Spitfire restoration steering wheel

Welded the little bars back on the outside and filled and painted >> one shiny steering wheel. Not looking as good as I was hoping but that will do for now.

Cleaned and painted the wiper motor while I was at it.

Steering wheel before the week end

Spokes are broken on right and left side

SU Carburetors like new

This time I had all I need...

 

 

The new parts I needed were mostly :

- the rubber holding the tank in place as I noticed they hold the tank at the right position and when it's in the wrong position the choke moving mecanism jams

- the butterfly shaft as they were really badly worn and surely creating a leak. The wear is impressive

 

Was exciting to put it all back together, I was worried I might forget what goes where and I did have to dismantle several times after I put back together as I did some steps in the wrong order.

I cleaned them best I could and they look really nice now. Notice on the left the bag of parts that have been replaced, even the needle is new.

Moment of excitement as I install these back on the car. Refilled the inside of the pots with 20/50 engine oil. Did some basic tuning, not sure how good that is but that will have to do for now. Looks so good and the engine runs weh eh !

I used the following technique to tune, from an article I found on classic car magazine uk. Thanks to them, that got me started and I found it simple to understand.

Sunset on carb parts

Unfortunately I won't be able to finish this week end because I realized there are additional worn parts that I need to replace as well : the butterfly shaft and the grommet connecting the chamber as it allows it to move causing the choke tube to stick.

To be continued in a few days...

Carbs rebuild

Second time off but this time with the carb rebuild kit. Lets hope i have the correct needles.

Driven !

Gas tank is back on and I could take an other drive around the block this weekend.

Tank paint

Black gloss

Gas tank

Cleaning out the tank so i can use it and stop messing with small amounts to make the engine run

We have a runner !

Sometimes it helps, 2 heads scratching at the same time. My dad is here on vacation for a few weeks and gave me a hand. What did we do really ? I had realigned the timing, then new spark plugs, news leads and she ran ! So excited, tried to put back the radiator as fast as possible to go for a drive !

The car drove to the next block and back. Quite fun and the engine seems to be working fine although it does idle really high.
Something strange though, it's difficult to put the car in reverse and first gear, sounds like gears grinding together, I know there's no synchro in these 2 gears so that might normal ?

Title !

Received the title, car is officially mine

Title application

No photo for an exciting news but went to the DMV yesterday and they accepted my application for a title for the car. That + sales tax I had to part of $60 but eh that's not bad, fingers crossed I should receive the title in the mail next week, important step for the project !

Rocker cover

Am still thinking about what could stop the engine from starting. Head scratch time.

At least I managed to take the cam cover off using razor blades.
Not very dirty in there and there some bolts that don't look original, so the engine might have been rebuilt before. Not sure if that's a good or bad news...

Carbs clean

Received the rebuilt starter, couldn't wait. Now back to square, it doesn't start. Opened and cleaned the carbs as a lot was stuck in there.

Now still no luck starting grrrr. Plugs seem to receive gas, I have spark and then checked compression in cylinder 4 good. Hum need to think about all this...

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.