• 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 Triumph Spitfire Frame and Rustproofing

Share this page

R

RedSpit

Freshman Member
Country flag
Offline
Hello all:

I just bought my current spit last fall. I had to do some frame repairs under the rear axles on the right side due to rot. (And pulled out all the mouse nests before doing the repairs.

Now, I'm trying to rustproof inside the frame since I know that with these cars (the era in general, not just BL) if you can't see it with your eyes, it does not have paint on it. Just bare metal.

I've come up with a modification for aerosol cans of Rust Check (A product used in Canada. I'm sure there are US, UK and other equivalents to it. Very thin like machine oil and does not dry out.) to extend the nozzle tube about 4 feet. The extension tubing is plastic, the end is pinched off and then I've perforated it so it sends out four jets at 90° to each other. The idea is to insert the tube into the frame as far as it will go, start spraying, and slowly withdraw the tubing. It will coat the four walls of the frame inside as I withdraw it.

Roadblock. First attempt, I managed to get about 2' of tubing into the rear frame extensions and it stops. Since the frame extensions don't appear in the images on Moss, Rimmer and other parts sites, I assume they are added on after the fact and there is a wall there on the frame. But, I don't know for sure.

Then, I tried from the front and inserted the tubing into the oval holes on the insde of the frame at the front and I can only get the tubing in about as far as the mounts for the shock supports are welded onto the frame. (And where all the wishbone bolts go though. The tubing is only 1/16" OD so I know it would get past the bolts if that's all that's there.

Question: Does anyone here know the inside of a spitfire frame well enough to know if there are baffles inside that are not seen? I can put the car up on stands to get under it and attack the problem from the holes in the frame under the car (the provided ones. I fixed the ones that didn't belong there) and push the tubing into the frame in both directions. But I want to be sure I'm not hitting baffles that stop me rustproofing past that point. (And the area beyond may not be reachable from the next access hole.)

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Welcome!

You might want to try and track down the guide for Waxoyl or similar, their guides for MGBs and other cars have detailed instructions on where to spray for coverage.

My guess if you had good pressure while spraying and used a large quantity of spray with good flow properties you'd get it all, but I'm sure the Spitfire guys will be along shortly.
 
Thanks for the welcome!

I'm new to this forum but not to LBC's over my lifetime. I've had 4 Mini's (the REAL ones), one each Austin 1100, 1300 and 1800, a Hillman Minx and - my very first - An Austin A40. Goes back a long way.

I've also experienced the problems of body rot, especially on some of the Minis. (These were all daily drivers and they use a lot of calcium chloride on the roads in Ontario (Canada.) during the winters. I just couldn't seem to get the best of it in the past with the rustproofing materials available here at the time. (Mostly brush and spray-on tar compounds that just make the problem worse.) The new "forever wet" ones I can get offer a lot more hope.

I just want to make sure I get every nook and cranny on this wee beastie so it doesn't get any worse than it already is.

I'll go see if I can find the waxoyl info you mention.

Many thanks!
 
I have two Spitfires and cannot answer your question. I did try to do the same as you on the 64 that a restored from the ground up. I don't recall baffles, but they may ahve well been there. Its been a LONG time since I did it. I do recall shooting a waxy type rust preventative in all the wholes in the frame as best I could. I also turned it in all directions to try and get it to drip around inside. I considered pouring used motor oil into the frame and sloshing it around. But sanity returned.
 
BTW Waxoyl is fairly expensive and it isn't in the US (I think). Don't know about Canada. There is a recipe for making up your own. Google search 'homemade waxoyl'.
 
Eastwood Heavy Duty AntiRust is an alternative, as is homebrew. The key thing is to get good coverage. If it flows well I think you are in good shape.

I have adopted an approach of using cavity wax on anything that doesn't rotate :smile:


Keep us posted.
 
Maybe Tony at Ratco can help you, possibly on information if nothing else. Granted his caveat is 6 frames, but I would imagine that he has some knowledge of frame fillers...
 
LPS 3 does the same job for a lot less money.
 
As it happens, I have a '73 1500 chassis that was cut off in front near the turrets/wishbone mount. It does appear that there is virtually no pass-through where the bolts go through for the wishbones. Meanwhile, though, I've seen very little rot of a Spitfire chassis beyond the '74 and later rear boot outriggers, and to some degree forward of those to the area under the rear axles. Beyond that, the main rails seem to survive pretty well, but some of the welded-on outriggers that support the body tub can rust. But they're fairly easily replaceable!
 
Andrew Mace said:
As it happens, I have a '73 1500 chassis that was cut off in front near the turrets/wishbone mount. It does appear that there is virtually no pass-through where the bolts go through for the wishbones. Meanwhile, though, <span style="font-weight: bold">I've seen very little rot of a Spitfire chassis beyond the '74 and later rear boot outriggers, and to some degree forward of those to the area under the rear axles.</span> Beyond that, the main rails seem to survive pretty well, but some of the welded-on outriggers that support the body tub can rust. But they're fairly easily replaceable!
Click to expand...
Never underestimate the ingenuity of the Province of Ontario to find something to put down on the winter roads to melt salt and rot cars. I've two people right now offering me "parts" Spitfires where there is almost nothing left of the frame from ahead of the rear axles right back to where the outriggers bolt up to the rear bumpers. I think it has a lot to do with how long it was winter driven by the first owner before it was considered "collectible" and stored over the winters to prevent salt exposure.

Probably has a lot to do with how the car is looked after. Mine only has 43,000 miles on it and the guy I bought it from told me he'd had the engine rebuilt.... and when I checked the compression on it after buying it, I found that the #4 cylinder has less than half the compression of the other three. (Rings, not valves. I tried the "oil in the cylinder" diagnostic.) So it seems in need of ANOTHER rebuild. ie: This car was not well taken care of.

I'm making progress with the rust proofing. Thanks for the confirmation that I can't push a tube past the suspension bolts at the front. I'll get the car up on blocks and start exploring the oval vent holes on the inside of the frame under the floor pans. I'll see how far I can poke the tubing in either direction from those.


Rick
 
Back
Top