This blog follows my trials and errors in restoring a 1968 Triumph Spitfire, starting with a limited knowledge of cars. Hopefully, I'll be a pro by the end of this, or at least somewhat competent. ;-)
Friday, March 20, 2009
It's tricky
Last weekend, we drained the brake fluid, took out the brake line, and removed the pedal. In addition, we removed the starter solenoid, voltage current regulator and what I believe is the horn relay, so the body is looking quite bare now. I spent a decent amount of time labeling all the wires with masking tape, now the trick is pulling the wires out of the body without tearing off the tape labels.
A few months ago, we abandoned efforts of taking off the windshield finding that simply unscrewing the nut at the bottom of the base was not enough. Chris looked up how to remove the windshield online (thank goodness for the internet) and figured out that we need to also remove the clamps that held the base stakes to the body of the car. We were able to remove the driver side clamp completely, but the passenger side clamp would not budge. The windshield does lift off of the body now, enough to the point where we noticed some cancerous rust on the driver side (holes through the body right underneath the windshield). Add this to the rust list, and the rust list has gotten pretty sizeable. The $350 I'm spending on welding classes at a local high school is looking more and more worth it.
On a side note, I learned that running shoes are not the best welding shoes. On Monday, we started practicing Arc welding. Arc welding sprays sparks everywhere and everywhere also included the tops of my running shoes. Every now and then a spark would melt completely through my shoe and give me a pinpoint burn on the top of my foot. This left a few freckles on my running shoe and more noticeably on my sock. I should probably invest in a pair of steel toe boots, that may be a good idea.
If this weekend stays warm, I'm hoping to take off the windshield fully and be ready to FINALLY take the body off. I spent $20 at Home Depot this past weekend buying 2x4's so I can build a rolling body rig for when the body comes off. Instructions on how to build a body rig yourself can be found on Andre's 1968 Triumph GT6 MK1's site. This definitely solves the issue of where to put the body in a one car garage.
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