Robyn's Triumph Spitfire

January 29, 2006:

We had a relatively "warm" January day here in NJ. Temps reached up into the low 40's. Just warm enough for me to get Baldrick out and at least wash off all that mud. I felt much better afterward.

January 30, 2006:

We had an unseasonably warm day up close to 60 today. I ran home from work at lunch time and brought the Spitfire back to work. Left the top up on the way back to the office (not wanting to mess up my hair), but I finally got a chance to put the top down for the drive home. Oh my goodness! I loved this car before the top went down, but after the top went down.... words fail me. I am obsessed!

February 8, 2006:

There had been a slight noise coming from the rear of the car on the drive home so we decided to check it out. Figured maybe the u-joints or wheel bearings might need some attention. Sure enough the axle u-joints were pretty loose. What we didn't expect was to find that the right rear wheel cylinder had failed at some point and leaked brake fluid out all over the brake shoes and drum.

This led to our first (of probably many) trips down to British Miles in Morrisville, PA. It was wonderful to find a British car parts/service place only half an hour from home! And Tom, the owner, was more than happy to help us out with loads of advice, not to mention the parts we needed. A quick trip down to pick up parts turned into a two hour conversation, cut short only by the fact that Tom needed to get home and help his son out with a science fair project. I mentioned to him an interesting handling problem I had noticed on the drive home. Over bumps in the road, the steering wheel wanted to jerk in one direction or another. I felt like I was swerving all over the road and I was holding the wheel so tight to fight it that my hands ached when I got home. We wondered if perhaps this was just a function of the car's suspension geometry, but Tom quickly assured us it was not. He recommended bringing the car down so he could give it a good once over and tell us anything and everything that needed attention. Sounded good to me. We thanked him and headed home with all our new treasures... new brake shoes, a wheel cylinder, spare rim (since my car came with none) and two spare tires, shop manuals, lug wrench and some other stuff I'm probably forgetting.

The u-joints went in with no major difficulties. The brake shoes, however, required a bit of "modification" before Ian could get the brake drum back on. After checking out the other wheel cylinder and confirming that it was in good condition, Baldrick was back in action.

February 22, 2006:

We still haven't been able to get the car down for Tom to take a look at it. He's been busy prepping a beautiful Austin Healey 3000 for the Atlantic City Auto Auction and just can't get us in until after that is over.

Not wanting to drive the car much until it has been checked out, not to mention that it's been to cold to do so, I figured I'd get started on trying to replace the two existing speakers in the car along with the old Sanyo tape deck. I had purchased a Kenwood MP3 head unit and Pioneer speakers for my Volvo but had since changed my mind about installing them in that car. It turns out the speakers are exactly the right size for the Spit.
I pulled out the two old speakers with no problems and the head unit took just slightly more work. Ian soldered the connections for the new speakers.
Unfortunately, while working on the passenger side speaker, my seat, which had a little wear when I bought the car, proceeded to shred to bits after I got in and out of the car just a few times. Looks like I'll be heading for new seat covers sooner than I had planned. Still need to decide if I want to recover with the same beige/houndstooth as stock or maybe go with a solid vinyl cover...
We've also discovered that there is a bit of an exhaust leak. It's not horrendous, but I'll most likely be looking for a new exhaust early this summer. We're planning to head out to the Carlisle import show in May so I'll get to check out a few different exhaust system options when we visit the Spitfire group out there. Will be nice to get out and meet some other owners too!
I've gotten very busy at work so the speaker/stereo install has been put on hold temporarily.
We ordered a bunch of parts from The Roadster Factory so we can do a nice tune-up on the car before driving it much further. New belt, filters, plugs, wires, rotor, cap, radiator hoses, and thermostat.

March 5, 2007:

It's been quite a while...

Well I've been neglecting poor little Baldrick's webpage for far too long, but that's not to say I've been neglecting Baldrick. He saw plenty of driving last summer and on into the fall. Since I last posted lots of stuff has been done and still more is on the way. I'll try to sum up below:

