Spitfire Total Rebuild!

Mark74

great work..! theyre a beautiful car.

SpitfireIV

Been a while guys, here's a little vid.......

SuperS54

Video is private

SpitfireIV

SuperS54 wrote: »

Video is private

Oops, how about now?

SuperS54

Looks good, will make time to watch it all later, fantastic project!

Sleepy

Feel free not to answer the question (as my Mammy would tell me it's rude to ask!) but I'm curious as to what kind of budget you're working to on this project as it's the type of thing I'd love to attempt at some stage!

SpitfireIV

Sleepy wrote: »

Feel free not to answer the question (as my Mammy would tell me it's rude to ask!) but I'm curious as to what kind of budget you're working to on this project as it's the type of thing I'd love to attempt at some stage!

I'd like to be able to give you an answer, but I cant.....

Simply because I dont know, or dont want to know :eek: I didnt set a budget, I've watched enough episodes of Grand Designs where people take on epic builds with a rigid budget only to see them a year plus later, run out of money, doing the work themselves in the freezing cold, leaving in a caravan and having gone 50 or even 100+ thousand over budget.....

Ok, so I'm not that bad just yet, but the initial outlay for the two cars was two grand (payed FAR too much for them but it was a case of the heart ruling the head) and after that there was been small outlays for parts etc, but they are in dribs and drabs, never any more than a couple of hundred at a time. So, I'm buying the items as I need them, so, its not too bad. I'd reckon up to this point I must have at least 5 grand, if not more gone into it and still counting!!

Now, you can look at that two ways, ie for that price I could have got something pretty decent, probably previously restored to a high enough standard I could jump in and drive or, that the money, effort and time invested will result in something uniquely mine that I'll know literally every nut, bolt and washer in it.

Tough one

Sleepy

Thanks for the answer. I'm only an armchair enthusiast (for now), but I do know enough to know that a restoration of this level of detail is never going to be financially "sensible". The curiosity is driven by the question of whether it's something I can afford to do myself in the future (i.e. is it "lotto win" territory or simply a matter of trimming some other expenditure e.g. nights in the pub etc.)

We're still in a rental so it's not something I can do for a few years yet but whenever we get around to buying a garage / shed / spare bit of driveway where I can take up the hobby will be a serious factor in wherever we buy!

SpitfireIV

Sleepy wrote: »

Thanks for the answer. I'm only an armchair enthusiast (for now), but I do know enough to know that a restoration of this level of detail is never going to be financially "sensible". The curiosity is driven by the question of whether it's something I can afford to do myself in the future (i.e. is it "lotto win" territory or simply a matter of trimming some other expenditure e.g. nights in the pub etc.)

We're still in a rental so it's not something I can do for a few years yet but whenever we get around to buying a garage / shed / spare bit of driveway where I can take up the hobby will be a serious factor in wherever we buy!

I'm hoping (dreaming perhaps) to have it on the road, more or less complete and good to show come August of 2016, I think that's achievable. At that point I'll have been working on the car two and a half years; thats every moment I could spare. Apart from the gf I've had little to no social life and every day, half day, hour or few minutes I can spare is directed toward getting the car done. It's stressful and not many can appreciate that. If youre in no rush then its something you can be working on in your free time and the costs are not a major concern as its not a big outlay, ok, at the end, totting up the costs could be scary but as its stretched out over a long period its not so bad.

What kind of make/model of car are you into or hope to get some day?

Sleepy

I've two small kids so my time-lines will be a lot different than yours!

What I'll restore will depend on what I can afford tbh. The dream would be a nut and bolt restoration of a VW Type 2 Camper but a more realistic stretch might be a rolling restoration of a T25 over 4/5/6 years and after taking what I've learned from doing that a full nut and bolt job on an old Triumph Spitfire / Austin Healey Frogeye or (if the Lotto win ever happens) an XK-120 over a decade or so.

