Detective Work

Figuring out a cars history is always requires a bit of guesswork as facts are often lost between cars transferring from owner to owner. Also, the information is often romanticized. Basically, I want to know when the original restoration took place. I was able to piece together the following bits of information:

Dime dated 1988 found under the sound barrier on the inside of the car, under the carpet and glued down. Being that the sound barrier was not factory, this work was presumably done during the restoration of the car, placed under this pretty much ensures that this work was not done till 1988 or later.



Sticker on the window SPC South Plains College Faculty Staff 88-89 Parking number 4167. This provides not only a date that the car was obviously used (who puts a parking sticker on a car they don't drive) and a geographic location as to where the car was!




Tire codes and condition.

Based on this being a 3 digit code, the tires was made before the year 2000. That would mean that these tires are eather 90s, 80s, 70s, or 60s tires. 60s is generally out as I suspect that these are NOT original tires.


Passenger Side Rear
P155/80R13 79S M+S
DOT BEE4JHBB176

This tire was made in the 17th week of a year that ends in 6.







Driver Side Rear
P155/80R13 79S M+S
DOT BEE4JHBB106

This tire was made in the 10th week of a year that ends in 6.







Passenger Side Front
P155/80R13 79S M+S
DOT BEE4JHBB206

This tire was made in the 20th week of a year that ends in 6.








Driver Side Front
P155/80R13 79S M+S
DOT BEE4JHBB206

This tire was made in the 20th week of a year that ends in 6. This along with the overspray from the repainting the car red seems to make be believe that this tire was on the car when first restored.






Spare Tire
Bridgestone 155SR13
DOT EJE5OCCB243

This tire was made in the 24th week of a year that ends in 3. This rim is not age appropriate for the car and must be thrown out of the calculations.


Basically, with the tire over spray and tires dating code I am assuming that the first restoration took place sometime in the 1988 time frame. Placing the tires being made in 1986. Knowing that, the rubber is much too fresh to have been stored in the sun for 24 years so the tires (maybe the car too) was stored inside.

Engine Compartment Mysteries

Review Previous Engine Post Here

Now that we know the Engine isn't original, then what else is different?



My brother provided me this diagram of the engine (thank you very much), identifying polarity, the starter solenoid, and the alternator.

Not having a generator seems to indicate that the alternator is period with the engine block.

My brother also tried to use the fuel pump on his period correct '67 MK3, it didn't fit so it is also puts the fuel pump in line with the engine.









The SU 'HS2' Series Carburetor is period of the car, not the engine.

The fan definitely is from the later model engine as it isn't metal, and it has more blades than the original fan.

Exhaust Manifold

The exhaust manifold is a mess. From my inspection it appears to be period correct for a '69 Spitfire. It's corroded and has a patch held together by a bolt, welded in place. Also, where it connects to the exhaust pipe, the threaded inserts have been replaced with bolts through and through. It also has a piece cracked off at one of these bolts, though not so much so as to leak.

Mystery attachment

On the shelf next to the master cylinders, there is a mount system for some missing piece, with broken plastic pieces still left in the mount. I have no idea what was here or what someone would mount here. Please let me know if you have a guess or know what was here.

Introducing Belle

Introducing Belle, a pretty little thing.

Belle ('67 Spitfire MK3) is Marilyn's older sister by about 2 years, placing her at a nice 43 year old. Overall, Belle is the reason I have my '69 Spitfire MK3 (named Marilyn for now). In a lot better shape, it provided my brother with the buy and drive that fit in with his heavy workload. It also provided him with one car too many which I quickly remedied.


Belle is nice and healthy with period parts under the hood. She's in a lot better shape than her younger sister under the hood, though with a few mods of her own. Still I prefer the younger of the two girls, with the dash board and seat modifications made in the 1969 model, he still prefers the smaller dash and bucket seats...

Interior Pictures

Belle's interior is quite nice and finished, Marilyn will need allot of TLC to make her beautiful. Complete with radio, two speakers, utility cigarette lighter, though it lacks some of the interior door details. I find that the seat recover seems to be a little lacking in execution and color, but to each their own.

Belle is listed in the Spitfire Database, but I haven't gotten permission to advertise the Commission number, but I can tell you it's listed as being in Kansas. We're not is Kansas any
more Toto...

Commission Plate

56 Royal Blue
11 Black Interior

Per the plate, this car was originally a Royal Blue, quite a bit darker than the color now on the car, a powder blue of some sort.
My '69 was supposed to be rebuilt into Belle, so much so that a test patch was painted on the trunk.
Both Color samples were taken directly from car photographs.

This car is is a running condition and is lovingly housed in my brother's "cars mahal". It holds three "vehicles" comfortably and safely, with tools and working equipment housed inside, it's a car's dream house.


