Been looking for a fun, cheap project car

[Vegas Halo Fan]

I checked her out, and she ain't all that. Whoa.

[nate]

Went and looked at a 1999 911 convertible the other day.  Honestly if it were the coupe and not the convertible I would have bought it.  You can get them really cheap because of the IMS issue.  Getting the IMS bearing replaced costs ~$2500 and nearly doubles the value.

[Blarg]

Nate, when you are thinking about an old project car think about this. My Spitfire drove into the garage in perfect running order but was a cosmetic basket case. I had it repainted but managed to damage a door and never got back to finishing the job so it sat in a garage for years. You would think it would have been OK but this is what it looked like under the hood and that is in moderate California climate.

Everything had to be dismantled. The bushings all had to be replaced,  replaced the shocks, springs, bearings, tie rod ends, fuel lines, brake lines, inlet for the thermostat,  the list is over 100 parts sourced from 4 suppliers and thousands of dollars and this is for a car that parts are cheap.

This is called going down the rabbit hole. Once you commit to cleaning up one problem it forces you to make a decision about how much needs to be replaced now so you don't have to strip it down again to replace something like a clutch throw out bearing and since you are there just do the clutch and bell housing. Take a look at your future. 

All the front end suspension removed. 

Engine removed for cleanup. 

Single most expensive part so far was replacing the exhaust manifold with stainless steel that cost $420 with shipping. The gasket was $3.

Can't put clean parts on a dirty frame. 

The car rolled into the shop and this is called getting better, it has to be towed everywhere. 

Engine looking better. 

I did the Dynamat myself,  Frank allows me to work on the car on his shop. 

Left some DNA evidence in the trunk because the aluminum backing is sharp as a razor. 

Cleaned up the dash and ordered new glass, bezels and gaskets for the instruments. The gaskets for the speedometer and tach are the wrong size. Tried a part supplier in England,  they sent the wrong size. Contacted Hollywood speedometer, they can't help, tried a half dozen other speedometer restoration shops,  the best I got is some guy would send me some gaskets that would need to be trimmed.

This is a couple dollars per gasket part that is dead stopping me from putting the dashboard back together. As I mentioned before, a rabbit hole that just gets deeper and more complex. 

Lease a new car and be happy. 

 

[nate]

Yeah rust is a huge problem, it is why I started looking at newer cars that have rust protection.  With Winter getting close it would be nice to have a project though.  Hate having that empty space in the garage.

[Blarg]

If you are committed to picking up a project car buy one someone else did all the work. It will be beautiful and yet still expensively flawed with plenty to fix. Depending on the car it will sell for much less than was invested in it. The project part will be tracking down all of the stuff they didn't get a chance to replace before either going bankrupt or just getting tired of having another repair bill. 

Frank,  the owner of the shop I have my Spitfire at, says,  a good sports car leaves you withing walking distance of home. That is what you are looking for. 

[nate]

I owned old sports cars for a lot of my teenage and early 20s.  I know how it goes.  They were still way more reliable than an old English sports car.  Mostly looking for something I can wrench on and mess around with.

I saw a Lancia Beta for sale today.  I am pretty sure those were rusted out when they left the factory.

[Blarg]

Yeah, that was the death of Lancia as a company, no corrosion resistance. It's not that they weren't building interesting cars, the just ended up with the frames or uni body rusting out. The Beta Scorpion was what the X/19 could have been with an 1800 engine but years later there are far more FIATs on the road than Lancia because they didn't rust away. That and the Lancia 1800 wasn't  a good engine.

Now you can drop the FIAT 2 liter in the back of an X/19 or if you are a madman the new Abarth turbo and make that car fun again. It is really lightweight and had a good steering and suspension system, just upgrade the brakes and go. 

But remember to tape the glove box closed because those all broke five days after the warranty expired. 

[Vegas Halo Fan]

I saw a Wheeler Dealers episode in which they restored a Lancia. They must have mentioned rust half a dozen times, apparently a big problem with everything that they made.

[ELEVEN]

On Sunday, October 23, 2016 at 9:24 PM, Vegas Halo Fan said:

I saw a Wheeler Dealers episode in which they restored a Lancia. They must have mentioned rust half a dozen times, apparently a big problem with everything that they made.

Love that show! Seen every episode so far.

[Blarg]

The engine is back where it belongs and hopefully this week the suspension and transmission is bolted back into place.

[Blarg]

Transmission is back in place along with the steering, radiator, hoses, brake lines and front suspension. And that shiny new exhaust manifold.

Rear suspension being removed and completed rebuilt like the front end.

[Jay]

First time checking into this thread. The Spitfire is looking good, keep up the good work.

 

 

[Blarg]

Thanks. Second guessing on the rear end whether to keep it stock and have to deal with understeer or upgrade it slightly to the MK4 suspension . 

[Blarg]

I did make the decision to upgrade the rear leaf spring to the mark 4 series and ended up having to buy a small box and mounting plate from Rimmer Brothers in England to complete the install. It should be worth the extra money simply because that swing axle was squirrely like an early Corvair. 