It's all dreaming for me atm but I'm pretty certain I'll do something. Even if I never scrape the money together to do anything "special", I'm seeing enough classic or nearly classic aged stuff that I'd enjoy saving that are going for type of money I could scrape together over a few months - a Saab 900 could be a very realistic option. I've a 1999 9-3 Hatchback as my daily at the moment and I'm becoming very fond of it.

sogood

Hi Croppy. Just wondering if you've come across the "British V8" website? Lot's of interesting cars, including a lot of Spitfires, fitted with larger engines and gearboxes, including the odd Japanese one. (Not so big!) I can't post a link but you should find it easily with Mr. Googles help.

SpitfireIV

sogood wrote: »

Hi Croppy. Just wondering if you've come across the "British V8" website? Lot's of interesting cars, including a lot of Spitfires, fitted with larger engines and gearboxes, including the odd Japanese one. (Not so big!) I can't post a link but you should find it easily with Mr. Googles help.

Have seen that site alright, thanks! Cant imagine what a Spitfire would be like with a V8 under the bonnet!


I'd like to say the engine conversion is motoring along, but, it's slow progress, simply because it takes a lot of time to make the modifications. Lot of checking, measuring, modding, reassembling etc, but, it's getting there......



Had to get an oilite bushing turned that would fit into the end of the 4EFE crankshaft. The purpose of the bushing is to support the input shaft of the gearbox. Being an oilite bushing (otherwise known as a spigot bush) means its self lubricating.




Finished bushing ready to fit.....



In place (bit of flash rust on the flywheel, no biggie)



Area pointed out needed to be removed to allow the starter motor to be fitted. As you can see, on the Triumph the starter was located to the left, that hole would need to be filled in.



Had to pick up a slightly bigger clutch plate to work with the toyota flywheel. The plate pictured is a 7 1/4" 10 spline.



Disc on the pressure plate, It is a bit smaller than the diameter of the pressure plate, but its the closest match I could get.



Handy little clutch centering tool, an input shaft from my spare (now in bits) gearbox.



Pressure plate and clutch disc centered and secured in place.



Bell housing and gearbox (with overdrive) plonked on top for a trial fit. Needed a couple of mill taken off the input shaft and then.....



It dropped in nice and tight.



Space cut out for starter motor.



Bit of light relieving done to the bell housing to accomodate the starter. A shield or cover will have to be improvised to stop any dirt/grit etc getting into the bell housing.



Since the pics were taken the bell housing plate has been further modified with the old starter motor hole being filled in. Bolts and threads being welded to the plate to allow it to be mounted to the engine and the bell housing to it. But, those pics are for another time.....

SpitfireIV

Ok, so the engine/gearbox modification still needs some attention, but a quick glance at another job that'll need doing; the fuel tank.





Originally the Triumph's fuel was fed to the carbs by a mechanical fuel pump mounted on the engine, with my change over to the 4E with fuel injection it means an elcetric petrol pump will need to be added into the system. Seen as there was one in the Starlet that'd plug right into the wiring loom I had in situ it was a no brainer to use this. However it'll require a slight bit of work....



Unfortunately the pump set up, when removed from the Starlet tank is a bit longer than the Triumph tank. Not sure if I'll be using the float, The Triumph tank has the original one fitted so I'll revert to that so as to keep the fuel guage reading correctly.


Solution to the problem (well, one anyway) chopped the raised section, with mounting flange from the starlet tank and graft this onto/into the Triumph tank, thereby raised the pump setup the required height.


I'll get back to ye on it.........

SpitfireIV

Happy new year all! Here's to 2016 and getting this thing on the road!!


Got stuck into the fuel tank modifications..........



Tank was put on place in the car to check for space. A technical measurement shows its a fist wide worth of space, lots of room



Flange cut out of Starlet tank.



Flange modified and tacked together for a trial fit.



Section cut out of tank and ground to shape.



Bloody full height baffle in place, there is one on the other side also. This one has got to go! Spot welds were drilled out and the battle was chopped up with a shearers and lifted out. That'll teach it for getting in my way!



