Triumph Spitfire Frame Repair #1

Made some more progress this week (Wednesday) on the frame repair. I got the remnants of the outriggers off and cleaned up the area real good to get an complete look at the extent of the damage. Not horrible, but it definitely requires removal and replacement of some metal.

Driver's side damage (frame upside down). You can see the crack that extents from the left tip of the hole.

Bad lighting, but Sharpie showing outline of repair cutout. This extends to underneath.

Damage on passenger's side (frame upside down). Damage was more extensive to frame on this side, but outrigger was in better shape.

Damage showing outline of metal to be removed. Extends through top and bottom of frame.

I spent the majority of my total time that night (about 4 hours) working to take it from what it looked like in my last post to above.

The rest of my time was spent prepping the "new" outriggers. These will both require some repair but are in better shape, overall, than the ones on the black car and are much cheaper (cost me postage) than getting new ones (they run about $100 each).

The guy that I got them from was cutting up a frame and cut the frame clean through about four inches on either side of the outrigger. So first, I had to liberate them from the frame. Sorry that I didn't document it with pictures. But, I cut just inside the weld beads on all sides. Unfortunately, I didn't have anything small enough (my Dremel was at home) to cut into the weld on the inside portion of the interface, but I was able to bend it back and forth and they broke apart right at the outrigger side of the weld.

Though all of this required a lot of noise, cutting and metal shavings, it seemed to work out okay. I put them in a vinegar soak until I get back to them. My concerns are that, because I had to cut into a bit of the top and bottom "wings" that fit over the frame, I won't get enough overlap to provide the design structural integrity. However, I think I only lost about 1/4" all around by cutting just inside of the welds so I think I'll be okay.

In the long run, after all of the repairs and clean up and such, I'll tack them on and then temporarily place the body back on. Though this will be a pain in the rear, it will save a lot of work in the long run if I discover that my methods caused them to be unusable.

Driver's side, post frame liberation and prior to going back into vinegar soak.

Passenger's side. You can see the very large hole (this extended into the frame) that I'll repair on the bottom flap of metal.

The other concern I have for these "new" outriggers is the inaccessible corrosion on the inside. However, I intend to cut the spot welds off of the inside metal pieces (I'll take a picture to show what I mean when I do it) so that I can inspect and then preserve the inside of the outriggers. Another thing some folks do it tack in some round tubing, or pipe, through the holes in the outriggers. This way, road dirt and such doesn't get inside the outriggers, get wet, and sit, leading to more corrosion. I'll take a look at doing this when I get that flap of metal off and make the decision then.

Other than that I did some minor frame clean up of the parts that were not covered in grease and grime. I need to get my pressure washer over there to blast the heck out of it, but I'll need help from my garage-mate carrying the frame over the Datsun's to get it outside. Also, I want to repair the gaping holes in the frame so I don't flood it with too much water!

Minor cleanup with a cup knotted wire brush on my angle grinder.

Blurry shot of one side of the emergency brake cable guide and differential mounting bracket.

Same shot, but other side where the grease and grime was not as bad.

One thing I learned in all of my cleaning and investigating was that the Brits didn't seem all that concerned with pretty welds. You can see sloppiness in the above shot and there were several other instances of weld splatter and just not cleaning up the work that I found. Makes me very confident that my welding techniques will be more than adequate!

I'll get more garage time tomorrow (Saturday) after my morning run and making breakfast for the boys. Sunday, being Father's Day and all, will be better spent with the family. I intend to cut out the frame that will require replacement and hopefully tack, if not finish welding, in the repairs. However, the frame metal measures out to be 14 gauge and I don't think my local hardware store has that. If not, I'll have to come back home and hack apart some of the black car's frame...I left the sawzall at the garage.

Triumph Spitfire Frame Tear Down

Got over the to shop (I'm going to call it a shop instead of a garage...hope no one minds) today to tear down the frame. My intention was to strip it of all attached bits and to cut the outriggers off to see how much actual frame damage there was. For the second time in as many visits, I got done what I wanted to get done!

Also, unlike the black car, I was rather meticulous this time with properly bagging everything and taking lots of pictures. I got several hundred plastic zip-top bags with that white stuff on it so I could label everything with a Sharpie. I also spent the first half-hour or so moving stuff around a bit to better suit my needs. Namely, I moved a wire shelving unit (that was in my home garage) out of the shop's bathroom (don't ask) to near the car. That way, the huge 230V air compressor can go in the bathroom...behind a closed door to keep the screech of its motor down. I also did some minor decorating.

