cjhillman
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1979 Capri (Rolling Project) 1985 Escort mk3 (Daily)
Posts: 1,588
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Jul 25, 2016 17:08:02 GMT
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Last Edit: Jul 25, 2016 17:08:23 GMT by cjhillman
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Jul 25, 2016 18:43:59 GMT
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First one looks the best to me. Fairly straight looking earlyish car with overdrive. Manvers are a well respected Triumph specialist.
Buy on bodywork. They can really rot. Floorpans, sills, rear of floor pan where the suspension arm attaches, base of A pillars, boot floor, front of the chassis near the bonnet hinges, bonnet itself. Check door fit. They did fit from the factory but many don't now due to not-very-expert sill fitting.
Mechanicals are simple and relatively cheap. Over-drive very desirable.
Nick
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1967 Triumph Vitesse convertible (old friend)
1996 Audi A6 2.5 TDI Avant (still durability testing)
1972 GT6 Mk3 (Restored after loong rest & getting the hang of being a car again)
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,201
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Buying a Triumph Spitfire!ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Jul 25, 2016 23:38:49 GMT
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What Nick said.
The mechanical side of things can be a pain to do, but nowhere near as much as the body and many while having sills etc. done are not done as well as they could have been.
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cjhillman
Posted a lot
1979 Capri (Rolling Project) 1985 Escort mk3 (Daily)
Posts: 1,588
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Jul 26, 2016 10:41:44 GMT
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Thanks guys! Will write that down. I think i'll go with a check list. When i bought my Escort Mk3 It looked amazing and was completely undersealed... When it got to the first MOT i had to take it off the road and have Cills, Inner and Outer arches done to name a few things... a lot of money later.
What do you guys do when you go to see a car thats been undersealed like that? do you ask for evidence of the resto and go from that and the condition of the inside of the body work?
Is it easy to look under the carpets in these without causing alarm and messing up the fit of it to the car?
I've only ever sat in one of these once and didnt pay much attention... Have to say i'm excited to be able to borrow it.
Cheers!
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ferny
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 985
Club RR Member Number: 13
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Buying a Triumph Spitfire!ferny
@ferny
Club Retro Rides Member 13
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Jul 26, 2016 11:01:56 GMT
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Carpets have give and can be moved. Rust will go crunch with a careful use of a strong finger.
General rule with Triumphs;
If it's made of metal, it'll rust.
If it's made of rubber, it'll rot.
If it's been owned by at least one person, it'll be bodged.
If a non-Triumph garage has done recent work to it, it'll be wrong somewhere.
If it's just been sprayed, check very carefully to see what's under than paint. If it's recently had black sticky curse word on its chassis, use that strong finger. Luckily they're not too fussed as to what they get (1300, 1500, etc.) so in your eyes it's a buyers market.
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cjhillman
Posted a lot
1979 Capri (Rolling Project) 1985 Escort mk3 (Daily)
Posts: 1,588
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Dec 27, 2016 18:18:08 GMT
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Just thought i'd try and revive this tread a little. Since posting this we have seen a few cars (mk4s) and my folks got their hearts really set on one locally. Then the guy jumped the price up another grand as he had done some extra work he said (already overpriced i thought) since then, nothing has happened but, now they are into the idea again. They really want a dark blue one (like the one they used to have) but, it seems a really a rare colour. I've put an add up in the 'wanted section' but, we also thought maybe we could try and get a cheaper one, and get it resprayed. I can't decide if this is a good idea or not and we should just wait a couple of months till people start selling again and see what comes up? or try and get a white car say and have it done. What do you guys think? Anyone re-sprayed a Spit? Just getting a little impatient and i think for this to happen i really need to help them out. Chris [img src="  " alt=" "] |
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Last Edit: Dec 27, 2016 18:19:28 GMT by cjhillman
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Dec 27, 2016 19:46:39 GMT
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The dark blue (almost certainly Royal Blue) on the car pictured could be a stumbling block since the colour was discontinued in 1971 and not replaced with anything similar. It's not too hard to paint a Spit, even doing a complete and "proper" colour change, ie where you paint inside the car, inside the bonnet and boot, door shuts etc is not too difficult since it's a very small car and easy to strip out for painting. Just don't start with a red one if you want anything but red on top! Red has a nasty habit of "bleeding through".
I know of the whereabouts of an absolutely mint late 1500 for sale, very low mileage, unwelded and in a somewhat lighter Pageant Blue. It's not cheap though!
Steve
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cjhillman
Posted a lot
1979 Capri (Rolling Project) 1985 Escort mk3 (Daily)
Posts: 1,588
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Dec 28, 2016 12:08:56 GMT
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Cheers Steve, yeah i guessed they wouldnt be hard to do. A local garage in Stoke did my Escort the other year and didn't charge too much either. They looked at some mint ones over the summer but, i think want to try and get one between the £2500-4000 mark. I've seen some great ones for that too. I'm sure the blue one you know of is amazing though! the blue is an unusual colour, Mallard Blue according to www.triumphspitfire1500.co.uk/ |
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,201
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Buying a Triumph Spitfire!ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Dec 28, 2016 12:09:16 GMT
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TBH if it's the right car I'd still buy it. What are you calling overpriced?
If you know what you are looking for I'd probably put £4-5k on a good Spitfire in all honesty. You can spend far more on a bad one! I've been there and done that and with the M3 I wonder if I am doing it again! In short:
Check the bonnet: They are £1k+ to renew for just the bonnet. Secondhand is not alot cheaper
Check the chassis all over especially at the bonnet hinges
Check the sills & floors. Many have had replacements but not many have been done right.
