• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.

    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Spitfire Spitfire Grille Identification?

HerronScott

Darth Vader
Offline
Are there any Spitfire Mk I-III experts here that could help identify whether these grilles are for a Mk II or early Mk III?

dcp_1765.jpg


There is a part number in magic marker on the back of one (708592) which seems to point to Mk II, but I'm not sure why I would have picked these up since her Spitfire was a Mk III.

Thanks!

Scott
 
Andy,

Right, I've seen that in the various parts catalogs around. Thanks for checking.

With the extruded aluminim and blacked out upper portions of the horizontal ribs, they look a lot like the treatment on the TR250 grille so perhaps I thought this was the same era (her Spitfire was a 1968).

Scott
 
Funny thing about Triumph grilles: there's a lot of family resemblance! I think most (if not all) were made by Wilmot Breeden, and there were "certain patterns" that repeated across model lines. For example, the fine mesh of the original Spitfire 4 grille panels is pretty much the same mesh as that of the Vitesse 6 (Sports 6) and Vitesse 2L grille!
 
I know they are not MK 1 or 2. They would have been a small mesh. Look to be MK3 mounted on the inside.GT6 is the same as pictured but mounted on the outside. I have a set of those on my shelf.
 
Sorry, but between the picture and part number, no question these are Spitfire 4 Mk2 grille inserts. A look at the appropriate section of the Spitbits online catalog confirms this (as does Rimmer Bros. online catalogue. Not that the parts are available new, because they aren't). The Spitbits diagram shows the Mk3 grille assembly fairly clearly (#30) as well as giving information on the earlier grille inserts (click on #16).

On a less scientific but more personal note, the grilles in the photo above match the two sets of these I've got kicking around my barn: one set on a Mk2 bonnet and the other removed from another <span style="text-decoration: line-through">Mk3</span> Mk2* bonnet. :wink:

*apologies, as per following post
 
Andrew Mace said:
On a less scientific but more personal note, the grilles in the photo above match the two sets of these I've got kicking around my barn: one set on a Mk2 bonnet and the other removed from another Mk3 bonnet. :wink:

Andy,

Did you mean to type Mk2 for both bonnets above?

We need more Spitfire MkII and MkIII owners here. :smile:

We would have kept my wife's as they are great cars but 3 project cars and a project motorcycle is enough when you don't have space or time to work on any of them. :frown:

Scott
 
HerronScott said:
Andy,

Did you mean to type Mk2 for both bonnets above?
Yes, and I've made the correction above. :blush:

HerronScott said:
We need more Spitfire MkII and MkIII owners here. :smile:
I've been a fan of the "roundtail" Spitfires almost as long as I've been a fan of the Herald!
 
Back
Top