Spitfire Spitfire 4: Stripped

[DanNagy]

Dear All,

Here is a photo of my stripped Spitfire. The worked was done at a shop, not by me. I plan to do the interior. It's on its way to return to the original red.

I think the bare metal looks beautiful, and I am told that there is no rust through anywhere on the car. Really, that is amazing to me for a car from 1964. This is the same car you see in my avatar. I knew it was solid and just looked bad from poor paint jobs, but I really didn't expect it to be this good.

I am curious about the front of the car and general smoothness of the metal. The front looks like it's been hammered. This makes me wonder if this is just imperfections introduced over time, or if it is a result of how the car was built.

Enjoy,

Dan

 

[Andrew Mace]

Dan, the sad fact is that countless Spitfires have had their "noses broken" over and/or rolled under somewhat the years. At least for amateur body work skills, it's a difficult area to straighten properly, so most end up with multiple hammer marks and great depths of body filler. :frown: Untouched original Spitfire bonnets are quite smooth in that area.

Just for reference, this is from an early Spitfire 4 Mk2 brochure:

 

[sail]

It's pretty exciting to see them in that state. Maybe you outta just clearcoat it. I really like the early Spits.

 

[DanNagy]

Thanks Andrew. That's a nice photo of the MKII.

The guy that is working on it is the same one that did my TR6. He has 40 years experience with Brit cars and restoration, and he had to do some corrections on it. It's in good hands.

 

[DanNagy]

I just found this photo looking for the other. I like this shot.

 

[DanNagy]

It's pretty exciting to see them in that state. Maybe you outta just clearcoat it. I really like the early Spits.

Yeah, see, that's what I was thinking!