Progress with the Spitfire
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Rather a misleading title, as there's not a huge deal of progress, but hopefully there will be before long. I took it off the road a while ago, which was a far more simple process than I'd expected - take the V5 into the Post Office, they scan the barcode on it, job's a good'un.
I've taken it off the road to undertake a full restoration - it doesn't really need it, in the sense that I could easily make it road worthy with a bit of minor welding, but I've been doing less and less miles in it, so I decided it was as good a time as any to do some major work on it. I bought it as a fun project, but never had any real problems that needed working on, so now it's going to fulfil that criteria, albeit perhaps not that much on the fun side - more the sort of project with copious quantities of skinned knuckles and Plus Gas soaked clothing.
With the chassis being separate from the body, the obvious path is to get the body off, but it's a fairly big job, and I've got rather limited space, so we'll have to wait and see. I'm also rather short of money and time, but other than that I'm good to go!
I've no definite plans for what I'm going to do with it as yet - suspension and brake overhauls are a bit of a given. If I take the body off, I'll get the chassis in as good a condition as I can. Bodywork will depend on how much I feel needs replacing as I strip it back. Whether I go for a respray or I'm unsure - I'll be replacing the sills regardless, but the majority of external body panels are in decent shape. I can't help being tempted by a Le Mans style bonnet though, which would need to be sprayed regardless.
I've no particular interest in keeping it in a Concours condition, so perhaps some minor modernisation, some decent wiring wouldn't go amiss, but I'm not going to go changing the nature of the car, it's a classic and it'll stay that way. Keep an eye out for some progress reports!
Posted at 09:34
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