Triumph T6 Spitfire Gt Build Chris Sherrington.

[Gt6s]

Wife's watching the Olympic Parade and concert outside Buckingham Palace and just as I walked in this burly athlete with a beret came into view of the camera. Mr Sherrington I presume. Have a good time and well done to you all.

 

Pete Richards

While flicking channels saw that too.

[pomwah]

Go on then, upload it somewhere, we didn't get the broadcast down here.

 

Cheers,

James TOO.

[CHRIS211083]

Well I got a few hours to myself today so I thought I'd try to fit the Zetec SE clutch.

 

 

I got an email yesterday from RWDmotorsport, the lightweight flywheel with the standard ford clutch pattern takes four weeks to make. Ho dear need it in two. So the order was cancelled and the other option is was to be tried today. So you take a standard ford friction clutch and a Zetec se pressure plate.

 

 

Unfortunately, when I fitted up the engine and gearbox together. The Hydraulic clutch release bearing was miles away from the spring forks as the pressure plate is much thinner than the standard rwd ford clutch. I spoke with Shawspeed the only real Zetec SE specialists and he said a 30mm spacer will give the correct clearance and operation for the release bearing. Fingers crossed this will sort the problem otherwise the RBRR would be over before it's started.

So I need a 30mm spacer made up, so next on the list was new spark plugs, new leads and oil filter.

 

 

 

That was my lot for today however tomorrow I hope to get the pedals painted and the calipers painted too. I may even fit the battery box if I have time.

 

Chris.

[CHRIS211083]

OK couldn't get a spacer for my type of slave cylinder but....... Retro Ford the website I got the Slave cylinder from do spacers at 3mm. So 10 have been ordered and will be poly glued together. This should be enough, if not I'll add some more.

 

http://www.retro-ford.co.uk/shop/content/clutch-release-bearing-spacer-3mm-bc005

 

Chris.

Edited September 12, 2012 by CHRIS211083

[CHRIS211083]

Ok today's job was to clean up the pedals so they can be fitted. Here's something i really like to use on rust.

 

 

Here's the bits lined up and also the heater is to be dismantled.

 

 

Here is the throttle pedal with the green stuff paint brushed on.

 

 

Leave it for 30-40 mins and wash off then re apply until it's rust free. I like this as it allows you to do other things while it does the hard work to remove the rust. Next was the heater dismantling.

 

 

Six screws and it just comes apart. You then have to hoover up all the foam that has turned to dust. Job for tomorrow is to de rust the heater and then paint. At this point I saw a delivery van arrive............ Hmmm I wonder what that could be???????

[CHRIS211083]

Ok so I spotted the ATpower logo on the box..... WOW and it's three days early, inside we went after a quick signature and I opened the box.

 

 

WWWWOOOOOWWWWW, get the tissues at the ready........

 

 

 

 

 

Well they do look nice and very big. They are 38mm and the trumpets expand to 42mm. These are the longest trumpet config that AT do with this kit so should be nice and torquey.

 

 

So back out to the car I went to drill mounting plate holes and to fit the engine mounts.

 

 

Three bolts mount the plate on the right side. The mount bolts through the turret (where I'll be putting packing out spacers to fill the inner gap) and the other side goes into the mounting plate. Here is another view.

 

 

Over on the other side four bolts hold this plate because it's bigger but the mount bolts the same way as the other side. Here is how it looks.

 

 

 

Here you can see where the packers go. Below is the two viewed from the front of the car.

 

[CHRIS211083]

I then decided to try the throttles on to make sure they clear the bulkhead. I had to grind a small bit off the alternator mounting bracket but after that they went on nice.

 

 

Nice

 

 

I was worried about the clearance but now I can clearly see it will be fine.

 

 

So tomorrow I'll collect the bits that got blasted and get the bits I cleaned today along with the engine mounts and paint them up. I'll also paint the calipers and hopefully the heater too after a de rusting. Will see how we get on.

 

Chris.

[CHRIS211083]

Hi Guy's here is my link to our donations page for the RBRR2012. Please chuck a quid in and That should get me started and fingers crossed we will make the start line.

 

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/ChrisSherrington1

 

Chris.

[CHRIS211083]

Today I needed to paint the chassis chips and scratches so I split the tub and chassis.

 

 

I also needed to helicoil the chassis H frame bracket mounting plates.

 

 

So the chassis is is now painted.

 

 

and the turrets where the mounts now sit.

 

 

The paint wasn't a direct match but it was close enough for me. I really like the red so I painted all the brackets and bits with it too.

 

 

After this I decided to check the rear brakes and fit the new rear braided hoses. I then fitted the rear Protech Shocks too while chassis access was good and rooted the handbrake cable.

 

 

I then refitted the chassis and packed it out to suit with chassis spacers. Cars starting to come together now, I'll be looking at the brake lines and fuel line plumbing next. The spacers for the clutch arrived today as did the bonnet lamp covers. So I'll be looking at fitted them too when I get a chance.

