Striptease

 

With the snow finally melting away now and even though it was a tad chilly, the excitement of a new project is still within the honeymoon period. So out into the elements we both went to start on the strip. First thing we wanted to do was get the engine turning over and running so we pinched the battery of my little Suzuki Jimmy which also gave me chance to leave it on a condition charge all day, which can’t hurt this time of year. 

Within a few minutes we had her firing away and running, although a tad lumpy, nothing a good tune up and service won’t sort out. I think we’ll just possibly do a top end build on the engine at this point along with timing chain, water pump and other common sense items. Then a general tart up and look pretty. 

So with the engine firing and given the green light it was on to start with the strip down. Fingers crossed but with a bit of time and patience here I will be able to recoup some cost by selling the body and hard top later on. Even the drop top and frame I have should fetch a quid or two, which will help. Mooch helped with the strip down and I was truly amazed that despite the cold he didn’t get bored after two minutes and sod off indoors, however he is currently banned from his Nintendo so he had nothing else to do I suppose. Doors came off easy the drivers side is a tad rough on the underside but the passenger side is certainly of use to someone I’m sure.

I removed some of the gauges also thinking that they will actually be ok for the final car. When I built the Cobra the bill for the gauges alone was in excess of £700 so if these will clean up ok and look good in regards to period aesthetics along with being functional then they will be fine. You can see in this picture the water temp is how it came off the Spitfire and the fuel gauge had had some love. I removed the chrome bezel and cleaned all the original paint off it using 0000 gauge steel wool. This is fantastic stuff for removing crap and crud but not scratching the chrome finish. I have also cleaned all the dust and debris out from inside the gauge, which was surprising how much was actually in there. 

The gauge has cleaned up really well and shining the led light through from a phone gives a lovely intense green illumination. So an upgrade to LED’s will be required when we get to that stage, as I really think it looks pretty with the even green glow. However this all hinges on if the other gauges clean up as well and look ok for the final car. The Spitfire has four gauges, speedo, RPM, water temp and fuel. I personally would like an oil pressure gauge also as a minimum requirement. But also oil temperature and voltage would certainly be nice also. However if these are getting added in addition to the original units they need to look exactly the same along with being functional. 

I’ll still be plodding on with the strip down over the coming days/weeks. I’m hoping to get the body off the chassis sooner rather than later, as so that the cleaning and protecting of the chassis can start in time for spring.