need new ones really. Can't seem to find any NOS ones though. Have people had good experiences with the new ones? I then painted it, and it's looking more as a car now. The interior is full of grinding dust though! Needs a vac. Here's some pics anyway. Yes I know, it's the wrong triumph logo on the back panel. Was just temporary anyway, need to do something better with it at some point.
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There were four chrome hub caps on eBay not so long ago for only £25. I've had a look but they must have finished as I can't find them now :(