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As a wedding present some 9 years ago my wife bought me a '71 1300 MkIV spitfire. It had already had some renovation carried out but needed a lot more; the last owner seemed to have painted the bodytub and bonnet with a 3" paint brush.
Unfortunately dispite good intention it has stayed in the shed since the day I got it. A couple of years ago I got hold of a second chassis, a very tidy US spec with no rust. The idea was to prep the second chassis then start transfering the parts from one to the other. The plan seemed sound as I knew that if I just stripped everything off the original chassis and boxed it up then the likelyhood was that is where it would stay.
The chassis now just sits in the shed beside the Spitfire but it seems fate was just telling me to hold off until Gary had come up with the Cordite :-)
Come on Ash finger out!! Faint heart never won fair maiden and all that. Ring me and talk. I'll keep you going, and I'll make sure your wife see's what a brilliant choice you've made.
The Rocker
Yeah, I know but spent the last couple of years building stables for the wife and extending the house to cope with the family. Now its MY time. Will start cleaning out the junk from the shed over the weekend and start to get the body off the Spitz.
Sorry, work up north quite a bit but home is Lincolnshire ;-)
Come on then ash, I will be round at 10.00 sharp. kettle on and lets get you going. Wife now getting up at 5.00 to go, sure you don't want an early morning call? :-)
Got Mr. kipling with me!! Shame he doesn't maKe exceedingly good Sammio's as well. see you tomorrow.
Skip has arrived and I started cleaning out the shed today. At least I can see the spitfire in there now. Found the chassis too! Bit more effort required and should be able to get some photos taken and uploaded tomorrow.
The pile of stuff to put on ebay is rapidly growing :-)
Made some enquiries about getting the chassis shot blasted and galvanised. Am thinking thats probably a better way to go than painting or powder coating.
US Spec chassis supported by a couple of work benches with my '71 donor spitfire in the background. Still got a bit of cleaning to do in the shed though.
Close ups of the chassis, not sure of its age but in really good condition. Especially for £50 off a certain auction site :-)
Note the additional outriggers on the rear. These were only added onto the Californian chassis to meet the tighter regulations but should give added rigidity to the rear of the car. Here's a better shot of them.
The chassis is now in the hands of the shot blaster now. This seems to be the worst bit of rust that I can find so heres hoping it comes back all nice and ready for the next stage
Still struggling with the decision as to paint it or get it galvanised. Anyone got any advice either way? I know that galvanising will protect it better and guessing that with such a light body the extra weight (15lbs, I looked it up) on the chassis will not make too much difference and may actually assist in the handling but I am worried reading all these horror stories about twisting when dipped.
Thanks. It's an old tractor shed that still needs a bit of work to make completely watertight but putting a concrete floor in has made it so much more useable. The Mrs has said that officially its my shed so thats the main thing :-)
There's plenty of people offering galvanised chassis for Lotus Elans, Land Rovers etc. so I can't see that twisting should be a problem for you. Two things you will find with the galvanisers is that any completely boxed sections will have to be drilled to let the molten zinc in and out. The galvanisers will probably do this for you (they know where to drill for best results) and will charge what seems a fair bit for just a few holes! The other thing is the Zinc surcharge. You get charged a percentage on top of the price according to the current market price of the Zinc they use. That's unless things have changed since I had galvanising done last Century!
Great chassis though (and great shed too), so well worth making it last a lifetime.
A shed!!! Looks bigger than the birthplace of the Sammio, Cordite & G46. Gary will be envious I am sure. My theory is the more space you have the more crap you want to keep just in case. Good luck with your build, looks like chassis is a good one so that will give you a head start.
Ash ....just a thought to save aggro later ....those U.S. Spec , not expected to see on a U.K. car outriggers ....it would be a shame if they didn't survive the trip to the galvanizers and 'fell off' .....
Sorry Gary they survived the shot blasting as you can see from the pictures ;-)
These are from last Monday, the only day of Sun in 2 weeks! It's now East Anglian Galvanisers near Peterborough.
Well chuffed, not a weak spot or patch in sight. Even the shot blaster commented on its condition. Oh, and I can highly recommend Crowland Cranes body shop if anyone local wants some blasting done. Fantastic job for £90 :-)
Hi Ash, galvanising is wonderful isn't it!. I got my scimitar chassis done ages ago and it is now dull grey but it won't change any more. A tip to bear in mind when clearing out any tapped holes in the chassis. Don't try and run a tap through straight away. The galvanising is surprisingly strong an the tap can bite anywhere it likes and ends up cutting a new thread which is only part steel and the rest is zinc. Tightening up a bolt in it will strip quite easily. I found the best way was to heat up the hole with a gas blowtorch (Ronson or similar) and when the zinc starts to melt, flick it away with a thin bit of wood. Blowing through the hole with a bit of tube helps as well I remember. Once you can see the original threads it is safe to use a tap to clean them up.
Unfortunately it will dull down over time but keeping it indoors and out of the elements will help. Thats part of the reason I'm swaying towards BRG as a colour. Need a colour for the suspension turrents and such like that will contrast even as the chassis dulls down. Silver or grey are both out obviously but I think BRG will be just the ticket. Saw a really deep metallic at Stoneleigh on Monday that looked amazing.
@Andrew, thanks for the advice. I'll give that a go
That's unless things have changed since I had galvanising done last Century!
