Friday, March 26, 2010

Oddities

It's funny sometimes when your working on a car, as you get tired and your brain stops processing the basics... Two examples come to mind when I last visited my car.

Gravity:
I was working on the fuel line and I though that with all the muck that was sucked up from the rusty tank, I would clean out the line with an air compressor. I had already removed the tank and it was bone dry. The hard fuel line descended under the car and then popped up to a rubber hose to attach to the fuel filter. I blew compressed air into the line and over the loud sounds of the air compressor, I heard a weird hissing sound. I looked back soon enough to see a fan of streaming gas flying out of the trunk. (Photo is retouched to parody the actual event) I assumed that the gas would have evaporated long ago, or drained out the line but apparently not, it was flying out the end of the line. Thankfully, I had not cleaned it from the other end and sprayed gas all over the engine. Mental note to self, gravity still works.

Gravity Defied:
I was installing the fuel pump back on the car and I took the nuts off by hand. The first one flew off when I finally got it off and it arched a little and gravity took control. I saw it drop below the frame. Knowing that it hit the ground in the shop, I completed removing the other nut and bent down to look for the missing nut. It wasn't there. I grabbed the air compressor and blew the area around the fuel pump and got nothing for the effort but a lock washer... I blew the entire engine compartment and found nothing. I hand felt around and still found nothing! Apparently Gravity decided to take a breather...

On installing my new hood locating pin earlier, I quickly realized that I didn't need two nuts on it due to there being a captured nut on the bonnet. I was sorta upset as the VB catalog specifically said I needed a nut and I obviously didn't. The nut miraculously fit on the fuel pump and went right on! So they were right that I needed a nut, just not right about where I needed it...

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

BMCNO

The Italian Pie

I start my little story with an e-mail to the BMCNO inquiring about membership and their upcoming show. By now you are wondering what in the heck I'm talking about. BMCNO is the British Motoring Club New Orleans. I was going to attend the car show and have was looking into joining. I was pleasantly surprised that most of the meeting are in Metairie, about 5 minutes away from my office. I met them on Tuesday 16th, and was immediately greeted warmly. I joined the organization that night. A wonderful diverse group of people, all who are sympathetic to the British Car mentality.

Hampton Inn - Elmwood
The welcoming party for the travelers to the Car Day. The food was great, I bought a cake... I would have preferred to make something by hand but I was pressed for time and had to resort to a purchase. Several of the cars were parked outside and made for wonderful conversation. I did my best to work the crowd, spinning my tales of Spifires of present and old and of my present work and listening to the tales of others...

Delgado Community College

20th Annual
New Orleans British Car Day
March 19& 20, 2010

I didn't volunteer directly, but I did offer my services for the duration that I was there. I helped sell 50/50 tickets, and generally just helped out as I could and as was needed. I made several passes with the cars and their owners, and even followed a judge though the cars to see just what they look at, though I am assured that they all look for different things.

Registration

Registration was pretty well staffed, but the wind was blowing everything everywhere. I didn't see much backup getting things processed and the entrants seemed at ease with the flow. All entrants were given a card to place on their car to aid judging: Name, Make, Year, Home, and Entry Number. From there, they were given a badge to ware with Name, Make and Year if I remember correctly. Following that, they were given a "Goodie Bag" with assorted I know not whats (one item was the show badge for the entrant). Next to that was a sales section with T-Shirts for the event, canvas bags from a previous event, license plate covers, stickers, etc. for sale at reasonable prices... I bought a T-Shirt early, good thing too, as they eventually ran out of the manly sizes.

The following images and commentary from the show are in no particular order. Standard Disclaimers apply, I don't even claim to be knowledgeable about what I am saying.

Jaguar, Looks like a daddy Spitfire!
This has to be one of my favorite cars from the show. Sleek in design, with a simply huge engine under the hood, it has many of the things I love on the Spitfire... lotsa Chrome, rounded design, and bonnet the flips forward. I've been told they are a monster to restore but man do they just scream class and elegance.

Original and Restored

One of these Jags is restored. Amazingly enough one isn't. Can you tell which one? Closer looks at the cars, it can be easily identified but from 6 feet away, I have a hard time picking the original out!

Spectacular GT6

My "Favorite Car" there has to be this little brown GT6. Definitely a car that is used and not put into a vault, brought out only for shows... It is owned by a member and I have an offer to take it out for a spin. I am reluctant, fearing I will like the ride/power better than my 4 cylinder Spit. Also, it has been so long since I drove a standard I fear I will have to practice again.

