LouisW
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Everything posted by LouisW
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I do have some photos, on my phone though... which just happens to be dead! I'll try post them tonight. Booked my driving test today aswell, 5th August. Can't wait!
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To be honest, I didn't think this sill was that bad, rust wise! The exterior looks to not have very much rust on at all, just silver paint. Besides, I don't have the money to spend on a new sill, or the bracing required to remove the existing one. I have been trying to make all the repair panels myself, but I will soon have to buy a rear quarter repair panel which will take up more money. Having driving lessons at £20 an hour doesn't help...
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Well I will probably end up removing the front part of the sill to deal with some rust on the a post inside. I had to do this on the other side so got a bit of experience doing it so hopefully it wont take me as long to do it the second time. What I did notice however was that on the inside near the mounting when I crawled under the dash it needs some small patches as I can see daylight. How the hell shall I get to this? I really had to crawl under just to see anything with a torch and i'm worried it would be a safety hazard (although it is only a small area, but i see daylight). I will try get some pictures if it ever stops raining! In regards to the bonnet, it's not fully mounted at the moment hence the bad gaps and hopefully why it's sat on the radiator. I have some bodywork to do on it, and I will be painting the inside soon enough. How do I go about getting the bonnet hinges in the correct place? The existing holes are fairly rounded and god knows who put them in originally so they may not be very straight. I wish my old bonnet was salvageable but the amount of repair panels needed don't make it economical really. Another question I have is with the rear radius arm mounting brackets. Although not rusty, there is rust right next to them which I need to cut out but these brackets make it really awkward. Are they easily removed? Will it mess up all the camber etc at the back? I could attempt to work around them, but with it being so close to the seatbelt mounting I'd prefer this to be done properly 😀 Thanks, Louis
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Removed the hardtop today for the first time in 30 years. It's missing some washers which I will have to buy as well. Here's some pics anyway.
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I used electrolysis to clean my tank out, worked great! Basically just filled it up with water, 2/3 cups of daz washing powder, anode dangling in tank connected up to a car battery charger. All rust attracted to the anode away from the tank itself. Left it sparking clean. I then promptly filled it with distilled water to clean out further, then topped up with petrol to stop it rusting.
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Cut away the rot and badly bondoed patches on the drivers side. To me the sill looks almost like a replacement and it has some weird hard white bondo like stuff inside. I can't get it out but I've taken a picture of it. The end plate was also only welded on in 3 places and rest bondoed/sealed up. This must have been done in the 4-5 years the PO had the car with only 9k miles on. Does this sound like MOT repairs? The outside of the sill is also in redoxide and nothing else down that side. Here's some pics from inside the sill. Also cut some small areas of rot away too.
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Your brake drum? Is it just the drum or you trying to pull the whole hub? They often need a good bash with a nice meaty hammer as they seize in place. Are you sure the retaining screws for the drums have been removed? I really like the look of this by the way, completely different what you often see with body tub transplants. Love it!
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Take off both doors and weld a metal bar into the gap to hold structure. Either this or shove a bit of wood into the gap which is a tight fit, you'll see when the body is taken off you wont be able to remove that wood without a saw ;) You shouldn't notice much flex with it being a GT6 anyway though as it's got a solid roof.
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Take off both doors and weld a metal bar into the gap to hold structure. Either this or shove a bit of wood into the gap which is a tight fit, you'll see when the body is taken off you wont be able to remove that wood without a saw ;) You shouldn't notice much flex with it being a GT6 anyway though as it's got a solid roof.
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Hi John, Spotted it, thanks a lot! Thought it was best to post on both sites as you often get more diverse answers to solve the problem in hand. Will definitely follow what you said.
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As some may know, I recently bought a fibreglass bonnet for the spitfire. I've been sanding it back to remove some of the imperfections and marks on the paint before priming. Most of the top coat that's on the bonnet is fairly solid however I noticed some spider cracks in the center of the bonnet, and around where the headlamp cowls would sit. I am unsure whether these cracks are just in the paint or whether they're in the gelcoat of the fibreglass? Should I sand right back to the gelcoat? If they are cracks in the gelcoat how do I go about rectifying these? I have a fibreglass kit in the garage but havn't used it in ages so don't know how to tackle the project. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Louis
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The radiator is fitted properly and how it was before with no problems, no pics I'm afraid. I understand that the bonnet isn't mounted and this will differ how it sits but I believe it should be lower at the front before even getting close to hitting the radiator cap. I have fibreglass lower valances as well so I look forward to mounting them! I would have gone instead for a steel bonnet/ valances but the prices they were fetching were atrocious. I will have another fettle and try mount it on the bonnet tubes to see if that changes anything. Didn't have a proper play really, it's just sat on there but had noticed it didn't look 100% right. Thanks for all the help.