The new stereo finally got wired up and is working nicely, though even with the new speakers, I discovered that two speakers in a loud convertible just don't cut it. Plans were hatched to install rear speakers...
We got all the tune-up parts installed shortly after my last update last year. However, there still seemed to be that noise coming from the rear of the car.
On one of our first trips to British Miles we had picked up new shocks. While we were replacing those we went ahead and replaced all the bushings with poly bushings on the front and rear. Doing the front bushings also lead to new steering rack mounts, trunnions, steering rack boots, etc.
In the spring I installed four shiny new wheels to replace the stock ones. I'm a big fan of Panasport wheels, but not wanting to spend that much, I found some really nice knock-offs on Ebay for much less, that even included a nice Triumph center cap. They are silver with a nice polished lip. Since the existing tires were practically new I just transferred those over to the new wheels. What a big improvement in appearance (at least in my opinion!)
We didn't manage to get the car out to the Carlisle Import show due to the predicted rain that weekend (and the fact that the top leaks like a sieve. But Baldrick was not forgotten while we were out there in the Volvo! We picked up a nice set of SU carbs to replace the single ZS that was standard on the 1500's. They needed a bit of a rebuild, but we had found them, they looked great and the price was pretty good. Another good winter project.
Next up came the removal of the defunct air pump. It was seized anyway so we pulled it and the associated brackets off the car. Hey, on a car with this little horsepower, every bit of weight removed helps!

After a bit more time spent with the car, we came to realize that even after just a short trip in the car, our clothes reeked of exhaust fumes. It was a bit embarassing going to meet up with friends for dinner. So, I went ahead and ordered a Bell stainless steel exhaust system to be put away for a winter project. I figured my leaky exhaust system had to go sooner rather than later.
The next project came about in early summer... I was still hearing that noise coming from the rear of the car and with all the car shows coming up, I was hesitant to drive too far from home not knowing what was wrong. We replaced the half-shaft flanges as they appeared a bit worn and we were sure that was going to solve the problem. It didn't. At this point frustration set in and we ended up ordering a whole bunch of parts back there: driveshaft u-joints, differential mounts. To do the differential mounts, we had to drop the exhaust system so the new exhaust became a summer, not winter, project. Even with all those new parts, the noise from the rear still remained, so for the time being we gave up and thought maybe that was "normal" for these cars.
The exhaust installation led to the discovery that the exhaust system was leaking badly at the joint between the manifold and the downtube. The noxious smell in the cabin was coming not from the leaky pipes under the car, but from the leak in the engine bay that was then entering the car through the old fiberboard transmission tunnel cover. Along with the new exhaust I had ordered a replacement ABS plastic transmission tunnel cover and new gasket. We peeled back the carpet and replaced the old cover. With that and the new exhaust in place, the odor problem was a thing of the past!
The summer passed with no incidents and I had a blast driving Baldrick whenever I could.
Fall came and I had already begun planning what I wanted to do over the winter. #1 on the list was to clean the sticky gunk out of the trunk and install some carpeting in there. I was tired of everything getting filthy in that trunk. None of my local auto parts stores carried the inexpensive carpet I was looking for. They are apparently all too interested in selling plastic spinner hubcaps and underbody neon kits. I ended up finding a parts store out in Tamaqua, PA who carried what I wanted and was only about 9 miles from my parent's vacation home in the area. Perfect!
Mid-way through fall, I organized a group drive from Hamburg, PA to Jim Thorpe, PA. It is a drive I do each spring with my MINI club, but I decided to give it a go with classic cars in the fall. Even better, we passed close to that auto parts store so I could pick up my carpet.
We got to the parts store and Sal, a fellow Spitfire lover, got to talking to us about my car. We mentioned the noise from the rear and he immediately said it was probably the differential. My heart dropped. I really didn't have the money to spend on getting a differential rebuilt. But fear not, Sal said he had a good used one lying around and sold it to me for a great price (thanks Sal). Now we were set. We had a winter project and I still had money left to buy gas!
I got a jump start on my winter project in November. I spent a few hours scraping the black sticky gunk out of the trunk and cleaning up the rest with mineral spirits. The cleaning went much better than I had expected and I soon had the trunk almost entirely cleaned. Next up, we cut out a new board to replace the warped, torn board that concealed the gas tank from the trunk area. Our good friend Manny just happened to have a piece of hardboard that was the right thickness of the original piece. We cut that out and I installed some of the new carpet material. What an improvement!
With winter approaching and an extra paycheck burning a hole in my pocket (gotta love those three paycheck months), I did my big winter project order. This included: New replacement seat covers, seat foam kit, and carpet. I figured while we'd be pulling the seats, it made sense to do the carpet as well. At the time this all seemed extravagant but the snowball effect had not yet truly begun...