The wiring harness was installed and I now have taillights and a trunk lid. Still need to get a seal, letters and script for the rear lid. More money heading over seas. 

Searching through my boxes of old and newly purchased parts I found a receipt for one of my first large parts orders that included the taillights you see. It was dated 1996. 

Good luck with filling that garage space with a project, Nate. 

[Vegas Halo Fan]

I always wanted to fix up a Porsche 914. Any more, I probably couldn't even get in and out of it.

[Blarg]

A 914 is actually pretty roomy inside. I always wanted the 6 cylinder but they are pretty hard to come by and Porsche are now in the stupid money range both to buy and parts. 

[Vegas Halo Fan]

It isn't the room that is the problem. It's the proximity to the ground. The knees don't work as well as they once did.

When I was a freshman at the University of Florida, a guy in my dorm had an electric blue 914. He took me for a ride in it. When he turned a corner at 55 with no perceptible body roll, I could hardly believe it.

[Jay]

On 1/22/2017 at 8:28 AM, Blarg said:

I did make the decision to upgrade the rear leaf spring to the mark 4 series and ended up having to buy a small box and mounting plate from Rimmer Brothers in England to complete the install. It should be worth the extra money simply because that swing axle was squirrely like an early Corvair. 

The wiring harness was installed and I now have taillights and a trunk lid. Still need to get a seal, letters and script for the rear lid. More money heading over seas. 

Searching through my boxes of old and newly purchased parts I found a receipt for one of my first large parts orders that included the taillights you see. It was dated 1996. 

Good luck with filling that garage space with a project, Nate. 

To the untrained eye it might appear that the turn signals and back-up lights were an afterthought.

 

[Blarg]

The car was based off a Triumph Herald sedan. The Herald was originally designed in 1957 as a sedan then Triumph asked Michelotti to create a sports car that would fit on that basic frame and use the same engine. Their goal was building a very inexpensive entry level sports car, not a sports car then then try and reduce costs to bring it in line with the Sprite and Midgets. So there are plenty of areas it lacks in terms of refinements such as the rear swing axle suspension and the taillights that look like they are off of some old U-Haul trailer.

Most taillights by 1962 in Europe were incorporating the amber with the red brake lights. I'm guessing they were committed to Michelotti's design for the tail (keeping the costs down by not asking for a re-design) and decided to make them three separate lights, brakes, turn and backup. Those same amber and clear are on the front of the MK1 & MK2 cars and were replaced with rectangular lights for the redesign of the grill on the MK3.

The trunk lid has holes drilled in it for the badging which includes Triumph written out in block letters and script for Spitfire and MK3 below it. At least that is what it is supposed to be drilled for. Except that trunk lid is a replacement for the original that had severe rust under the handle. The guy that sold the car to me gave me a clean spare lid without any script and installed it and prepped it for paint.

It wasn't until after it returned from paint and I tried installing the badging I realized this lid is for a 1970 MK3. Same lid, less holes because they changed badging. Luckily I kept the old lid because it had the original badges and used that to create a template to drill the proper holes for the correct badges. The hole on the far right doesn't match up.

No problem, I picked up this on Ebay to fill that hole.

 

 

[Blarg]

The Solution came in the mail and went on the car.

[Blarg]

Since my last post a lot has happened on the car, some visible but most little detail items like hoses and hooking up the electrical. The wiring harness is giving us fits because the wiring diagrams are primarily for the Euro cars while mine was destined for the US market with a standard instrument console over the steering wheel. 

What I can show is the windshield was mounted a couple weeks ago. Followed up with windshield wipers.

And just yesterday the grill and bonnet (hood for you heathens) was bolted down today. I couldn't stay to see the bumper go on but I have nice shiney new headlights but still need to source the front turn/parking lights. They are on a parts order I made this evening.

[Blarg]

20170413_104006_252972533920573.mp4

After 18 years of sitting dormant, it runs. 

[Blarg]

The front end is complete. Headlights and turn indicators all work. It is really close and yet so very far away. 

Tomorrow I have the day off and my best friend is driving up and we will install the carpet kit. 

[Blarg]

Seats, seat belts, carpet, wiper motor installed, guages check out, all that needs to be done today is mirrors, door panels and key locks before I drive out of the shop to my garage.

Sunday is the Queen's English British car show at Woodley Park and I plan on showing it off. Still plenty of detail work left to do but it is in good enough shape to be seen. Something that hasn't happened in 18 years.

[nate]

Badass, Blarg.

I kinda gave up on my search lately, with the wife getting a new job that requires a commute we need a second car but it can't be a project.

I still look at BAT almost every day.  So many cars I would love to get my hands on... some day.

Watched some videos of old Mini restorations that makes me want one.  Surprisingly a lot of parts available in the US.  Hardest part is finding any car out here that isn't rusted out.  And convincing the wife.

I have played golf at Woodley Park.  It is a shithole.