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Now seems like a good time to do a write-up of the work I've been doing on my spitfire over the last 2 years as it's major repair and restoration is just beginning, meaning progress should be reasonably quick by build thread standards (He says).
I bought this early 1500 Spitfire at the end of June 2016 as a restoration project to keep me busy over the following few years and with the aim of turning it into a car that I can enjoy down the back roads and take for tours on the mountain roads in Wales. I always wanted a Spitfire after I saw 1 parked up at my high school in 2013, I just fell in love with the design and the sound. Over the next 2 and a half years I every little bit of money I had to turn my dream into a reality. In June 2016, I had not long turned 16, and I had stumbled across an add on Gumtree for a Spitfire that had been off of the road since 1984! and in need of major restoration work to get it back on the road. From the advert a few things made me want to buy it. It has a 5 digit registration plate, matching numbers car with a genuine 66,394 miles from new. I called the seller and made a deal for it to be delivered to my house on the following Tuesday. On Tuesday the 28th of June 2016 I had a text from the recovery driver saying that hell be at my house in Redditch for about 13:30. The car arrived, we unloaded it, pushed it on to the drive and I just couldn't stop looking at the car I had dreamt of owning for a few years.
Heres the car after we pushed on to the drive,
The interior smelled really damp but it was complete with a lovely cassette player dating back to the late 70s,
The bonnet was in really bad condition and under it was a very tired engine bay with a surprisingly solid bulkhead *Cough Cough* and chassis,
A nice surprise was that according to the chassis number, its the 60th Spitfire 1500 off of the production line which is a bonus!
Anyway, sorry for the long introduction to this thread but I thought it would be nice to share my story about buying this car and part 2 will probably be uploaded tomorrow.
many thanks for reading,
Conor.
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Last Edit: Jun 2, 2019 19:49:03 GMT by cjl1281
1975 Triumph Spitfire 1500
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Spudgun
Part of things
Posts: 272
Member is Online
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One car I have never owned but wished I had.
Cant wait to see this progress and have of course bookmarked the thread.
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1984 Rover SD1 Vanden Plas 2600 Auto
1985 Rover SD1 2300s Auto
2005 MG ZT 1.8 Manual
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Bookmarked. Ran an 80 spit, also yellow, as my daily for 8 years. Got shot when the kids came along, only car I really miss.
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nze12
Part of things
Posts: 108
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The tenacity of rust in British cars is fortunately offset by the tenacity and skill of the people who restore them!
Looking forward to this thread.
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1986 BMW E30 refreshed to original spec
1973 BMW E12 520 converting to Motorsport 530
1982 XJS V12 converting to 5 speed manual
1990 BMW E30 316i refreshing to move on
Many landscaping projects overriding above!
Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum!
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One car I have never owned but wished I had. Cant wait to see this progress and have of course bookmarked the thread. Theres nothing stopping you buying 1 now haha. thanks for the kind words there'll be a few posts to come before we get to where it is now. |
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1975 Triumph Spitfire 1500
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Bookmarked. Ran an 80 spit, also yellow, as my daily for 8 years. Got shot when the kids came along, only car I really miss. I know someone that had to do the same thing family comes first though I guess mind you a couple of spare seats strapped to the boot lid with rope and it could've been the *perfect* family car.
nze12 I completely agree, ive had the welding shipped out and the work he has put in to get it to where it is today is amazing.
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1975 Triumph Spitfire 1500
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After acquiring the Spitfire it sat on the drive under a cover for around 2 weeks while we sorted out the garage to make space for it,
After we sorted out the space required, we unwrapped it and pushed it into the garage, which isn't the easiest of tasks pushing a car with sticking brakes up a slight incline into the garage when you're out of shape.
Over the summer holiday, I started to strip the car down starting from the back making my way forward,
I then moved on to the interior starting with the seats,
Followed by the rest of the interior and the soft top,
Because of space issues at the time, I used to store parts in the boot. This has now been rectified and all the parts a neatly stored in boxes. I then removed the dash,
Followed by the wiring and I also purchased a slightly smaller steering wheel that looks nicer and doesn't rub on my knees
That year I spent all my Christmas money on a pair of Heritage sills and strengtheners,
Following that I removed and scrapped the old knackered bonnet,
When this was done, I stripped the front end down and removed the ancillary components from the engine,
After that things went quite and the car was left in the garage untouched while I was saving up for the major welding work that this car needs. I bought every panel needed and a good second hand bonnet was fitted with some rather nasty fibreglass quarter valences that didn't fit so I bought some good steel ones instead along with a pair of good, solid and original doors.
