A Spitfire without a home

A few weeks ago, my father called me as he was leaving his car club meeting and announced 'I bought us a race car!'...... 

This is definitely not something I was expecting. (I'm laughing as I'm typing this). 

He then begins to tell me the story - a former club member had passed away some time earlier. His son had come to the club meeting with a listing of all of the cars that were left in his warehouse and pics of many of them. Several of Dad's friends had immediately called dib's on one or another car on the list, and Dad gravitated to a little Spitfire. The price was right, and from the pics he forwarded me, there was a lot of work already done to the car that made it worth a lot more than the Challenge worthy price that we ultimately paid for it.  (Won't have it in hand, nor the time to make the Challenge this year... :( )

Over the next few days, we went back and forth about the car and a few issues. I've got no garage space. Really Dad doesn't have any either. We also live about 6 or so hours away from each other. My better half has said she's ok with my buying it if we keep it at my Dad's.... 

Next issue was what would we do with it. A full restoration really is not in the cards. However, we've always wanted to go vintage racing. Dad had his license at one point, but has let it lapse and has basically said he won't be going at that again. I definitely would do it, but my shortest drive to any track is something on the order of 8-10 hours. On top of that, busy kids makes long trips to a track for the weekend an unlikely thing for a while - Vintage racing is out.... I'm autocrossing my TR6, but would love to have something I'm not terribly attached to for autocrossing. This car would be perfect for that. 

She comes with an extra engine or two, as well as an extra transmission, boxes of new and original parts and a hardtop.

I'm used to extremely fast progress projects, but this will be an extremely slow project.  

We're hoping to pick it up in the next couple of weekends. 

Ding! You got my interest.

I guess a lot of projects start with a bunch of boxes of parts! 

Nermal, I hope the next update is not too far from now....

A swing axle Spitfire for a race car.  Your dad likes to live on the edge.

Well, now I'm getting even more excited about this. A trailer has been borrowed and plans made to pick the car up this weekend.

Joe, yeah, we've talked a lot about that.

JoeTR6 said:

A swing axle Spitfire for a race car.  Your dad likes to live on the edge.

You can tame most of it's desire to kill you out of it

Parts for these are inexpensive, and there are lots of abandoned projects out there.  Restored one during covid.  I marveled at the agricultural engineering, but found the end result was no joy to drive.  Hope you do better.

In reply to porschenut :

You said a Spitfire is no joy to drive.

I think I mentioned some of this in my thread on my TR6, but I'll put it here too. 

I truly was born with Triumphs and British cars in my blood. I'm a 3rd generation Triumph guy and was basically doomed to toil with oil leaks, bad electrical grounds (Prince of Darkness- Dim, Flicker, Off) and always smelling like exhaust. 

My grandfather had been in the auto business since before WWII. After WWII, circumstances eventually had him running a Triumph, Jaguar, Renault, Mercedes dealership. He even had a small race team there that drove Triumphs. My father was old enough at the time to drive the first Spitfire there. 

Eventually, Dad had a TR6. I wanted that car, but he sold it before I was old enough to 'lay claim' to it. 

A couple years before I could drive, I was looking for a TR6 and saving money mowing lawns to buy it. We found the 6 I now drive in 1990 and restored it. It still wears the paint that was laid in 1991. 

I regularly road trip and autocross that TR6, but it is hard on my pride and joy. That car is a family member. It took my wife and I to our Proms, all graduations from highschool/college and our wedding. 

Building this Spitfire allows me to give some respect to my buddy that I've been through so much with. I don't win anything today, and really just care about getting out and enjoying an old British roadster as it should be driven.

Don't think I'll be able to sleep tonite.

In the past week, we've found out a lot more about the gent that we're buying this from. He was a top notch, top quality restorer, and his cars had won the overall in my fathers car club car show (one of the biggest in their part of the country). He passed on, and the son is now selling on the unfinished projects. All of the cars that have been picked up so far have had good quality resto work on them, they were just not completed yet.

The car is 90% complete as-is, and appears to have everything else in boxes. The engine installed is the smaller, less desirable 1147 (correct for the year). A more desirable 1296 comes with the car as well (it was offered to one of Dad's friends with a car he bought, and he realized it was wrong for the car he was buying, but right for our Spit).

For collection tomorrow, we have:

auto-tilt trailer, ramps, air pump, full tool kit, breaker bar, tons of extra straps, impact wrenches, engine travel cradle, sheets of cardboard

What am I missing?

In reply to NermalSnert (Forum Supporter) :

New tires and shocks, brakes completely rebuilt.  But on a curvy road I was terrified, it just did not feel like it would go where I pointed it.  But with the header and ansa exhaust it sounded good.