Baffle out and mounting flange in place for a trial fit.



Flange height is adjustable to allow the fuel pump and filter to sit at the right height.



Pump in for a trial fit, looking good!




Removed the swirl pot from the starlet tank.



Swirl pot tacked into the Triumph tank, but of a squeeze to get it in, but it fit eventually.




All ready to be cleaned up and TIG welded soon hopefully. The triumph sender will be fitted and used to keep the original guage.

SpitfireIV

Poppoed the tank in for a quick look......plenty of room!






Next job, as mentioned is to get the modded flange tig welded into place as well as the sump, then back to the engine!

SpitfireIV

Illuminating


Got the lights on the cut off bumpers sorted, have yet to drill the tub to track the wires. Reckon it should be bright enough :cool:

SpitfireIV

Been busy working on the engine/gearbox. A little vid for y'all.....

Some accompanying pictures....


The adapted engine plate front.



Engine plate rear, note the plated in original starter motor hole to the left and the new starter motor hole on the right.



Engine cleaned up, painted and parked by the stove for some heat.



Almost ready to be mated!



Altogether now!



The sump that's currently fitted will be coming off to be replaced by the modified sump, when I get that one welded up.



May clean the water pump up, its letting the side down :P



:D

Sleepy

Shiny!

biketard

Fantastic work!

SpitfireIV

Got the lower half of the bulkhead cleaned up and stonechipped. The same area was epoxy primed before hand. Hopefully get all the front end prepped and painted during the week then the tub can be dropped onto the chassis hopefully.

SpitfireIV

And we have color..........

sogood

Looking good. I can imagine your sense of achievement. Putting down paint is certainly a corner turned, although your rebuild has more corners than the Hampton Court Maze!

I was the same when doing up my boat. No matter what I did, I never felt to be near the home stretch until it was painted. Looking forward to seeing more and hats off to your patience and dedication.

SpitfireIV

sogood wrote: »

Looking good. I can imagine your sense of achievement. Putting down paint is certainly a corner turned, although your rebuild has more corners than the Hampton Court Maze!

I was the same when doing up my boat. No matter what I did, I never felt to be near the home stretch until it was painted. Looking forward to seeing more and hats off to your patience and dedication.

Bit of color makes all the difference indeed! Feels like its getting somewhere now! Cheers.


Been busy enough over the past few days. Got the sump and petrol tank welded up have the engine more or less finished now and the brake lines on the chassis have been completed! Little video for your viewing pleasure.....

Toyotafanboi

really enjoying this thread.

SpitfireIV

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

really enjoying this thread.

Hah, nice one!


You might be able to help me out on this one. The Spitfire has two main dials, those being the speedometer and the rev counter. Now, the Speedo is run off the overdrive unit on the Triumph gearbox, so, thats grand, the rev counter however would have been run via a cable from the distributor.

My standard Starlet doesnt have a (I presume electronic) rev counter, but, what I was thinking was trying to pick up a instrument cluster from a glanza, or corolla or some such and using the guts from that to graft into the original rev counter dial, ie using the original dial face and needle but with the inner working from the Toyota. Wiring it up however is another thing, I assume I'd need the plugs for it and it'd have to go back through the ECU? etc....

Kind of at a loss, so, any help would be appreciated!

pryantcc

Great work here! I'm not familiar with your Starlet engine but it should be pretty easy to get a source for the tacho. There's a distributor on the Starlet, right? It's not an ECU job??
You should be able to just hook your Triumph tacho to the Starlet distribitor with no need for messing around. Am I missing something?

Toyotafanboi

yeah, i don't claim to know a huge amount about electronics by any means, but if you are using the mechanical drive speedo and you are using the existing Triumph fuel level sender (?) then you really don't need to keep any of the Starlet instrument cluster wiring at all.

you could take RPM signal from the green wire in the loom at the distributor here


or from the ECU at pin "NE" here (6th from the left on the bottom row) if that's handier


and just connect that to where the old signal wire would have went on the Triumph tacho?

i stole both those images from google, so they could go anytime.