Then in the middle of June 2018 we removed the engine, never want to lift an engine out without a crane again,
Then the big day finally arrived when it was picked up to go away for its major course of welding and hopefully a respray,
A couple of weeks later, I went to drop off some new door hinges and lets just say that its in good company,
That pretty much concludes the strip down and the car going away. Sorry that its another long post but i'd rather do this over loads of little posts.
Thanks for reading,
Conor
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1975 Triumph Spitfire 1500
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No progress was made on the tub for a few months after collection simply because the restorer needed to finish off that lovely E-Type and I wanted the space in my garage to rebuild the engine. Then in November I had a call from the restorer telling me to come and see the work he has done to the "original" shell. So I drove straight over after work to see what's been going on. I'm pleased to say that work has started and progress is good. I walked into his workshop to find this,  The rotten old floor has been cut out, area cleaned up, new floor trimmed, fitted and welded into place,  Now this where things get a bit interesting, when I bought the car, I was told that it was completely original and no restoration work had been carried out which was believable as the car was only on the road for 9 years of its life. When the restorer cut the old sill off he said that he couldn't understand what was going on. Heres the old Inner A post,  As you can see its a bit crusty but all looks normal, until I looked on the other side,  That doesn't look right 2 skins of A post bashed together with some shoddy welding on top, then I saw the state of the sills,  I never expected this, the original inner sill, 2 very rotten strengtheners and 2 outer sills. What a mess with some more shoddy welding and pop rivets. So much had be cut away because everything was doubled up. A new inner A post was fabricated,  New inner sill and strengthener welded in,  And a new inner B post was fabricated and welded in,  The 3 holes were left because the box section needed repair. Speaking of that. Before,  and after,  A new floor cross member has also been welded in,  He then cut the old wing off,  Which revealed a very sorry looking inner arch,  we trail fitted the new wing, it fits pretty much spot on and we have a nice even door gap which we are both happy with and it looks so much better than it did before.  Isn't it amazing how much difference 1 panel can make? That's it for this update but stay tuned for the next update to find more bodged up crap and a load more welding! Many thanks for reading, Conor |
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1975 Triumph Spitfire 1500
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 1,012
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MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,766
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I had a red one that went when my daughter was born, even though it was only a fun car.
That's a lot of fabrication going on will be excellent when it's finished and should last as it's being done properly.
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1990 Mazda MX-52003 Land Rover Discovery II TD5 2012 BMW 118i (170bhp) - white appliance
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Thanks guys! unfortunately not a fan of the yellow myself however its right for the period of the car. |
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1975 Triumph Spitfire 1500
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I had a red one that went when my daughter was born, even though it was only a fun car. That's a lot of fabrication going on will be excellent when it's finished and should last as it's being done properly. Thanks it needed so much welding but its been off the road since 84 so it was kind of expected. I've got a vision in my head on how I want the car to look and its getting there slowly but surely. |
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1975 Triumph Spitfire 1500
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As mentioned on the last tub update, I said that the rotten inner wheel arch could be saved. Well I do enjoy jinxing myself, I had a message from the restorer saying that after some more poking it turned out that it was too far gone to saved, £118 later the tub has a nice new inner wheel arch. Unfortunately I haven't got a picture of it (I'm such a let down). The lower quarter section was also in a sorry state so a new 1 was purchased and welded in after a bit of trimming (I've got a picture of this, go me!)  We then found some more bodged up metal on the bulkhead, just below where the chassis plate goes (when will it ever end) so we cut it out,  Formed and welded in new metal for a seamless repair!,  We found some more bodged up metal on the lower areas of the A and B posts where they meet the step sill. Unfortunately I have no before pictures but here's the after,   Then i cleaned up some surface rust, treated with Hydrate 80 (heard good thinks about it) and then gave the insides a coat of weld through primer before the new wing and sill were welded into place.   Before welding we checked the door gaps again and surprisingly, they're bloody good!   Just some slight fettling with the bonnet is required to get it flush with the sill but its not much. Overall I'm really pleased with how its looking so far. On a side note, I've started ordering new parts for the chassis rebuild which will be commencing when the other side of the tub is complete. So far I've ordered a complete Polybush kit, New dampers all round, Lowered front springs, recon Girling Callipers and a rear leaf spring with a 1 inch lowering block. Hopefully with this suspension set up ill get the ride height and handling that I want. Sorry its another long one but there was a lot to cover in this update. Conor |
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Last Edit: Jun 18, 2020 21:10:05 GMT by cjl1281
1975 Triumph Spitfire 1500
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Jun 16, 2019 15:15:13 GMT |
