Baldrick's Winter Makeover

I’m going to break this up into a few posts to keep the posts a bit shorter…

Part 1:

Last winter we pulled the engine and transmission out of my Volvo to convert it from automatic to manual with electric overdrive. It was 4 months of thinking, “We must be insane”, but everything turned out great in the end.

This winter, I decided it was the Spitfire’s turn, though not for anything so drastic. In one year since I bought the car, I’ve watched the passenger’s seat upholstery disintegrate almost before my eyes. In November, I purchased new seat covers and foam to recover both seats and a new carpet set (since we’d have the seats out anyway). In addition to the seats we also planned to:

1. Install heated seat kits in both seats
2. Convert the ZS carb to the SU’s that we picked up at Carlisle last May
3. Install the Nardi steering wheel that’s been hanging on my garage wall for months
4. Replace my noisy differential with a good used one we picked up from a friend.
5. Carpet the trunk
6. Install my new headlights.
7. Install rear speakers

Fast forward to late February. We hadn’t even touched the car yet and I had already registered for the Carlisle show in May. Time to get cracking. We pulled the seats out so I could work on re-covering them. Actually, the process was much better than I had expected, even with the added task of installing the heating elements. I would have had both seats done in a weekend had I not decided to repaint the wire basket frames under each seat. Amazingly, they were the only parts of the seat frame that had any rust. The old seat straps were pretty much shot as well, but I couldn’t bring myself to spend $60 per seat for new ones so I took the cheap way out. Went to my local hardware store and bought a bunch of short bungee cords. $60 per seat dropped to $7 per seat.

While I was working on the seats, Ian, began pulling out the old, very nasty, carpet, and dropping the rear section of the exhaust to gain access to the differential. While removing the boot from the e-brake handle, we decided that it really needs to be replaced. There are numerous tears in the boot. A quick search revealed that you can’t just buy a new boot. The places I found only sell you the boot attached to that e-brake cover/armrest thingy (for upwards of $80). So, I’ve now decided that I’m going to make my own custom boot and attach it to the existing cover myself. I might even go so far as to embroider a Triumph logo or something onto that boot. And since I’m doing that one, I’ll probably make a shifter boot to match. But that’s a project I’ll dig into later…

In early March, we made a trip down to British Miles to check out a NOS Volvo roof rack that Tom wanted to show me. While there we got to chatting about the Spit and what we were working on. He asked if my car had overdrive. No… Would I like to have overdrive? Yeah, someday... How’s your current transmission doing? Well, it makes this sort of crunching noise when you shift too quickly and ALWAYS when shifting into reverse... That means your syncros are going… Crap. You know, while you’ve got the interior torn out, now is the time to do the conversion. Crap… I’ve got a couple good overdrive transmissions if you want to do the swap…

So a week later we were back down there picking up my new transmission.

If you’ve noticed, a small snowball has just formed and has begun to grow…

Some pictures of the start of the project:

Here's an unsuspecting Baldrick resting peacefully, completely unaware of his pending doom:


A before shot of the dashboard in case we never see it in one piece again:


And the area behind the seats:


Let the "fun" begin! Here's a shot after the seats are gone:


The seats before I got started:


And the after:


More to come later...

Part II

We began removing the dashboard with the intent of making a new one. The plan was to add the heated seat switches, and now my overdrive switch, to the dashboard and I really didn’t want to cut holes in the original. Plus, I really want something in a veneer that will more closely match my Nardi steering wheel. Why an overdrive switch in the dash you ask? Well, the transmission I got didn't come with the appropriate switch mounted in the knob, I didn't feel like spending the money to buy one, and I actually really like the plain wood knob I have right now.

Removing the dash, plus the plans to upgrade the headlights, add heated seats, and add the wiring for a future stereo amp led to a discussion that began, “You know, while we’ve got the interior out and we have to do all this extra wiring, wouldn’t it make sense to change out the wiring harness?” OK, maybe that doesn’t make sense to anyone else out there, but it did to us… at the time. So, I ordered a replacement harness from Advanced Auto Wire. I’m told I’m lucky #13 on the list and should see something by the end of March.

