First time driving on the road

I got a few strange looks as I drove the car to the gas station !
SP98, only the best for little spitfire.

Was able to do this as it is now insured, they give me 4 months to show French paperwork. Yeeeaaah !

Spitfire windshield install

The windshield is in !
Huge milestone and big thanks to my friend Bruno who helped installing.

My 3 step process is different than what we normally see on Triumph forums so I'd like to share :

1. When the rubber has been stored in a loop for several years it is not that easy to install around the windshield and make it stay. So we installed it then kept it in place for a few weeks with the help of rope and bungee cord. Did the same with the "metal" strip.

2. No rope technique here. Apply plenty of soapy water and position slowly. Used a 90 degree bend screwdriver to slowly pull the lip on the inside of the frame. The outside lip is easy and can be done by hand. Slowly go round and it will pop in place.

3. Push in the "metal" strip now while everything is fresh.

Et Voila !

Triumph spitfire speedometer and tachometer repair

I have had the dash cluster ready for a while and after installing the right cable for speedo and tacho I decided it was best to give them a try and horror, the needles were moving left and right, they looked dead. My test system was an old cable and the electric drill. A quick internet search made me realize these are pricey.

I had to open them but in my opinion the toughest part was to remove the needle. It is forced or glued in there so I had to build the mini extractor you can see below whith 2 screws that push on the speedo screws underneath. 

It kind of looked like that. Prepare a clean workbench, clean fingers, photos and memory to remember where all these little screws go

Luckily I had 2 of each and scavenged the best parts form each one to make one. The tachometer is the easiest to fix and I recommend fixiing this one first. The speedo has little plastic wheels on the side that tend to break with age and will jam the main axle.

 I found that the main problem was the same on all of them. Over time, play develops and the magnet part ends up touching the disc that moves the needle. It is what creates this "jumping" effect on the needle. In the end it was a super easy fix pictured below, just need to make it tight again by pushing the magnet part against the ring, using the vice.

A lot more moving parts in the speedometer pictured below. Moved the mileage while I was at it, to reset it close to 0 from the restoration since everything that moves is new on that car and since I am not 100% sure what was the real mileage on the car.

Painted the outside case while I was at it and "voila" ! Tried the fuel and water temp and they seem fine. A new fancy cluster ready to hit the road !

Ignition key fun

I think the picture below is better than words. And this is why you don't buy cheap key barrel...

In the end i put the old one back in and will get a new key cut. At least it was a good opportunity to completely dismantle the switch and clean the contacts.

Spitfire manifold

I knew i had a crack in the manifold. My plan was to weld it using the bbq to heat up and cool down and pneumatic hamer on the weld technique.

Anyway... renoved it to realize it was broken in half. Luckily i had a spare one i had to adapt a little bit to fit.
That will do till i get a nice ss exhaust.

One step closer, yeeeaaaah !

Rebuilding the entire electric harness and fusebox for the spitfire

Looking at my old harness it was clearly too old as many wires were cracked, and some melted. I agreed as well that 3 fuse as on standard Triumph of this era is not much. It seemed a shame to have everything new inside and then risk an electric fire or the car be unreliable because of poor electrics.
As well there had been considerable hacking by previous owners.

So I decided to put all new wires and a modern fusebox unit. After some research I found that the 9+3 kit from Rebel wire would be a good compromise of price and quality.
Ordered mine from here in the UK, these guys were really nice.

It took me a while to understand how it works but once you understand the concept you're good to go.
It is nice because the kit comes with high quality wires that are heat resistant, much better quality than the originals and will for sure last my lifetime. Had to call tech support to understand how to adapt for Europe and support was really friendly and helpful.

See below a lot of the wire laid out ready to go to the engine bay and lights.

I wanted the fuses to be inside to keep an original look, so I mounted them on a hinged bracket that I made with a screw on lock (a bolt with a bar welded on).

It looks like this when you remove the screw lock, easily accessible.

Now, onto wiring and soldering !

Sorting through sealed beam units for the spitfire

Didn't know know these existed till i had this car. The glass and light bulb are one unit.

I had some spares and had to try them all to figures out which ones work and don't. Some had only high pr low beam. Success, out of 6, 3 work so no new purchase needed !
Note the wiring of the bulb from the photo.

I had to order indicators though as in France can't have lights and indicator be the same bulb.

Engine break in video

Finally it's running !

An attempt at fixing the spitfire heater valve

As I filled the radiator with coolant liquid, within a few days it was leaking everywhere : Hoses, block drain tap, water pump and heater valve.

I had spares for all of these which seem to work ok but my spare valves were leaking too.

Here is what it looked like, the water was coming out the bottom.

They are pretty easy to open, you have to drill the rivet out, then you can twist the top part. It's a shame it's all relying on one piece of rubber that eventually get hard and brittle and that they don't sell just this part as replacement.

It can be completely dismantled and cleaned which is what I did followed by clear coat. However I don't recommend dismantling the bottom part if it's moving freely because there is a spring in there and it can lead to swear words trying to hold hold it compressed while put the clip back on.

So what I did is I cut a piece of rubber out of an old bike inner tube to a slightly smaller diameter and placed it on top of the worn out rubber part. 

What it looks like now, shiny ! Ready for another 40 years ? We'll see... 

Getting the spitfire ready for first start

Last sprint to get everything ready for a first start !

- Gas : gravity fed by a bottle connected to the hood.
- Oil : Got a temporary oil pressure gage (you can see it on the right) and a light bulb connected to the low oil pressure switch.
- Ignition : got a manual temporary switch installed, manually set timing to fire a bit before TDC

All systems check, ready to go ! Next step : run it for 20 minutes to break in the all new engine and camshaft then drive round the block !

