MadaboutKitcars

Oh Danny, on the subject of extra power, I always fit a de-cat pipe on to my cars.

Its generally accepted by all accounts that a de-cat gives the car between 6 and 8 BHP more power.

The figures came from a chap who used to fit de-cat pipes, and he would put the cars on a rolling road to check the gains.
6 BHP was the smallest gain he ever got, and 8 BHP was the largest.

Its easy to make a pipe, take off the cat, measure the length needed, and a pipe can be clamped in place.

If making one is too much trouble, they can be bought ready-made, and just bolt in place of the cat.

Saturday

I have so many bits of kit ready to bolt on to the car in so many places, that I am worried I will "lose" them, so, with the boot lid ready to bolt on to the finished car, whenever that may be, I put the hinges and luggage rack on it ready for the big day.

The paint finish is excellent, and it was done deliberately with rattle cans, so all you people out there who want to do the same, it really is possible to get a good finish using theses things.

It can be expensive, time consuming and needs patience to get the paint on right, but it is do-able, and anyone who tells you otherwise is being a bit of an areosol.

Here are some pics:
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Monday

Having studied the forum with reference to which mirrors to put on the car, and looked at all the comments about not seeing anything in them, I finally decided to use classic 50's / 60's mirrors, as used on the MGB's.

It pleased me to find that they came in stainless steel, so I ordered some and they arrived.

I happen to like flat glass in mirrors as opposed to convex, and these mirrors came that way.

I spent most of the day with the car outside in the sun, trying to work out the best place to put them. I decided against putting them on the doors, as that would not be as stable a position as the body.

I eventually drilled the holes and bolted them in place, ensuring that I could actually open the (Lambo-like) doors, without tearing the mirrors off.

Having done that, I drilled out the original Spitfire inside mirror,and tapped a 5mm thread in it, so now it attaches to the centre bolt which holds the top trim to the windscreen.

It looks okay, and I get good rear view in it.

A whole day, but another step in the right direction methinks.

Reversing back into the build tent was altogether a new experience!
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What would you replace it with?
I'm open to ideas.

Having said that, I've just been looking at chrome ones, and you're right, I'll swap it!

What must I have been thinking?

Thanks for the suggestions fellah's, and your mirror looks good Mr Towed!
However, I need mine mounted at the top of the windscreen, in order to see over the folded hood at the rear.
( When its all up and running)

Scimjim's right though, it has to be a good quality chrome one.
Watch this space. :-)

Later Monday night

Well.............

Never let it be said that I don't listen to good advice!

I went out into my garden and stripped out the interior mirror from my old Jaguar Mk2.

It was in excellent order considering its been in the car for 50 years.
I hacked off the slightly rusty arm, re-drilled and tapped the other end of the Spitfire arm, (which fits into my build) and took all the black paint off and highly polished it.

Then I attached it to the "new" 50 year old mirror and simply bolted it back into the build.

I am very happy with it, it looks good, its period, its made in England, its been in my possession for a very long time, and it deserves to be bolted into my build, and nothing will make me remove it.

That is what I should have done to start with.

Thanks Scimjim! You've done me a favour, we all go off the rails at times,
and today Matthew, it was my turn!

Job done:

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Yes Paul, I wondered about that "pearl" but at the time I put the mirror on, I just thought of it as "plastic" and was not impressed,
but you have given it a new name and I like it now!

Come to think of it, the donar car is 42 years old, all the dials, switches, handbrake, gearstick, seat belts, the mirror, windscreen, lights, steering wheel and lots of other things are 50 years old,
so its only the body and trim which is new.

Its more old than new, which should give it the right period feel.

One thing for sure, the blokes on this forum are going to make sure my car looks right and won't let me get away with much!

That has to be a good thing.

Thanks redratbike!

Wed

Big SM, hours of enjoyment you say!

Well, I never looked at it like that, from my side I see the hours, days weeks, months of agony, injuries, blood sweat and tears, frustration, and I guess the worst thing is looking at something on the car that is not right, immediately seeing a quick fix, but in my heart

(which at this stage is sinking rapidly)

Knowing that the quick fix is really crap, and the real deal will take soooooooo much more work! And it usually takes longer than that!

Paul keeps nagging me to make a list of "things to do" but that scares the crap out of me! If I did that I'd be standing at the foot of a mountain so large, I think I'd put the build on ebay as an "un-finished project" and cut my losses! ( Not really)

I am beginning to wonder just when I WILL actually finish it.

In the wise words of Mr Towed, " Just keep chipping away" and it will get done.

So that's my plan.......

You and Paul together Jonesy!

I'm on the other side, especially with this build!

Hate them.

Mick O: While I understand your point completely, Master Po would not be quite as smug if he was expected to display his rock with a perfect hole drilled through it (by dripping water) at Stoneleigh in 8 months time. :-)

Later on Wednesday

WCA,

Whilst I do appreciate your humour, I somehow doubt that Master Po had such tools at his disposal, also you have failed to note that the object of the exercise was to demonstrate perseverance..........


Right!

Today I did a job that I have been dreading (as usual) and, as usual it was a complete pig to do.

