Finally made it out of the 70s! The old ’74 Spitfire cracks 80K!
Street Legal!
Before: the bane of my gearhead existence for over a decade…
After: STREET LEGAL & ON THE ROAD for the 1st time in this millennium!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gimme a Brake!
The Spitfire’s front brake calipers have suffering from chronic seizures (as I discovered the hard way during my maiden voyage home from the shop after getting the floorpans replaced) – the calipers came off easier than expected, though …
Was planning to replace the brake discs as well, but just realised I’d need to remove hub, repack bearing grease, etc – not feeling that ambitious…
My kid has Legos more difficult to assemble than the Spitfire’s front disc brake calipers & pads!
Kinda unnerving that these Lilliputian cotter pins are the only thing holding the brake pad mounting pins in place…
Getting the caliper retainer bolts to thread thru through several layers of dust shields requires equal parts zen patience and luck – especially after one realizes that the bottom one must be seated first!
One new brake caliper installed: 1/2 way there to discovering a New World of Awesome Stopping Power! I feel like Columbus…
A Graceful Dismount
Whilst enjoying the delightful task of removing the oil pan, it became apparent that jacking the engine up a bit would be helpful, thanks in no small part to some less than generous clearances for the Spitfire’s oil pan bolts engineered in by a diabolical chap at British Leyland back in the day. In keeping with the Triumph Spitfire Restoration Onion Effect (wherein peeling off and exposing one layer of detritus reveals yet another), during that process I tangled with what remained of the motor mounts, and deemed them somewhat past their prime. So out came the floor jack again and…
Hell yeah: managed to replace the motor mounts without dropping the engine and trans on the floor! AND managed not to bugger up the “new” oil pan!
…while I was at it and things were all jacked up removed the rear trans mounts too – now can permanently (again, for the second time – so much for planning ahead!) cover this over with the new gearbox cover and carpet.
100% Oil Change
That Revolutionary War re-enactment I had with the Spitfire’s oil pan a few weeks back was not just for sport: it was part exploratory surgery and part triage to assess the condition of said oil pan. The verdict was not good. Fortunately, a call to the ever helpful chap at Spitbits yielded the part the even they (along with all other suppliers) didn’t list on their site: the mythic oil pan. Sure it was a trifle used, but not as used as the one on my Spitfire. The quasi-solidified, primordial oil-based muck at the bottom of this pan convinced me that the only way to really change the oil in this Spifire was to throw out the pan with the bathwater. (The old oil pan has since been convalescing in my retirement community for parts that will one day be refurbshed and ebay’d).
Pictured here, we’re 1/2 way thru a thorough (albeit messy) oil change (1st in over 10 years) process consisting of: unmounting the engine; jacking up engine; shoehorning old oil pan out from between bottom of block, top of frame crossmember & front of bellhousing.
Down under where the sun don’t shine on a triumph Spitfire – bottom of block flange cleaned & ready to meet the “new” oil pan.
The Emperor’s New Clothes
Again turning to my factory manuals and cache of highly specialized British Leyland certified mechanic’s tools (or maybe just a couple cold ones), I’m hard at work locating & prepping to cut mounting holes for seats & seatbelts in new carpet for the Spitfire with an awl, 3″ roofing nails and chalk. Seems to work out fine, just the same.
Plastics: Better Restoration Through Chemistry!
In the event of a gearbox explosion, counting on the upgrade to high-tech century ABS transmission cover to better serve my lower extremities than the OE rotting cardboard one at right.
Plastics! The Triumph Spitfire 1500 gearbox is now ensconced in 21st century better-restoration-through-chemistry in the form of an ABS gearbox cover. I feel safer already.
Permanent A/C: Heater Removal
In the topless world of roadsters you don’t need heaters anyway, especially ones that leak on your feet once turned on. Added bonus for improved mpg: the Spitfire is now about 15 lbs lighter. At some point, restoring and ebay-ing this bad boy is on my list, but for now I’m more concerned with getting the car on the road.
Triumph Spitfire 1500 heater bypass installation – cleans up the plumbing in the engine bay a bit too!
Panning for Oil
Dear sadistic engineer at British Leyland: Sorry you lost the Revolutionary War, but it’s time to get over and stop senseless retaliation like placing one of the Spitfire 1500’s oil pan bolts 3/4 of an inch directly above the frame rail (at the other end of this open-end wrench, which is allowed about 15 degrees of travel) so as to be utterly inaccessible to any ratchet in the colonies.
Half an hour, several cold ones, a sore knuckle or two and a good deal of colorful language later, the offending oil pan bolt is liberated, and the oil pan is ready for removal.
Keeping My @#$ off the Pavement, pt. 2
Solid floors in the Spitfire! Picked up from the shop today with freshly welded floorpans (replacing the previous Tin Worm specials) & inner sills. One major step closer to street legality. 15 mile trip (with a ’95 insp. sticker – only in VT) also was the ’74 Spitfire’s first real road test in 21st century: managed it with just one seized brake caliper and a brief leak from the (otherwise useless) lame-duck heater on my shin. Gotta love the smell of brake pads and coolant in the morning…
New floorboards primed – waiting to paint body color and install new carpet. Watching the paint dry….