SpitfireIV

pryantcc wrote: »

Great work here! I'm not familiar with your Starlet engine but it should be pretty easy to get a source for the tacho. There's a distributor on the Starlet, right? It's not an ECU job??
You should be able to just hook your Triumph tacho to the Starlet distribitor with no need for messing around. Am I missing something?

Thanks!

The Triumph rev counter was controlled via a cable connected to the dizzy at the point illustrated in the below image. As far as I'm aware the Toyota rev counter is electronically controlled as I can see no mounting point for a cable, but, I'm not sure, just another little issue to be sorted

Toyotafanboi

is that mechanically driven too? distributors were before i was born :pac: so the above method won't work then?

even at that then, you'd probably be better to buy a cheap simple aftermarket rev counter and dis assemble it and use the method above because the one on the Starlet gauges is part of a printed circuit and it really would be a pain in the arse to make that happen.

edit: something like this
http://shop.mcgautostyling.com/browse-by-parts/engine-performance-dress-up/electronics/meters-gauges/classic-style-rpm-gauge-for-all-cars-universal.html

green wire or pin NE above to this, then all it needs is power and earth. i'd say one of these would be easily butchered to meet your needs :pac:

sogood

As usual, loving this thread. Regarding the reflectors, when mounting them, I would tend to position them further out towards the corners of the bumper, thus more accurately reflecting (no pun intended) the width of the car. It will probably never happen, but if you were parked in a badly lit area, you don't want to give the impression that your car is narrower than it actually is.

Just a thought.

SpitfireIV

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

is that mechanically driven too? distributors were before i was born :pac: so the above method won't work then?

even at that then, you'd probably be better to buy a cheap simple aftermarket rev counter and dis assemble it and use the method above because the one on the Starlet gauges is part of a printed circuit and it really would be a pain in the arse to make that happen.

edit: something like this
http://shop.mcgautostyling.com/browse-by-parts/engine-performance-dress-up/electronics/meters-gauges/classic-style-rpm-gauge-for-all-cars-universal.html

green wire or pin NE above to this, then all it needs is power and earth. i'd say one of these would be easily butchered to meet your needs :pac:

Thanks for that info ! Very helpful, been looking into it a bit more and it seems the best route is to buy an after market tacho and take the guts out and fit them to my original dial. I'll be sure to let you know how I get on!

sogood wrote: »

As usual, loving this thread. Regarding the reflectors, when mounting them, I would tend to position them further out towards the corners of the bumper, thus more accurately reflecting (no pun intended) the width of the car. It will probably never happen, but if you were parked in a badly lit area, you don't want to give the impression that your car is narrower than it actually is.

Just a thought.

That makes perfect sense and something I hadnt thought of to be honest! Gave it a shot and I think they do work better further out on the bumpers....

SpitfireIV

Much work was done today! Watch this space ;-)

SpitfireIV

Y'all might like this update!



Tub all wrapped up with somewhere to go! Well, it was raining out.



Rain stopped tahnkfully, so, into the back of the van for a little journey.



Out came the chassis from the poly tunnel (that is holding up surprisingly well with all the recent storms we've been getting!).



Engine next to the chassis? Must be time to put it in so!



And 'jus like tha' the engine and box were bolted up and the two fixed onto the chassis! Well, three of us lifting and hauling got it in. Lined up perfectly with the gearbox mounting bracket, result!



Shot from the opposite side.



Shot showing the DIY engine mounting bracket. The observant amoung you will notice just two pulleys; the alternator hasnt been fitted yet and will be a DIY job.



Side shot! If I havent said it already, those rear wheels will be going!

SpitfireIV

Tub out of the van ready to be reunited with its chassis.....



Another bit of huffing and puffing and boom.........you have a car!!



Rear end.....showing the modified rear lights.



GRP GT6 bonnet lifted on for a look see.......fit is not too bad at all and the look is great!! Well, apart from the rather large wheel arch gap; lowering springs or some other solution will definately be needed!



