New starter

Frustrating ... Spent a few hours cleaning that starter motor top to bottom to realize that it's shorting somewhere.
Next week's vacation will give the new one time to ship

And check out my electrolyze de-rust setup :-)

Grinding noise

Hoping the noise is due to a stuck starter motor gear. Let's take it off.
PS : testing the post on blog from email feature really :-)

Edit : After taking it off, the noise is due to a stuck motor gear wouhou ! Will look at this tomorrow.

Engine prep

Tonight more engine prep work, put oil in the cylinders, bought a cheap battery. Removed the radiator to have easy access to turn the crank but there s like a grinding noise... Maybe bad news... Need to investigate more.

Battery and Spark plugs

Taking a first look at the engine tonight, took the spark plugs out, I can see the top of piston 4, not looking pretty - black gummy deposit on top. Taking the cam cover will be interesting as someone had the good idea to use glue type gasket.

Sprk plugs are black, maybe a little rich :-)

First I'd like to do is rotate the engine then take compressions. But I am just wondering if the car I have could be a positive earth car. Is that possible ? Can't see anything electrical with clear polarity on it. It would kind of stupid for me start by connecting the battery the wrong way round... How could I confirm this is a negative earth car ?

Where do I start ?

I had lots ideas the previous nights but now that I look at it in my garage, I have no idea where to start.

Number 1 is definitely getting all the paperwork sorted but after that what shall I do ? Shall I try to get the car running and driving as it is before I start the restoration or is it not worth the bother and go straight to dismantling everything ????

I have a preference for the first option, when I say getting it to run, I mean around the block, this way I'll know as an example that the engine used to run.

By the way check out that piece of art I picked for $10 on the road side on my way back ! With that new tool rebuilding the engine should be easier, if I can actually mount it to the support that is.

Purchased !

I have always been a fan of English cars but now that I live in the US I was browsing through the ads to find a pure muscle and what do I see, a 1967 mk3 spitfire for restoration. I used to own a spitfire 1500 and probably always secretly wished I had a mk3 since the day Craig showed up with a baby blue mk3 in front of my house...

Went to see the car a first and the owner is a really nice man that just doesn't have time to work on all his projects. Fine I'll take that one of your hands ! Second trip with the money and a trailer and ride the baby home. 

 

Now it's in my garage I realize how small the car is, it's great I'll have lots of space to move around. It looks so easy compared to previous cars, can't wait to work on it, but I know it wont be as easy at it looks

A view of the inside below, the seats are in incredibly good condition, they have probably been redone at some stage

Other side of the engine, sorry for the poor photo with flash but that one is interesting, we can see the original color of the car : Triumph royal blue. Love that color and it will look stunning once restored to original.