Friday, 9 March 2007

FLASHING!

Another few hours, and the front flashers and one headlamp could be taken of the to-do list. Nice.


Monday, 5 March 2007

Slow, but steady!

Oh dear. Only one night i the garage, and only one update to the blog i February. I certainly got to speed up if I want to don the Round Denmark Reliability Run in this car!

Did pop by the other evening, though I didn't manage to do much. Got the bonnet locks on. They aren't pretty, but they work!

Also cleaned an old front trunnion that was broke due to neglecting lubrication. I had the doubtful joy of driving the spit with this trunnion just two weeks before it failed. I was driving rather spirited in the countryside. Scary when I think about it. It lost its front wheel 2 weeks later. To judge by the rust in the broken link I believe that it was already broken when I drove the car.

Morale: Don't forget to oil your trunnions regularly

Friday, 9 February 2007

More progress (well - a kind of)

I must admit - it is very cold outside at the moment. Unfortunately - when it is cold outside, it is also cold in my garage. In fact is is so cold that the batteries in my camera went dead. (perhaps just a bad excuse for not charging them?)

Anyway, I did actually manage to do a few things before I froze to death (nearly) I attached the little handbrakecable spring that always go missing on these cars. I would not miss it now if it got lost - it was awful to get in place!

Second I fitted the rearwiev mirror. The very clever man who had treated the windscreen frame with new vinyl had forgotten to mark where the holes for the mirror were. After what felt like a really long time I found the hole and could punch through the vinyl.

Front valance also went into place. Nice little job - wish I had smaller fingers!

Replaced the door handle I put on last week with one from the shelf that was in a better condition (whoa - if I keep up this I can do everything twice - I need to get my stuff sorted out!)

Finally - I put on the bonnet stay. A bit tricky since I had none of the proper bolts. Previous owner used whatever he could find.

Over and out - going away for a looooong week.

Wednesday, 31 January 2007

It's all clear now - finally!

Finally some decent progress. Yesterday I had some good quality time with the Spit. Managed to fit the front windscreen - this time without breaking it. It was actually rather easy to get the glass in once I had read the manual. And this time I read it a bit more thoroughly than last time!

I didn't manage to get any pics while working, but here is a picture of the window in place!




As one can see, the second thing I got around to was fitting the bonnet. I have had this job waiting since god know when. But didn't want to do it before I had the engine in. Well now, since I have been waiting more than a year for the engine, I can just as well put the bonnet on now and get the door gaps adjusted. That's a job for next time.


When door gaps and windscreen is adjusted I can fit the glove boxes. Hope I hit the road by spring!



Front end is sitting quite high due to the lack of an engine.


A spot of masking tape can be seen running along the lover edge of the front wing. I am bitterly regretting that I didn't remove this last summer, as it is a pain to get of now. I spent quite a while last night removing it. Just another hour or so left! Hooray

Friday, 26 January 2007

I am stuck - and it sucks!

Yet another Thursday in the garage. It was bloody cold though, and I didn't get anything done (apart from putting on a door handle - pathetic really!)

Problem is that I am stuck. I would like to put on the door cards, so I can say doors are done now. But that's a no go since my windows is still in England - and I am waiting to get them shipped to me (get the drift James?)

Okay, I could put the panel covering the gas tank on - nooooo - have to wait for the bolts goes into the diff - rear end are lowered, and for some reason I have been supplied with wrong bolts.... Crap.

Okay, how about the exhaust - that really need some work. Nope - can't do without engine (still out of town, has some problems with the oil temp sensor which is going into the sump.
No engine - no gearbox.

Okay, what about the glovecompartments then. Nope - forgot the cord which I need in order to fit the windscreen. If the window frame isn't properly adjusted - it's a waste of time fitting glove compartments.

How about adjusting the doors the - no can't do without bonnet in place, can't put bonnet on without engine in.

On top of this it was something like 10 degrees below zero - cold cold cold cold!!!!

Should I go on??? This sucks!! I want the car ready for spring.


Notice the fancy red paint on the door striker - just visible in the door gap. Looks awful - should have given the striker a good cleaning before I fitted it. Alternatively the moron who painted the car red years ago could have used masking tape. (moron! (me that could just as well be - moron, not painter that is!))


So after 5 hours I could evaluate the evening - I managed the impressive job of fitting a door handle (max 10 minutes!). At least I took a picture. Hope next Thursday will be better.
At least I got around to sweep the floors!
Next Thursday front window goes in ( and hopefully I will not break it this time!)

Thursday, 18 January 2007

Work work work

Dropped by for a few hours Tuesday night. Forgot the camera though. Spent most of the time scraping old rust treatment of The Wreck (Mortens new acquisition - follow link top left). Dirty boring work really. Though at the time I found it more appealing than working on my own spit. The last 5 percent is so bloody boring. I did eventually - very late - fit a Lucas sports coil and tightened the water hose clamps from the heater to the heater valve. They were finger tight only. So I did kind of work a little on my own spit too. Can't wait to finish it and start the GT6 project!