This job I HAD to do in order to progress to the interior of the car.

Namely the dash/ dash top dash itself, instruments etc.

Of course the original car did not have or need the bit that I made today,
having said that, sat on my dash top, it does not look odd, or out of place.

The other day I filled the edges of the sills on the inside of the car by the doors with expanded foam. I was sick of dropping nuts and bolts and tools down the side between the two surfaces, and having a hell of a job getting them out. In fact some did not come out and have been sealed in for life by the foam!

I then started to plan out the cover for the wiper boxes.

The bit I made was so complex in curves that I made it in bits in the end, and glassed them together to form the end result.

There has been 8 hours work gone into this lump, and I see this as a big step forward!


Some pictures:

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Big scary monster:

I am only making all these bits for my car because that is the only way I can get it to look authentic.

My bodyshell is 5 inches narrower than the real thing, so an XKSS windscreen would'nt fit anyway, so I was forced to make one.

Almost none of the interior things on the donar Spitfire were of any use in my car, so I had to adapt a Jaguar handbrake and gear stick as well.

The exhaust system I had to make is the only one in the world, as no-one would be stupid enough to put an exterior exhaust system on the left hand side of the car when the exhaust manifold on the donar was on the RIGHT.

And the list goes on. I cannot make the car an exact copy of the original, as the body shell is different to start with, I have a bonnet on mine, the real deal has a flip front. I have made a proper boot lid, the real deal did not have a boot at all, and so on.

But what I CAN do is to make a car that looks very authentic, and make it a classic looker in its own right, and I am well down the road on that one.

It is a good thing that I'm not a purist really, because that makes me free to do whatever I want on my car, as long as it looks right, and so far I am happy with how it looks, and with the forum blokes breathing down my neck, I won't get away with anything that looks naff on the car.

The recent driving mirror is a good example of forum co-operation!

What is my next project?

Are you totally looney?? Have you lost the plot? does your elevator not go all the way to the top?
Are you one sandwhich short of a picnic?

Seriously though, when I have finished this one (my first by the way) I just want to enjoy driving it.

Paul: I seem to have so much to do, I often don't know where to start next, I usually gravitate towards the jobs I like, leaving the shitty jobs to pile up, which is not really the way!

That wise man was most likely Mr Towed! Sounds like one of his sayings :-)

WCA,

Goodness me sir! You DO have a good side after all!

Seriously, you're mistaken about the patience, that is one virtue I have NEVER had. Most of my small paint jobs are done with a paint gun in one hand and a heat gun in the other!

I cannot even wait for the paint to dry, and go on to do the rest of the job leaving finger prints in the wet paint.

When something goes wrong, (happens a lot) the screams of anguish can be heard streets away.

There is a big difference between patience and relentless tenacity, but on the surface they tend to look similar. :-)

Later on thursday

Well I filled and sanded the wiper gubbins cover, and it is ready to be cloaked in leather.

After an awful lot of photo study of XKSS interiors, (and I seem to have the worlds largest collection)

I was able to work out just what size, and roughly where my yet-to-be made
dash top will go, and a paper pattern was done.

All this took so long time-wise, and it does not look like much has been done,
but I'm another day closer to completion I suppose.

Pics:

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Thursday

I had a bit of an admin day today, but later I decided to think about the screen demister slots I need to sort out at this stage.

I was going to cut the slot covers out of the usual stainless, but the original Spitfire ones are made in 3D, and direct the air forward to the screen, and I
could never copy that as well.

They were ugly, and far too large, so I cut and shut them, soldered them back together, then filled over the joins, drilled some holes so I could use my usual self tappers, and now I quite like them.

They will be screwed onto the cover I made yesterday, and I will pipe the hot air to them with some sort of slim hose.

They will be painted black, the same as a lot of stuff around the dash will be.

The black ought to contrast well with the red leather on the dash top.

I am too embarassed to say how many hours this little exercise took!

And they are not finished yet!

But it is one more step..........

Pics:

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Later after a cup of tea.........

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Tuesday

I have been fairly busy doing all sorts of stuff, and also working on my build.

I have finished the heating ducts in the dash, which seemed to take forever.

They have much narrower pipes to feed the hot air to them than before, but I have used pipes as wide as I could, given the confines I'm working with.
They should work okay, but it may take a little longer to demist than before.

Bearing in mind that 90 per cent of the time I should be driving around with the roof off! (What roof?)

When I make the dash, I want my start button at the top, the ignition key under that, and the choke button under that. It seems logical to me.

At present the Spitfire choke cable is too short to reach, so I ordered a generic new one at 6 feet long.

It arrived today, and I spent an enormous amount of time modifying it to look like the button in the real XKSS that occupies that position.

I had to file all the engraved letters off, then cut and file it to look like the XKSS button, or more like it than it did to start with at least.

The material is very resistant to being filed or marked in any way,which made the work hard to do, but it will pass a not-too-close-inspection now.

I am not even sure what function the original button performs, but I would guess at a manual water pump for the wipers. It has "push" written on it.

I have an electrical one so do not need that switch anyway.

Here are some pictures.

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