Since we were doing the seats, I decided it would be really cool (or hot) to install heated seats in the newly covered seats. New carbon fiber heating elements meant they would be waterproof (good in a convertible that leaks) and they could be trimmed to fit the seat. And best of all, I'll be able to drive the car further into the colder months!
For Christmas, Ian got me two new euro style headlights to replace the old sealed beams that were in the car. These lights supposedly have a better light distribution and they take the halogen bulb replacements found in modern cars. The lights got added to the winter project parts pile...
Months ago I had picked up a beautiful, mahogany Nardi steering wheel from a friend who had ordered the wrong size for his Volvo. The smaller size wheel would be perfect for Baldrick.
With a new steering wheel added to the list, I thought, "Wouldn't it be great to replace the dashboard with one veneered and finished to match the steering wheel? I didn't want to destroy the stock dashboard to do this so the plan was to make a new dash from scratch and veneer it ourselves, then finish it to match the wheel. This would also allow us to install the switches for the new heated seats without feeling guilty about destroying the original dashboard. So add that to the list of winter projects. Too much you say? Ha! Read on...
Just last week, we went down to visit British Miles for a completely unrelated reason. We got to talking with Tom and I told him about my winter interior project. It went something like this:
- Tom: Does your car have overdrive?
- Me: Nope.
- Tom: Would you like to have overdrive?
- Me: Yeah someday, but I really don't want to spend that much right now.
- Tom: How's your current transmission doing?
- Me: Well, it makes this crunching noise if you shift gears too quickly.
- Tom: Ah, your syncros are beginning to go. You know, while you're doing all that interior work, now is really the time to change out the transmission if you're having a problem anyway
- Me: Damn.
- Tom: I've got a few good used overdrive transmissions you can pick from if you decide you want to go that way.
- Me: Damn.
After a quick consult with my "mechanic" we both agreed that while it wasn't really planned, it made sense to change it now rather than put the whole interior back together and have the transmission die in a year or two. I left a deposit on the transmission and we should be heading back down to pick it up sometime this week. Hmmm... a transmission swap... Why am I having feelings of deja vu?
So let's see... I'll be ripping out the interior of the car... I'll be disassembling the dashboard to install a new one... The trunk is gutted so I can clean and carpet it... We'll be installing new heated seats and possibly some rear speakers someday... What the heck, why not go for broke and replace the wiring harness. Yep. You read that correctly. On top of all this we decided it made sense to replace the old harness with a new upgraded harness made specifically for British cars. Many people installing a modern harness will purchase a universal harness intended for hot rods, but these can lead to headaches as you try to adapt them to a British car. So we broke down and ordered a new harness from Advance Auto Wire. I'm told that I'm #13 on the list (lucky me) and I should be receiving my harness by around the end of March. Fingers crossed we do because that will leave us just about a month and a half to rewire the entire car and reassemble it in time to make it out to Carlisle the third weekend in May!
So with all that, what else could possibly be done? Well, while removing the old carpet we discovered that the vinyl boot covering the emergency brake handle was pretty cracked and removing it from the car didn't help matters any. A new e-brake cover/armest and boot (all one piece) are around $84. Much more than I really want to spend at this point. I'm considering attempting to make my own replacment boot or possibly buying one from a company I've dealt with over in the MINI world.
Remember way back when I said a plan had been hatched for rear speakers? Well, the plan is still a plan, but thanks to all the other expenses, it has been temporarily shelved. We will, however, be installing the wiring necessary to add rear speakers somewhere down the road, as well as possibly an amplifier (if I can find someplace to hide one).
So it's now March and we have only just begun on the "winter projects". This past weekend I finally to got to install the new seat foam, seat covers, and heated seat elements. This evening I will be finishing up the last seat cushion and my first attempt at auto upholstery will officially be over. Things went better than I expected, but that's probably due in large part to the simplicity of the Spitfire's seats.
The interior of the car is partially disassembled. The center console and stereo have been pulled out, the carpet is mostly gone, the transmission tunnel has been removed, the wood dashboard is partly disassembled, the steering wheel has been removed, and all disconnected wires have been labeled. Tonight after finishing the seat, I will begin cleaning the black sticky gunk off the floor pans in preparation for a nice coat of POR-15 before we begin the rewiring project.

So that's it. That is officially everything that has happened since last year (or at least as much as I can remember).

Spring is fast approaching and I'm looking forward to another great season of top down motoring (assuming my car is ever in one piece again.
This coming fall I also plan to do a repeat of my Jim Thorpe Classic Car Run on September 15, 2007 (rain date: September 22, 2007). If anyone reading this would like to sign up for the event, registration forms are due no later than 9/1/2007. More details and the registration form can be found here.

And now for a few pictures that sum up the last year of life with Baldrick:

Links:

Email Me	British Car Forum	North American Spitfire Squadron
British Miles	The Roadster Factory	Spit Bits
British Parts Northwest	Victoria British	Zaino

My 1973 Volvo 1800ES	My 2003 MINI Cooper S	The Bag Lady

This page last updated Tuesday, February 05, 2008

	1979
	Triumph Spitfire