Picked this up at the British Invasion last year. Figured it was inspirational!

I started up front with the steering rack. A quick pop of the ball joints using my trusty Harbor Freight ball joint separator, the removal of four bolts and it was clear. Found what appeared to be a brand new (or at least galvanized-looking, so new-to-the-car) reinforcement plate. Not sure about that, as the other one was original and covered with the "normal" grime and grease. Rack doesn't look like it was ever removed...who knows?

Ready to pop the first ball joint.

Rack removed. Nice shiny paint under there!

After that it was on to the suspension turrets. Since the goal was just to get the frame stripped, I planned on taking the turrets off with everything still attached. Having done this on the black car when I stripped it, I knew it was possible and relatively simple and only takes seven bolts per side.

Driver's side turret, prior to removal.

I think there's a bolt under there somewhere. This is the one bolt from the top.

Ah, there it is. And more shiny red paint!

There are a bunch of shims associated with the turrets. One or more (Dorothy had one per side but the black car had two), is under the top bolt that I show above. All of the others, and the numbers vary from side to side and front to back, are between the lower A-arm mounting brackets and the frame. I bagged these up individually, side to side and front to back, and labeled them appropriately. I haven't looked, but I'm sure the workshop manual has a complicated discussion on how to shim this stuff properly. Can't wait...

Once all the bolts and nuts were out, the whole assembly just pulls out (the lower A-arm mounting brackets have studs that pass through the frame and will hold it in place until you slide it out). It's got some weight too it, but like just about everything else on this car, it's light for what it is.

Of the seven total bolts that I mentioned, four (two front and back) attache to the outside of the frame to secure the turret. These bolt through the turret and into the frame then into a threaded bar. I didn't take any good pictures of them from the red car but did on the black one.

Picture tries to show how the nut bar slides into a gap between the frame itself and the u-shaped housing.

The bar "housing" is U-shaped and the bar slides into the space between the U and the frame itself. The housing is open at the top and bottom to allow insertion and removal of the bar.

I also labeled and removed the brake lines. I intend on replacing all of the brake and fuel lines for safety and cleanliness sake. However, the kits for these, while containing all of the individual lines of the correct length, are coiled and require bending them to fit. The fuel line had been replaced by the PO using soft copper which I had previously trashed.

The front 4-way union that takes the fluid from the master cylinder and distributes it through the car.

With all of that done, it was time to move to the back. The top shock mounts were first and came off with no problem. The shocks, however, are not in the best shape anymore.

Shock fully extended...and stationary.

Shock fully compressed...and stationary. Not a whole lot of shock value there. Ha! Get it?

The transverse leaf spring was next and, for the first time, I discovered a poor repair choice by the PO (or, DPO in this case) that caused damage.

At some point, the leaf spring was replaced, removed or otherwise disturbed. The original design springs are held down with six nyloc nuts that screw down onto six studs that in turn thread into the top of the differential. However, as you can see in the picture below, I have four studs/nuts and two bolts. Neither of these bolts were of the correct thread pitch or length. So, forever how long this arrangement was in place, the bolts tended to move around in the threaded holes in the differential and slowly bored them out.

Beginning removal. At this point, I knew something wasn't right but hadn't discovered the damage.

The worse of the two bolts. I did not have to screw the bolt in...I just pushed.

I have at least two options here. One, I could try to do a repair using Helicoil inserts (thanks, favorite forum). I've used these before in the Navy and they seemed to work just fine. Or two, I fortunately have the differential from the black car, though it is currently still attached to its frame. That can be easily fixed with a sawzall, though. Future me.

With the leaf spring out, it was on to the rear axles. This was unexciting and only four bolts per side to disconnect each from the differential. The whole assembly lifted right out after the brake lines were removed.

Then it was on to the differential. I was a bit worried about getting this out. On the black car, the rear mounting bolt had seized to the differential bushings and I couldn't (and still can't) get it out, leaving it stuck there. However, I didn't have any issues today and this bolt (darn thing has to be about 8-inches long) and the two front mounting nuts came right off and the differential was liberated.

Differential out and on the deck.

The damage I wrought.

