1979 Triumph Spitfire Project

I prefer not to post until I have some quantifiable "thing" complete. That's good and bad. It allows the post to document a sub-project in a meaningful way. Unfortunately there are multiple things I've worked on that I haven't written up. I have a disassembled and cleaned Ford T-9 transmission sitting on a table in my basement. "Quasimotor" is a really cool full size engine mock-up I made to test fit the Mazda V6. My son-in-law Ken 3D printed a remote oil filter adapter model that I created in Solid Works. So there is actually a good bit of work that has been done but not documented here because it's "in process".  The plan for custom parts like the remote oil filter adapter, is to cast them in aluminum. Ken became interested in casting aluminum, purchased the equipment to do so, and has cast a few items. Very cool. But parts cast for use on the Spitfire will quite often need precision mating surfaces, meaning they will need to be machined....

My apologies that it's been a while since my last post. There was more time to write these in the winter months. Spring sprung and I became busy with lots of projects and activities. I have actually continued to work on Penny along with everything else, but writing posts has fallen to low priority. I always find it amusing when the subject of finding things to do in retirement comes up. In retirement, I'll finally have time to do perhaps 50% of the things I'm interested in. 😜 I'm going to give up on trying to write about, and post-date work done in the past. From this point forward topical posts will be dated when I publish them. The last post discussed removing the engine and transmission. Since then I've spent time on three general things, although everything currently relates to making sure the Mazda KLG4 V6 engine will fit.   Figuring out how to verify that the basic physical dimensions of the V6 will fit inside the engine compartment with reasonable accuracy. ...

(Written on 3/31/2022)   After taking numerous measurements, I was absolutely certain that the V6 engine might possibly fit. 🤞😜🤞 The next logical step was to remove the Spitfire's engine and transmission to allow full access to the engine bay. I see by the photo dates that I did this in October, so the chronology of the blog is a bit off. Oh well.   A friend generously loaned me an engine hoist and I got to work. The anti-freeze was drained and the radiator removed. Time was spent taking a number of photos and labeling connections and loose parts.   This is the four speed Triumph gearbox viewed from passenger compartment, driver's side. Regardless of what engine ends up in the car, this will not be the transmission. What you can see here is the hydraulic clutch cylinder, the speedometer cable, and wires to the neutral and/or reverse sensor.   The Spitfire has so little ground clearance that I had to jack it up a bit for the hoist to roll under the chassis.   ...

  (Written on 2/19/2022) As I mentioned previously, I love the look of the Spitfire. The handling and braking are on par for a sports car of this class; no reason to try and change anything about them. However, the Spitfire does not provide the performance that I'm looking for. I gave considerable thought to what my objectives for this project are, and came up with this list:     Do not alter the exterior body of the car.     Do not add significant weight, or significantly redistribute weight in a way that would adversely impact handling.     Significantly decrease the 0-60 and 1/4 mile times of the car.     Improve the reliability of the engine, transmission, and drivetrain.     Make the interior comfortable for drives up to two hours in duration.     In all decisions try to minimize costs.     Don't compromise the car's inherent safety. The third and fourth objectives greatly ...

(Written on 2/06/2022) Test driving Penny before purchase had one little wrinkle: no brakes. The owner did make me aware that the brake pedal would have no effect. However, the parking brake did work, and allowed for a low-speed test drive around a flat yard. Once I got Penny to my house, I wanted to video the engine and transmission in operation. Going fast enough to use fourth gear requires brakes, so I decided to start with them as my first Penny project. The previous owner included new front brake calipers and rear brake cylinders with the car, but I opted not to use them yet. I am going to remove the body from the chassis, and completely redo everything including the brake lines. Connecting dirty, probably rusty, brake lines to the new calipers and cylinders would introduce dirt into them. Instead, I decided to pull the old calipers, rear cylinders, and master cylinder apart and clean them thoroughly to see if I could restore function. With a curb weight of only 1,821 l...

(Written on 1/28/2022) As soon as I bought the Spitfire, friends and family asked how soon I'd have it on the road. I genuinely admire those folks who can turn things around in no time at all, but I'm not one of those guys. When my brother and I were boys I can remember him asking in frustration why I made a project out of everything. The answer: I like projects, and I like things done a certain way. Not only did this frustrate my brother, it pretty much drove my father crazy. Dad admonished me for being a perfectionist, but I know full well I'm not a perfectionist, for try as I might, I've never managed to make anything perfect. 😉 My answer to anyone who asks when Penny will be done, is ten years. In reality I have no idea how long it will take, and I don't really care. Driving her will be fun, but so is the process of rebuilding her. In addition, I never have just one project going at a time. This life offers so many interesting things to learn and e...

(Written on 1/20/2022) I've seriously let down my wonderful wife of 37 years. In the spring of 2020 we started talking about retirement being only a few years away. The nest was empty, and it was time to start relaxing a bit and enjoying life. She surprised me by suggesting we go to a BMW dealership to test drive something fun. We're basically Hyundai people, so this was pretty heady stuff. We took a Z5 out for a test drive and loved it. It's a wonderful mix of sportiness and refined comfort. Conversation turned to thoughts of purchasing a Z5 upon retirement. Then I started thinking hard about what I really wanted in retirement. I thought about what gave me enjoyment and satisfaction. I decided happiness for me wasn't buying the "perfect" car. What I really enjoy, and what retirement will hopefully afford me the time to do, is create, build, and restore things. During high school my father and I restored a 1964 Sunbeam Alpine. See "1979, a g...

(Written on 1/16/2022) In 1979 I was 17, and like many young people loved sports cars. There was something about a small two seat convertible that screamed "let's have some fun". My older sister had an MGB that my father had helped her restore. If I could have had any car, it would have been a Triumph Spitfire. I just loved the look of the car. But I really didn't have the money to buy a decent car, so I read the used car classified ads religiously hoping in vain for a miracle. My dream Spitfire didn't show up, but a great deal came along on a Sunbeam Alpine. Actually it was two Sunbeam Alpines, a 1964 in bad condition and a 63 in worse. I had never heard of a Sunbeam Alpine, but the ad said that it was a British convertible sports car, and the price was right. Now my sister's MGB had met an untimely death when the wiring harness shorted out and the car burned up in a parking lot. So when I showed the ad to my father and asked him to look at the S...

(Written on 1/16/2022) Welcome to my blog. OK, I wasn't sure why they call these "blogs" so I just looked it up. It's short for weblog. What I actually wanted was a website to document rebuilding a 1979 Triumph Spitfire I purchased. But I didn't see an easy way to do that, and blogs are easy. So, a blog it is. I'm going to back date the "published" date so they indicate when I should have written them. The date they are actually written will be in parenthesis at the end of the post. The Spitfire was purchased in August of 2020, and it's now January 2022. I decided I better get going on documenting the rebuild. Whenever I do any projects I take a lot of pictures. Typically these are texted to my family and close friends who are simply enthralled by the minute details of how I built this or fixed that. 😆 I'm surprised they don't delete my number from their cell phones. Capturing the rebuild details here will allow them to feign ...