All pictures lovingly taken by my father. Excellent photos!

Underbody

Sorta like underwear, just not kinky, nor fun!

Having finally gotten it up on the lift I was treated to the wonder and horror of getting a good look at the underside.

Driver Side Tub bottom:
The replacement pan installation is a hack job to say the least. Left unprotected, the rust has continued to under the support beam after the replacement as a pocket was left for moisture to accumulate.

Under the seat to the back of the tub is covered in surface rust and look to be in really good condition. The "Wet" spots are actually where I sprayed WD-40 to help get the seats out.

Passenger Side Tub bottom:

Again the replacement pan, nuff said. Though on this side they packed the gap with silicone sealant, helping the under beam rust situation.

Again the "Wet" is WD-40. This side is free from the surface rust of the driver side.

Front Wheels:

Most of the wheel pieces are coated with surface rust and will have to be cleaned. Most of the rubber is dry-rotted and will need to be replaced.

Rear Wheels:

The breaks in the back apparently are re-done as stated. I suspected it was due to the car actually breaking and the parking break working just fine.

Other Observations...

The attachment of the exhaust system is snapped from the mount in the mid-rear of the car. Once I can get it off the exhaust manifold I'll figure out how to clean it up and get it re-welded...

Inspecting the rotten passenger side fender, it was apparently repaired by slapping a pile of bondo behind the rust damage. Ugh that's going to be a pain to remove.

Treasures!

Things found in the car:

Always interesting, when restoring a car, are the treasures you find when you're pulling parts out. This car is no different. So far to date, I have found $.21 cents, several rocks, a few tools, a cassette tape and what appears to be the Radio Plate!

Change!

The car is paying me for my work. Well it isn't much but oh well.

dime 1988 fount under the soundproofing material.
dime 1981 found under the passenger seat
penny 1980 found under the passenger seat

The 1988 dime found under the soundproofing is important from a history dating standpoint. It ensures that the first restoration occurred sometime after the year 1988, assuming there's no time travel involved. For all I know, the others could have been dropped under the seat at any time.

Trash!

I gots lots of trash up in there!

pine needles under the drivers seat.
tree bark under the drivers seat.
rocks pulled from the under-body, wedged along the brake lines.
dirt found everywhere, under the dash, under the seats, just about everywhere.

The pine needles and bark were in inaccessible places and therefore not easy to get to, showing that this cars was near trees. There was also tree sap on the body and chrome. This is not important in any way that I know.

The dirt looks to be accumulated from the same place, as it is all the same consistency. I'd love to take an air compressor and blow it all out but will wait on that until I get to work on the car over a weekend. It's current house does a lot of repair work and re-painting and I don't want to ruin his paying paint work with dust flying all over the place.

Tools!

You could always use more tools.

Found Tool with a festive Mardi Gras flair

Mardi Gras in New Orleans
02/16/2010

Needle Nose Vice Grips found attached under the dash board (Craftsman no less, they don't work too well, I wonder if I can get a replacement).
Razor Knife found in the passenger side rear fender when taking off the rear bumper.

Radio Stuff!

The Radio Plate has been cut to support a more modern radio but at least I have it for sizing purposes. The Plate itself has suffered from deep rust. I doubt it can be salvaged as the rust appears through and through on the short posts.

Plan for replacement plate

The presence of the cassette tape I would assume that the radio also had a cassette player. I checked on e-bay and this tape, new and in the case sells for $10. This one isn't in any condition to sell and is therefore worthless to me.

Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak

TRACKS

1. Jail Break
2. Angel From the Coast
3. Running Back
4. Romeo & The Lonely Girl
5. Fight or Fall
6. Boys Are Back in Town
7. Cowboy Song
8. Emerald
9. Warriors

I'm sure this car will yield more treasures to talk about in the future...

Seat Removal

I finally got the seats removed, they perplexed me for the longest time.

I tried removing them but they would not budge. I tried on 3 separate visits to remove those buggers. The nuts would not budge from under the car.

I finally bought a jack and stands and got my butt under the car and I'll be dammed if I couldn't get the nut off. One of my friends employees, laughed at my little jack and pointed me out to the lift. Once on the lift, things got a little more complicated.

Car up on the lift. It's so light it almost floats!

I still couldn't get the nut off. I briefly gave up and moved to the drivers seat. Looking at them, they had a nut under the nut?!? I quickly realized that the nuts were welded to the car! I quickly removed three of the four nuts on the driver side and the third just spun. I couldn't get at the top of the bolt. Well, it turns out that the seats are definately adjustable, just frozen in place. WD-40 and manhandling shifted the seat enough to get the last bolt out.

