วีดีโอ

I’m already there on the poly bushes (my Herald and Spitfire have super pro where I’ve had to replace older rubber ones). I’d not had any thoughts on shocks beyond moving the mount points, so thanks for the info!

The manual planishing was the slowest bit… and really why I decided to just buy a panel. But I think this method still wasn’t really aggressive enough a shrink to get the shape I needed. I will eventually make myself a shrinking stump, got to wait for the next time we need a tree down though! If I remember right, Elin was building to the shock bracket that I’ve cut off, without that there I think it’d be difficult to make something that looked alright using pie cuts. Plus now having bought a wheel arch, I can use a lot of what remains to do the other side!

I have a Hyundai HY3100P, basically the most powerful I could run off of a domestic circuit.

Thanks! Yeah I don’t think I really picked the right method for shrinking, and the manual planishing took aaaaages…

Quite possibly, not something I really watch though!

It was Edd China so quite a few years ago.

Glad they arrived safe, thanks for letting me know!

If he is anything like me, all my bits are strewn around the house, not many rooms where you won't find car parts of some description... lol.

I’ve got quite a lot in the garage, a bit in the loft, a bit in a shed down the garden. There’s a lot still on the car really though (engine, suspension, diff etc)…

Yeah I’ll be going for a CV joint conversion. It’s apparently still a better suspension setup than the swing spring which I believe was only put on the late Mk3 GT6 for parts commonality with the Spitfire once the Vitesse was out of production. The car should have radius arms, but the suspension was only put back to a just about rolling condition before I got it, so they’re in a box!

@@redfoxclassics Ah, CV joints got ya, must clean my ears out, lol. Well they sound like a much better option than bits of rubber. Suprising why Triumph never used those to start with, it's not like they are a new invention - they have been around almost 100 years on cars . May be it was costs ?. I did read recently that Triumph had the swing spring ready to go as early as the mid 60's, but the folks holding the purse strings said NO at the time, only to be seen in early 1970. Shame , because the MK3 Spit could have had it from the outset.

I’ve never driven a rotoflex car, but people I know who’ve worked on them tell me they’re a right pain. Plus the repro doughnuts have a poor reputation for longevity. Conversion kit is about £600 now though :(

Thanks Jon, yeah I shall see. I’m trying to strike a balance between pragmatism and not spending money when I can make things. Hope your engine build is coming on ok.

Happy new year to you too :) Far from a masterclass though :D

Thanks Bob, yeah it was a lot of effort, but definitely satisfying.

Oh, and happy new year to you too!

Thank you!

Sadly the OS one is only good for a pattern. Very pitted on the inside. Not yet investigated the NS one but I’m not expecting it to be any better. The shell the came from was cut up for a reason! I think I’ll be getting one of the kits to chassis mount the shocks rather than trying to replicate the reinforcement plate and shock mount.

No problem thanks for the reply.

Well, my view is the panels that're harder to see are the best ones to practice on! I probably will buy a repro floor for the other side though and use the front footwell section.

Cheers! No, a full floor replacement would still've taken longer and also taken a lot of the structure out of the body risking deforming it. I did full floors on my Spitfire out of necessity, and that was definitely a lot more work!

Thanks! I guess from your icon you have more than a Mk2 GT6 as it looks like a Spitfire 1500?

Thank you! And thanks for the support in return!

Thanks! Hope your project is coming along well.

Thanks Bob, same to you!

Thanks! The body having not really been previously messed with (that much) helped here too I think.

Cheers! Yes, the spot welder does need a lot of set up each time, but not having to grind hundreds of plug welds is worth it.

Thanks! Yep, plenty of patience required :D

Thanks, yeah, I’m looking at gearbox options. I think I now have enough parts to build a stock one, but wonder if doing something different would be more sensible… Watch this space!

Thanks! My current plan is to keep it white, but with a double red stripe similar to the car used in the surfer themed Spitfire Mk2 advertising.

They're definitely evocative, and prettier than newer designs, much like classic cars!

Yeah all six cylinder cars had a (larger) alloy bellhousing. Tavistock Steve has an original 4 cylinder one on eBay at the moment, and Mark Field (Jigsaw as was, now trading as lemans-r) has repro ones listed.

@@redfoxclassics Thank you, more money gone, lol...

I think it’s just to (attempt to) prevent stress cracking there.

Thanks! You too. Should manage to get another video done beforehand though :)

Great to see !! Your resolve to the drivers door was great !! I know I would have cheated 😫 ! But that might be my age 🤣🤣 !! Keep up the good work Nick.

Thanks! Yes, I can see it has been hit along the right hand side, and I suspect the original door skin was involved too. The LH rear wing and rear valance have also been replaced at some point and I wonder if that was also due to accident damage. I probably will never know for sure though.

Thank you! Yeah, there will be some gap fiddling to go. I'm not sure the trailing edge of the wing is at 90 degrees to the lower edge that meets the sill anyway... So I anticipate some extra work there once I fold the edge of the wing over the reinforcement / bonnet cone bracket.

Thanks! That's interesting I shall definitely give it a try. I wonder why steel and not brass though. Perhaps to keep the resistance higher?

@ good question! Experiment worthy. I know you can get copper blocks as backing for welding up pin holes so perhaps it’s simply the size and surface area that matters. I don’t have a spot welder to experiment with.

