Project Spitfire Update #3

After the dissapointment of not making the date for the test, a new date was booked for the 29th of September. At the same time we arranged hood fitting for the 25th so that the car would have a test run before the test and that we wouldn't be so reliant on weather on the big day.

After our trip to England and Ireland in the Opel I had a weekend concetrating on other things before getting back to the spitfire.

I had arranged for a mate to come and help for the Saturday before the big occasion. Before this I had completed the following,

Re-wired and tested the overdrive.

Changed the reversing light switch and got them working.

Sorted out the fuel tank sender wiring, which I got worng such that battery had discharged.

Attached the front quarter valences and got the sidelights and indicators working,

and charged the battery....

Two of the main jobs for the Saturday were to fit the tunnel and to sort out the Carbs, which were still a little bit sticky and tempermental.

As typically happens, my assistent was assigned what turned out to be the days most difficult job. This was drilling/cutting the neccesary holes and fitting the new fibreglass gearbox tunnel. No way near as easy as we first thought.

It took concentration

caused mild insanity



but in the end fitted nicely.

We also corrected the incorrect fitting of the wiper mechanism, fitted new wiper blades and then got those working. At the same time Mrs LS worked on the hood frame, which by now was in component bits.

The next, and again not as easy as expected, job was to fit new seat belts. These took a bit of figuring out and were a little fiddly to get right but in the end we got them to fit.

At the end of a long day we were tired but satisfied,

and felt justified in allowing ourselves the pleasure of a little test drive.

The Carbs had to wait for another day (which meant again we were starting to run short of time). Another update later (who knows, maybe the blog will catch up with real life shortly)....