Matthew Taylor's Journal

2-23-15

We are from Mobile. Those that don't know, Mardi Gras originated in Mobile. It's no joke - we take our culture very seriously. I know what your saying - "but you moved to Mobile, your FROM Indiana!". To you I say "Shut up! Its Mardi Gras!".

3-14-15

Very busy time of year, work wise. And, lets face it, Our grades needed more attention than the car. So Cole broke the Triumph fast on his own, while I was doing a bit of Saturday work. He wire wheeled the trunk, and hit it with the remainder of the bed liner.

3-22-15

We spent a few nights during the week, and most of Saturday and Sunday cleaning up accessories. Cole put every piece of chrome and polished stainless through a process: Steel wool and W-40, followed by the polishing wheel mounted to the end of our bench grinder. When he wasn't running it, I was. I used a bit more mild polish, and after a good cleaning, ran the plastic lenses across the wheel.

The main focus for Saturday was the gas cap. The PO had mounted a new gas tank (thanks Larry!), but, it didn't quite line up with the gas cap. We had to center it, and found appropriate spacers in my "spare spacer" drawer. I think my dad said his dad gave them to him. 4, exactly the right thickness, and diameter. I have no idea why I kept them all these years, but there it was. A dab of grease on each one, to hold it to the tank, and we bolted it in. Lined up perfectly.

Next up, the rear piece that the top snaps too. Originally, this piece was glued into the top. Then the piece was attached to the car, so the back of the top was always on the car. Somewhere down the line, the aftermarket top makers stopped adding the pocket for the piece. On most Spits today, as ours was, the piece is panted black, and snaps are added to it. It is then fasten to the car, and the top just snaps on to the piece, just like the sides of the car. In this configuration, since it would show when the top was down, I painted and striped it. Cole pop riveted in the snaps (his first pop rivet job) , and I painted the right half again. The pop rivet gun really shot across that paint fast when it let go.

The other piece that needed to go on was the center tail light assembly. This piece was unique to the '70 U.S. version, known as a "Federal". Although allot of the look of the car would more closely resemble the '69, we wanted to keep the piece. Wire wheeled, I had painted and striped it as well. Next up, the 3 lights fixtures inside got a going over with some 400 grit, and some di-electric grease. Cole polished the chrome caps,and I hit the white - well it turned out to be clear - lens. We changed the bulbs and put 12 volts to it all. No smoke, just license plate and back up lights.

We rounded out the fittings with the trunk handle, and a couple temp turn indicator lights. The hunt was still on for the correct ones.

4-11-15

It probably would have made more since to do it the other way around - but when you do have a Jerry, you tend to use a Jerry! So, in all the great body work and final finish, we still had not addressed the door jams, or anything under the bonnet - paint wise. Fortunately, the striping gave us some good stopping points, and Jerry taught us a new trick with rolling tape, and gun/trigger technique, for blending. We have door finishers, and intend to use them, but, we painted the that area anyway. The finishers tend to go bad, and body color is a popular alternative. So, a few more hours under the mask, and a bit more clear to clean out of the garage, but the jams, and some of the under bonnet work is done. I still need to do the actual back of the bonnet - a project for another day.

4-19-15

With the paint making us smile every time we walk through the garage, it was time to turn our attention to the interior. The wood working, specifically the dash, was coming along nicely. When we test fit the original gauges back in the new dash, it was clear they would not do. The gauges needed going over for sure. The "black out" package of the "70 Federal" was apparent on the gauges as well - the nice shiny gauges of the earlier cars was painted black on ours. Unfortunately, the open backs had allowed a good bit of dust inside too. No choice but to take them apart and clean them up. The original plan was to take off the chipped black paint, and repaint them. But, with some steel wool, and a run on the polisher, they shined up nicely. We decided a more "chrome " look worked with our dark dash.

After cleaning up the gauges, we need some O rings to mount them to the dash. After some hunting, we decided to make some out of Silicone.

4-26-15

Cole has been busy polishing chrome, and wire wheeling hardware. We both really like the original luggage rack - and it cleaned up well. We fabricated gaskets for the bumperets. Neither one of us could bare bolting steel to clear coat. I could not find the elusive Lucas L847 that came on the '70 only - but the extra set of L672 that came with the car (Thanks again Larry!) are found on all the other round tails, and look nearly identical. Ebay brought us new gaskets. I chucked a .223 bore brush in a drill, and cleaned up all the wiring connections. We wired them up, and had tail and break lights.

Now it was on to badging. From the beginning, Cole loved the badging on the pre '70 Spits, and I found it hard to argue. Triumph toted a cleaner look with the elimination of the lettering, in favor of the 1 year only badge. We didn't have anything, it doesn't say "TRIUMPH" or "SPITFIRE" anywhere. Having a clean slate to work with, We stepped back a year, and went for the '69's badging on the rear. More than a little nervous about drilling all the odd placed holes to get the letters to align and be straight, we came up with an alternate plan. Cole cut all the pegs off the letters, and filled the undersides in with JB weld - leaving a nice flat surface. Next, he stuck 2 sided body molding tape across each letter, and very carefully, cut off the excess. While he was doing that, I laid out boxes for each letter on the trunk lid. When they were ready, we just pealed off the backing for the tape, and stuck the letters on the trunk. That worked very well!. Next was the "Spitfire and Mk 3. Cole did the research - the Spit was at 15 degrees, the Mk was at 7. Armed with that - the trunk has no flat or straight edges to measure from, I laid them out on a piece of paper. I taped the paper, aligning the bottom to the bottom of the trunk, and sliding it until it just touched the side. 15 and 7. I drilled them out, and they fit perfectly.