Modern Morgan from Quebec
Likely to be the person who went the farthest to get to the event (all the way from Quebec Canada) was a modern car, a 90's Morgan in all it's glory. It was simply immaculate. I drooled over it at the party, and I drooled over it at the show...

Spitfire Row
At only 3 Spitfires, and all of them square-tails, I was quite disappointed. All were pretty well used cars. If my spit, as bought, ran and didn't have the rusted rockers, it would have been in good company. One owner had sever "Katrina Issues", forced to put the Spit in the parking lot of the apartment he was living in due to Katrina flooding his house. One owner, from Florida, has a much chronicled Spitfire, bought in his youth used and fixed up as his first car. The last owner had the original bill of sale selling him the car new.

Lonely Triumph
Alone in its class was this worse for the ware Triumph wedge thingy. I never much cared for them, but for every car there is someone who thinks there great...

Triumphs
Sorta cast to the side are these lonely examples of Triumph. They always had a crowd looking at them though... Both look better the closer and closer you get to the cars.

TR6, who knew they were so popular
A nice lineup of TR6 show to their popularity! All very nice cars, one of which was making its debut at the show, being a recent restoration... It was one of the two red ones. The Family had secretly entered and brought the car in the show, without the owners knowledge. I hope he enjoyed the surprise of seeing his car in the show. The eager anticipation of the owners arrival by the family was simply infectious.

Lotus!

My brother used to own a Lotus Elise, and his was just as clean and shiny as those in attendance. I didn't much car for it, though it was a very beautiful car. I didn't feel all that comfortable in it. I'm sure I looked great in it though! Not quite sure what the ones on the top are, but they are cool! The red one looked spectacular with the top on. The white one was modified for racing.

DMC - DeLoreans

Very popular since the Back to the Future movies comes the DeLorians. All Stainless Steel bodies make for wonderful jokes about cleaning them with oven cleaner. Seriously though, three nice examples of the car. I was amazed at how much the bodies flexed driving through the uneven ground.

Not quite sure what these are but they are sure cute
Austin Healey
Aston Martin

James Bond anyone? Amazing looking example. It was featured in some movie I never heard of before...

HMM, very cool but what are they?

MG, The International
MG Shell, Chevy Engine, spoiler off an import, and various bits and pieces from lots of different manufacturers make for a very interesting car. It was all really well tied together though and nothing looked really like it shouldn't be there. To purists it's a monster, but to everyone else it's a great conversation piece.

The Pretty Pink MG

The car itself is in pretty good shape and is for sale for $7,500 but everyone says "it's PINK?!?" Very pink. I believe that the owner painted it pink for his wife without consultation... Contact information has been cleaned from the photo and I can get the original information if someone wants, but I don't want it plastered on the internet for an eternity. If I liked the color, this would be a wonderful car.

Who Dat MG
A cute and clean MG owned by locals, with the Saints jerseys on the seats, and Saints chairs in the background. Saints mania will not stop in New Orleans for many years to come... We have waited too long.

MG Midget
Cast away from the general fleet of MGs is this Midget. I personally liked this one, the paint scheme is eye-catching without being too flamboyant.

MGs
MGs
MGs

MGs

The flock of MGs were the most numerous of the cars at the show. Very many good examples were in attendance. Other than a few noted exceptions (The yellow one with a white stripe above is included in that group, but I don't have a good picture of it), they sorta merged in my mind. I want a car that stands out in a crowd, not being one of the flock.

Of the cars not mentioned/pictured worth noting in my mind was a Bentley and two Rolls Royce, one newer, one older. The Bentley was nice, the older Rolls was awesome, people stopped talking and gasped in wonderment as they were looking at it.

General Impressions:

A good show, definitely worth going to. With over 100 cars entered, there was much to look at. There was people talking British cars everywhere, with door prizes for the entrants. A well executed event from a viewers perspective. I hope that the next one will include my car!

The club itself is very active, with road rallies, dinners, events, meetings, training classes, and much more. The members are friendly and open. While it is based in New Orleans, it's outreaches to the North Shore, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette, with activities in all these areas. I would encourage those that can to join.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Spitbits Order

Shipping Details: UPS Ground

03/12/2010

6:32 A.M. BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED
3:01 P.M. PICKUP SCAN
Picked up from Spitbits, not quite sure where it is exactly.
6:52 P.M. ROCKLIN, CA, ORIGIN SCAN
Driven about 91 miles
10:33 P.M. SAN PABLO, CA, ARRIVAL SCAN

03/13/2010
2:50 A.M. SAN PABLO, CA, DEPARTURE SCAN
Driven about 1,711 miles which apparently takes about 4 days

03/14/2010
hmm, no updates on this day.