 

Fingers crossed I'll make the RBRR2012.

 

Chris.

[SteveA]

Looking good Chris, bet you are looking forward to getting the car drivable. Plan to see you down at Okehampton in a few weeks.

[CHRIS211083]

Fuel tank arrived today, very nice job from Tim (bestquality). It nice to have the pump/sender/swirl pot all in one unit.

 

 

Obviously one filler neck 2", one breather pipe and the mounting tabs. The tank should hold just over 30L Which should give the car a decent range.

 

Here is the tank in place behind the rear axle.

 

 

And the fuel pump bolted inside, note the feed and return pipes are part of the unit and the return actually drops back into the swirl pot to help prevent fuel starvation.

 

 

Here is the view through the rear window.

 

 

I also painted the front calipers today but I'm now off for an Olympic Home coming parade in Glasgow. I'll be taking the Mini, which is going very well now with the EFI system running nicely. The Mini is booked in to my local Dyno place to get the final mapping done to fuel and ignition. I'll post the power graph once thats done. My only niggle is just off idle(when you pull away) has a lean spot but I'm not sure how to remove it, maybe the Accel enrichening needs a tweek but the dyno guy should be able to sort these niggles out.

 

Chris.

 

Ps. Steve your right mate can't wait to get it all together and on the road. Fingers crossed I'll see you at Oakhampton.

Edited September 14, 2012 by CHRIS211083

[pomwah]

Looking good, was just wondering what would happen to me if I hung my "laundry" out on the line like that!

 

Tank looks great.

 

Cheers,

James TOO.

[martinholmesuk]

I like what you have done with the car. I'm friends on FB with a guy who has a zetec in his spitfire.

[CHRIS211083]

Today I had a lie in and at about 10.00hrs I went out to the car and fitted the hydraulic clutch release bearing spacers.

 

 

I then had to cut into the bell housing to feed the hoses through.

 

 

Hoses fed through the bell housing and I fitted the clutch to the flywheel.

 

 

Here is my problem......

 

Standard friction plate

 

 

Pinto Friction plate

 

 

The spring prongs are much further in and I don't know if the clutch will disengage. Will give it a try on Monday.

 

Next thing to do was cut the holes for the speedo, tacho and the center dash.

 

 

After that I then cut out the heater inlet hole out, Next was the battery box and then I wanted to fit the pedals.

 

 

 

First thing was to make the surface flat.

 

 

I drew around the mounting plates and then smoothed the surface with the grinder.

 

 

I then placed these mounting brackets against the upright of the bulkhead and marked the holes onto the fiber glass.

 

 

After drilling all the holes out I fitted stainless steel imperial allen bolts with washers and mounted the pedals and the support brackets.

 

 

Then I fitted the pedals.

 

 

By this time it was going dark so I put the engine back in the car and tidied up. I've not bonded the battery box in yet its just sat there but on the next sunny day I'll fix that and the other bits to be bonded. I'll also be cutting the exhaust manifold to suit and fitting the gearbox tunnel. Slowly but surely I'm ticking things off the to-do list.

 

Chris.

[CHRIS211083]

Hi Guy's a quick update on the Wifes Mini. I took the Mini to the Dyno place today "Hypertech" to have the ECU mapped by a pro. I've enjoyed mapping the car to a drive-able standard but couldn't get it as good as I wanted without some tutoring. So 3hrs later here is what we had.

 

 

The guy taught me a hole bunch of stuff, about mapping and bits on my own ECU etc. I really had fun and WOW does the car go well now. I still have to adjust the cold start section but after a wee instruction, I now Know where I want to be and how to better adjust my ECU.

 

Here is a link to the Mini Forum on the full article if your interested.

 

http://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/topic/235496-specialist-components-efi-5-port-kit/

 

Car really goes well now and I can't wait to get the original engine rebuilt in the new more exciting spec and use the power and flexibility the EFI system offers.

 

Chris.

[GT6Steve]

Chris, if you can hold off glassing in the battery box as long as is reasonable you'll find that access hole to the interior extremely useful while assembling the car.

 

In addition, I cut out the square indentions in either side footwell and made pop riveted covers. Those two access holes come in extremely useful on the racer when I do pedal work or some of the underdash work.

 

Steve

Edited September 17, 2012 by GT6Steve

[CHRIS211083]

Which bits do you mean steve??? Pic's would be great???

 

Chris.

[GT6Steve]

OK, I haven't got the new picture posting trick down yet. Here's a link to a pic. Look just in front of the door hinges where I now have a shiny alloy panel. All I did was cut out the center of that indented area leaving a 3/8" or so lip. I then cut the fill plate to fit the indentation and pop rivet the fill plate in place until I need access to the interior footwell area..

 

ttp://i206.photobuc...Corvette010.jpg

Edited September 17, 2012 by GT6Steve

[Nick B.]