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Here's a picture, does it need building up a bit in the centre? Any idea on why its sitting on the radiator cap?
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I havnt touched that yet, from first glances it doesnt seem to be too bad. The bonnet will probably need mounting first so I can see exactly how it sits onto the rocker. I will get a pic later today.
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The only issue I'm having is it seems to be sitting on the radiator cap. Do I have it too far back? It seems to be quite high at the front.
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Another pic
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Did some more work today... took the bonnet out of the garage and set to removing the headlamps and bonnet latches. Latch screws needed drilling out unfortunately, bloody rust! Who thought that philip's screws would ever be good for this? Oh well! I then pressure washed all of the bonnet then sanded down the existing paint on it. Appears to have had the original white on the fiberglass, blue paint then finally black. All seems to be on pretty well so I'm not going to bother stripping it all back as it seems pretty resilient. Next job will be priming it. Nice to see it back on looking like a car again.
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I bought a bonnet for my spitfire and it came with some headlights installed in it. Ones a lucas (I guess factory) and the others just a sealed beam that must be newer. Is there a way to test that the headlights work alright? My spitfire isn't in a state to be connecting up my headlights etc just yet and was thinking of selling these on to recoup some of my bonnet money. Would connecting a battery charger directly to the terminals and grounding it out work? There's 3 pins on the back of the headlamps.
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Got a fair bit done today as for once the sun was shining and I had no coursework deadlines on top of me! I removed the rust from inside my front chassis outriggers and from inside the bonnet hinge boxes. I'm glad I got this job done as it was an awkward one, but seemed to just transform the look of the chassis as a whole. Glad i wont have to do it again as well! I'm going to have to get the black paint out soon and have them match the rest of the chassis. I also cleaned up, sanded and primed my valances which I got from eBay for 99p at the beginning of the resto. I am very happy with how they came out, and are fully smooth now ready to fit! Also cleaned and primed the mounting brackets for them. Hope to get the bonnet into a similar condition and fitted soon!
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That's what I'm thinking aswell, not done chassis repairs before but they don't have to look pretty, just be strong! 😉 I have been tempted just to fill up the system with vinegar but I'm worried about getting air pockets leading to rust building up where there is no vinegar.
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Not done anything since the last update, been piled under with coursework as of late. I did however find some rust on the chassis and front bonnet mountings and wondering whether something really needs doing about them? This ones in the chassis and is really awkward to get to just behind the bonnet mount brackets - I don't know how I'd go about welding in a patch in such a tight space? I cant even get my drill in to clean up the rust in such a tight gap! The other area is here - Not as clear as i've cleaned off the rust in the past and painted it up to protect it. Shall I just weld in a patch into this area? Will it fail an MOT by being rusty in these areas? I don't want it being unsafe but it feels strong enough!
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There's no bonnet on it at the moment, it's currently stood up in the garage! It's a new fibreglass one, so not 100% sure on fitment when it's down anyway. Not attempted putting any bonnet tubes on it or anything yet.
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Got the rest of the sill welded and ground the welds down. It's much stronger than before and I'm happy with it now knowing that the inner sill isn't going to fail on me. Still have some filler work to do on a bit of it but I have put some primer on for the time being. I noticed that the top part of the sill (where the bonnet edge sits) isn't perfectly flat... Can I build this up with filler? It was bent like this before, I havn't done it, honest! 😀 This is the inside of the sill now. I also removed the drain plug on the side of the engine and flushed it out with some water into the radiator. The water that came out was awful! I had flushed it before to clear but it seems it's still mucky in there. I am thinking of just putting coolant and water in then draining in a few weeks time? Would plain vinegar into the system be better then draining again? Cheers, Louis
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Well I got the other hole all patched up and started welding on the outer sill again. Will need to make a sill end panel but thankfully all of the inner sill is strong and fingers crossed the outer will be aswell! It doesn't look straight at the bottom but that's just the inner sill as I made it larger so I could spotweld to it then grind the excess away. Here's a picture of the inside Nice to know it's strong again now! Once I get the sill end plate on and all the welds ground down, filled, and painted then I can finally build up this side of the suspension. Also bought some new kn air filters which I have started polishing up. Cheers, Louis
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How I did it was with the use of electrolysis. Basically I filled the tank with water and put in soda crystals. I hung a piece of metal tubing through the filler cap into the tank itself (making sure it didn't touch the sides) then connected the positive lead i think it was to the metal tube and the negative to the tank edge. Just double check on those leads as if the wrong way round it can eat into your fuel tank. It worked wonders on my tank and after 24 hours it was spotless inside and with a good rinse and dry out I was able to put it back into the car. Meant no messing with nuts bolts gravel etc staying in the bottom of your tank!