Time on the Spitfire

Work on the GT6 has been progressing slowly, with the gearbox tunnel starting to be fitted, to complete it though I will need the cut-down gear extension, so I know where to cut the hole for it.

I have had to do some maintenance on the Spitfire, I felt that it was becoming a bit gutless, so a new condenser and points were ordered. When I came to fit these parts I had great difficulty in driving the Spitfire from its normal parking space up into the barn, where I had all my tools and better lighting. Once up in the barn the points and condenser were replaced and... no change. The car still refused to go above 2000rpm.
Removing the air box revealed that the pistons and needles in the carburetters were not rising as the throttle was opened up. When the dash-pot from the carburetter was removed, the piston came with it - not a good sign. It turned out that over the years films of muck had built up inside and was preventing the piston to move freely. A quick clean the some silver polish and it was all moving well again.


For Christmas I drove in the Spitfire from Wales to East Anglia to meet up with my parents. About five miles into the journey and the car starts missing and the stops completely, on a blind corner just before the summit of a hill. After trying to start it again but to no avail, I jumped out and popped open the bonnet and whipped off the distributor cap, nothing obvious there but connections were checked and I was soon on the go again - at least I could get off the road now.
I drove to the next layby to have a better look, it turned out that a connection on the points from the wire from the coil was intermittent as the wire end had been crimped poorly and the crimp had failed.
I was on the go again though, later while passing through I was able to pick up another condenser and points, this time Lucas made.