The rest of the car is actually quite reasonable to fix. Gearboxes are weak but you can get a refurb for £300 and they can be changed on the driveway. Engines are also cheap too.
I bought a bargain of one a few years back. I'll see if I can dig up some shots of it. Anything I've seen since for the price I paid is either bodged horrendously or full of rot. I sold mine for £2.5k but TBH alot of the stuff I have seen does come close in terms of condition and basically look like £1.5k cars with an MOT slapped on.
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Last Edit: Dec 28, 2016 12:11:17 GMT by ChasR
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cjhillman
Posted a lot
1979 Capri (Rolling Project) 1985 Escort mk3 (Daily)
Posts: 1,588
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Dec 28, 2016 14:27:06 GMT
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Yeah I know there's some dogs out there in the cheaper bracket but I've seen some nice ones too. This is why we were toying with the idea of a re-spray . It's been finding the right colour that's hard really. If we wanted a yellow one it would be easy enough. I did see a beautiful dark blue one last year but the seller couldn't tell me anything about the "restoration". Shame becuse that could have been the one and went for about £3500... Bit of a gamble though.
I've definitely had experience at throwing money away on my Escort and don't want to see my folks doing that. I can also see how they could be worth up to £5000 but some of these are at £7000 + ... It just seems a bit much for a cheap Sports car .
Realistically , we're looking for something that can be used and looks nice and we can tidy up the little bits.
Would love to see some pics of your old one if you can find them!
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Dec 28, 2016 17:36:12 GMT
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The one I know of is going for about the £7k mark, but it IS warranted below 20k miles from new, all original panels and paint, new hood, perfect interior and woodwork, all tools and handbooks present and only 2 previous owners, 1 being my mate who is selling it. The only non standard part on the whole car is an aftermarket (TSSC) Stainless twin exhaust system. You'd be hard pushed to find a better example anywhere. But it may be "too good to thrash about in" if you know what I mean!
I think it unlikely that the colour you are after is Mallard (another shade discontinued in '71) In life Mallard, though described by Triumph as a blue shade, is nearer to a dark British Racing Green! But Triumph colour descriptions have often been a little "off" Magenta, which is as purple as you can get is described as a red shade and Damson (a sort of dark burgundy) is a purple shade! There are other discrepancies too, but the Mallard debate has kept Triumph nuts arguing for decades! And the colour on that chart you linked is nothing like the real Mallard!
Steve
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ChasR
RR Helper
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Posts: 10,201
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Buying a Triumph Spitfire!ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Dec 28, 2016 19:44:06 GMT
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Last Edit: Jan 2, 2017 15:33:07 GMT by ChasR
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cjhillman
Posted a lot
1979 Capri (Rolling Project) 1985 Escort mk3 (Daily)
Posts: 1,588
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Cheers ChasR ! Nice looking car, i always liked the yellow ones! I think we have just got a bit specific. Sods law that i went home at the weekend and my folks had been looking at an orangey/red one (£4500)... it had been sold but! i think if we see a nice one regardless of colour, we'll probably own it! its my Dads money so at the end of the day its up to him, I was just trying to give us some direction with it all. How did you find the 1500? I imagine it would be better to go for that although we are not precious. is there any difference between the Dolomite 1500? i did see one advertised that stated a Dolomite engine. Hoping now we're into the new year we'll start seeing more for sale again. Over summer there were so many on ebay, i thought it would carry on into winter. |
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ian65
Part of things
Posts: 276 
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I've owned and restored loads of Spitfires over the last 30 years, MKIV's and 1500's. I prefer the 1500's as they have a bit more torque but the trade off is that they aren't as revvy and the engines are pretty weak. They were bored out and stretched to the maximum to get them to 1500cc and this made them a bit fragile..... big ends and thrust washers don't last long. I sold my last one, an Inca yellow 1500, a few years back now.... curiously, the blog I put up for it is still active.... some photos of it on here ( just click on them to expand them)... ians-spit.blogspot.co.uk/Your parents should buy on body condition regardless of colour. If the door gaps have closed up where they close against the B post then they should walk away... any weakness/corrosion in the sills and shell will show up here and is expensive to repair. Mechanical parts just bolt on and off but bodywork takes skill, time and money to put right.... usually lots of it. An overdrive makes them much more usable in modern traffic and is worth paying a bit more for. |
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Last Edit: Jan 2, 2017 16:48:03 GMT by ian65
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ChasR
RR Helper
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Posts: 10,201
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Buying a Triumph Spitfire!ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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There are a few yellow ones about  . I won't say what I paid but despite some issues I've not seen anything close to £3k to the condition of that and there was still stuff to fix IMO . The 1500 suits the Spitfire but for your sanity and engine longevity an overdrive or at the very least a 5 speed conversion is a must! They are willing puller that can give a surprising turn of speed. While they will rev you can tell that it's not where it is happiest. The 1500 in that car was actually slower than the one in my MG Midget believe it or not! But IMHO it wanted a good tune up despite my efforts (I basically adjusted the carbs and timing and left the rest) as well as a carb and dizzy rebuild ; the dizzy wasn't really advancing much and despite the carbs being rebuilt they still leaked badly at the throttle spindles which made an already tricky mixture (it had a Stage 1 setup on it in essence) even trickier to setup. But at 70MPH it was an alright place to be . Here's a video of my Midget 1500. IMO that's what a good 1500 should run like. If I was being picky I'd have thrown a set of recon carbs onto that (leaky spindles, but not as bad as the Spitfire) and possibly replaced the rockers in an attempt to get them quieter. But it did run very smoothly and more importanly it had go! |
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. I won't say what I paid but despite some issues I've not seen anything close to £3k to the condition of that and there was still stuff to fix IMO