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Spitfire New 69 Spitfire owner here to read and maybe post

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Jorgen

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I introduced myself in the general intro forum but thought I would say a few words here. Since I am new to the little Brits I will be reading every piece of information I can on this forum. Hopefully that gets many of my basic questions and issues answered at least.

A little about me and the car: I am 26, an Engineer and live in Metro Detroit area of Michigan. I bought the car because 1. I need something in the garage to work on and 2. I can use my wifes love of these things as an excuse for the purchase. I purchased the car locally from a guy who was the second owner after a (mediocre) body restoration job. the passenger side of the car was done well but the driver side area below the door and bottom of the fenders was done badly. It still looks good right now but I will be needing tho strip that area and figure out what needs to happen to bring it up the quality I can accept. I also need to reexamine the floor patch job that was done as it appears to have been done for function and not restoration. The rest of the body is mostly good, newer red paint (formerly blue car). The interior was also done using fabric from the local fabric store and carpet that was designed for interior home use. The only gauge that appears to work is the fuel gauge, I am hoping to be able to figure out the wiring gremlins over the winter. The transmission was supposedly rebuilt about the time of the body clean up and paint job and it [censored] well as far as I can tell. The exhaust is shot so when I run the car it is loud as can be and smokes a bunch. I need to get the exhaust replaced or replace it myself before I will be able to figure out much more about my smoking problem. The way the carbs were set the engine would start and run then stall out pretty quickly. I looked at them a little and moved what I believe is probably the choke a bit and now it runs strong but seems to idle high to me (sounds high, maybe it is normal). I will be around here looking for parts to replace/rebuild broken or worn items and information to figure out how to get things thing to a suitable driver level. The car does need a little to get it driving (and likely breaking down every other day) and a lot more to get it to the level I want to have her at where she will at least reliably run for 3 or 4 days at a time. The progress on this car will be slow for at least the next 6 months as my wife and I also just bought a house. I am spending a significant amount of time remodeling portions and just doing general paint and maintenance items on other areas.

If you have any questions of me please feel free to ask.
 
Welcome to the forum. Kind of sounds like the condition my Herald was in when I bought it. Fortunately the mechanical bits are very simple and easy to work on.
What you NEED to get is a copy of the factory workshop manual. Look on fleabay, they are available both in the orriginal printed version or scanned onto CD. Also you have already found about the best resource on the Web so join the fun.
 
Have you heard of The Detroit Triumph Club? They will certainly help you out in a pinch. They brought a Spitfire to our show last year that they restored in something like 48 hours. Yes, there were a whole bunch of people involved and the car turned out quite nice. Here is a link to their website
www.detroittriumph.org
 
Welcome! I had a dark blue '69 Spit when I was a kid. Had a blast with it (as long as I could keep it running)!
 
Our project is a '72 Spitfire. I'm learning that there are multiple fixes from previous owners that I need to put right. I'm also learning that the car is a bit different than I remember our GT6 was during its restoration. Welcome aboard. I for one will be watching for your posts.
 
Let me add my welcome to this great forum and good luck with the Spit. Always nice to have another Triumph afficionado in the fold.
 
Welcome aboard Jorgen. It's good to see some young blood getting involved with LBCs (Little British Cars). Most of us around here are older then dirt holding onto cars that we had in our youth.

There's a great bunch of guys here with infinite wisdom and knowledge concerning these cars, so don't hesitate to ask questions. BTW, I've seen that the best way to ask questions is ONE AT A TIME. Well, maybe two. If you ask alot of questions at once, there will always be some that just don't seem to get answered.

Triumphs are straight forward, generally easy to repair and parts are readily available.

So, good luck with the project.
 
Welcome to the forum! Good people and good help abound!
Where at in Detroit?
 
Thanks all for the warm welcome. I will likely post some questions and hopefully someday information. I am actually picking up a few parts form a Detroit Tiumph Club member, trying to unload his overstock, in the next few days and they will hopefully help me along the road as it sounds like a good number of spares and random parts I will likely need.

Dale: I see you are in Bloomfield. The house I just bought is in Bloomfield Township in Foxcroft sub just north of maple and west of telegraph. Glad to see some others from my local area.

Hilsideser: As said to Dale I live in Bloomfield Township. I work in Northville Michigan as well so if there are any members out that way the car will likely make the trip to work a few times next year or later this year (not very likely this year)when I have later morning and or early afternoon meetings and can avoid the heavy morning traffic.
 
Welcome indeed and congratulations on your new car/hobby/all-consuming addiction. I got my driver about 2 years ago and drive it all the time all year round. Of course they don't salt the roads here so that helps. I recommend getting the Bentley manual as well as the Haynes. And we love pictures.
 
I have all the chrome and some other bits off right now being cleaned up and checked out to make sure I know the condition of things. Once I get those back on I will post up some pictures. The car did come with a manual, I believe it was a haynes. I used it a little while trying to find the bleeder screw on the brakes. It did help me realize the spot I thought I should be bleeding from was correct it was just broken.
 
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