Protective coat

Getting ready to spray more of that black epoxy coat on the hood and various bits. Improving the technique !

Chassis paint

Got some black epoxy paint. Did the top side with a brush hoping that it would fill ok. Not so good so i sprayed the other side.

Chassis prep

A lot of banging and a bit of welding, the sandblasted chassis is getting ready for paint.

Guess who's back

Back from media blasting already.

Looking better than expected on the rear quarter panels.

Can't wait to get started !
Next step : install on rotisserie and primer

Off to sandblasting

Good milestone today, car is finally of to get sandblasted. Body, doors, hood and chassis.

Doors ready

Been procastinating for a while to get the doors ready for sandblasting. Kind of knew it was not going to be fun. Took 2 hours to get the first door ready but the second one was ready in no time, much easier once you know how to wiggle the various mecanism out of the door.

Got all the parts laid out in the basement and some shelves, lots of parts in a spitfire !

Spitfire paint removal

You seriously have to see how easy it is to strip the top layer of paint on flat surfaces.

All you need is a razor blade !
A video is better than words, see below

Spitfire parts

I might have bought a parts car... thanks Mitch !

I now have 2 spitfire projects in the garage, ouch.

Spitfire chassis cleaning

Stripped and cleaned the chassis this weekend. Sprayed degreasant and pressure washed.

Looks like someone used that hole in the chassis to make a little house !

The point of no return

Pretty sure i have reached the point of no return. Body tub was lighter than expected but not so easy to handle so i am happy i had an extra 3 set of arms to help.

Car looks good like that, spitfire low rider !

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.