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De-rusting my spitfire!


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  • 5 weeks later...

I've decided to do what i do best and delegate, found a guy down the road who was recommended by a mechanic friend who will come pick my spit up, cut out the few bits of rust and weld in new metal in his workshop and let me use his ramps to take all the paint and mud off the bottom of the car and repaint with underseal for about £100, i need to find every bit of rust and give him a call when i've done that and he'll give me a fixed price for the work, i imagine when i find lots more bits of rust it will become a couple of hundred quid, does that sound reasonable? Its lots of small bits of patching up, nothing too major really but i dont have any free time as have been promoted at work!

 

Oli

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  • 4 weeks later...

More photos added:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39984577@N02/?saved=1

 

A lot more stripped out now:

 

3942295064_e39a97e8a0.jpg

 

 

The cars progressing slowly, am finding lumps of filler the size of my fist in places  :-/

 

 

 

The old and the new:

 

3942292018_a7665b08c9.jpg

 

 

 

Rust and filler:

 

3941512645_a46267b6ef.jpg

 

 

 

I didnt really think this through and realise it was fibreglass until i'd made a hole in it  :B

 

3942293216_50134594d0.jpg

 

 

 

 

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They do plenty of different types of fibreglass filler, I've never tried one. Trip to Halfords would sort you.

 

Car looks kinda nice old bangerish. Once you start its very difficult not to try and bring it up to all shiny. Interesting deep colour maroon looking red. I think thaey do replacement sections for the lights.

 

Those were square ones that came off, but underneath there are holes for 2 single round ones... Interesting. I think the replacement secitons are raised. That bonnet doesn't have raised front light sections? Have a look at some pics, or just a welding patch up I guess.

 

There's a lot of replacement panel stuff avalible for the cars, plainly patch pannelling is the cheaper option if you just want to car to run and pass its mot...

 

I paid like £600 for the old floor to be cut out and a new one welded in. The guy did a great job. I can't find the inside seam. But doing the other side myself. Actually its not so much the money took him a bit longer than I want the car to be out action for anymore.

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There were some sections over the old holes which the lights were mounted onto -

 

3948014543_44e408eb19.jpg

 

which fits like so:

 

3948014351_d80f46af5c.jpg

 

Does this mean origionally there would have been round side lights?

 

 

The repair sections for the light section at canleys:

 

M179      SIDELIGHT REPAIR - SPIT1/11/GT61 R/H

 

doesn't mention mk3 spits? is there any difference?

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Looks good tatty. Doing it up will be a different matter.

 

The sidelamp panels are not the same ones. James Paddocks have got a different part number for it. It would be £60 for the pair or depending on the metal, plate over it. Bonnets are a nightmare because a lot of the light sections can go bad. Have you checked under the headlamp sections? You might have to look at the various repair panels required, workout/ask someone about patching it or replacing which panels and work out the cost of the panels. Hence you might want to look out for a second hand one if you think it might be cheaper.

 

Basically, it could probably and hopefully be repaired/patched up or you might try and find a decent one. There was a recent horror story concerning two different people's idea of a rust free bonnet. So any replacement you need to ask for pics at least of the underneatch light sections etc.

 

A lot of the bodywork is difficult. New panels and getting someone to do it costs. Patching is ok, but never as good/won't solve all problems and second hand items can be worse than the one you wanted to replace.

 

Best thing you can do is go into things with your eyes wide open. But the pictures of the passenger sidelights look at little worrying. Poke about and you might not like what you find.

Hopefully your welder mate will be able to do something about that. Might save you a small fortune.

 

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I'm confident my welder friend should be able to fix that, he comes highly recommended for work on classic cars by a couple of mechanics who i know well. I'm going to do some more cutting back before getting him to come over again and give me a quote as well as advising what he can save and what needs replacing, the money i'm putting aside for welding is going up daily!!! I think i'm just going to aim for bare metal as i keep finding nasty supprises well hidden under paint work and i think i'll end up missing bits if i dont take all the paint off!

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There were some sections over the old holes which the lights were mounted onto -

 

3948014543_44e408eb19.jpg

 

which fits like so:

 

3948014351_d80f46af5c.jpg

 

Does this mean origionally there would have been round side lights?

 

 

The repair sections for the light section at canleys:

 

M179      SIDELIGHT REPAIR - SPIT1/11/GT61 R/H

 

doesn't mention mk3 spits? is there any difference?

 

You have a very early Mk3, they used the old Mk2 bonnet and put these plates on to fit the Mk3 style lights.

 

 

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You can buy repair panels for the mk 3 too (se e.g. JamesPaddock) - and as Mr. Lux states: You have an early mk 3 bonnet (up to fd 7031) Seen thise alu plints on flebay from time to time to a high going rate :K)

 

(picture below - Thanks to mr. Thomason)

 

Depends upon how "original" you want your car  8)

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Use sidelamp panel repair lh mk3 - jamespaddock £20 - and put the alu plinths on ebay as a very rare item  8)

 

Hmm - £20 was a few months ago (shit - now 40!!! - must be a mistake)  :-/

 

hmm - only £20 for the original mk 1/2 repair panel - STAY original!!  :D

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Just looked into that and if i get the bits from paddocks: a repair pannel for each side plus the mk2 indicators and side lights to fit it will cost me £130.44 so dont think i'll go for that, i might get the repair pannels now and keep the aluminium plinths with the newer lights then at a later date will make the switch to the nicer round lights!

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Any tips on removing the windscreen frame? I had a friend one side, me the other side and we nearly lifted the car off the ground! I've undone the nut each side under the dash, applied large amounts of wd40 and have been along under the seal to the car with a screwdriver, my trusty Haynes manual isnt much help and googling hasnt shown anything!!

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I've been in contact with the seller, he assures me its only rust in the bottom corners and that the rest is solid, its been dry stored for 15 years, the screens at the sellers parents parents house and he went n check it for me;

 

"i checked the screens frame again today and it is just the bottom corners, i gave the supporting posts a good waggle about and still seems sturdy, apart from that it is just abit scruffy and dirty"

 

 

no photos though sadly, its an hour n a bits drive to collect it so am trying to suss out whether i want to take the risk, it depends a lot on what my welder says about my current screen when he comes over tomorrow afternoon, i'm thinking its probably worth the risk

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