OK, I haven't got the new picture posting trick down yet.

 

Hi Steve.

 

You do like this:

 

Enter your photobucket. You see this picture

 

 

When you point at a picture the picture gets highlighted, and a box appears underneath it saying share/copy.

 

Click on the imagecode (circled in red)

 

 

Now the picture code is automatically copied, and is ready to be pasted into you post on sideways (or whereever you wish). You will not see the actual picture before you hit the "post" button - the post will just look like this

 

 

 

Cheers

Nick

[CHRIS211083]

I dont think I'll be going in there any time soon Steve. The way I do it if I need to is to lie with my head up the foot well with my legs into the boot. Works really well if you don't get claustrophobic.

 

Chris.

[CHRIS211083]

I started today with a quick trip to B&Q for some hole saws (to make dash gauge holes/filler hole/Throttle body airbox holes) some paint brushes, fibreglass filler(to smooth the dash before applying the vinyl covering), cutting discs and some fine ally mesh for the heater airbox. I then went to my local auto place (livingston auto parts) and picked up some gearbox oil for the type 9 (75w90 GL4!!!!!).

 

 

Also in the post came today, the perspex sheet to make up the rear quarter light windows and the fuel filler to tank hose.

 

 

 

I think I kicked the Ass out of the spec for the hose as this thing is wire lined and everything. However it says its ethanol resistant so I bought it, Ha Ha.

 

Last night the wife was not home till late as she was working in london and her flight only landed at 2200hrs. So I decided to be Proactive by making templates up of the vent holes that need to be cut in the tub. I also measured the hole sizes to know what hole saws I needed to buy today.

 

 

I then put the bolts in the filler neck cap and measured this too to know what size hole saw was needed.

 

 

Hope to have these holes cut today and maybe test the clutch out to see if it can disengage the clutch or if I'm gonna need a AP type custom clutch.

 

Anyway I'm now off for physio and a big thanks to guy's for donating as we are now up to £145. So please donate anything you have.

 

Chris.

[Martin]

Hi Chris,

the T9 gearbox needs 75/90, however it is strongly recommended for the oil to meet the ESD M2C 175-A norm from Ford and should be (semi) synth.

Cheers

Martin

[CHRIS211083]

Hi Martin thats the stuff I got. Most the kit car guys swear by this comma gear oil 75w90 semi oil.

 

On another note My spitfire and I got a mention in the paper. Don't know how but we did.

 

http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/top-stories/chris-and-his-spitfire-battle-around-britain-1-2532525

 

Chris.

[CHRIS211083]

So this afternoon I progressed on again. First up was the clutch, I fitted both master cylinders but just plumbed in the clutch one. This was a nice piece of kit which was bought from RetroFord. It has a remote bleed which made things so easy.

 

 

And Yay, the clutch slave cylinder moves alot and you can see it releasing the clutch but will it be enough??? Time will tell. Here is a pic of the engine sitting on it's mounts. The engine sits nice and low and the chassis needed no mods.

 

 

Next job was to finalize the side vents. I used the templates I cut last night to get this outline to cut out.

 

 

After cutting out both sides I found that the contour of the body was different to the vent.

 

 

So I filed down the high parts on both the body and the plastic inner part of the vent.

 

 

This took a lot longer than expected but it is now nicely fitting and just needs seals and that will be them.

 

 

 

And the inner shot......

 

 

Next was the filler cap, I used the hole saw for this and bolted up the cap/neck.

 

 

Unfortunately this to sat squint because of the contour of the body tub. So I slowly filed and sanded down the high points and ended up with a real nice fit.

 

 

 

At this point it was starting to go dark so I picked a quick job to do. The Temp exhaust. This is temporary and after the RBRR I'll be going to tony law to get a custom exhaust manifold done but for now this standard one will do with a few mods.

 

 

Cut and chop.... Done, will get my local welder to weld that up.

 

 

Final this with the light failing was the Heater Airbox inlet panel. This just needed cut out so I can fit mesh later on.

 

 

This will be bonded to the tub once I get other things done. I still had a few mins light left so I cut the edge down on the rear quarter light and placed it in position for a photo. It looks so right with these.

 

 

And then a final shot as I was cleaning up.

 

 

My god this car is really good looking. Fingers crossed it will go as well as it looks soon.

 

Chris.

[CHRIS211083]

Just spoken to AP clutch guy's and My worries about the clutch were correct and I've over clamped the clutch and it will not disengage. However the AP guy says its an easy fix!!!!! He said just fit 1mm washers, this will space the clutch out correctly and bring the spring fingers back out to the correct place. Its all because the Pinto friction plate is thicker than the SE one. So todays first job will be to whip it out and add the washers and give it a quick test. However I'm off to weights first followed by photo's at 1200 and then it will be the cars turn. I hope to get the Clutch and brakes sorted out today.

 

And my fingers are still Crossed.

 

Chris.