With all those new accessories maybe it was time to consider upgrading the alternator… Hmmm… Maybe we could hold off on that in the interest of trying to save some money. Oh, and by the way, the new harness, while designed for a British car, is already set up to work with a GM alternator. OK. No brainer. Off to Pep Boys to buy the 60A alternator recommended on Paul Tegler’s website… We still need to pick up a new bracket to mount it and a longer belt, but we’ll save that 'til we actually get around to installing the alternator.

Now we’re up to about March 5th. The “new” differential came into my sunroom, aka “restoration clinic”, to be cleaned up and painted. I like to get POR-15 on anything I put in the car. It makes the parts look nice, makes them nicer to work with, and stops rust. I scraped about a pound of crud off the differential then followed up with a good scrubbing with Marine Clean, Metal Ready and then a coat of POR-15. I plan to topcoat that with one of POR-15’s engine enamels for a nice finish. OK, so nobody will ever really be able to see the differential but I’ll know its there (and shiny ). The existing paint on the differential (or what’s left of it) and the transmission is black. I plan to change that to POR-15’s “MG Maroon” so any leaks will be a bit easier to see. I know, I know. MG Maroon on a Triumph? Well I figured it was better than Ford blue, or Hemi Orange. At least it’s a British car color!

The “new” transmission is also in the clinic awaiting the same treatment, though it has already received a pretty decent cleaning by British Miles, so the process should go much more quickly. We purchased a transmission gasket kit and new seals that we’ll install before dropping it into the car as well.

Interior progress:


Differential before:


All the dirt that I scraped off:


The differential after Marine Clean and Metal Ready, waiting for paint. What you see is a combination of rust, bare metal and some original black paint:


The new transmission awaiting some minor cleaning and then paint:


End Part II. Still more to come...

And look! you found money under the seat! This hobby is practically paying for itself!

Looks great! There's just something about cleaning off all the gunk that really scratches a certain itch.

ps I really like your Volvos as well.

Wow You Haven been a busy camper!

Looks great keep up the good work and keep us posted !

i feel like i'm not getting anything done now...but good work.

keep it up.

Thanks. I've got "Part III" ready to post but I need to upload some pictures first. Hopefully tonight.

Part III:

This past weekend (3/10), we found a victim… I mean friend… to help us pull the transmission out of the car. It went pretty smoothly. Only took a couple hours, though at times it seemed like it would never come out. With the transmission out, we pulled the clutch off. To our surprise, the clutch appears to be fairly new (I’ve only had the car for a year) so I’ll get to save the money I would have spent for a new one. The flywheel too, appears to be in excellent condition so we won’t have to get it resurfaced. Woohoo! Finally we pulled out the old rear engine seal and replaced it with a new one. One of those “while we’re in there” kind of things…

In order to get the transmission out, we had to drop the front part of the exhaust system. It made it easier to work with the jack that we had under the car supporting the transmission's weight. While disconnecting the exhaust at the manifold, Ian discovered that my manifold has several cracks in it and that it has already been repaired at least once before. Crap. So on Sunday night I broke down and ordered the Bell S.S. header to go with my Bell exhaust from last fall. I had always planned to do the header, but planned to wait a year or so to spread out the cost. Since we were already going to have to take the manifold off to install the SU carbs, it made sense to do the header now rather than later.

Look at the size of that snowball. Where did that come from?

In preparation for eventually installing my new carpet, I decided to clean up the floor pans in the car and apply a nice coat of POR-15 to protect them from rust. The entire interior, is currently covered in a layer of black, sticky gunk which I can only assume is the waxoyl I’ve read so much about. Let me just say that this stuff must be a creation of the devil, at least, if like me, you’re trying to remove it. A full day on Saturday and I had only managed to get the passenger side cleaned up, not including the entire footwell area. You might ask why I’d bother to remove this. First, I don’t want to get this crap on my nice new tan carpet set. Second, I wanted to see exactly what condition my floor pans are in rather than assuming they are OK. It’s been a pain in the butt, but I’m glad I’m doing it because despite the waxoyl, I have uncovered a few areas of surface rust that I’ll address before we install the carpet. The same goes for the trunk. That will get cleaned up and then I plan to install some carpet that I picked up at an auto parts store. I’m really tired of everything I put in the trunk coming out covered in black sticky gunk.

