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A work in progress [purist warning]

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t_bush

t_bush

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Just sharing some photos of my Spitfire restoration in progress. This car was last on the road in 1989. Found in a barn outside of Dallas TX.
Warning. There be modifications here.

-Tim
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The frame has been striped, notched, reinforced, painted, and given a coat of urethane undercoating. New engine mounts have been fabricated and bolted into the original mount locations.

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Here ya go ...

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hint: just put the url of the picture, not the url of the entire Flickr webpage, between the bracketed img tags.

Tom
 
Here is another shot of the frame and engine mounts. You can see the new transmission mount as well:

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...and the remanufactured 3.1L engine. This has a fiero timing cover, water pump, and pulleys.
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Engine,transmission, and driveshaft installed.
A view from the rear:

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rear end:

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The T5
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Some more:

This shows the throttle body and timing cover.
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Intake plenum and exhaust manifold. The manifold outlet isn't welded on yet.
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Front view. The alternator will go on the drivers side. The oilpan has been modified to clear the steering rack. The rack is in the original location.
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Interesting and nice work. I'd love to drive it when you're done. Keep the pictures coming.

Regards,

Not a Purist
 
What Andrew said, Tbush.

If you need help finding the parts, let me know I may be able to point you in the right direction.

Nice work, will be very fun car to drive. :yesnod:
 
Going with the stock springs and brakes for now. The weights calculate up as 30 lbs heavier than the 1500 and 4 speed tranny, 50 lbs lighter than a GT6 6 cyl.
I will upgrade as needed once it is on the road.
It will have ceramic pads and a brake booster though.

-Tim
 
^^^^ aggred....

on every car i have ever rebuilt...

the first thing i did after getting it running was upgrade the breaks...

and remember...all the breaking in the world is useless without a proper sized contact patch... (for me the proper size was usually just bigger than what would fit in the wheel wells...lol)

look great tho. keep the pics coming and thanks for sharing.
 
The only thing I see that will be an issue is the differential. They were iffy with the 6 cyl, much less something with more snot.

you might want to look into something a little more robust, IE the subie diff conversion, or Miata, RX7.

OTT, go for it. Wanna see a video when you're done.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys.
As far as braking goes, unless you stomp on the throttle and the brakes at the same time, engine HP doesn't always require more braking power. The engine is for acceleration and power to overcome drag. The brakes are for deceleration and dissipating kenetic energy into heat. Larger brakes are indicated for more mass, more velocity or frequent use. Important to race or rally, not so much for a daily driver. Too much brake (or not enough tire) can make for touchy brakes that lock up too easily. This can lead to loss of control and longer stopping distances. Upgrading just the fronts can affect the braking balance of the car leading to a nose dive situation and loss of control when the weight comes off of the rears. A booster is a good first step as it can decrease stopping distance with out effecting the braking balance. I like to start there and then see what else needs changing. That said, I have been itching to put four wheel discs on one of these babys. :smile:
On the Differential the opinions seem to vary from "It will never work" to "Should be OK for a daily driver". I decided to go with the stock one until I blow it up. :smile: After that a Subaru one or a Chrome Moly carrier in the Triumph diffy.

-Tim
 
Tim:

You are going to have one hot Spitfire. You might also want to think about how your going to keep the rear wheels on the ground. There isn't much weight in the Spitfire's rearend. You may need to install traction bars or something else.
I love these kind of mods.
Terry
 
Andrew Mace said:
Sorry to sound so contrary, but I don't understand how a booster can decrease stopping distance if no other changes are made? EFFORT, yes, but not distance?
Click to expand...
Normally, you are entirely correct, Andy. However, it appears that some people have brakes that are so badly messed up that they cannot lock the wheels with normal pressure on the brake pedal. In that case, adding a booster might reduce stopping distance.

I still think it would be much better to find and fix the real problem instead of relying on the booster as a band-aid;; but that is one way it might help.
 
t_bush said:
As far as braking goes, unless you stomp on the throttle and the brakes at the same time, engine HP doesn't always require more braking power.
Click to expand...
Doesn't have to be at the same time. All it takes is driving the car hard, meaning (as Mark Knopfler put it) "standing on the throttle, standing on the brakes". If you can accelerate faster, the brakes have less time to cool before you use them again. And eventually they overheat and become ineffective.

And more swept area (to counter the overheating problem) does not necessarily translate to brakes that are touchy or hard to modulate.

Four wheel disc brakes may look sexy, but the front brakes do the majority of the work and hence are much more likely to overheat. I have never had the rear drums fade first, unless the front brakes were already inoperative (and I do enjoy driving hard on occasion).
 
Andrew Mace said:
Sorry to sound so contrary, but I don't understand how a booster can decrease stopping distance if no other changes are made? EFFORT, yes, but not distance?
Click to expand...

No worrys Andy.
A booster raises the ultimate force applied and also increases the pressure vs time curve. From a human engineering standpoint I think the average driver is less likely to over modulate the brakes during hard stopping.
I base my findings from work I have done on Fiero's.
The stock Fiero came with 4 wheel disc brakes that were horrible. They would fade fast and you could not lock up the brakes if you tried too. Stopping distance is excessive. After reading many opinions on how to improve them I ran some tests on my own. I started with a typical fiero and ran two tests stopping distance from 60 to 0 and a fade test with 5 concecutive 40 to 10 mph brakes followed by a 60 to 0 stop.
Test 1 Stock set up with rebuild calipers and master cylinder. New brake fluid (DOT 3).
No improvement.
Test 2 same as test 1, but with high end semi-metallic pads.
Virtully the same stoping distance. Still can not lock brakes. A little less fade.
Test 3 same as test 2 except replaced stock fiero 8" booster with S10 9" booster. Big difference. Stopping distance reduced. better feel. Can lock brakes. brakes still fade, but better stopping even when faded.
Test 4 Same as test 3 except replaced Fiero calipers and rotors with larger Grand Am calipers and rotors. Semimetalic pads.
Slightly increased stopping distance. Longer pedal travel. Not as good feel. Little fading.
Test 5 as test 4 only replaced Fiero master cyclinder with Grand Am unit to match piston bores to MC.
Least stopping distance. Good pedal travel. Easy to lock up if not careful. No appreciable fade.

Based on my tests I decided the best bang for the buck is the booster. On a fiero I feel a stock set of brakes and a better booster would be good for a daily driver if the original calipers were not such junk. I have never seen a Fiero that did not have a locked up rear caliper at some point.
For my Spit a booster and ceramic pads and DOT5 to resist fade seems to be a good stating point
-Tim
 
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