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1968 mk3 Triumph Spitfire

  Above, and we are now into September 2018, its a very satisfying period of any restoration, where almost all of the dirty work has been done and clean parts fit together easily.

Okay, September, October, now into November 2018, and I have moved work into my workshop in the back garden, heating, lighting and a sound system make it easier to work on the smaller parts than on the drive on these darker winter days.

Spring 2019, the next large stage, will be to remove the body tub from the scaffold frame, remove all the surface rust, repair and weld where required, cut down the tub and place back onto the chassis, enabling the car to be driven in and out of the garage, where in the future, I can think about attaching the new bodyshell.

Above, small items, paint and over40 odd years of gunk and rust stripped, treated, painted and re-assembled in my workshop, parts placed into a box and shelved until needed for reassembly in the not too distant future.

With the dashboard removed, the instruments could be examined, cleaned and re-assembled, although I shall only be using the fuel and temp gauges, I have managed to source and buy a nice set of mk2 Jaguar gauges as below, these should look nice in the special, and should go with the custom built dashboard and other gauges etc,

Above, the wiring loom was cleaned and inspected, loom has now been stripped and recovered with a roll of loom fabric tape.

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Heater unit, motor and matrix removed and checked for leaks etc.  All components  cleaned and treated with rust remover before undercoating with primer prior to painting and reassembly.  Motor unit taken apart, cleaned and moving parts lubricated before putting back together.  Motor now runs at smoothly at speed.

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  Gear box tunnel (fibre glass) was scrubbed clean and smoothed, primer and a couple of coats of paint applied to bring it back into good shape.

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Original fuel tank flushed with tank cleaner and a hand full of nuts and bolts to remove the surface rust within.  All paint and surface rust removed from the outside before being treated with my usual brand of rust eater.  Fuel tank has then been coated and hung to dry before it's final coat of satin black paint.  Fuel sensor cleaned and  bench tested, seemed a waste to chuck when working.

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Mid March 2019 - I have now removed the body tub from the scaffolding tower in my garage, I can now make ready to send off the body tub to be stripped and undercoated, on its return I can get on with the sill repairs and some minor welding issues etc, before cutting down the rear arches, painting and getting ready to place tub back on to the chassis.

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    From the rear access plate cover, through to part of the gear box cover plate, accelerator pedal and steering wheel                           shaft, parts all removed of grease and grime, treated and then a new coat of paint to finish.

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Set of 15" steel wheels sourced from ebay new old stock.  looking not to unlike a set of dunlop knock offs, these were a fraction of the price.  New tyres all round and some cusomizing of the centre hubs give that great jaguar look to the wheels. Tyres are 185/65 R15.

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Seems to have been away for an age  (all of April and part of May) anyway, Tub has been returned from the workshop having been away for media blasting, the tub has also been treated and given a good coat of primer, I can now get on and repair the sections and panels where time and elements have taken theier toll.  Having a good look at the tub, it appears to be in pretty good shape, there are several places mainly to the floor pan, boot and scuttle where there has been quite extensive repairs already carried out.  

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                                                                                                                              (the longest day) 21st June 2019

At last the rain has taken a well earned rest and the sun is shining again, decided to use this break in the weather to place the tub back onto the chassis and cut the rear section as per the instructions.  A little tricky at times measuring and marking, definitely a two person job, but slowly slowly as the saying goes, could have done with that monkey even if just to hold the tape measure for me.  

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With the new wheels now fitted to the original spitfire hubs with adaptors, more of a trial fit so as to cut wheel arches to size to the rear and remove metal from the front bulkhead to prevent tyre rub when turning.  Jaguar style grp body shell now ordered as of July 8th, and should be ready for delivery around mid August.  Also now fitted electronic ignition, certainly makes a difference!

OLD NO.7 body kits. A352 kit.

Above is the fibreglass body kit I plan to eventually use for my Spitfire project, this will then form the basis for my replica, as you can see, the kit is quite heavily based on the Jaguar, the kit shown above is a one peice shell,  there is an option to have the complete seperate flip type bonnet.

The kit above is the A352 and is supplied by Old no.7 Kits.

The A352 ia a body conversion kit based on the triumph spitfire. As the kit uses a cut down spitfire bodytub and an unmodified chassis and drive train it is free from IVA test and keeps the spitfire's original registration and tax free status.