Body tub strengthening

Added 2 bars so the body doesnt fold at the door level. Did some banging on the trunk as well to set closer to straight.

Looks the body might come off this week end !

Floors prep

Realized i had a few more things to do before separating the body from the chassis, such as removing a previous owner attempt at fixing the floor. The plates were put in place with rivets, self tapping screws and great extent of caulk...

Been toying with various techniques for taking some paint off before media blasting, chemical stripper works if the correct quantity is applied on the blue orginal paint and the red top coat goes off amazingly well with just a razorblade. A combination of the 2 might get me pretty far, we'll see.

Spitfire dismantling - part 6

Good progress this week end, finished around the trunk area. Almost everything connected to the body tub is off.

Next steps are prepare the body to be lifted off the chassis !
(reinforcement bar in door area and maybe floors)

Spitfire dismantling - Part 5

Wire harness is finally off the car, been looking forward to that moment, but not looking forward to when I will have to reconnect everything.

Car is really starting to look naked, steering column and seats are off too. Can things go fast from now ?

Spitfire dismantling - Part 4

Visible progress made tonight, doors and windshield are off !

Spitfire engine on its way to machine shop

All right, engine and head are completely apart, will take it to the machine shop this week, hopefully for some good news !

Check out the condition of the crankshaft bearings, huh do you think it was time to replace them ? !
Check out the one from the left piston...

A bad case of "now that i have gone this far i might as well do that"

So... There's been a shift from engine paint and minor repairs to full on overhaul.

Following the advice that i should do it well so that i dont have to get back in there soon.

A few bad news so far : pistons are stamped 0.40 so someone has been in there already, recently if i am lucky so i dont need a rebore and the camshaft is pitted. Hopefully the bottom end will look better !

Head is off !

Scratching my head as to what to do next :-)

Spitfire engine stand

Engine is finally on stand !
Will make working on it much easier.

Spitfire accelerator linkage

I could not remove the pin whatever i tried, push, pull, hammer, drill you name it.

Had no choice but to cut the end and finally got it in the vice. Will have to reunite them with a nice weld.

Spitfire dismantling - part 3

Great progress made today !

Not much left in the engine bay, tried to label things as much as possible and lots of photos. Hopefully to put back together i'll just follow the photos in reverse order.

Engine is off !

That's it, did not take long.

Now here is some advice, if you ask your wife to help you and lower the crane, tell her to turn the switch very very slowly, not just slowly... Luckily with the help of my panic scream day was saved and the engine stopped less than an inch from the floor. Thanks for the help honey.

Spitfire dismantling - part 2

Next step, engine is coming out !

Spitfire dismantling - part 1

Ok it's not going as fast as I was hoping but eh, some of these bolts have been stuck for over 40 years.

I still did some noticeable progress though

Before :

After :

3, 2, 1 ready ...

Last ride today. All is in place, dismantling starts tonight !

Spitfire drive movie

I have an other proof it drives at least semi ok, took my longest drive ever today for at least 15 minutes !
Sorry forgot I had the waterproof case on the camera, so no engine sound.

Broken intake manifold heater pipe

Went for an other ride around the block, car starts so well now, what a pleasure to start on first key turn, choke on full for 5 seconds, then half way for 10 - 20 seconds then that's it. When back, proceeded to removing the vinegar and replacing by water to get a good flush of the engine. While I was at it I decided I would fit the new water hoses...

The good thing with vinegar is that it will clean the inside. The bad thing is that it will dissolve rusty things that were held just by rust... that's what happened to the intake manifold heater pipe. I have a little piece of tube pushed in there for now so I can run the engine but that will be something to fix during the real restoration. Starting very soon by the way.

Rotisserie 2

Good progress on the spitfire rotisserie tonight !

Generator brushes

Slow progress this week end, but did some of those things that had been on the back burner for a while.

Replaced the brushes on the generator as well as painted it while i was there. Not related to my voltage charging issue i ll have to track that one later.

I found a few weeks back that the engine tends to overheat after a while so i took out the thermostat and filled the engine with vinegar instead of water that should clean the inside pretty well. Can't forget to take it out next week and put coolant liquid back in. I suspect my thermostat is opening a bit high and might buy the 82 celsius one.

By the way, good news, now the engine starts easily, looks like that previous hard work is paying off !

Spitfire rotisserie

Started work on the rotisserie, exciting !