Slow day so i thought I'd share some summertime fun.
What we have here is my 1964 Triumph Spitfire. As you can see its in need of a near total restoration. Been sitting under wraps in my treeline for 7 years now and spent the prior 30+ years in my mother's garage where my brother left it after parking it one day. He gave it to his oldest son and he, being a college kid in PA, traded it to me for my old 12 speed road bike (bicycle).
I've gotten it running, motor is in very good shape as is the tranny and rear end. Brakes need to be totally replaced as does every other rubber and metal hose (fuel lines, brake lines, coolant lines, etc).
Its a remarkably original car, odometer says 13,xxx miles. Might be original miles as it wasn't drivne much and was put away before it was even 10 years old, but I rather think its probably 113,xxx miles...which is still less than my 2000 Silverado.
Pulled the car out of the woods a couple weeks ago, washed the loose crap off it and opened it up to let the sun start drying out the musty interior. So far so good. I've verified the majority of the electrical system is good (lights, ingnition, distributor, generator), starter turns the engine over and I'vve got good compression in all cylinders, good oil pressure too.
Basically just need to disassemble most of it, clean and replace whats dirty or broken, tune it (dual 1bbl carbs) and enjoy it. Interior needs to come out first and do some floor repair and strengthening.
Front floors were shot in the laste 1960's. Brother cut and bolted in some 3/4" plywood (shown in pics). I've spent alot of time reseraching replacing the floors and its a very risky and complex procedure that I think I'm going to hold off on till I get to enjoy it for awhile. My wife's uncle is president of a local hot rod group and he said he'll teach me how to do good quality fiberglass work, so the active plan is to verify the basic structure is solid and glass in the floors and make em solid, waterproof and safe. Haven't decided what to do about the rocker panels yet...they're in bad shape. For now I might just weld in some good square stock inside them to add some strength and seal up the holes to keep them from deteriorating further. Replacing the rockers requires pulling the tub off the frame and since the rockers are just about the only logitudinal strength in the tub its a risky proposition at best...done wrong I could lose the whole tub.
Motor is an 1147cc 4 cylinder. 63 hp. 4 speed manual, an electric overdirve unit was offered, but is not installed on this car. It does, however, have the optional heater core.
This car is amazingly small. The top of the windshield doesn'te ven reach my waist. I think I measured it at 38-39 inches tall. A bit frightening to drive really. My wife and I took it for an illegal spin years ago when I got it running...pulling up to a stop sign I was greeted by what I thought was an SUV since all I could see was a grill and a pair of headlights...I later realized it wasn't an SUV...it was a Subaru Justy...but from the driver's seat of the Spitfire it was way, way bigger than me.
Funny sidebar story, in all the years it sat in the garage, nobody ever noticed that the car's serial number was my mother's phone number. Creepy.
What we have here is my 1964 Triumph Spitfire. As you can see its in need of a near total restoration. Been sitting under wraps in my treeline for 7 years now and spent the prior 30+ years in my mother's garage where my brother left it after parking it one day. He gave it to his oldest son and he, being a college kid in PA, traded it to me for my old 12 speed road bike (bicycle).
I've gotten it running, motor is in very good shape as is the tranny and rear end. Brakes need to be totally replaced as does every other rubber and metal hose (fuel lines, brake lines, coolant lines, etc).
Its a remarkably original car, odometer says 13,xxx miles. Might be original miles as it wasn't drivne much and was put away before it was even 10 years old, but I rather think its probably 113,xxx miles...which is still less than my 2000 Silverado.
Pulled the car out of the woods a couple weeks ago, washed the loose crap off it and opened it up to let the sun start drying out the musty interior. So far so good. I've verified the majority of the electrical system is good (lights, ingnition, distributor, generator), starter turns the engine over and I'vve got good compression in all cylinders, good oil pressure too.
Basically just need to disassemble most of it, clean and replace whats dirty or broken, tune it (dual 1bbl carbs) and enjoy it. Interior needs to come out first and do some floor repair and strengthening.
Front floors were shot in the laste 1960's. Brother cut and bolted in some 3/4" plywood (shown in pics). I've spent alot of time reseraching replacing the floors and its a very risky and complex procedure that I think I'm going to hold off on till I get to enjoy it for awhile. My wife's uncle is president of a local hot rod group and he said he'll teach me how to do good quality fiberglass work, so the active plan is to verify the basic structure is solid and glass in the floors and make em solid, waterproof and safe. Haven't decided what to do about the rocker panels yet...they're in bad shape. For now I might just weld in some good square stock inside them to add some strength and seal up the holes to keep them from deteriorating further. Replacing the rockers requires pulling the tub off the frame and since the rockers are just about the only logitudinal strength in the tub its a risky proposition at best...done wrong I could lose the whole tub.
Motor is an 1147cc 4 cylinder. 63 hp. 4 speed manual, an electric overdirve unit was offered, but is not installed on this car. It does, however, have the optional heater core.
This car is amazingly small. The top of the windshield doesn'te ven reach my waist. I think I measured it at 38-39 inches tall. A bit frightening to drive really. My wife and I took it for an illegal spin years ago when I got it running...pulling up to a stop sign I was greeted by what I thought was an SUV since all I could see was a grill and a pair of headlights...I later realized it wasn't an SUV...it was a Subaru Justy...but from the driver's seat of the Spitfire it was way, way bigger than me.
Funny sidebar story, in all the years it sat in the garage, nobody ever noticed that the car's serial number was my mother's phone number. Creepy.