03/15/2010
none today ether.

03/16/2010
Getting very nervous, has UPS lost my package?

03/17/2010
YAY, they found it!
11:27 A.M. DALLAS/FT. WORTH A/P, TX, ARRIVAL SCAN
Apparently UPS has found the shipment and it has found it's way to Texas. Missing is the usual switching centers.
9:38 P.M. DALLAS/FT. WORTH A/P, TX, DEPARTURE SCAN
Driven about 440 miles

03/18/2010
JACKSON, MS, US 03/18/2010 9:29 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
Apparently, it never left Jackson and was mysteriously teleported to Metairie...
Teleported about 180 miles
03/19/2010
METAIRIE, LA, US 03/19/2010 4:36 A.M. OUT FOR DELIVERY
Driven about 4 miles.
METAIRIE, LA, US 03/19/2010 10:28 A.M. DELIVERY
Driven about 4 miles to my house, then to the BMCNO Welcome Party, then to BMCNO Event, more information to follow...

So approximately 2430 miles and 8 days from it's start, it is safely stowed at my house.

Spitbits Order:
Though quite a bit less in quantity, it makes up in size. This is the large metal order. Order price a little over $300.

LOWER REAR FENDER REPAIR LH MK1-MK3 SPIT
LOWER REAR FENDER REPAIR RH MK1-MK3 SPIT
Fender repair pieces to replace my rotted out panels, I don't need the entire fender and these are significantly cheaper than a whole fender. The look just spectacular, painted black. Wonder how hard they will be to install, wonder if that is weld-through primer-ed, yah right.

ROCKER PANEL LH MK1-MK3 SPIT
ROCKER PANEL RH MK1-MK3 SPIT
These are the big boys and are just like the fender repairs. Just beautiful new metal to replace my rust-puckered ones. Originally, these were $20 cheaper each from VB, with the Winter Sale, on missing the sale, It was cheaper from Spitbits. Also with such a good reputation from the NASS folks, the order shift was easy to justify in my mind.

One of my dogs, Peanut (or NuttNutt as we call him) was watching me take a picture of the parts. He had a confused look on his face and quickly lost interest in what I was doing. Stupid human pointing something at a bit of something on a box, shouldn't you be getting me a treat?

TRUNK SEAL MK1-MK3 SPIT
Significantly cheaper here and from what I received, the quality is very acceptable.

HINGE GASKET SET MK1-MK3 SPIT
Back-ordered, really a snafu but quickly remedied. I saw it on the packing list and not in the box and became immediately concerned. Friday, March 19, 2010 11:05 AM I inquired about it via e-mail. Friday, March 19, 2010 01:34 PM, I got a reply from Nigel himself explaining it was on back-order and he missed noting it in the invoice, offering that I could cancel it if I needed to. I am in not immediate rush for it so I can wait. It was handled quickly, professionally, and personally. Can't ask for more than that in today's automated society.

CHROME BOLT WITH WASHERS MK1-MK3 SPIT (2req)
Will be used to attached the convertible top to the body. Well, whenever I get the top, I will have them ready!

Victoria British Order

Shipping Details: UPS Ground

03/15/2010
7:23pm Lenexa, KS Origin Scan
Apparently picked up at Victoria British and brought to be processed at UPS.
10:10pm Lenexa, KS Departure Scan
Driven about 15 miles
10:38pm Kansas City, KS Arrival Scan

03/16/2010
1:04am Kansas City, KS Departure Scan Driven about 454 miles
8:53am Memphis TN Arrival Scan
11:10am Memphis TN Departure Scan
Driven about 209 miles
2:38pm Jackson MS Arrival Scan
4:31pm Jackson MS Unload Scan
4:35pm Jackson MS Location Scan
10:36pm Jackson MS Departure Scan
Driven about 180 miles

3/17/2010
3:18AM Metairie, LA Arrival Scan
4:00am Metairie, LA Out For Delivery
Driven about 4 miles
10:48am New Orleans, LA Delivered
Driven home about 4 miles away!

866 miles (rough approximations, thanks Google Maps) from where it started from to my door in about 40 hours. Gone are the days when you were ignorant of where your stuff was, go UPS!

Victoria British Order:

So, what did I buy? I missed the Winter sale by days and it changed my order quite a bit, shifting the big ticket items to Spitbits. Quite a bit of stuff for less than $200.