More progress has been made to the Spitfire. For some reason instead of starting work on the offside, the restorer has made a start at the back so that's what we are going to roll with. The old boot floor and lower valance were in a very poor state and beyond repair. I already had a replacement lower valance so I took full advantage of the Rimmer Bros January sale and I ordered a nice new boot floor. I was quite impressed with the press quality with very little creases. Anyway time for some pictures, The old rusted floor and valance were chopped out   now that's what I call a foorless job! My jokes don't get much better I'm afraid. I couple of repairs had to be made to the saddle and inner wheel arch,   Then the new boot floor was trimmed and tacked into place,  On closer inspection, the old lower valance has been filled, I swear this car was held together by filler!  We had a look and fond that the light panel has a dent in it by the rear light unit on the offside which leads us to believe that its been involved in a rear end shunt at some point in its life. the rear wing was removed to gain access to the lower section of the inner wing which was in need of replacement. After that the new lower valance was welded into place after a bit of fettling.  With the back end of the tub complete it was time to move on to the drivers side and with the rear wing already removed it revealed that the inner arch was bugered and requires replacement (brilliant).  With the arch removed it made access easier to tackle the lower areas of the wheel tub,   A new lower B post section was welded in too and the box section behind was also repaired,  After this the restorer swallowed a brave pill and chopped all of the sill construction off expecting to find the worst. We were expecting to find what we found on the nearside but to our surprise this side had been repaired properly in the past which was a shock considering the state of the nearside.  What we discovered was that the edge and rear section of the floor pan needed repair as well as around the seat mounts and drain hole which we knew about anyway.  A new inner sill was fitted and the restorer made up a repair section for the lower a post which was the only part that was doubled up or so we thought.  With this done the restorer started to cut away the old sill end place and nothing could've prepared us for what happens next. Like every ITV soap, I'm going to be leaving this on a slight cliff hanger to keep you lot on the edge of your seat. Thank you for being patient with the slow updates however motivated is resumed and fantastic progress being made, we're hopefully taking the tub off of the chassis this weekend coming! Many thanks again, Conor |
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1975 Triumph Spitfire 1500
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Jun 24, 2019 20:52:36 GMT |
Pleased to report that in this update we have managed hit a major milestone in the restoration of HWB 5N but first lets lift off from where we left. So in the last update good progress had been made to the drivers side with the removal of all the old rusted metal and with most of the necessary repairs completed which is the good part. Now comes the not so good part. Now with those repairs done, the restorer started to cut away what was left of the old sill end plate, we originally thought that we were going to get away with not having to repair any previous bodges because luckily even though the drivers side had previous work carried out it was no where near as bad as the other side or so we thought. On closer inspection of the bulkhead area our fears had been confirmed, it was f*cked!  As you'd agree that quite a large portion has been cut out yet again to rectify a poorly done previous repair. This is the front face of the bulkhead piece,  Looks pretty normal until we have a look form a different angle,  Yet again we found that the bulkhead was doubled up and it had been plastered with fiberglass, filler and underseal, brilliant. Never mind the restorer carried on regardless and before we knew it a new piece had been cut, fettled, tacked into place followed by a seamless repair,  A new outrigger was also fitted,  With this obstacle complete we moved on to welding in the new middle sill, fitted the door, mocked up the outer sill and rear wing, check and adjusted so we had a nice even door gap and plug welded them into place   With this done in pleased to say that the tub is now finally solid and rust free  now it actually feels like we're getting somewhere with this project now we have covered this milestone in the restoration. Hopefully next weekend we will be removing the body tub away from the chassis, carrying out some small repairs on the front cross member and with a bit of look have the chassis back in my garage within the next couple of weeks. Thanks for the continued support it really does help with motivation! Conor |
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1975 Triumph Spitfire 1500
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Jun 24, 2019 21:27:01 GMT |
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Brilliant workmanship and skill
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Jun 24, 2019 22:42:50 GMT |
Brilliant workmanship and skill Cheers buddy |
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1975 Triumph Spitfire 1500
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wc
Part of things
Posts: 45
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Jun 24, 2019 23:53:47 GMT |
Brilliant workmanship and skill Cheers buddy X2 |
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PhilA
Posted a lot
Byte Wizard
Posts: 3,414
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That's some good work going in there, considering you brought him a large collection of bran flakes and air...
One nice thing that reconciles the lightening of the wallet is you know now that "never been touched" equates to work needing doing, regardless. That work in this case is remedial and you'll end up with a much better car at the end of it.
I've seen so many of these sagging like a banana because all the strength is gone. That doesn't do the (already lively) handling any favors...
Looks like you're not far from having a nice solid bodyshell now. Look forward to seeing it progress.
Phil
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