Vroom vroom......couldnt resist an imaginary drive :P



Put away for the night after a long afternoon/evenings work!



More to follow..........

Bigus

Big milestone , well done.

Looking at the engine and gearbox mountings , l'd be considering an extra mounting or steady bar ( a la mini ) just in front of the bell housing to resist twist, I just think there is too much distance between front engine mounts and the one gearbox mount , maybe look at how an mx5 is set up for guidance.

However great work by you.

Zebrano

The mk 1 mx5 has two mounts one either side of the engine then the gear box is connected th the diff via an aluminium rail its not connected to the body. So the engine gearbox and diff are essentially one unit held on with 2 nuts and 2 bolts.

Good work by the way.

SpitfireIV

I dont see any issues with the engine mounting at the moment, its mounted using the same bracket as the Starlet, but, I can see what youre saying; its a long ol' lump so I'll monitor it. If needs be a bracket or two could easily be made up to attach to the bell housing plate and then to the chassis.


Some moar....



Few more bits attached to the engine, partial wiring harness fitted and copper lines ran from the master cylinders.





Few problems encountered were just how tight the leads in the distributor are to the bulkhead!! Hopefully I wont need to be changing them. The bit of relieving done on the bulkhead means the copper lines had to be tracked further and so are not long enough, but, thats an easy fix. Wiring harness will also need lenghtening in areas so as to reach certain plugs etc, again, not a big job.




Unfortunately the air intake on the throttle body is pointing bacward, again, shouldnt be an issue as once it's up and running this standard set up will be replaced by Honda CRB throttle bodies.




Dropped the rad in for a look'see, seems it will fit ok with a few brackets made up to secure it eventually, it will have to sit at an angle as such to accomodate the height of the bonnet.




Front view! Again, serious lowering needs to be done on the front! Just goes to show how much lighter the Toyota engine and bonnet are compared to the Triumph lump and steel bonnet!





GRP bonnets are usually noted for bad fit, but this one seems to be pretty tight! The only issue is over the passenger side sill there is an even gap, but, that'll pull out easy enough, so I'm not worried.




I like the look!




Below you can see moving pictures with sound!

Toyotafanboi

That's a massive turning point for you, it's like you've gone from various piles of odds and ends to an essentially complete car in an afternoon. That must give you a good motivtional boost to keep moving

stevesxm

new to the board and had a career in motorsports before retirement.... was a national champion in a spitfire in 79 . your project is quite amazing and i would have some suggestions to make but most important first.... i admit that i have not read the detailed 11 pages of this thread and maybe you have covered this elsewhere... you have had the body off the chassis do to a lot of this work as you should have... what you may not know or have noticed is that there are shims under the body mounts... some soft and some rigid. these are really important. if you leave them out or put them in the wrong order or if they are worn or whatever , what you will find is that when you bolt the body down and then try to hang the doors, they aren't going to fit by a lot.... like a 13mm overlap or a stick your fingers in the gap sort of thing. the body actually bends across the door opening when its bolted down and the amount it bends is determined by those shims.... if you have already taken care of that then good for you for being clever... i won't tell you about the first one i built in 72 that, after i got done welding the roll cage in it , and bolted it back down you could have walked into the car without opening the door the seam was so wide...

SpitfireIV

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

That's a massive turning point for you, it's like you've gone from various piles of odds and ends to an essentially complete car in an afternoon. That must give you a good motivtional boost to keep moving

Hey, thanks! I'm still finding it hard to believe that I have something that resembles a car now, its a massive boost indeed!

stevesxm wrote: »

new to the board and had a career in motorsports before retirement.... was a national champion in a spitfire in 79 . your project is quite amazing and i would have some suggestions to make but most important first.... i admit that i have not read the detailed 11 pages of this thread and maybe you have covered this elsewhere... you have had the body off the chassis do to a lot of this work as you should have... what you may not know or have noticed is that there are shims under the body mounts... some soft and some rigid. these are really important. if you leave them out or put them in the wrong order or if they are worn or whatever , what you will find is that when you bolt the body down and then try to hang the doors, they aren't going to fit by a lot.... like a 13mm overlap or a stick your fingers in the gap sort of thing. the body actually bends across the door opening when its bolted down and the amount it bends is determined by those shims.... if you have already taken care of that then good for you for being clever... i won't tell you about the first one i built in 72 that, after i got done welding the roll cage in it , and bolted it back down you could have walked into the car without opening the door the seam was so wide...

