"Like a beautiful woman, which made me suffer a bit before I could have it"

woensdag 19 oktober 2011

maandag 17 oktober 2011

Why a spitfire?

Why a Spitfire? What made it different from, say, an MGB, Triumph TR6, MG Midget, or a Fiat X-19? Well, for me, three things: 1) It had a full independent suspension, the only Brit car of this class to do so. Also, a perfect 50/50 front/rear weight ratio for great balance. 2) The bonnet and wings rose together, giving full access for engine, chassis, and electrical service, which was usually a bit too often. 3) The car also had real wood on the dash, quite unique in a car like this. I live in a rural area with small, twisty roads, and a muscle car would be as out of place here as a stretched Escalade limousine in downtown Tokyo.

http://thatcarguy.typepad.com

zaterdag 1 oktober 2011

Yellow spitfire

Purchased 8 years ago and stored in a well-insulated garage with intension to do full body off restoration. Car is currently 70% disassembled and is very restorable. Some repair work on the body has been done. Body is detached from chassis. Engine ran strong before partial disassembly (still in chassis). Each step of the disassembly has been documented with detailed pictures and text showing sequence of removal. All parts have been carefully bagged and labeled. Can send more pictures. Buyer must have means of transporting a rolling chassis, lifting a body (2-3 people) and boxes of parts. Spitfire-related books and magazines included.

zondag 25 september 2011

donderdag 22 september 2011

maandag 5 september 2011

woensdag 31 augustus 2011

The art of Moto Lita


Some very nice steering wheels made by moto lita
Picture by Paul Geithner and his Spitfire 1500

maandag 29 augustus 2011

Spitfire Stripes


How that's good looking!

honeybournemouldings.co.uk


Honeybourne Mouldings began in Alcester, Warwickshire in 1979 fabricating glass fibre mouldings for popular cars many of which are now regarded as classics. In 2002 the company had expanded to require larger premises which were found at our current location in Bidford on Avon. Thirty years ago Honeybourne Mouldings started with mini front ends and Morris 1000 (Morris Minor) wings and has now a vast collection of moulds from popular 60's to 80's cars from fully assembled sports car hardtops for the Spitfire, MGB, MGF, Midget, MX5, Triumph TR Series 2-6 and a whole host of makes and models.

zaterdag 23 juli 2011

Photoshoot!

23/07/2011 Photoshoot (before pic's)
Aaah i love the smell of rust in the morning!

vrijdag 22 juli 2011

zondag 17 juli 2011

vrijdag 15 juli 2011

How (not) to buy a triumph spitfire!

Rusty cheap dirty old leaking but running Triumph Spitfire IV
Best of all. My 1971 spitfire on his way home! :-)

I was looking for a new project after my Little Bsa Bantam.
It sure took a while to find a car i really like.
And it will take a great deal of time to get things right!

Tuning Multi-Carbs


How to tune the HS Type Carburetter

Spitfired.co.uk

A great site about the spitfire 1500 model! With great how to & links to dealers!

woensdag 13 juli 2011

Mods for the Spitfire engine

Radiators + Fans
The standard radiator in perfect condition is adequate for an unmodified engine, a wider one or one with 4 core channels will be what is needed for a tuned engine
Very expensive aluminium ones are available as they are lighter and dissipate heat better, at about £300 a piece you should ask yourself if you really need one though.

The standard fan provides not much cooling at low rpm when it is needed and too much at high revs when you are getting plenty of air flow naturally. The later Viscous fan is much better but is still not as good as an electric fan mounted in front of the radiator.
The electric fan consumes much less horsepower as it is far more efficient than the mechanically driven one and is only switched on when in heavy traffic anyway.
If you don't fancy the cost, get one from virtually any modern car breakers yard and you can probably fit it.
You should chuck the old fan away now as it blows air which interferes with the suck electric fan. That will gain you up to about 4 Bhp as the engine no longer has to drive round that old fan.

Oil Cooler
An oil cooler is just a miniature water radiator but made much more robustly to handle the higher pressures.
I think oil coolers are very good and should be fitted. Basically when Triumph designed the Spit engine in the dark ages people didn't go bombing down the motorway at 90 Mph all day.
So oil getting too hot and losing its lubrication properties was not a problem, hence no oil cooler. Although it was available at some point as a factory option.

Oil pump
Regardless of which Spitfire engine you use fit the alloy bodied 1500 oil pump, it is superior to earlier models (as well as a bit lighter!) It bolts straight on to all models. Improve its performance as follows:
- Reduce end float to a minimum by carefully lapping the body on a bit of thick plate glass with 1000 grade emery paper.
- Check that the ends of the rotors are smooth and burr free to reduce the chances of them `picking up` some bits of end plate.
- Check that the new pump outlet lines up with the feed hole in the block, you never know with Triumphs!

Pics found on http://www.restaureerjetriumphspitfire.nl
Text found on http://www.totallytriumph.net

maandag 11 juli 2011

Building a Reliable Spitfire Engine for High Performance!

Just found a great link about engine rebuilding!

With the Golden rule:

I read this and it seems to me to be perfect, when building an engine assume NOTHING. Double and triple check everything, all measurements and dimensions. Do not assume that any factory produced item is accurate, "always check everything".

Remember too that Sods Law is always hard at work and likes nothing more than groundless (and possibly very expensive) assumptions on your part. Be sure to avoid Sod by following the `Golden Rule`.


Written by Calum E. Douglas
Hosted & Formatted by Jeff McNeal for
the Totally Triumph Network
Original posting date: March 26, 2001

zondag 10 juli 2011

Soon...

This will very soon start to be a blog about the Triumph Spitfire IV