Today was a blast. I headed west, my parents, with borrowed car trailer in tow headed southeast, and we met in the middle. 

The owner's son was waiting for us and had several friends there helping him get his father's shop ready for a tool sale (Dad took home a few things. I would have taken home a bunch if I'd had a trailer or a bigger vehicle).

When I got there, I went into camera mode and immediately started capturing pics of everything I could. When I bought my TR6, years ago, we unfortunately did not get any pics of us buying it. Things were 35mm and different then. I figured I'd try to capture everything this time. 

As for the car, its more than I'd hoped (given the price) and a few worry areas that I found that will have to be dealt with as well. One small disappointment was the fact that while the car did have 2 engines with it (one installed, and one on a small cart), neither was the 1296 that a friend who had been there earlier said it was. On a positive note, the engine on the cart, while an 1147, it has been rebuilt fresh. The rebuild is really old, so I'll need to disassemble, clean up and then reassemble, but hopefully everything is good (bores had nice crosshatch, cam is new, valvegear is new, etc). 

There are just a few cancer areas, a few cracks in the steel that will need welding, and a brand new rear valance that has been installed, but riveted on across the bottom edge, so that will need to be re-done. The driver's door is a bondoblob, so I'll re-skin or find a replacement. 

Hardtop is factory steel unit in perfect shape, just needs a new seal and paint. 

The car did come with a plethora of spares-

Several extra wiring harnesses, 2 motors, 2 transmissions, several sets of rear bumpers, several sets of lights, several sets of instruments and instrument panels, 2 sets of seats, the list goes on and on. 

At this point, I've got to make a decision on what to do about motor and transmission. The larger motor would definitely suit my use of the car much better, as would the later transmissions that I could use with it. 

Best part of the whole deal - Dad and I believe that this car was originally sold at my grandfather's dealership. So the car has come full circle- it has come home :)

I probably won't update this for a while, as the car is now 350 miles away, I don't have a way to store it close by, and SWMBO has nixed spending for a while.... 

Enjoy some pics. Oh, of course, no car retrieval would be complete without the 'In front of Harbor Freight for more straps' pic. 

Lots and lots of parts.... 

I think the speedometer is optimistic. LOL

Looks great! Don't see as many of the earlier spits these days, mostly Mk4s and 1500s around me. 

The speedometer is a little generous, but not by much- I've had my 71 spit with the 1300 and a weber up to about 90 mph on an airport taxiway! 

BTW those wheels are killer! 

I really need to pull my 64 out of the back corner of the garage and start getting it running again.

Congrats!  I am also one with too many Triumphs, including a 79 Spitfire. 

@porchenut - if a Spitfire doesn't feel like it's going where you point it, something was wrong with the car.  That feeling is just about the one thing they're good at.  That said, if you are comparing it to pretty much any P-car, then the chassis will feel more than a bit on the flexible side.  But even the questionably built Spit-6 I had was still fun on a twisty road, despite being terribly balanced (nose-heavy). 

My father and I have completed some more things on the Spitfire. 

Dad has continued to pull boxes out and inventory the parts. We've got tons of parts. We've also decided to use the best parts, keep spares where we think they'll be necessary, and then sell the rest to support the project. 

Dad also pulled the wheels, cleaned them up and had the tires re-mounted. After cleaning up the studs, he was able to finally get lugnuts on all of the lugs so it can sit properly and the tires not go flat every few days. The tires on it are only good for the restoration for the next couple years. It will get some proper autocross rubber when completed. 

I got both the motor and transmission that I had on hand out and disassembled them. The trans was in excellent shape internally, so I left it alone mostly. It needs a shifter rebuild, but all else is good. We're likely to replace it with a later transmission that has synchro on first gear anyway, but this will get us going. 

The 1147 motor I have had been rebuilt, but was not sealed well and had gotten water in it through the plug holes at some point. There was still assembly lube on the rod and main bearings, cam, etc. But other areas, it was like the builder did nothing. 

3 of the 4 bores are perfect and still have the cross-hatch from the machine work, but #1 could stand to have a ball hone run through it. The rings on the pistons were all trashed. All the crank journals are perfect and freshly machined. The cam is stock, but in good shape. Head was rebuilt, but to stock specs. It could use a compression bump and some simple porting. One valve was stuck in the head, resulting in a bent pushrod, but that was a quick easy fix. 

In the end, Dad and I decided we're going to go ahead and rebuild this as a spare to have around, but also find a 1296 to rebuild and use in the car along with a later transmission. I've already got leads on several 1296's, but have to wait until April to go look at them. 

