And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Just say "NO" to English cars. In 1977 I had the opportunity to buy a 74 Spitfire 1500 that had an electrical fire under the hood that had 26k miles for a stupid cheap price. There was not much damage except to the Lucas wiring harness and some scorched paint and at some point the top had been left down during a rain and the carpet was moldy. I was a junior in high school and my dad convinced me it would be a good project and he would teach me electronics as we rebuilt the car.
We were unable to clear up enough of the wiring gremlins to get the car good enough to run so dad contacted one of his military buddies in England and 6 weeks latter I had a complete wiring harness. I unsnapped the connector and removed the engine compartments harness. The car cranked and ran but the valves were rattling like a diesel engine. During the down time I had pulled the seats and carpet and replaced the carpet and put the seats back in.
We pulled the head off the engine and every valve guide was loose. I get the head to a machine shop and a week later we had it back on. After getting it back together the engine sounded like it was supposed to but the clutch was slipping.
The transmission in a Spitfire is removed from the car via maintenance panels in the driver compartment. Seats and carpet come back out and I removed the transmission so I could remove the flywheel and have it resurfaced. On to fixing the scorched paint.
The guy that was supplying the paint could not get it to match. It's a small car so I learned how to paint a car. When I had a paint run I would clean the paint off that panel and go on to the next. I ended up with about 5 coats on it. I hand buffed it and it looked fantastic.
I get the transmission parts and put it all back together. I drove it for a few thousand miles until I had brake light problems. We ended up using a portion of the extra harness to fix the issue.
I had enough with this car and put a For Sale sign on it. It was a 4 year old convertible with a great paint job, it ran great, and I had it for less than 6 months. Luckily I was able to double the money that I had in the car. That is the only time a made a profit on selling a car.
A girlfriend of mine back in college had a Spitfire.
I liked its looks, but I liked her looks more; and the Spitfire didn't have a bench seat, alas. Still, it was an improvement over my 90cc Ducati dirt bike!
Good enough to win LeMans in '51 and '53 and set a record of +100mph for seven days and seven nights.
There is no comparison between any Jaguar built in the '50s and a British Leyland car built in the '70s. The build quality of the '70s BL cars was on a par with the Soviet Lada.
My '70 Norton Interstate was a gas, rode that bile all over the west. At about 25,000 the Lucas wiring said enough and fried out. I stored it for about 10 years and finally just sold it-big mistake, it would've been fun to redo.
Just say "NO" to English cars. In 1977 I had the opportunity to buy a 74 Spitfire 1500 that had an electrical fire under the hood that had 26k miles for a stupid cheap price. There was not much damage except to the Lucas wiring harness and some scorched paint and at some point the top had been left down during a rain and the carpet was moldy. I was a junior in high school and my dad convinced me it would be a good project and he would teach me electronics as we rebuilt the car.
ReplyDeleteWe were unable to clear up enough of the wiring gremlins to get the car good enough to run so dad contacted one of his military buddies in England and 6 weeks latter I had a complete wiring harness. I unsnapped the connector and removed the engine compartments harness. The car cranked and ran but the valves were rattling like a diesel engine. During the down time I had pulled the seats and carpet and replaced the carpet and put the seats back in.
We pulled the head off the engine and every valve guide was loose. I get the head to a machine shop and a week later we had it back on. After getting it back together the engine sounded like it was supposed to but the clutch was slipping.
The transmission in a Spitfire is removed from the car via maintenance panels in the driver compartment. Seats and carpet come back out and I removed the transmission so I could remove the flywheel and have it resurfaced. On to fixing the scorched paint.
The guy that was supplying the paint could not get it to match. It's a small car so I learned how to paint a car. When I had a paint run I would clean the paint off that panel and go on to the next. I ended up with about 5 coats on it. I hand buffed it and it looked fantastic.
I get the transmission parts and put it all back together. I drove it for a few thousand miles until I had brake light problems. We ended up using a portion of the extra harness to fix the issue.
I had enough with this car and put a For Sale sign on it. It was a 4 year old convertible with a great paint job, it ran great, and I had it for less than 6 months. Luckily I was able to double the money that I had in the car. That is the only time a made a profit on selling a car.
A girlfriend of mine back in college had a Spitfire.
DeleteI liked its looks, but I liked her looks more; and the Spitfire didn't have a bench seat, alas. Still, it was an improvement over my 90cc Ducati dirt bike!
The parts falling off are of the finest British workmanship.
ReplyDeleteGood enough to win LeMans in '51 and '53 and set a record of +100mph for seven days and seven nights.
ReplyDeleteThere is no comparison between any Jaguar built in the '50s and a British Leyland car built in the '70s. The build quality of the '70s BL cars was on a par with the Soviet Lada.
Al_in_Ottawa
Why do the English like warm beer? Because all the refrigerators are made by Lucas.
ReplyDeleteMy '70 Norton Interstate was a gas, rode that bile all over the west. At about 25,000 the Lucas wiring said enough and fried out. I stored it for about 10 years and finally just sold it-big mistake, it would've been fun to redo.
ReplyDelete