10CR shed and all that -PART ONE

I really couldnt be arsed to write about the Spitfire and the 10CR when I got back from the run as the lead up to it had been so intense I just had to park the thing up in the Shed and get back to normality for a while!  so now is the time to recall the story of the Spitfire,sheds 10cr and all that .......

Let me begin, back in April a man was out walking his dog and spotted a 1978 Spitfire 1500 in a shed ,he then told another man who likes sheds ......that  man then went mad and decided to get the shed out of the shed it had been in for 13 years and get it ready to drive 2,500 miles round Europe he had very little time and very little money and only one leg that worked properly  ...but he did it and the car made it too this is his story..

That first inspection of the Spitfire really didn't reveal any surprises it was a typical car that had had a checkered past,having been tarted up on the outside bits you could see during the classic car "boom"  and botched on the underneath bits you couldn't see so ,but I decided I wasn't going to get much better for the price (the bonnet,front wings and boot lid were mint and worth the asking price on their own) my plan was to botch over the botches on the floor  and body tub and restore /refurbish replace the mechanical s with decent second hand parts - I sort of stuck to that plan but underestimated the botches I was prepared to put up with,there were three levels of welding/ repairs that I found
1-bloody shite-this included metal from washing machines undersealed into place ,
2-shite-this inclued patches blobed into place using a welder of sorts to hold the seat belt mounts in etc
3- OK -This included outer sills gas welded on and the repairs to replacement bonnet wings etc

So I set about cutting out the bloody shite,and shite -putting in new inner sills , strengtheners and "A" post bottoms , fabricating the rest of the repair panels my self ,this all took time which I didn't have
 - I was on 12 hour shifts with a 1 hour trip each way to work- getting about 4 or 5 hrs sleep an night I had forgotten what my family looked like , in among the Spitfire repairs I rewired the fist  and second floor lighting circuits as well as pressing on with other house restoration work,my dodgy knee was also getting worse- a resultant consultation with the medical professionals diagnosed a knee replacement  was needed due to the damage that had been done 15 years earlier playing rugby -this was a job I couldn't do myself in the shed so kept taking the pain killers and limped  a lot  pretending it was fine -setting a date for the procedure post 10cr

With a month to go before the 8th of  September event  start the welder was finally put away and the really late nights started -2am was normal bed time -here is a list of the major bits done.
Home made dash installed -the old one was disintegrating
Re-wire,installing relays and moving fuse box to inside car
Front suspension stripped and re-bushed (SuperFlex)- every sodding nut nut and bolt was shagged and just added to the time taken column constantly pushing back the planned MOT date
Front uprights turned out to be beyond repair so were replaced after several attempts of locating decent second hand units
Trunions replaced
New N/S stub axle fitted
New front wheel bearings fitted
New rad fitted with twin electric fans
New water pump
Master cylinders replaced
New rear slaves fitted
Brake lines replaced with new
Discs and calipers replaced - the N.O.S discs  cost £2.99 off ebay no one wanted them as they had  a bit of surface rust and  the new new calipers came with the car they were in the boot
N.O.S clutch plate kit located and fitted
Rear spring +  drive shafts replaced with good second hand units
New uprated rear dampers
Good second hand uprated  front dampers and springs
Rear bushes replaced
Dizzy replaced with good second hand unit
Electronic ignition fitted
Original carbs binned -jet bush sized etc etc so a set from a Triumph 2000 I had on the shed  shelf were refurbished on the bench and   homade linkage and air filters added

It seemed every single job hit a snag ,even the wheels that came with the car didn't fit-including the steering wheel that was home made by some Muppet with a death wish -they had used  3 self tappers to hold the rim to the boss. I couldn't give up, I wouldn't, I was sick of unfinished projects I was in  deep.
I fired the engine for the first time, it ran sweet my luck had changed-on hearing it run  I had an instant gut feeling that the car was going to make it round  even though the water pump leaked on that first fire up I somehow knew it wasn't going to let me down.
MOT was achieved on the 23rd of August ,still with plenty of snagging  left to do from the rebuild/refurb work,the serious stuff of "preparation" started any old car of any condition needs this  prior to a hardcore European long distance event
Homer came down a few days before to our planned departure to help out and in his normal way settled my nerves and did some of the pain in the ARSE jobs -like raiding a wiper motor from a 2000 and making it work on the spitfire (the original unit making a bad grinding noise and becoming very slow on the run back from the MOT)
My biggest concern was the diff I had only managed to do around 200 test miles and the clunking from it didn't inspire confidence I guessed it was the front pinion bearing but with one day to go had no chance of replacing it so it would have to be wing and prayer

(Have a look at the previous posts for pictures of the above "works")

Notes from the trip itself to follow in part two!