One other note. Evaporust is my new best friend. I've used it for years, on my other Triumph and countless other projects. But on this thing, I've used it on a bunch of stuff already. I just love this stuff! 

This past week, I had an adventure. I took off from my TN home accross northern Alabama over to Northern Georgia and Road Atlanta. The Mitty was in full effect and I wanted to see some racing. 

On the way, my goal was to see some friends and make some trades for some parts for the Spitfire. I succeeded. 

A few hours into my trip, I made my first stop at an old friend's. He sold me a 1500 to replace the 1147 I currently have in the car (have 2 of them!).

I was tempted by the 4.2litre Jag engine he had just finished. 

He also had some panels for the car that I was having trouble finding.

Next up, I headed to a buddy's place to crash on his couch and make some parts trades.

First up, he let me drive his gorgeous late Spitfire.

As for trades, I make custom shift knobs for Triumphs. I had one ready for him

Digging into his parts stash, I ended up with:

Single Rail Transmission, clutches to match, driveshaft to match, a differential, header, and a shop manual.

The Mitty iself was awesome. Weather was great, racing and cars were great as always.

I also spent a ton of time with a family that races a 67 Spitfire- very rapid!

Today, I added one more piece to the puzzle. 

FB Marketplace purchase. Bought a complete Rotoflex suspension from a Triumph GT6. While this keeps the transverse leaf spring as both spring and upper suspension member, the GT6 got rid of the Spitfire swing axles. In their place, the GT6 had a lower A-arm and an axle with a guibo/rotoflex joint that it shared with a few Lotus'.

The beauty of this is that it eliminated the dreaded Spitfire wheel tuck and oversteer. 

It is 12 hours away, so a buddy picked it up today for me and is going to ship it to me.

One more puzzle piece gathered. 

My father and I picked up the correct manifold and dual Weber DCOE'S for the Spitfire. 

This past week, I got the opportunity to spend the week at my parent's. Spending the week on the lake with my family was very much needed. 

This also gave me some time for Dad and I to play with the car. We went through a bunch of things, primarily looking for rust in the body and frame, checking out the mechanical, and going through parts. 

We took the hardtop off. That was exciting, I had not seen it yet without the hardtop, and in doing so, we found the converible top frame too! 

This also gave us the opportunity to pull lots of stuff out of the interior and see that the floors are 100% rust free. Looks like the driver's side may have been replaced at one point, but its clean. Big bonus!

The seats are clean and usable as-is. They'll work fine with the paint we're going to lay down. 

Doors have glass in them and the winding mechanisms work great. Not necessary for an autocross car, but nice to see them there. 

We pulled the luggage rack off the trunk and that also improved the look substantially!

I opened up the Weber's and they are jetted for a Spitfire, so they are ready to bolt on and go (I'll clean them up and get them perfect first). 

Now for rust - The rear fenders each have rust spots in the lower corners. There are patch panels for that. Frankly not a bad repair to make. The rockers and engine compartment are all basically rust free, as the battery box has already been replaced and welded in. 

The one large thing that needs to be replaced is the drivers door or doorskin. Its trashed and not repairable without a complete tub of bondo. 

Dad and I both had to get a pic sitting in the car!

I keep making small amounts of progress on the car. Using the 30 mins every day approach has allowed me to make some headway. 
 

First up, I tore down the dual Webers. I tanked all the jets, emulsion tubes etc in Berryman, and went to work on the bodies and the trumpets. 
 

I was able put the trumpets in my lathe to polish them up after cleaning them off all of the old crud inside. I brass brushed the bodies while using carb cleaner as a solvent to strip the crud. 
 

Good old Brasso was useful for polishing up all the brass covers to a nice luster. 
 

Next up, I rebuilt a differential for the car. I had traded for this one, but it came as a kit....

I sourced new seals and Timken bearings for it. Before rebuilding, I stripped all the grease and rust. Then I painted it with rust reforming paint and then black Rustoleum. 
 

Popping the old bearings off was not terrible, and I was able to heat the bearings with a heat gun to install the new. Unfortunately, one of the vendors sent an incorrect bearing, so that held up the project a bit. 
 

I got a pretty good pattern on the gears and the lash set perfectly with the set of shims that I've got. 

Yes! The build has officially begun.

Those carbs look amazing - great work there.

I don't know how I had missed this thread, but that gave me the time to appreciate the ups and downs, along with the change in direction, from 'I'll look for a 1.3', to 'I got a 1.5', 'I got Webers', 'I am changing the rear suspension'.  Looking forward to more, and judging by the work already done in carbs and diff, we are in for an amazing ride.