Weight Loss

For Spitfires to perform well, many racers are concerned with weight on their cars. Though I don't plan to race my Spit, I do want it to go fast when the time comes. I discovered, while procrastinating on learning to weld, a wonderful way to drop a few pounds. Cleaning off the years of baked on dust and mud lead to an amazing amount of seemingly worthless weight.

Passenger Side

While I had the car on the lift, I started poking around the rear end. looking for lube points led me to believe that there were none. Poking around the parts lead to brushing them, which lead to caked mud falling off. Being somewhat obsessive compulsive, I continued. It definately had lube points, buried under years of caked on mud and muck.

Driver Side

What I originally thought was crudely made oversized parts, after brushing quickly turned into accurately made, quite nice looking parts. I thought they were rusty, but it turns out just to be very dirty. While I don't consider it clean by a long-shot, it is much better than it was.

Rear Differential

I started poking around and quickly discovered that the rear differential is caked up with a mixture of oil and dirt. I always though that, for a british car, it didn't leak too much fluids. I started prying the funk and muck from the rear. I hope that it wasn't the reason I could detect no leaks.

The Muck Pile

About 1.5 to 2 feet wide and about 6 inches high dirt pile, from cleaning the two sides. I got somewhat less than this off the differential but it's got to amount to quite a bit of weight. I broke myself out of this cleaning kick, as this type of work can easily be done once I get it on the road and running. I forced myself to stop it and move on to welding... It's got to be done and no amount of procrastination will make my car road ready.