molten

Hello
Not much progress recently. Funds running low so turned my attention to rear brake hubs. These had plenty rust on them so were de-rusted and inspected. One of the drums have some pitting on the brake surface and some wear near the edge of the hub - couple of pics, one is close-up.

When are the hubs 'past it'? When they are like this or would you say these are servicable?
Cheers fella's.

Hi Chris

Yeah, you're right. I found the knack on the 2nd one, which took me 10 mins max - sound familiar?

Scott

What a CRAP DAY.

My day off today and UJ turned up in post - great me thought - get UJ's on halfshafts.
Went in garage and was welcomed by a nice large pool pool of water on my floor - garage roof leak - great, so swept holding water off top of roof and off I went to B&Q for some emergency repair mastic. Rip-off that place lately - even worse with 20% VAT!!!
Anywhooo, repaired roof - now onto UJ's only to completely knacker up 2 of the bearing cups on one of the UJ   >:( &  >:( &  >:( again. A needle roller must have dropped down when fitting and sat so as to stop me from pressing caps fully home so that circlip could be fitted. These cups were that tight, it has taken me ages to get them back out. So will have to get another flamin' UJ now - fed-up

All this made even worse as wife has not got me my wid-week beers in  >:(
How you supposed to rebuild a spitfire with no mid-week beers I asks you??

Back when I have calmed down.

Just waiting for new UJ's & rear diff polybushes for driveshafts so getting ready to get shafts back on chassis.

I have bought some greasable UJ's instead of sealed ones. Not sure if I should have bought sealed???

Hi Roger
POR15 does not seem to like going on smooth or clean metal. Better adhesive properies directly on rust - what its intended for. Prepa clean/smooth metal with POR15 metal ready first  (or 'rough-up' to key) - time consuming though necessary. I learned this after por15 flaked of clean metal after a knock - Grrrrr.

Door gap stay was quickly made with a couple of lengths of steel tubing (I have one on each side to hold body as much as possible when off the chassis) welded onto some 100mm x 125m x 5mm flat plate then cut another flatplate same size. Drilled couple of holes for bolts. Welded 2 nuts on either end and simple clamped up on the seams of the door. Pic bellow might give better idea. I made two of these for collecting a secong body tub which turned out to be crap!!


Cheers
Molten

Comments from seller of doly block "The block looks good with very little sign of bore wear, the engine comes with crank, pistons, conrods, bearing caps etc, but has been dismantled. The deck is also good."

So if midget engine option fails then this should do nicely with correct MK3 cam, as long as crank caps can be identified. So not beaten....just yet 8)

Hi Roger

Initially i simply painted springs with blue smoothrite on the springs with the intention of overcoating with a couple of coats of clear por15.
Calipers; I used some leftover engine enamel and intend over painting with clear por15.

Plans with springs changed slightly when i picked up a pair of now front shocks with lowered coil springs (moss's TT4301). These are red coated so think I will be changing caliper to aluminum colour.
See pics (old wheels attached to get idea of height)
Hope this helps
Cheers

Cheers Colin & Clive

Just want to be absolutely certain before parting with any cash.
Lets hope I can get the MG engine and save a lot of hassle.

Cheers gents
Go easy on the beers this evening :X

Cheers Clive
Thought so but just checkin'. If the bearing caps are not present (if block only) will the spifire caps be ok to use on doly block?

Thanks

Right...Been thinking (always dangerous for me) ;D

If I cannot obtain the other 1500 midget engine mentioned earlier, I may be able to put hands on a 1500 'doly' block, which i am informed is same lump.

Is there anything I should be wary of/considering/or be aware of with this doly block option?

Thanks for any tips/pointers
Molten

Thanks gents
I was expecting that response as I was thinking the same. I have a chance of a full engine (maybe free of charge too), i think it may be from MG midget which i beleive to be same engine so think i will go this route.

I have not yet examined the head from the original motor (came to me dismantled) but if all is ok with it then may be good for a little porting experiment. The saga continues...

Hello
Waiting for parts (and more funds) so thought I would take a closser look atr the engine. This engine has sat in the dry with the head off for approx 10 years so was interested to see the state of itSo cleaned off the block and removed some ancilliary parts. After cleaning of the block deck and piston crowns 1st, i noticed that there was some pitting on no 4 piston crown. I also noticed pitting on the deck surface between 2 & 3 which looks a bit like the old corrosion around the waterways.

I have checked bore dims and all seem to be around spec (73.7mm) although I can feel the ridges on top of each cylinder. Not sure if i will be resuing this motor but the deck surface pitting and bore ridges have me looking negative about this block so would welcome your opinions.
Many Thanks

Hi Alex
Springs are now red Moss uprated springs and standard black shocks (i will get a pic on here soon)

The bolts on the rear flange (pic 51)are disc retaining bolts to keep paint out of threads.

Cheers

Never done anything like this before so I wlcome your thoughts, comments & advice - no matter how critical  :-/ :-/

Anyway, new (used) chassis was taken back to bare metal, prepered and 2 healthy coats of POR15

Front suspension rebuild was started - all new fasteners and polybushes.

Calipers refurbished and aia used some leftover engine paint to coat them but to be honest, I think I have made a mistake with the colour red so may overcoat in aluminum colour as its starting to resemble "Optimus Prime" (the main 'goodie' from Transformers movie for those who are wondering)

Front springs have now been changed for pair of red Moss' slightly lowered fast road springs and red calipers dont look too bad together but will still likely change to aluminum colour.

A few more imiges attached for your 'amusement', sorry I mean thoughts.... :X

Cheers
molten

Floors were needing some work so cut out old metal and welded new in. Same with boot floor.
All strengthening work was completed whilst tub was still on body. Once the body was completed (almost) the body tub was removed so as full extent of chassis could be seen. Repairable but not good. Front xmember rotten through upto and well into pivot boxes and strengthening struts as seen in pic.. Rest of chassis ok. I managed to pick up a very good chassis for £40 from fleabay, so of in mates truck to collect.
Will add more pics when I can get them off my phone.

Back soon
Molten

Rear inner wings were done near rear valance, whilst wings off.

Drivers sill didnt look right at bottom of door - gap 'huge' as per pic.
After mulling over why this gap was present, I could only think that a repair had been done on bulkhead behing cill radius - Correct, so cut out around old repair and butt-welded new metal back in. Inner sill ok but strengtheners shot-at - off they came and new one put in plus new lower A-post panels, and new outer sills.

To be Continued......

Right, been wanting to do this but the number of photo's involved put me off uptil now. Got the bullit in my teeth and am biting down on it as I type.... Here goes...

Car as I bought it in March this year. (dont ask why i parted with money for this but i did - £255).

The stripdown begins:

Blister on rear wheelarch flares went straight through to inner-outer arch on both sides = rear wings off. Just as well as primer on bottom of wings hid the bodge 'overplating'.