With that, the frame was fully stripped. With the exception of the brake and fuel line clips that I forgot to remove, there is nothing else that can be removed from the frame...except for the five pounds of grease and grime that is still on there.

By this time is was around 4pm and I had about an hour left before I had to get home. On to removing the outriggers. I had discovered last year some time that the driver's side outrigger had totally rusted through and additionally the frame had also. While I hadn't confirmed this for the passenger's side, I suspected it to be the case as well. It was.

Of course, I had to get them off to be able to fully asses the damage. I cleaned up the area around the welds first with a DeWalt knotted wire cup brush on my HF angle grinder.

This is the passenger's side. While still toast, it wasn't as bad as the driver's side.

Once the cleanup was done, I cut through the outrigger about 1-inch away from the frame.

Driver's side after cutting through the outrigger, the hole in the frame clearly visible.

Driver's side outrigger cut away.

Close-up. You should be looking at a relatively full square of metal here...without all the chunks of decay, either!

Once the outriggers were off, I changed out the wire cup brush for a metal grinding wheel and slowly started to grind away the weld bead. To prevent me from cutting into the frame itself, I kept the grinding wheel on the outrigger metal and worked my way out to the weld. One thing I learned was that as the outrigger metal got thinner and thinner, it would start to more drastically discolor due to the heat generated by the grinding. Eventually, it would get so hot that it became red. At this point I could see the outline of the red color following the weld bead (hard to explain) and used this indication to tell me that I had ground enough metal away. Now the metal was thin enough to crack through with a chisel (which I bought today from Harbor Freight for just this purpose).

Significant grinding done. I've deformed the metal here with a hammer and chisel.

The top portion almost ready to come off. You can see the weld bead that runs vertically on the right. That may be tricky.

I got the top portion of the outrigger removed. There was a lot of grinding, sparks and noise, but it was not difficult. I also did NOT do any damage to the frame, so there was that. The vertical weld beads on the side are going to provide to be more tricky, I think, since there is not a nice flat spot to grind away the bead, so I will just have to be careful. I'll flip the frame over to get at the bottom, then repeat it on the driver's side.

That was about it. I made it home by 5pm after getting a solid 5 hours of work. I'm very happy with how things are going so far and the room provided by the garage, and the fact that I don't have to overly concern myself with the mess or the noise, is making all the difference in the world. I do need to remember to bring my notebook over next time so I can keep some detailed notes to go with the photographs.

Immediate future plans entail getting the remnants of the outriggers removed then wire brushing the whole frame. Then I will repair whatever needs it and then get to work on the "new" outriggers and do the same for them. I'll get those attached and then I will assess the overall frame to see if I want to media blast and/or powder coat it. I'm sure that decision will be several weeks from now, however, so there's no rush.

Triumph Spitfire Body and Engine Removal (Finally!!)

Got a good amount of stuff done last night (Wednesday) after work. Since home is on the way, I stopped and got changed into my greasy clothes, packed some dinner, and headed over to the garage for the evening.

My first order of business was to liberate the motor from the chassis. My garage mate was dropping of the engine hoist when I arrived so I had everything I needed to do the job.

I had previously removed the generator not thinking that the front lifting eye, which is made of the generator upper bracket, would rotate since it would only be secured on one end with the generator removed.

Yeah, that's not going to work.

So, I put the generator back in and pulled the motor. Some agitation was required to get the mounts to release, but that was to be expected.

The powerhouse.

Well there's your problem.

Before I got the motor on the stand I needed to do some disassembly, namely the clutch and flywheel. I was a bit worried that the flywheel bolts would be too tight to remove without just wasting my time spinning the motor with the wrench. However, the torque on the bolts was not that high (about 45 ft-lb according to the workshop manual) so I was able to block the flywheel with a large flat-head screwdriver against my leg and just...pull. No problem.

Flywheel off. The ring gear had some spots that were pretty nasty.

The back of the motor with the back plate still attached. The seven bolts you see hold that on.

After that, I mounted it to the stand. This ended up being trickier than I thought. First, I had to get the correct bolts to account for the length of the attachment arms and to provide enough thread engagement. I ended up using 2 1/2", 5/16-24 bolts and a few flat washers. The stand, as I had suspected, was not really sized for the engine (too big, of course) so mounting it was a chore. I ended up pulling the mounting plate and arms from the stand, bolting them to the motor in the best orientation that I could figure, and then sliding the whole package back into the stand.