Hi Steve, thanks for the response, any info or pointers you have I'd be more than happy to hear

I've read many many conflicting views on the tub to chassis spacers, what type goes where etc etc. In the end I went with six spacers to essentially fill gaps; two alloy ones under the front bulkhead mounts, two alloy ones above the rear leaf spring mount and two rubberised ones at the seat belt mounts. The body seems to be sitting fine at that and all mounts are tightned down with no ill effects on door gaps. If you have read back further you might have seen that I added some extra re-inforcing to the mid sill in the form of a lenght of box section with outriggers running into the cabin, so that would take a lot of flex out of the tub......

SpitfireIV

Update time



We now have steering! Temporary fitted the aftermarket Astrali wheel while I get the original Triumph wheel refurbished.



As it used to look........almost two year ago! Bloody eck!




Steering column was a pain to fit, but, got there in the end. Its the type of job you almost want three hands for.



Almost all the vital ingredients in place!



Pulled the wiring harness back out and swapped it around to the nearside, makes more sense as regards mounting the fusebox, still though, a lot of wires to be modified in time.



Bit of fettling done with the bonnet then to get it sitting right, not looking too bad now and the door is sitting very well too! Chuffed.



Had to shave a bit off the bonnet where it meets the scuttle, just to full it back abit, still needs to go another bit, but its heading in the right direction. Vast arch gap up front, well, that may be a job for adjustable shocks, was planning on getting lowering springs but I'm not convinced they'd drop it enough.



Shut line flows nicely.



Overview on a nice day! Notice the fuel tank in place also.



Bumper and front valances fitted.......for the look



Bonnet up!

stevesxm

hi,
i will read back and have a look but its all going to come down to when you welded that stuff in. if the body was bolted to the chassis and the doors fit up then thats good news. if the body was off the chassis then you may be in for a bit of a surprise later on that you will need to address because the work you have done has, in fact really strengthend things and its going to be a lot harder to bend back. once i caught on to what was going on, i never used the soft spacers. i used rigid spacer under the center , and simply adjusted their size such that , with the oem hard spacers in the ends but not tightend down, when the center pulled tight, the doors fit and i simply adjusted the thickness of those center spacers as necessary to get the correct amount of bend.and get nice door gaps. ... and for the record, i only did that on street car restorations. on the race cars , i would actually section those areas of the body to allow the body to sit deeper on the chassis to buy a little cg improvement and areo improvement. im off on errands right now and will write a bit more later

SpitfireIV

stevesxm wrote: »

hi,
i will read back and have a look but its all going to come down to when you welded that stuff in. if the body was bolted to the chassis and the doors fit up then thats good news. if the body was off the chassis then you may be in for a bit of a surprise later on that you will need to address because the work you have done has, in fact really strengthend things and its going to be a lot harder to bend back. once i caught on to what was going on, i never used the soft spacers. i used rigid spacer under the center , and simply adjusted their size such that , with the oem hard spacers in the ends but not tightend down, when the center pulled tight, the doors fit and i simply adjusted the thickness of those center spacers as necessary to get the correct amount of bend.and get nice door gaps. ... and for the record, i only did that on street car restorations. on the race cars , i would actually section those areas of the body to allow the body to sit deeper on the chassis to buy a little cg improvement and areo improvement. im off on errands right now and will write a bit more later

Unfortunately the rot was so extensive on the front end of one of the tubs that it was beyond saving so I had to use the front half of the spare Spitty I bought, which as it turned out, had a rotten back end! So the tubs were split in two and the two good halves joined up again along the heel board seam.

