Latest Recreation

Episode one

The purchase

   May 2018

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

<<<  From tired         

Triumph Spitfire


               

             


 






To D-type 

from old no7 kits

  


Trip home from Barry, South Wales, Mid May 2018.

Interior being stripped, parts, fixings    etc are all bagged and labelled.

Car seems to be coming apart quite easily, looks to have had work done some time ago.

With a little help, the tub could be easily liffted from the chassis on to stands.

Full inspection of chassis did not reveal any horrors with the engine and gear box removed.

Carry out final repairs  prior to taking chassis to be stripped and marine grade powder coated.

So while the chassis is away, I can get on and hand work the front and rear suspension parts.

Almost all of the original parts have been reused where possible.

1968 mk3 Triumph Spitfire

Engine can now be very easily checked over, head and sump off with all gaskets replaced.

Chassis undergoing one of its stages prior to powder coating and baking etc.

Mid  August, and a good day today, collected the chassis from the powder coaters. exciting times.

Front suspension and component  assemblies completed.

  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.

Built a strong scaffold frame to load the body tub upon to so I can wheel the chassis in and out of the garage to work on the drive.

As always, thought better of trying to save the original rad, located and bought brand new larger rad as replacement.

New radiator fitted along with hoses etc, found TDC, did a rough tune and fired up the engine, nice to have it running again.

Fitted the twin SU's with a couple of Ram pipes, look nice but may well run with a couple of pancakes yet?

NB. at this point I should just mention that, further down the build,

I have replaced the twin SUs with a new Weber 45 DCOE.

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.

                                                                                                Above

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.

                                                                                                Below

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.

                                                                                            Above

    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.  

Above. original dunlop style wheels as fitted to D type.     Above photo. As new, replacement Steel wheel £395 each           My wheels sorced on ebay, new old stock £50

                                                                                                                                  Above

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.

                                                                                                                  Above

                                                        photos showing the preperation for moulding the complete body shell.

                                                                                                             

                                                                                                             August 2019


                                                                                                                  Below

                                 Body shell removed from the mould and ready for the modifications required for d-type as required.

                                                                                           Above

Bonnet being prepped for centre section piece to be bonded in so as to be one piece.  Grills being marked up for fitting

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The arrival of the kit, bodyshell will have to be placed on and off the tub a great many times in order to get the correct fit and alignment.  This really is a two person job, and care must be taken not to damage the kit during this process.

                                                                                

Using various bits & pieces from my collection, I have come up with this version of neck for the (new) old stock 1977 Aston Martin flip top filler cap.  Now waiting for some better weather so I can re-start on the bodywork, especially lining up the bonnet to the main tub.

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A trip over to the National Motor Museum at Gaydon for some insperation.  One of the many cars on show was the 1954 D-type Jaguar OVC 501, this car was the prototype test bed chassis, driven by Norman Dewis prior to the prestigious sports car race, the Le-Mans 24hr