Thursday, May 13, 2010

Suspension is Off!

With the last suspension bolt MAPP gas torched, quickly cooled, and brute forced off, the passenger rear suspension is off, finishing the removal of the rear suspension. Throughout the process, I tried to keep suspension units as whole as possible while removing so that it would be easier to reassemble in the end. The plan is to restore individual units in smaller projects and reassemble units in the same manner as it was removed.

The handbrake line was also removed with a bit of thinking involved to get the straight clamped ends through the curved bend. The trick was to add slack to the wiring through the bend. This way the straight clamp had enough slack to go completely through one end of the bend and then pass through the second end of the bend only after completely passing the first bend.

Looking at the chassis now, I'm not sure how much metalwork needs to be done or whether I can just get away with sandblasting and painting/powdercoating. The area around the engine is in pretty good shape still bearing the original red paint, but from the middle to the rear of the car, the chassis has a good amount of surface rust and some flaking metal.

Next up: engine compression testing.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Article About a 1969 Spitfire

Today, the San Francisco Chronicle posted an article by an owner of a 1969 Triumph.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/09/MTGL1DBE3U.DTL

Although it was a short article, it was interesting to read about his restoration, driving, and overall experience of owning a Triumph Spitfire. One good part the author notes, "The Triumph is a perfect car for me because it gets great gas mileage - over 41 miles a gallon - and is easy to park because it is so tiny and has a very sharp turning radius." He also notes a downside, "... the Triumph is so small that it could be squashed like a fly, so it really takes a motorcycle mentality to drive it." But the line that struck me the most, "My friend tried to take his car apart and it never quite went back together the right way." I am close to having taken the car apart completely, so really there is no turning back anyway. Hopefully, I fair better than his friend in restoring the Triumph.