The tub was rebuilt on the original chassis (that I'm currently using), hardtop put on, doors fitted and aligned and then bracing added in the door openings before the cills were removed, re fabricated/replaced and then the box section went on. Thankfully as it stand the door gaps are really good with just small adjustments required.

I dropped the tub onto the chassis with no spacers in place and as it turned out the alloy slotted spacers I had were just the right thickness to slide in around the bolts at the four locations, the two rubberised ones at the seat belt mounts were a little more difficult; jacking the car up, reaching in underneath trying to slip them up between the propshaft and over onto the top of the chassis rail, but I got there

stevesxm

CroppyBoy1798 wrote: »

Unfortunately the rot was so extensive on the front end of one of the tubs that it was beyond saving so I had to use the front half of the spare Spitty I bought, which as it turned out, had a rotten back end! So the tubs were split in two and the two good halves joined up again along the heel board seam.

The tub was rebuilt on the original chassis (that I'm currently using), hardtop put on, doors fitted and aligned and then bracing added in the door openings before the cills were removed, re fabricated/replaced and then the box section went on. Thankfully as it stand the door gaps are really good with just small adjustments required.

I dropped the tub onto the chassis with no spacers in place and as it turned out the alloy slotted spacers I had were just the right thickness to slide in around the bolts at the four locations, the two rubberised ones at the seat belt mounts were a little more difficult; jacking the car up, reaching in underneath trying to slip them up between the propshaft and over onto the top of the chassis rail, but I got there

thats really good work and well done. as for other stuff... the late cars like yours had a very bizzare rear spring arrangement with a center roller arrangement which was pretty terrible in all respects. the early cars had a traditional leaf spring that worked a lot better. what i and others did was replace the std spring , regardless of which type with a simple 3 leaf arrangement which the local spring shop would make for me... on the race cars it was 3 leafs ( leaves ?) 3/8 thick with a total arch of about an inch. on the strreet cars it was the same arrangement with one 5/16 leaf and 2- 3/8 and a lot more static arch . you adjusted the ride height with spacers under the spring which were simple al blocks with an allen head so that it located in the diff. i repositioned the trailing arms way way forward on the chassis such that they effectively lined up with the axle u joints and this solved all the bizzare geometry issues . on the race cars i made special axles where there was a sliding joint at the ujoint vs a rigid one as std and then added a second rearward trailing arm to the back of the chassis to form an effective lower wishbone. combined with a rigid rear spring acting as an upper wishbone , this gave a very accurate geometry and simply eliminated all the toe steer. i know using the word " geometry " to describe a swing axle isn't really accurate because the camber gain is a function of ride height and not geometry at all but what it did was allow the wheel to operate in a pure vertical plane with no toe steer at all. it all worked very very well even in street trim. the street car loved the koni red hydraulic shocks and on the race cars i used the koni alum body double adjustable ones which were nosebleed expensive even then. the front geometry suffered from excessive camber gain once the ride height got reasonably low. this was solved by taking the upright and sawing 1/2 " out of it in the center and then tig welding it back together . this effectively lowered the ball joint a 1/2 " and really improved the geometry tremendously. what also helps was tipping the towers outboard by shimming them at the vertical attachment and making tapered spacers for where the attached at the horizontal points. this caused real problems with the motor mounts because the rules did not allow relocating the motor but some judicious cutting and welding of the front plate and spacers resolved that ... obviously not an issue in your case. we were also allowed to use the gt-6 brakes all around. if you plan to run a low front ride height you can relocate the front sway bar to the top of the chassis around the radiator mounts so you don't tear it off all the time. i actually still have an original set of minilites for that car in north carolina... i would post a pic of the 79 championship car if i had any idea at all how to do it. i set a lap record in that car at road atlanta in 79 that stood until they physically changed the race track in the early/mid 90's