I revisited the passenger seat and they did not have a nut under, and the seat wouldn't budge even with WD-40. I got a piece of 2X4 and placed it on the seat frame and started whacking it with a mallet. It finally moved enough to get to the bolts and it was quickly removed.

Passenger Side

The driver side seat has one of the hinge pins sheered and will have to be delt with. The passenger side is in good shape, though is missing the two back bolts and the bolt to keep the chrome back release in place. Both have questionable re-upholstery work and likely can be fixed up. The mounting frame on both are rusted and will have to be cleaned, potentially painted, and lubricated.

Drivers Side

Bonnet Bits

There are several pieces of the bonnet that I consider major focal points. The bonnet latches (Hood Catch) are visually stunning chrome, emblazoned with a M in honor of designer Michelotti.

Drivers Side
Passenger Side

Both latches have seen their better days and need work. Both were sprayed with the original green paint of the car, black from the re-spray of the inner bonnet, and repaint of red.

The passenger side latch has issues with sliding catch off the roller, so much so that the metal has a grove cut into the metal. I will attempt to shim the catch to try and straighten it up. This causes the catch to drag on metal instead of the roller, making the latch difficult to open.

The driver side latch is a little better shape but the catch is showing signs of the same symptoms of the passenger side, but it still runs on the roller.

This is after preliminary cleanup. I will be re-spraying them black with the chrome and moving parts masked off, results will follow once the task is done.

The latch catches (Lock Plate) and grommet catches (Hood Locating catch) are in pretty questionable shape. I have a two-fold plan for these, I plan to clean them up, re-shape them back to form and re-paint them black.

Front View

Back View

The Hood Prop Rod is also in questionable shape and will be stripped of paint and rust and re-painted.




Where the two-fold action takes place is I am asking my dad to re-make the latch catches, grommet catches, prop rod, and license plate attachments in Stainless Steel. I love the look and durability of stainless and I hope it comes out nice.

To scale image (if the blog doesn't butcher it)

Hand Measurements

To scale image (if the blog doesn't butcher it)

Hand Measurements

The Standard Situation

My first car and the car I learned to drive with was the '67 Mustang. It was an automatic. After the wreck we were facing money issues, I had not completed paying for the Mustang, yet was faced with having to spend a lot more money for a reliable replacement car.

We quickly found that our price range was restricting us to cars that were standards... It can't be too hard to drive a standard right?

My father found a listing for a '84 Nissan 200sx and we quickly went to see it. The people selling it bought it as a family car and their horrible little brat was running all over it, driving them nuts. It was a reclamation car, it had been in a horrible accident, pretty much destroying the driver side front of the car. It had been repaired pretty well in hindsight, though I always worried about the structural integrity of that repair. The price was a little out of my range but I was car-less and needed to get around. Though I couldn't even drive it home, we bought it.



I quickly found out that my father had little patience for teaching me to drive a standard. I don't really blame him, I was horrible at first. My brother took over the driving lesions, though not any more patient, he did have perseverance. I finally passed his tests. I was horrible at first, but over time, it became like second nature.

My brother had bought rims for the Mustang, complete with spinners, though the spinners were quickly removed as they were just funky. He paid a fortune for them, but miraculously enough, they fit just perfectly on the Nissan's 4-lugs. (yes, that means the Mustang was an in line-6, not a V-8. Obscure Mustang knowledge.)

Also added were some custom fabricated Stainless Steel mudflaps, and a nameplate for the front. I still have the nameplate stashed in my memories box.


That car was the last year they made it in a rear wheel drive. It was just short of a sports car, quite zippy and had a wonderful top speed (I took it to 120mph but I won't say where and when, and it had a little room to go faster but I wouldn't) That car took me through several important years, I had many fun times in that car. Right before I graduated College, I began to have problems with it and it became unreliable.

I remember having the clutch replaced once, and when we sold it the clutch needed replacement again so I guess maybe I wasn't that great of a standard driver. We rolled the car into the used car lot with a cracked head and a slipping clutch and traded it in for a Green S-10 Pickup truck, again a standard. I will discuss the trunk situation in a later post.

The dealer was disappointed with the cracked head but had made the price offer a day or two earlier when the head wasn't cracked. He admitted that his plans were to scrap the engine and transmission so it wasn't that big of a deal to him. Honest Used Car Dealers seems to be so anti-cliche, but in this case I believe it was true.

The standard situation. I had tried teaching my now wife to drive a standard and she never really picked up how to drive it, I guess I suffer the same lack of patience the rest of the men in my family suffer. I hope to teach he on the Spitfire once it is rolling on the road so that she too will hopefully catch the Spitfure bug.