We also started removing the original wiring harness. Everything has been pulled out of the trunk and into the foot well area, mainly so I can continue cleaning the floor pans. All the wires are labelled so we know what everything ran to. We'll leave the rest of the harness in place if possible until the new one arrives.

I headed over to our local specialty lumber yard to check out veneers and pick out what I want to use for the dashboard. While we wait for the wiring harness to arrive, we can begin working on fabricating the new dashboard. Unfortunately, they didn't have as great a selection as I was led to believe and the guy behind the counter was less than willing to help me. I'm guessing he assumed I was some stupid woman who wouldn't know a piece of oak from pine. Whatever the case may be, I'll look elsewhere for what I want.

Phew! I think that’s the whole story up to now. As time allows I’ll keep updating this thread with our progress and some additional photos.

The interior with the dashboard completely removed (yes, the car was originally Pageant Blue):


Progress on the floor pan cleaning:


Transmission removal:


New rear engine seal (important because it's the first new part to go ON the car instead of come OFF):


Baldrick as he looked after Sunday:


And now, let's play a fun game... How many Spitfire parts can you spot in this picture:


That brings things pretty much up to date. I'll try to keep the thread updated as things move along. Tonight I'm off to paint the differential since my engine enamel arrived today!

"Yins" are really crackin' some pots!!! Nicely done.

Lookin' like a full-steam ahead project. Must be nice to be young. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif

...I recognize that "Blue Rhino" gas bottle as th' fuel fer the Spitfire's BOILER... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif

Wow, wow, wow.....Great Job!!! May the light continue to shine on you as this project continues.

Thanks, I now have a worse headache.

After looking at the links in your signature, at least I know I'm not the only one who takes progress pics and posts them to his web site.

I have even more pictures but I just never upload them all. I even took time lapse photos of the transmission being removed from the car... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rolleyes.gif

Nice story, Robyn! Believe it or not, I actually had a beautiful P-1800 at one time, also!
Keep up the nice job!

Nice job, Jerseygirl! What did you use to get the floorpans so "blue"? I've got the same job ahead in my TR6....

TR6BILL said:

Thanks, I now have a worse headache.

Click to expand...

So you're working in a garage with two propane heaters going too, eh?

Nevermind... you're in LA... like you ever need supplemental heating... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

mrv8q said:

Nice job, Jerseygirl! What did you use to get the floorpans so "blue"? I've got the same job ahead in my TR6....

Click to expand...

I'm sure there's a better way but...

I used a putty knife to scrape off as much as I could. Some areas scraped right down to paint with that method and others were more stubborn. For the more stubborn areas, I used odorless mineral spirits and lots of paper towels. What the mineral spirits wouldn't touch, I broke out some brake cleaner (the only othe solvent I had handy in the garage).

It has still been an ordeal. The area under the passenger seat took me all day Saturday. Sunday I got the area under the driver's seat, and on Monday after work, I started, but did not finish, the passenger's footwell area. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rolleyes.gif

After Monday night I decided to take a couple days off as my hand was aching and I could feel a nice big blister forming. I'll probably get back to scraping tomorrow. Yippee...

She left out the copious amounts of swearing... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wall.gif

It's been a slow couple days but I did get the second (and final) coat of paint on the differential yesterday.

Mmmmmmm! Delicious! Just out of curiosity, why red vs. say...silver? Actually, I think that red will look pretty cool under that black car.

It's not actually red. It's actually "MG Maroon" but the picture didn't capture the color well.

I did maroon because that's the color I'll eventually use on the engine when we get around to working on it. Bought the paint, so I figured I might as well make use of it. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/yesnod.gif