A New Project, a New Author Jul 1, 2006
We weren't exactly looking for another car, but when a friend called us from Virginia and told us about a clean, original 1973 Spitfire that had only 41,000 miles on it, we quickly became intrigued.
The upside to this car is the purchase price was $200 and other than an unsympathetic respray many years ago, the car is very original and unmolested.
Although we had too many projects going on, we decided to go ahead with this one. We couldn't resist the sleek lines of the first year 1500 Spitfire, and have always wanted another one of these cars in the family.
Unfortunately, every car in our family needs a "daddy" and all of the regular staff members were too busy with other projects.
Fortunately, it was nearly time for young Tommy Suddard, our publisher's son, to tackle his first car. Combine this fact, with the fact that our recent Midget project was kind of "high-end" and we needed a low-end reader-type project to balance our content: Project Spitfire is born. The premise is, that most of the work will be done by a teenage boy, with assistance from his father. It is also understood that this will be a do-it-yourself, low-buck project that pretty much, any of you could do in your home garages. This will not be a full restoration, but more of a fixing up and getting it running type series of hopefully helpful tips.
Follow along as we learn about Triumph Spitfires and the age old pitfalls of father and son projects.
Introducing our newest author: Thirteen year old, Tommy Suddard has been around British sports cars for his whole life. He has been autocrossing karts, since he was eight years old and learned to drive that same year in a Meyers Manx. While his goal is to someday also have a real car with fuel injection, he has accepted his fate: that this $200 Spitfire shall be his learning exercise into the world of classic cars.
Introducing our sponsor: The one difference between our project and most of your projects is that we have a sponsor. We have been working with Victoria British on various projects for over twenty years. They have Direct online ordering available 24 hours a day at www.VictoriaBritish.com or by fax at (800) 541-8525 without having anyone else in the middle. If you do not have a Victoria British Ltd. Parts catalog yet, request one of their free car parts catalogs today. You also have the confidence you can order parts and accessories from Victoria British Ltd. by mail or by toll-free telephone at (800) 255-0088, seven days a week. Victoria British also has some of the best Spitfire parts availability going, as well as some of the lowest pricing. As this is going to be a father/son, after school and weekend project, we thought Victoria British would be a great partner to bring on board. Despite having this great sponsor, we plan on telling you what things cost and to keep prices on this project very down to earth.
Wash it Off Jul 28, 2006
So far I’ve pressure washed the Spitfire, changed the oil and replaced the distributor rotor. It runs!
Cleaning out the fuel tank Aug 10, 2006
I wanted to get the Spitfire running on its own fuel supply, so I removed the gas tank from the Spitfire to clean and inspect it for rust or fuel varnish.
School’s Out! Jul 20, 2007
Now that school is out and I have no homework, it’s time to get working on the Spitfire. My goal is to have a running and driving car by the end of the year.
When I left off, I had pulled the gas tank out of the car. Now I need to put it back in. Before I did, however, I had to put a sending unit in the tank. Although the old one was junk, a new one from Victoria British was ordered and installed. While I had the tank out, I put new lines and a filter in the car.
With the fuel system finished, I’ll start on the brakes next.
Starting on the Spitfire Brakes Oct 28, 2007
All Spitfires use a combination of disc brakes in the front and drum brakes in the rear. From 1967 onward, dual master cylinders were used. Girling manufactured the calipers and most of the other brake hydraulics.
Since the car had sat for 20 years, the brake hydraulics needed to be rebuilt. We removed the front calipers first. Upon inspection, we found a very common problem; the pistons were stuck in the calipers. When cars sit for a long time, rust forms around the pistons, causing them to stick. After a liberal, overnight soak in CRC Screwloose, we placed a large wrench between the pistons and forced compressed air into the caliper. The wrench was used to keep the pistons from coming all the way out of the caliper, resulting in a loss of air pressure.
After the pistons were removed from the calipers, we cleaned them with steel wool. We then cleaned and honed the calipers. Because the pistons were in such good shape, we reused them. We reassembled the calipers with new seals and boots from Victoria British, making sure to lubricate everything with brake fluid.
With our front brakes completed we turned our attention to the rear brakes. Another common ailment of old, long-sitting cars is rear brake shoes have rusted themselves to the drums, and this Spitfire was no exception. Once apart, we cleaned everything up. Make sure to wear a mask when you work with old brakes--the dust can be dangerous if inhaled.
Again, Victoria British had all the rear brake parts we needed including brake shoes, wheel cylinders and a hardware kit.
Sponsors:
