[Paul L]

SpencerMoparFan - My car is so low, practically all other traffic looks like an SUV to me!

I racked up almost 20 years of all weather motorcycling, so know a thing or two about freezing my ar$e off. :roll:

But just given the amount of rust repair work I had to do, I don't want to go anywhere near gritted roads.

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Hurtz - I forgot to say I joined the separate stop/tail wires together to form a single fog light.
( Note - Both the rear light bulbs had blown in this photo. )

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Stude Star - Cheers.

When the gazebo blew over, I took it as a sign from above that a 'less than perfect' paint finish would be OK.

Overall, I still can't really believe how well the car has turned out and it gets a really positive reaction wherever I go.

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Cheers, Paul.

 

[steve1275]

I feel for you Paul, when I go on the motorway a truck tyre is slightly taller than my head ��

 

[Paul L]

Steve - I know what you mean, I took this 'driver's eye' view while waiting at some traffic lights.

Although my strangest motorway experience to date was seeing the passenger in the car in the lane next to me hanging out of the window in order to take a photo of my car on an A4 sized i-pad thingy at 70mph!

Cheers, Paul.

 

[jaydub]

I can relate to that picture... One of my muscle car owning mates recently asked, "Could you possibly find anything smaller?" I mustn't tell him about the JZR I've been looking at! Does have its benefits tho'. Years back we turned up at a hot rod/custom charity do in my Vincent Hurricane (Spitty based) and folk were being turned away due to a lack of space, the marshall just nodded and said, "I'm sure you can fit that in somewhere". We parked in the main door way of a Travelodge!
Car's turned out to look crackin' - and, no doubt, lots of fun.

 

[Paul L]

jaydub - Cheers.

Interesting that you had a Hurricane, as that was going to be my first choice for renaming this car.

But as it had already been taken, I opted for Swordfish to keep with the WWII plane names theme.

Good luck putting your NG TA back together, as I'm sure that turns a lot of heads too.

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I managed to reprofile both the LED reflector and the Lucas rubber mount so they matched.

But then over tightened one of the nuts when fitting and pulled the bolt out of the reflector's plastic back. :roll:

As a temporary measure, I had to drill a hole in the reflector and hold it in place with a small nut and bolt.

Although, as expected, drilling a hole broke the LED circuit board and the light stopped working.

So I ordered another LED reflector, reshaped that as before and then tried very hard not to overtighten it this time.

Excuse the poor photo, but I was working by street light yesterday evening when fitting this.

 

[Paul L]

Finally, when it has not been snowing, raining or foggy, I have been out and about…

Merry Christmas everyone, Paul.

 

[blackpopracing]

Paul, is the reflector a sidelight as well as a reflector?

 

[ivanhoew]

that looks great Paul i think i may have to get some brooklands screens now .

merry CHRISTMAS and thanks for my early pressy


regards
robert.

 

[Paul L]

BlackPopRacing - The reflector has separate stop/tail LED options, but I wired them together for my fog light.
( If you go back a page on this thread you will see more details and how Hurtz used them on his 100E. )

Robert - The advantage of the Brooklands screens is that you can angle them lower for the MOT.
( As provided you can look over the top of the screens, you don't need wipers or screen wash fitted. )

Glad to help Medusa with some lighting, even if it is only on a temporary basis.

Right, I've still got Christmas chores to do, so I'd better go...

 

[Paul L]

2018 Update:

January - Sun setting in the afternoon.

February - I really am as cold as I look.

March - No hope of going for a drive in this.

April - Early morning = Empty car park.

May - Taking my 82 year old neighbour to her church one Sunday.

June - One of my favourite photos of the car.

July - This was taken from a GoPro mounted on the back on my wife's car.
After pressing the record button, I was in a bit of a rush to get going.
Which meant I appear to be flying over the side in true Le Mans style.

I'll put the video link in the next post…

 

[Paul L]

Triumph Swordfish - The Summer Sequel

Introduction:
- This is only my second car video, so I'm still a novice when it comes to recording and editing GoPro clips.
- Still, the car looks much better now that it is painted, compared to being in just grey primer last time.
- The warm weather also meant that I didn't need my woolly hat, fleece or thick gloves this time around.

Music:
- I used my iTunes account for the Matt Monro / "On days like these" sound track on my first film.
- YouTube were happy with this arrangement, but Apple were not, causing a few technical problems.
- So for this video, I used YouTube's own 'copyright free' audio library to select the sound track.
- Which led me to some music that is over 200 years old… Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik".

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

Cheers, Paul.

Video Link:
Running Time = 6 mins 13 secs.

Note:
Make sure you set the YouTube play back quality to the highest setting.

 

[Paul L]

D'Oh!

The post with an 'out take' photo from the video has ended up on the previous page.

 

[ivanhoew]

Well done paul , it looks such an originally old car ...brilliant.

 

[ColinHD]

Looks good Paul:tup:

 

[Paul L]

Hurtz, Cptpugwash, Chaley, Steve1275 & isigone - Thanks for the Likes.

Robert - Cheers.

I am sure Medusa will fool even more people into thinking you are driving a vintage classic.

ColinHD - Thanks.

Similarly, I am sure your build will turn even more heads than mine done!

While I am here, a couple more photos…

This is a reflection from the very shiny paint of the Range Rover that parked next to me.

Popped into the Ace Café for classic car night last week.

There was a bit of interest in the car and it seems to go down well.

Cheers, Paul.

 

[hurtz]

really love the look of this car

 

[Perfect65]

A little cracker. Sadly such a vehicle is probably beyond my 6' 2" bulk but I can dream. I hand painted my old Ford Rochdale GT back in late 60s and it looked fine once I got the hang of crossing out the brush marks as I went. I just remember starting and not stopping till it was all done. Not rubbing down and just used some coach paint I was given with the car. Happy days. What has been done on the mechanical side of things? Any work on the motor such as heat shield for the carbs etc? Did you keep a heater circuit or just left the manifold tube open? On mine the manifold tube was corroded so at that point I just blanked the connections. With modern crap fuel it just takes a little while to warm up but rune not bad from the start. Would welcome comparing notes on the engine department.

 

[Paul L]

hurtz - Cheers.

I must confess, there was a time when this build was in total chaos and I never thought I'd finish it.

But I went back to the drawing board and came up with my own Frankenstein build approach.

The rubbish doors were sealed closed.

The entire original scuttle area was chopped out and rebuilt from scratch.

The rear bodyshell was cut in half.

Which made the other side look like a minor alteration.

After adding a second aero hump, cutting out a boot lid and fixing the resulting mess took ages.
( Note I built the rain channel from underneath before making the cut. )

Cuts to the bonnet started small.

Before getting big.

So by the time I needed a bonnet bulge, cutting things up was second nature.

In fact, towards the end of the build, I'd got pretty good at fibreglass work.

Before.

During.

After:

So the fact the car has turned out as well as, is nothing short of a minor miracle really.

 

[Paul L]

Perfect65 - I'll try to cover your questions as best I can…

By chance, I took my wife's brother out for a drive a few weeks ago.

As a guide, I am around 5' 8", but he is around 6' 4".

So the good news is that you would definitely fit in the passenger side, but it might be a squeeze to drive.

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The car's paint would look a lot better it I didn't have to cover it with a tarpaulin.

I might also have got a better finish with traditional coach paint or even Rustoleum.

As the synthetic paint I used went on really shiny, but lost a lost of shine when sanded smooth.

He only good news is my amateur painting efforts actually make the car look old!

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Also by chance, I've just renewed my insurance who wanted some engine bay photos.

I still need to add some protection panels/inner wheel arches to protect the engine a bit.

The engine was rebuilt by the previous owner, but I'll get a professional to fix the oil leaks over the winter.

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I removed the original Spitfire heater and replaced it with this micro heater set up.

I built a couple of air vent mounts to point into the footwells, as I don't need windscreen demisting.

This is enough to take the edge off cold winter days and help the engine cool in summer traffic.

Although I did fit a new, extra wide, Spitfire radiator and the temp. gauge rarely reaches half way.

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Hope that helps, Paul.

 

[Paul L]

Just a quick update from me…

My car passed its 3rd MOT last month.

The following day I managed to find a quiet spot from some nice Autumn photos.

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London Landmarks Video
'C'était un rendez-vous' was a short car film made in 1976 around the streets of Paris.

Whilst camera was mounted on a Mercedes, the engine sounds came from a Ferrari V12. 8)

Note: You need the YouTube viewing setting at their highest levels for a decent picture.

Until next time, Merry Christmas, Paul.