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Sunday, April 8, 2018

Triumph Spitfire Restoration - The Underneath

Sounds like a horror movie title or something, doesn't it? Well, it was pretty dirty under there, but it's getting much better. Lot's of messy, time consuming work, but it's coming along. If you haven't (or don't) kept up with my YouTube channel, there are a few videos to update you all on. Keep in mind that they aren't incredibly exciting, but that's how this stuff is. I'll provide the video then do a quick discussion for each, so here you go:


As I mentioned in my last post, using various cleaning methods including paint stripper disks, wire brushes and wheels and 2" roloc abrasive disks, I was able to take this:

Before.

...eventually to this:

After...well, the "top" half anyway.

The next visit was more of the same, again using the same general cleaning methods. I also used a heat gun and a coarse wire brush to melt/scrap away the hard-to-get seam sealer. This method worked pretty well, actually.


In addition to cleaning, I did get some repair work done and loose ends  tied up. Namely, the front sill cap for that passenger's side, the rear seam of the passenger's side outer sill and the cut in the floor that I intentionally put in to help it fit better.

Front sill cap.

Floor cut welded up.

Rear seam. Not real crazy about how this came out.

All of that and, of course, more cleaning:

Floor work.

Rear area.

The next visit involved, you guess it, more cleaning but also some assessment of the  front lower valance. Surprisingly, the one from the black car, while not as dented up, had quite a bit more cancer, so I'm sticking with Dorothy's.




Bumper still attached. Not the straightest of pieces!

Inner strengthener was made of Swiss cheese, I guess!

Outside shot of the hole where a strengthener piece resides on the inside.

Outside of the cancer, however, which isn't really all that bad, it just needs some straightening and it should be good as new.

The next two visits were more of the same; yup, cleaning. Sorry, but this stuff isn't very exciting and is also quite time consuming.  So much so that I didn't even take any pictures for my Part 3.

,


I took a few for part 4, though, because I did some more welding, finishing up the driver's side floor weld (from the bottom) and also the driver's side sill cap.



Weld bead, ground down.

The picture below doesn't really do it justice (you can see it in the video here) but I got a small cancer hole drilled out and repaired in the rear  deck pan behind the seats.

Hole repaired.

Front sill cap done.

And that was about it. So, I apologize for the long time span between updates and then slamming you with a bunch of videos. Like I said, they aren't all that exciting but you can see the methods that I used to clean stuff up.  I've got one more video in the hopper so I'll try to get that up soon as it's a bit more exciting. Cheers!

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