Putting oil in the spitfire gearbox and overdrive

Tonight filled up the gearbox in preparation for the (soon to be I hope) first drive.

There's square plug on the side where to fill from until it overflows. Used a funnel and small tube, long process.

Had done some internet research last year and decided to go with 30 motor oil oil non detergent.

One step closer !

Spitfire water pump and valve gaps

So...

Now that I tidied my new garage and found all the spitfire parts, for the past 2 months I have been working on the car when I had a bit of time. Slow progress as I had a major work (5 full days) on an other car replacing the V8 engine this summer (quite a story...) and I always have to do a few things to my 1985 daily driver.

Basically the goal is to be able to start the engine and drive round the block asap.

It will probably not be perfect but now I feel it is more important to get it going and I will continue slowly but at least have a fun car to take out.

Completely cleaned and painted the water pump and fan and installed the radiator

Then set the valve gaps to the correct values

The engine bay is starting to look like it should. Exciting, more photos soon !

Time flies

A lot of time went by since this happened.

The spitfire was delivered in France in a container in April 2014. It had to go from the container to truck then down on the pavement. I looked and looked for these photos but just remembered my phone crashed around that time causing the loss of the photos.

Not much was done to the car since we moved an other time to a place with a bigger garage (yeah !) and then I had to do some fixes on our 2 daily cars.
However I now finally sorted all my parts and ready to make some progress!

Spitfire gets on a boat

This post is 2 weeks overdue.
As maybe you could tell i had some serious fire under my &$$ to get this project moving !

Reason is we are moving from the US to France and spitfire is coming with us. Engine is in ready to be setup once on the other side of the atlantic.
It's been manic and i'll be happy to start again in a few weeks, full of energy.

Did I mention massive progress ?

A picture will speak better than words. Notice the freshly painted engine in the foreground.

Big thanks to Ben and Thomas for helping push through this week !

Spitfire engine rebuild, part 2 - Crankshaft

Really not an expert an this but after some mistakes 10 years ago I am really attempting to do this "by the book", see it's on the table :-)
Obsessive compulsive will be the key !

Started by putting the block on the engine stand and having all the parts set on the table.
We used the best crankshaft, it was ground 20 under.

First step was to install the lower part of the bearing. Hole needs to align withe the one in the block for oil supply. Using assembly lube on all bearings. Bearings are at 20 over to match the crankshaft.

Then gently dropped the crank in there, put plastigage.
Install the other part of the bearing and housing and torque (65)

Note that the bearing caps can't be mixed up and have directions. There were machined in place so that everything aligns perfectly.

Checking the plastigage we are at 0.0015 sounds good. Had a bit of a scare as it seemed very narrow but once I wiped the assembly oil I could see it was wider.

Then onto thrust washers, these fell of the first engine I disassembled and I had no idea where the came from or the purpose. They are here to control the lateral position of the crank.

You can buy them oversize as I had no idea I bought std, +5 and +10.

See what these look like.

Checking the float here. You lever left and right and see how much it moves

 Was at 8 tho. wich is the end limit so in the end I put the +5 on the outside and the std on the inside, bringing me to 5 tho. of float.

Oiled the cylinders and onto next step !

Spitfire gearbox prep

Started to prepare the transmission while the engine was being machined.

Peeked inside and it doesn't look too bad. Apart from quite a bit of metal particles collected on the magnet. Will probably need to revisit later for synchros...

Wanted to replace the seals so that at least it doesn't leak on the garage floor. Had to remove the flange for the rear one. Had to use the usual amount of penetrating oil + heat + impact gun.

See my "red neck" technique for locking the flange into place. 

Once removed, pulled out the old seal and pushed new one in with a large socket.

I was surprised to hear there is no seal at the front on these ones, just a screw type mechanism to push the oil away. So don't park your car nose down on a hill !

Used the clutch fork that had the least amount of play and fitted the new clutch bearing.

My technique for removing the old bearing. It's simply pushed in.

Final result, I have to admit the biggest pain was cleaning and painting the bellhousing. 30 years of oil took a while to clean. Hence my obsession with seals, the new one has to remain clean !

Spitfire engine rebuild, part 1 - Machining

Engine had been completely disassembled to realize that the bore measures at around 40 sometimes 60 over. So I decided to use the block from the parts car that was within spec (2.900).

My parts car came with a rebuilt head but it turns out that one is from a later car with the air injection for pollution and different compression so we'll just use it for some of the parts.

Still with the plan to do everything myself I ordered all the parts and will be doing the assembly but there are some things you just can't do yourself such as machining the block.

Went for the big package and it's a lot of machine work (so it's expensive... this one is for my wife :-) ). Doesn't really make sense to spend so much time and money then skip one of the items.
- Block deck + bore at 20 over
- Grind crankshaft at 20 under
- Recondition rods
- Install cam bearings
- Align hone block
- Deck head + Install guides and hardened seats on exhaust valves
- A few helicoils for the pan
- Grind the flywheel

Check out that photo lots of shiny parts, so exciting !
Starting to fall in love with my engine :-) We'll see if that lasts the week end after assembly.

Steering wheel

After yesterday's post I had to show this for the final result and motivation !

Spitfire steering column and bushes

Not been posting every day but I have been busy !

The steering wheel is back on the car and it should be not much appart from cleaning and painting... normally...
Well, i had my usual lot of troubles :
- the bushes were really hard to get out. Drilled the plastic part but still required too much banging to get out. Had to use a large metal bar with the right size socket. Next time i wont bother and just push them inside, cant hurt.
- in fact the column was bent. Had to mix and match with the parts car. This parts car has been a life savior really.
- tightened everything to the right torque, important so the steering column can collapse properly in case of an accident.