STONE GUARD SET-CHRME-7" ROUNDMy brother wants these for Belle, I hope for it to be a surprise gift, but if he reads my blog it won't be...

INNER SILL-LH, Back Ordered
INNER SILL-RH Needed to repair the Rocker Panel. Though I'm not sure of the condition under the rusted rockers, for the price, it's not worth not replacing.

ROCKER PANEL END-LH
ROCKER PANEL END-RH
Didn't really need these but if I'm putting on new metal, I should do the job right and not have to do it over... Unfinished and one has a bit of surface rust, it should brush off in paint prep.

LOCATING PIN-HOOD BUFFER PUSHROD FORK NUT A/R FLAT WASHER-SML 5/16 X 5/8 A/R
To replace the one that I am missing... Wonder where it went to...

WINDSHIELD SEAL-FRAME/BODY
Another cosmetic necessity. The one on the car was shot, though on trying to remove the windshield frame, it defiantly was still doing it's job...

RUBBER RING-LARGE-3 1/2" A/R
RUBBER RING-SMALL-2" A/R
To be used to replace the rotted out ones on the instruments.

GASKET-OIL PAN
Sometime in the near future I plan to drop the oil pan, clean out any residual gunk and replace the gasket.

GASKET
GASKET - FUEL PUMP
I ordered both that they have, being in-expensive, just to be sure. I matched one up to my fuel pump so I should be good to go in that respect.

HEADLIGHT GASKET
Mine were shot. The replacements seem to be not very well made, but should do the job. Not nearly as thick as the original.

FILTER-FUEL
Mine was shot, sucked up rust from the gas tank.

WHEEL STUD FRNT/REAR HUB A/R
Mine was missing one. There is excellent replacement instructions on http://www.totallytriumph.net/spitfire/hard_lesson.shtml

BUFFER-OVERRIDER
I only needed one, but I'm replacing them as a set to make sure it looks right... I may sell the lonely one on e-bay later, or keep it as potential swapping material...

ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS CD CWE
One of the greatest things I've seen in a long time. I plan to work with it to hopefully create a few spreadsheets to help catalog my car better. It's in an encrypted format and is driving me to drink. It won't work on anything past XP due to the dinky front end program, you can't copy the files off for my backup storage as it demands the original CD. Copying the CD for backup purposes failed miserably. Sorta frustrating, but I don't really blame them in trying to protect their information but it makes what I want to do more difficult. Really, if you don't have it, buy it. If you do have it, get someone else to buy it. Promote the cause!

RUBBER SEAL-CHECK STRAP
One side was missing, the other side was painted red. I will need to replace both.

PIN KIT A/R Back-order
Needed to replace the pins I drilled out on the door Check Strap.

SG.58 CATALOG - SPRING 2010
It's always good to have another catalog. My puppy, Snickers, decided he didn't like the one I got from my brother and shredded it one day. I walked into the house to little bits of the catalog EVERYWHERE. No single page survived his wrath!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Geography Lesson

Oh the places she's seen...

Originally, the car was born at the Standard-Triumph works at Coventry, England (Canley, Coventry to be specific see http://www.standardmotorclub.org.uk/cars/factories/factoriesuk.htm) with an guesstimate Mid-August 1969 birthday.

Standard-Triumph Works, Canley, England


Free Maps

From there, as a US bound Spit she was shipped, presumably by boat to some as of yet unknown harbor the same year. Today on a Liner, it takes approximately 1 week to cross the Atlantic Ocean, be freighter in the late 60's, who knows.

From there it went to a Triumph Dealer somewhere in the US and sold. I know very little still of her, sure to be, storied past.

From what I was able to piece together, she ended up on Lubbock, Texas around 1988-1989 driven by a faculty member of South Plains College. It's likely the same time she undertook her first restoration. At this point, about 20 years after birth, she was over 5,000 miles from the town of her birth.

South Plains College, Levelland Texas


Free Maps


Again we lose sight of her, eventually popping back up about 685 miles away in Jefferson, Arkansas in 2009, now 40 years since birth. My brother found her here, bought her and spirited it back to his house in Lafayette, Louisiana 450 miles away.

Jefferson, Arkansas


Free Maps

Lafayette, Louisiana


Free Maps


On January 2nd, 2010 by brother brought my 69 to me in Metairie, Louisiana 125 miles away. Delivered on a flatbed trailer, she looked somewhat tired for a 41 year-old. I hope to invigorate her back to some semblance of her youth...