oh... one other important thing.... make sure the gas tank has a proper vent. when the late cars like yours came to the states , they had a lot of emissions controls and one of those was a vapor canister arrangement to capture tank fumes. this would fail all the time and on more than one occassion... TWICE right before my very eyes, the tanks would get near empty on a hot day and then cool off at night and litterally collapse into themselves like you would take an empty beer can and crush it in your hands. the problem was that the fuel pickup inside is shaped like a spike ... a 3/8 tube with a sharpened punji stake looking point on it that when the tank collapsed would drive itself thru the bottom of the tank dumping all the remaining fuel into trunk and on the ground... i'm not making this up. i saw it happen twice with my own eyes. you are running efi so you will have a hi press high volume pump with a return , i presume. i won't make a prediction on how that will all work except to suggest that you remember that that tank arrangement was designed for a mechanical pump with no return and probably no adequate vent and will require some thought so that all your good work doesn't end up being someones barn fire someday...

SpitfireIV

Well guys!

Nothing really major to report I'm afraid, just been concentrating on the wiring these past few days and trying to get to grips with that. Think I more or less have it done, as regards the chopping, lengthening and shortening, just a matter now of cleaning it up and routing it!

Apart from that I did a little more work on the bonnet to get it sitting right, so, I'm pretty happy with that.

Ran the main fuel line.....tough job! And fitted the bolt for the handbrake pivot; another tough job under the car, but I have now a functioning handbrake.


Some pics....


Still a mess, but at least all the hacking, shortening and lengthening of wires is taken care of. Next job is to wrap the different bundles and put sleeving on, then make brackets to route the cables neatly.



Have to make up a bracket to support the main fuse box about here somewhere.



Had to have a battery lead made up to reach around to the starter, the original was 10mm flex, as I had to reach a further 12inches or so, I got 16mm panelflex.



Small fuse box to be mounted here.



New bracket made up for the alternator, head spun off on the other bolt hole, bugger! There is another fixing point below the pivot point though. Still have to get a belt, but the alternator will be lifted higher away from the manifold.




Still have to mount the rad, plumb that in, fit the heater, plumb that in. Make up and fit an exhaust, fit the return fuel line and breather, make a mount for a tension roller for the water pump belt, clean up the wiring, make mounts for said wiring.....and then, maybe then I can fire her up proper!!

gctest50

CroppyBoy1798 wrote: »

Thanks for that info ! Very helpful, been looking into it a bit more and it seems the best route is to buy an after market tacho and take the guts out and fit them to my original dial. I'll be sure to let you know how I get on!

the individual clocks (temp, tacho ) ( should! ) be held in by screws in the original toyota dash

+ , - , and signal passes through the screws so you can just put ring terminals on them

SpitfireIV

gctest50 wrote: »

the individual clocks (temp, tacho ) ( should! ) be held in by screws in the original toyota dash

+ , - , and signal passes through the screws so you can just put ring terminals on them

Thanks for that gctest! I've since picked up a period electric Smiths tacho which I plan on robbing the guts out of and swapping them over into my original Jaeger dial housing........we'll see how it goes.


Sorry I've not had a lot to report guys, hasnt been much noteworthy stuff happening really, just a lot of mundane engine bay work.

What has been done is:

• Handbrake cable fitted
• Thee fuel lines routed
• Radiator bracket modified and temporarily fitted in place
• Tension roller bracket made for water pump pulley.
• Alternator bracket modified (still need a spacer)
• Cooling system pipework being routed and measured up.
• Brake system completed.
• Clutch line fitted.

Anyway, here's a video showing some of the above. Pardon the mess of wires, all those in time will be wrapped and routed neatly on brackets.

SpitfireIV

Its the little things! Refurbed heater box....

SpitfireIV

Another mile stone reached!! :)

Bigus

Good man , thanks for taking the time to update.

A big milestone alright and a wise choice of engine , size wise , power wise , age wise( not overly complicated ) in fact a sweet spot of ICE evolution.