Friday, 12 January 2007

We're back - and working the Spit

Finally I got time to go to the garage. Had a minor fight with the doors trying to get all the stuff inside them lined up. Pretty simple - if you pick the right bits of the shelfes first time!

Got around to fitting the last of the extra instrument - an oil temp-meter. Now all three is nice tugged away in the bracket. From left: amps, oilpressure, oiltemp. The bracket is a Lucas bracket I have picked up sometime in the past. Came with a nice little bag with bolts and nuts. I had to modify the bracket slightly to get it in line with the other instruments.





My engine man called me today - the engine is close to finished now. Had had a little trouble trying to get the oiltemp sensor fitted to the sump. Hope to have my engine running within a month.

Thursday, 4 January 2007

Happy new year

Not much to report. I am still kinda alive. Hasn't been in touch with the triumphs for a month or so.

Thursday, 7 December 2006

It ain't all that bad

I have been told that the pictures in earlier post lead to the conception that this particular GT6 is well beyond repair (or at least quite bad). That is indeed not the case – actually it just seems bad because I have been documenting what is bad. Here are the only 2 pictures of sound areas I have taken. Usually a-post on these cars are welded and patched up beyond imagination. Here you see a pair of nice unmolested floors and a-posts. The outer sills is perfect – no rust whatsoever. Actually the only rust on this car is the rust in the rear valance due to the car being hit at some time in its life. Ahh, there might also be a minor problem whit the front – I have noticed something looking odd – maybe a repair or something covered with rust-treatment. Hasn’t had time to check yet.



Wednesday, 6 December 2006

It never rains in southern california

Obviously this car was from northern California!!! Naaah, honestly - this rust was well described by the seller. It is much better than it looks. Just need a few patches to the boot-floor and a new rear valance that should arrive sometime this week. Me and my friend did the rear valance on the spitfire some years ago - quite painless.






I do think that this rust might be a bit more difficult. The car has at some stage in its life been hit from behind. The rear valance is very damaged - not very noticeable from the outside due to a huge amount of filler.
A funny bit of imaginative plumbing (literally) round the battery box

Always wondered where the small sticker with trip counter warning should be - now I have finally realised!! On the doorcapping. Thought it should be below the speedometer. Bought a couple of these stickers on eBay a year ago.
The interior is what the seller described as "shot"

Monday, 4 December 2006

And who else is in the garage?

Morten has just started rebuild of the latest acquisition "Vraget" (which can be translated directly as "the wreck") also see his blog http://thetriumphanimal.blogspot.com/







Any comments?

It's alive!!!

Okay - spent a night a the garage - got around to do a few things. Mainly with Morten's help fixed the last bugs in the wiring. The wiper motor couldn't start. turned out to be a bad ground due to a very generous amount of paint to the motor housing. This combined with a somewhat dodgy switch. It all worked out finally - and I could wipe away! Also got around to put the bracket for extra instruments in the car. Its some kind of Lucas thing bought many years ago - it did need a fair bit of fiddling since the angle was rather strange for my car.


I did enjoy the small bag with bolts and nuts though. Almost seems a shame to use them


I also managed to get a picture of the passenger side door with recently attached mirror. There will be absolutely no chance that the quarter light will ever allow me to see anything in that mirror.

Do please add your comment if you have got any!

Thursday, 30 November 2006

What used to be my homepage

Late 2002 I lost the password to my homepage (which is now my former homepage) Anyway - if interested you can wiev the homepage here. Danish only - but a few pics though

http://hjem.get2net.dk/blomberg/

Wednesday, 29 November 2006

Another pic

A picture of the spit in its present condition would be appropriate, so here it is. And here is what it used to be (sorry for low quality)


Before and after (the red/black spitfire is before)







More triumhs round here

Okay - since everybody also has a blog, I better get one too. Not a lot to say; bought my Spitfire 7 years ago - first car ever. Spent the last 4 years restoring. Been a somewhat entertaining nightmare. What I thought would be a quite simple job turned out to be a complete frame off. I have had to replace both sills, driverside floor, driverside rearwing, rear valance, bootlid, both frontdoors and both frontwings. On top of that a lot of repairing to bootfloor, passengerside floor and both a-posts. When I get around to find some more relevant pics I will post


Status is that I am done welding, have had a rather poor paintjob (hopefully to be redone sometime in the near future). Everything is more or less in place - just missing the engine. It is outsourced to a friend who is rebuilding with new pistons, lightened and balanced conrods, balanced crank and flywheel. Ported head, tubular manifold and new 1.5 SUs
That's more or less it.
As the Spit project was coming to an end I bought a GT6+ from California a few months ago. That will be next project.