Anything and everything Spitfire.

General Spitfire messages

Hi everyone, just joined the club so introducing myself and 'the project'.
In 1976 I swopped my mini for 2 nadged spitfire mk2's and made one good one, COY 691D. Rebuilt the engine, gearbox, overdrive, diff etc etc (became a motor mechanic for a few years on the experience) but never sorted the body out cos I needed it every day. Sold it on 2yrs later and (sad I know) still occasionally dream about that car and my independence.
I'm 50 this year and the kids are now away, my partner has a huge garden to play in, and I'm looking to finish my adolescence. Sooo, I went and bought a 77 Spit 1500, no overdrive, with 72000 on the clock, roadworthy (10 months mot) but neglected, has had no mods at all so needs lots doing. Will use it for the summer and rebuild the body during the winter (good plan eh!).
I will have loads of questions, live near Rimmer Bros, and hope you won't mind me asking.
First question is it needs a new hood. Is it worth spending out on a mohair, or is duck good enough?
Second Q is it needs a new exhaust, stainless obviously, but again the chioces are difficult. Any thoughts?
Sorry for the waffle but at least I,ve said it all now.
Many thanx. Phil

Philip

If you live near Rimmers then you might want to come along to the Lincs meetings - Last Tuesday of the month, at the Pyewipe between Saxilby and Lincoln. We can throw you off the scent of any good ideas you might have for your car!!!

Incidentally your Spit isn't red is it? I convoyed with one in my Green GT6 on the way to work at 6.45am last week, and wonder if it was you.

Hi Phil, and welcome.....

I'm sure you will get lots off different answers to your questions....But here is my take on it.

The hood....
Well my car comes out in the dry, and if I'm unlucky enough to be caught in the rain, I pop the hood up to keep off the water....The standard hoods do this job fine. I'll happily admit that the mohair hoods look great (when up), but, when down (99% of the time), you can't even see them ...so do you really need one.

S/S exhausts.....
I WANT ONE!!.....I think the twin S/S look fantastic, and I believe they sound great, I've heard good stories of the Rimmer ones, and Pheionex.......But, there is a big choice........I'll be interested to see which one you get, and how easy it was to fit.

Anyway, thats my 30 euros worth....good luck.

Paul.

First... the mohair is a nice hood for sure... luckily I had a new one already on my new Spit... before I had the cheaper ones.... but it depends entirely on the price difference and how much you're going to use it.

Second... you have 2 choices (i reckon) of exhaust - the twin pipe one:

That was the one I installed a couple of weeks before I got mine written off (sniff sniff)

Very loud - and makes your car sound like it's got a V8... (sort of)

Great if you want to get noticed...

Somewhere I have a video of me doing a "fly by" with the new exhaust... I'll try to dig it up...

Second is a bigger bore or dual pipe standard exhaust... sounds a bit more raspier... and a little less in your face... its all up to you...

Also... the 4-2-1 tubular manifold is *well* worth it... you need the K&Ns and needles to complement it of course... but boy does it vroooommm after that....

James

If your not wanting to tune or "upgrade" the car, I'd suggest going with the tubular four-branch manifold (because it's a better design than the standard one in that it doesn't have that gasket halfway down that always leaks and you can never get apart anyway) but then you can connect that to a standard pattern middle section and silencer.

I've done this on my car and it is fine. Not *really* noisy like the twin pipe "hey look at me I've got a sports car" version but still made out of stainless steel and doesn't rust. Since it looks like the original (and fits on the same brackets) it looks "right" on the car too. I'm afraid I'm personally not keen on the appearance of the twin pipe system on an othewise standard-looking car.

There are some variations on the idea of a "standard" pattern but so long as you buy all the bits from the same place, you should be able to fit it together.

I bought mine from Moss (mainly because they have a local branch so I don't have to pay carriage) and needed an adapter to get the four-branch manifold (designed to fit their wider bore back end) to fit the standard pattern pipework. The adapter is listed in the catalogue.

I believe that the system that the club sells is made entirely to the original pattern and so fits together without an adapter. I have never tried to fit one of the club's exhausts though so I could be wrong here. Anyone want to correct me?

If you're after a go-faster spitfire however, buy the big twin-box-straight-through-silencer-noisy-boy-racer version. I can't give much advice on that option at the moment either until I get around to fitting one to my race car. I suspect that it could be a tad awkward to get all the clearances right :-)

Well, there's my thoughts anyway. Let us all know what you decide in the end.

Mik

Oh yes, I fitted a new standard hood to my car, Don Hoods in Birmingham reckon they have them in pretty much the original ICI vinyl material and it's fine (although I have to admit to not really using it in the rain if I can help it). It leaks, but no more than you'd expect from that odd design around the windows :-) (BTW: Has anybody ever studied an MGB hood, it has a much better overhang to stop water coming in the windows!)

When you've had your car for a little while you'll start thinking of making it go faster (probably), you might wish that you had fitted a sports system to compliment the free-flow manifold and K+Ns you will be fitting.

Do Spits have a silencer mid-way? If so then the system that doesn't have this will be much easier to fit (twin pipe sports system). I ask you, a silencer located in the narrowest part of the chassis rails! Made me swear a bit I can tell you!

I'm quite happy with the car the way it is thanks. (I've had it about 4 years now). Mind you, I did buy another one and start to build a full race spec car out of it...

None of the full sports systems I have seen have a silencer mid-way down the pipe. The standard exhaust on the 1500 doesn't either although I have a feeling I've seen a diagram of an early spitfire exhaust with a box mid-way down the pipe. Not sure

Mik

Whoops - I thought they might be the same as the GT6. See how lucky you are!

Thanks for the advice so far. I think I will buy a club hood and spend the change on the odd little bit the car may need....I looked at it properly last night (only bought it at the wekend) and I know I wanted a project but...!
The tssc standard exhaust looks about right for me (50, bald, overweight, stay in the kitchen at parties etc).
There is so much to do!! Gotta be sensible with the budget but I've gone through the Rimmer cataloge and I need to spend around &163;300 on the bonnet to begin with. Right, where's me debit card and Mig welder!!
Oh and Graham, 6.45 am, what were you thinking? I mean a.m., come on! Seriously I live in Boston and will be glad to come to the Pyewipe, know it well as I worked in Lincoln for 3 years.
Thanx

Philip

It's defintitely worth shopping around, and the club members will certainly know of other local manufacturers of things like hoods (and where not to get themas we aren't subject to meassageboard ettiquete). In fact for exhausts you might want to try Andrew Turner from near Grantham - he just supplied me one for quite a lot cheaper than it was advertised elsewhere.

If you're 50, bald and overweight (like most of the members) please make sure you arrive a little later than the 8.30 start, so we can watch you struggle over the speedbumps!

(Anyone would think they didn't want us in their carefully raked gravel car park?)

Hope to see you at a meeting soon.

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