Engine mounted to the stand.

I am going to revisit the mounting when I go back this weekend. The motor sits very high in the stand, causing it to be very top heavy and it wants to roll right over. So, I'll sling it back up on the hoist and see if I can figure out a better mounting arrangement. It would really suck if I get over there to find the motor on the ground. Hehe...not funny.

Once that was complete, I shifted over to constructing stands for the body. I used the same basic arrangement as I did for the black car except this time I put the 2x4 with the short end "up" in the sawhorse clamps and only used one sawhorse at each end. This gave me enough contact on the body while allowing me to use those infamous Harbor Freight Furniture Dollies to provide mobility.

I screwed a 12" x 18" slab of plywood on top to provide a base to screw in the legs of the sawhorse.

Final product.

I didn't measure anything very closely since it wasn't very critical, but I used a 36" length for the front and a 48" length for the rear. I made the front horse shorter than the rear to account for the different mounting point heights, but it wasn't perfect.

Once those were done, me and my garage mate lifted the body up onto the sawhorses. I am not a strong man, but that thing was very light and the two of us had no problems getting it situated onto the sawhorses as evenly as we could.

Banished to under the stairs until the proper time.

I didn't do anything to secure the rear sawhorse to the body since the cutout for the transverse spring provides a nice "pocket" for it to fit in to. Since the front mounting point is much smaller of a foot print, I used washers and wood screws to attach the front to the sawhorse just to provide some added security in case the body gets bumped.

I may go back and put another quick support under the center of the sills just in case. While I am essentially replacing the bottom 4" of the car, I'd rather it not flex on me while it's waiting.

So now I can look my next main goal in the face and assess for cleaning and repairs.

Okay, frame, you're up!

As it stands now, I intend to strip the frame completely and pressure-wash/de-grease the hell out of it. After the decades of grease and road grime are removed I'll get a better idea of any rust damage that needs to be repaired. Both front outriggers will be replaced (I have spares but they need prep and some minor repair) and I know the frame has a hole internal to the driver's side front outrigger. I did a very quick look last night and didn't find any other obvious spots, but a good clean up will verify that.

Once repairs are complete, I intend to wire-wheel the whole thing then hit it with POR-15. The option is still out there for blasting the frame and getting it powder coated, but I'm not leaning that way right now as the access to those services are not easy to come by around here (a shame I can't get my work to do it for me...we have all sorts of cool toys).

As a final note, I think last night was the first time that I had actually set reasonable goals for work and also accomplished them. I wanted to get the motor pulled and on the stand and the body off and set aside. Done and done! Hopefully I can keep it up.

Triumph Spitfire Body Removal Preparation #8 / Engine Removal #1

A bit of work today. My morning was spent at Harkness State Park in Waterford, CT attending my second (the 29th) annual British by the Sea car show. Unfortunately, the weather was not as nice as last year and threatened rain all morning. This obviously kept some cars and vendors away, but there were a few die-hards there. My favorite was a very nice 1968 TR 250. I actually talked to the gentleman who owned and restored it (it took him a 20-year process).

Self-explanatory.

He located an original, crated TR-5 motor (that's the one with mechanical fuel injection that was only sold in the UK; the TR-5 in the UK was the TR-250 over here, as best as I can figure) in the UK with a guy who didn't know what he had. He had it tuned and updated and eventually put in this car.

The mechanical part of the M.F.I is just below and behind the distributor. Can barely see it here.

The fuel injector side of the motor.

The TR-5 motor could not pass emissions regulations here in the states so it stayed over on that side of the pond while we got the carbureted version of the motor.

Lots of attention to detail on this one and out of a limited field, my favorite. Like I said, the field was very small due to the weather. I got there early, around 9:30 to try to avoid the rain and by 11:30, I had seen everything at least three times and had my lunch at the wood-fired pizza truck that was there (The Rolling Tomato; outstanding place that we eat out regularly at their brick-and-mortar place).

Perfect British weather!

And, since I couldn't resist stealing from an old Chevrolet Impala add that I remember seeing in an Autoweek magazine as a kid:

"Lord Vader, your car is ready." A step up as this is an Aston Martin, obviously.

After that, I headed over the garage to get some work done. Not much, as I didn't have my tools (I finished up moving later in the day, after I was done with my work). I did some more engine removal preparation like draining the oil...

