Are these any good ? - My mate's offered me one very cheap - although it's been standing ( indoors ) for over a year.
What should I look for when appraising the likely cost of refurbishing this to a useable condition ?
Would love to hear from anyone who has any advice or info about these unusual little cars.
Cheers
Marcus
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First off, take the roof down and see if you can stand up in it without doing an impersonation of Fred Flintstone. Though all you will be falling through is the floor and the Spit has a separater chassis, this will give you some idea of the corrosion to expect in the frame itself. Massive spares availability for this car from Rimmer Bros and Moss.
HJ
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Upon closer inspection it is a 1500cc - dating from 1979.
New floors have been welded in in the last few years - along with the boot floor and outer sills - only rot I can find is in the lower part of one front wing.
The engine turns over slowly but we didn't get it going, and it wants a new hood, but I reckon it could be OK after a couple of hundred quid and a good service, it really needs a respray.
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Work out what it would be worth assuming the rot is repaired, the hood replaced, the body resprayed and the engine serviced. Even with the above work it'll only be worth about 700 quid (A3, fully roadworthy & servicable but in need of work), unless you start on the full renovation stuff.
Work out what it would cost to acheive these things - including firing up the engine. And I would guess your 200 notes is wildly optimistic. Quiller will charge 200 quid just for a fitted hood. Of course, you might get a used one.
Work out if you're going to make a profit. Not forgetting the amount of time and money maintaining them costs. Although to be fair, mostly time.
I would say you're not going to make a profit. Therefore, to do this work it would be because you wanted to own a Spitfire, rather than for monetary reasons.
Then the question is easy. Do you want to own/drive a Spitfire ?
I had one, they're fun - on days when the weather is good, you have plenty of time and the traffic is light - any other time they underperform, under-comfort, out cost and out noise a normal modern "normal" car.
The performance is lousy, especially by modern standards, the handling is, at best, interesting and they have no room for swinging even a small and cooperative cat. But, as I said, at the right time they're a *lot* of fun.
Check with the owner's club and scare yourself with this web-page -
users.netaccess.co.nz/triumphclub/restorations/spi...l
I know its not the UK, but the principles are the same.
Mark.
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Marcus,
Handling of 1500 not as god as earlier models due to change in weight balance. Also, the 1500 engine is a bit weak in the bottom end department, probably due to insufficient oil circulation - out of the blue big end failures not uncommon. So once you get the engine going change the oil two or three times in quick sucession (300 miles), and use a top quality oil at all times. Many owners fit oil coolers if using for fast work.
Otherwise all advise already given is spot on.
Regards, Adam
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Spot on there Adam.
In my youth I threw a con-rod through the crankcase on a 1500. As you said out of the blue.
David
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Make sure there is enough elbow room for you over a long journey. There turned out not to be enough for me and I sold mine after a year of putting up with the discomfort. Nice little car otherwise.
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You could also get some more information from Practical Classics - they have buying and restoration guides on popular models such as the the Spitfire which can be ordered. Let me know if you're interested as I have a recent copy and can look out the details for you.
Robin
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Thanks Robin,
I have obtained a copy of said magazine, very interesting, although I'm not into stripping and rebuilding the thing, In fact I quite like the idea of a scruffy spitfire as a general runabout, I merely wondered about what horrors they could be hiding. I'll be collecting mine next week ! It hasn't cost a lot and will doubtless be a bit of fun.
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