For MIG welding up holes the copper or brass backer acts as both a heat sink (high heat conductivity) and something the weld won't stick to. For a spot welder you're relying on the resistance between the electrodes to be enough to generate metal melting levels of heat. So that's why I'm thinking steel, as a worse conductor, might be necessary. Anyway, as you say, easy enough to experiment and I will do at some point!

@@redfoxclassics apparently you're not supposed to use brass for backing as the zinc content reacts at welding temperatures? I am brass backing experiment at the moment til I can source some copper large enough.

Oh, well I suppose it could, but I've never experienced that. It's pretty obvious when you try and weld a bit of panel which has brazing remnants on it and I've never seen that with holding a bit of brass behind the weld site. My current bit of brass for welding against is a bit of round bar off cut about 1 1/4" in diameter. You can get a spare copper hammer face from Thor for about £10 which is the same sort of shape, and wouldn't involve buying large quantities of copper (apologies if UK brands and prices are not applicable to you!)

Thanks Bob, yeah I'm not so sure how perfect the skin was to start with, but it's ended up going together OKish. Probably still some more to do though!

Thanks! In this case, the visuals were mostly me talking to the camera so it seemed easier to film again!

So why did you click on the link then ?, and how do you come to that conclusion anyway for that matter ?.

@ it popped up, I didn’t click on shit.

@@notimeforjokes.3570 You must have done to watch it, oh well wasting my time here , Goodbye.

@ do you understand how scrolling works?

@@notimeforjokes.3570 I do, which is why I don't understand why you wrote what you did, you could have just scrolled past and be done with it, your odd.

I did run the other way around initially, and it’s not as effective. Cause there’s a filter on the other outlet none of the dust gets removed, which is what you want.

:D they’re not that bad really, and I’m very happy to answer questions if I can help out! They’re one of the real weak spots on these cars though so I’m hopefully working on organising some upgrades for the one I build. Stay tuned!

Is that what the 3 in TR3 stands for!? :D

@ 🤣

I now have five to scavenge from, plus a sixth that I stripped a few years back. I’m looking good on gears (for both 4 and 6 cylinder versions), and probably will have enough good synchros given how many I have available! But no overdrive main shaft unfortunately. Even on the GR one the tip had just started to fail.

Thanks Bob, gearbox rebuilds are one of my favourite jobs for some reason!

Yes, the later Westfields used the MX 5 box amongst others, agreed on the 1st ratio, you can get a replacement ratio which is better suited for a light car , although I never bothered in the Westy and 1st was only used if you wanted to pose leaving a set of elevens on the street, lol.

New main shafts are in the region of £250-300. I’d love to find someone who would metal spray and save one though as ideally I’d like to build it up to the larger tip size as used in the last of the Spitfire boxes. Not having any luck finding anywhere that’ll do it so far though so if you know of a place in the UK please let me know.

@ You could also put the shaft on a lathe between centres & turn it down enough to make a bush fit over it at the correct height. I'm guessing that the bearing that runs on the shaft is needle roller, so you would need to be able to press fit the bush on and it would need to be hardened before hand & probably ground to size. You might get away with case hardening a bush & press-fitting it to the turned down shaft but your bush OD would have to be a very close fit for the needle roller bearing. So it should be possible to make the tip whatever size you want. With new shafts costing that much, I would definitely be saving your current one somewhere safe! Case hardening is a very useful thing. When I rebuilt my MGB 40 years ago I couldn't afford new rocker arms, so I smoothed out the face & my dad case hardened them, they are still in the engine, which is currently out, so I'll take a look at how they have faired but I've had no trouble in setting the valve clearances. I'd love a Mk3 GT6 (I had a Vitesse 2Ltr) but I have an MGB in bits & an Elan +2 that needs a lots of work. Cheers Steve

Well I’ve found someone who’ll do metal spraying, but it’s only a little bit less than new shafts. However, it would mean I could have the shaft tip built up to match the later gearboxes (single rail ones had an 18mm tip). I’d then need to machine the input shaft to take a bigger bearing. But overall that should build a much stronger gearbox. If I can find a machinist that’ll do those bits!

@ Another option would be the box from Triumph 2500, I believe it uses the TR6 box, which I also had in my Dolomite Sprint. The Sprint does use a different adapter for the bell housing, not sure if it would fit the 6cyl without the adapter or whether there is a different bell housing. From memory I think the bell housing is part of the gearbox. The TR6 box is stronger than the Vitesse/GT6 Box, I'm not sure what the difference is.

Yeah I feel gearboxes are something people are a bit scared of, though IMO they’re much easier than an engine build, so I wanted to try and show more of a ‘how to’. Not sure on the splines, I thought they were the same on all boxes till the Spitfire 1500. I’ve got a number of various ones in bits right now though so I’ll have a check. Type 9s are a reasonably popular conversion, but a more expensive one, plus I think overdrive units are really cool :D

@@redfoxclassics I agree, it's been many years since I last had one in bits, but I also think they are far easier than an engine to do. As for the input shaft, was the GT6 one longer, I don't understand why I had to have the splines recut, and it wasn't wear I know that much. I know I had to replace the first recut one as the company that did it, never hardened the surface, so after 3 events it stripped them all off !!, annoying but still.

Ah, you're probably right about the length. The bell housing on the 6 cylinder cars is certainly bigger and deeper so the input shaft would have to be longer to match.

@@redfoxclassics Thank you, that clears that one up then. Must admit the closer ratios made quite a difference and even with a 4.55 diff still managed 110 top speed down Aintree's back straight.