New Home in Metairie, LA


Free Maps

Monday, March 15, 2010

The GBU

The GBU, otherwise known as the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

The Good:

I have placed my first set of orders! I will be getting a lot of stuff, stuff to get the engine running, stuff to replace body panels, and generally stuff to get the ball rolling.

The Spitbits order, trunk seal and body panels, has shipped already and UPS is furiously working on getting it to me pronto! (UPS Ground, yah right) The Victoria British order with the stuff for the Engine hasn't shipped yet, but it is scheduled for pickup of the partial order.

I will also be joining the British Motoring Club New Orleans, hopefully making connections to help with the revival of the Spitfire. I hope to get advice, mental support as the project car lumbers on.

The Bad:

I have, finally, got the windshield wiper assembly off the drivers side of the car. I wedged a piece of 2X4 behind the assembly and locked onto the stripped nut with my favorite set of vice grips. I got enough of a grip on it to start the nut turning. After about three turns, and no obvious progress, I heard a mild pop and the nut had split! I wedged it off and quickly found out why I was having so much trouble with it. The thread was destroyed where the nut was and was free spinning. Pulling off the assembly after showed the it was damaged and the PO had sorta glued it in place. I was able to remove this assembly and I tried to remove the wiper motor. No such luck! The Passenger side assembly is frozen in place and simply will not turn! I abandoned this removal at this time, leaving it for another day...



The Ugly:

I slowly made progress in removing the front windshield, I worked it from the back as I've seen described on the internet. In inspecting the glass, I had noticed a very small chip in the glass and what appeared to be a phantom crack about 1/4 inch away from the chip. I got the last of the windshield out where it was not bound by anything. Then, as I stopped to survey my work and figure where the best place to grab it and lift it off the car, I heard a horribly deafening faint crack as a a fracture climbed up the glass. I was HOT! The entire drivers side proceeded to spider out with cracks and fractures! I can only guess that it had been filled and was under pressure. With the restriction of being installed removed, it relieved the pressure and destroyed itself. This is going to be about a $200 error, one that I did not figure into the mix.


Removing the windshield itself still resists me, I am slowly working it though. For a seal in such bad shape, it is really resisting me quite well. For all that she didn't resist removing parts in all the visits before, she bit me three times in one day!

Trucks

Trucks!

Well, after the fun and sporty Nissan, I was pressed with the bitter realities of life. I was graduating college and would not be living in the same area. My ride was dieing, and I had absolutely no money. I came to the conclusion that I needed a truck, I would need it for the normal life that I would be adjusting to.

As they had helped me often before, my parents helped me buy a 1985 Chevy S10 pickup trunk. It was in excellent condition, though had a 4 cylinder engine. It provided me with 12 years of service, blew out the freeze plugs, and cracked the head once.

S10 was left on my driveway through Hurricane Katrina, with the hope that it would float away. In our forced exile, I was able to get on Google Earth and see a wonderful picture of my little green truck sitting in my driveway, protecting my house. It appeared as pictured after the storm, looking freshly washed, polished and just happy as an old dog...


Then one fateful day, it just stopped. A piece of the timing chain assembly broke off and jammed in the chain, severely damaging the engine to the point of not moving. I sold the body to my friend to drop an engine in and sell (The place my Spit is at, he make a good $ on the S10, good deeds often repaid a hundred fold.) he offered to do it for me and let me sell it, but I insisted that "he does the work, he gets the reward".

The S-10 was replaced with a Nissan Frontier Crew Cab (no more using a 2-seater as an excuse to not to drive everyone to lunch) Hopefully, the Spitfire will bring me back to two seater heaven.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Before and After

License Plate Lamp Base and Seal


The License Plate base was in pretty rough shape but cleaned up nicely. The bolt and chrome nut is missing and was replaced with a chromed countersink screw. It does work somewhat to hold it on but I will be looking for a replacement long term. The seal has been painted over and a wire was crushed into the rubber... The bullet connector was missing from the positive lead and the PO just rolled out the connector on the base and soldiered it. I will also be looking for another bullet connector and try and fix this.


Passenger Side Seat Adjust


In pretty good shape to begin with, just a little dirty. It is also missing the chrome bolt to hold it in place. Will have to find something long term. The seat that it is connected to will be detailed later and is in pretty funky shape. Very usable but funky!


Steering Wheel Switch Plastic Covers


These things are about $17 EACH to replace them. They still look a little rough but I may work them over again. The plastic is somewhat sun damaged and one has a scratch on it. I will use them regardless... I can spend $32 much more effectively on other more critical items.