Sometimes, when the filter won't come out...leverage is your friend.

I pulled the dynamo (generator), fuel pump and distributor as well. Though these are not required to pull the engine, they are going to get removed anyway. I didn't have the right size wrenches to pull the dynamo bracket.

I also broke away the rest of the exhaust/intake manifold bolts and tried to remove the exhaust manifold, but lack of a good cutting wheel prevented me.

Exhaust manifold removed...FMEs installed (foreign material exclusion, as we called them in the Navy).

I also removed the mounting brackets for rest of the exhaust system (I know I'm missing the bracket at the gearbox...probably another one or two along the line as well) and let it rest on the ground awaiting my sawzall to cut through the pipe.

Original? I have no idea...but it will be replaced.

Once I get the manifold separated from the rest of the exhaust pipe, it (the manifold) will come out for eventual refurbishment.

So, not too bad, but not enough. Again, the clock is ticking and I only have 12 months to get this car on the road. That 12 months will entail and engine inspection/rebuild, head rebuild/conversion to unleaded, frame strip/repair/rebuild/refurbishment, suspension rebuild, body repair and putting it all back together. Lots of work...so little time.

Triumph Spitfire Body Removal Preparation #7

Sorry if the title is a bit confusing, but it was the closest I could find to what I was actually doing.

Though I have not moved anywhere near the tools and parts that I need to the new garage yet, tonight was the first night that I got some real work done. I cannot tell you how much different a few feet around the entire car makes. I got a lot of stuff done in the tear-down department in much less time that I'm sure it would have taken me at home.

First, I wanted to get the bonnet off and put to the side. Part of this was in preparation for the body removal and part was to see if it, along with the rest of the body, would fit under the stairs that are in the back of the garage. In short, everything will fit just fine as a picture at the end will show.

Bonnet off. Note the tool box which did double-duty as a coolant collector since I forgot my catch basin.

Once I got the bonnet and the front valance (which seems to be in pretty good shape, though with the dents and dings you may expect after 50 years of life at the bottom of a low ground clearance car) off, I moved on to pulling the radiator. I forgot my oil pan so I used a HF toolbox that I brought with me (holding my temporary tools until I get the big tool box over there) to collect the coolant so that I could pull the radiator off without making a mess.

Bonnet, front valance and front bumper in their new resting place.

After that, I decided to pull the gearbox. I didn't drain it of the oil that I put in it after rebuilding it and I fought with myself if this was a good idea. However, since I don't intend on doing anything to it other than putting it back in when it's time, I figured the oil wouldn't spill during removal and didn't see any harm. Along with the gearbox, I removed the drive shaft...it had to be unbolted anyway.

Drive shaft removed. I supposed I'll refurbish and paint this, too.

Gearbox sitting under the very bottom of the steps. I used the mounting bracket to keep it somewhat level.

That's looks familiar. This time, however, the motor is coming out.

After that, I was pretty much done for the night. I did some cleaning up and re-arranging of things, but nothing significant.

My "corner" gets more populated.

Oh, I did take the door braces off the black car and bring them to see how they aligned. I knew, based on the Mk2 doors having the anti-burst fittings, the braces wouldn't fit, but I wanted to get an idea of what I need to do. The driver's side was pretty close. The passengers side, however, was pretty far off. Of course, the two-plus feet between the door hinge mount and the closure will exaggerate any difference, but this was large compared to the driver's side, which lined up within a half-inch or so. Given that the lower A-post on the passenger's side is essentially not there and there is little to no metal connecting the upper A-post with the sill, I suspect that the front area of the car is the culprit. Future me.

Something is not straight. Either the whole body is bent (bad, but unlikely) or the door hinge is not aligned (or the upper A-post).

After all of that, I wanted to make sure that the tub, once removed from the frame, would fit under the stairs. As I suspected, it will fit just fine; front to back, that is. It will stick out a bit side to side, but that's not a concern.

Perspective a bit off, but the tub will sneak right in under the steps.

I cleaned up and called it a day. Sunday is the British by the Sea Car Show. I went to this show last year, very much enjoyed it and have been looking forward to it for 364 days. Unfortunately, the weather is not looking so hot right with rain in the forecast. I will bring an umbrella, but may cut it short and find myself at the garage for the remainder of the day.