The ultimate in poor/cheep choice. My friend wanted
a spitfire and he was going to get one, no matter what.
Problem is, he didn't know much about cars. He bought
(for 1500 bucks) a 1976 rust chunk that had been a spitfire
at one time. Important point, he didn't let any of us
take a look at it before he bought it. So he showed up
one day in this thing - man what a piece of junk. He took
me for a ride. The first thing that went wrong is that
I got battery acid all over me due to the lack of bottom
in the battery box. A few minutes later we
started to hear funny noises from the engine which soon
became the clank of a connecting rod eating its bearing.
I said to my friend "did he (the guy who sold the car) say
that he had done any work on the engine?" "Yes." What did
he do I asked. "he replaced the engine bearings." Did he
regrind the crank and ...." I ask. "No, the guy said it
was all good in the engine." So I happen to have an old
engine sitting around and we put it in the car. It needed
a muffler. My friend takes it to the repair shop and the
shop refused to work on the car. It turns out there was
NO frame left under the car from about the seat area on
back. The rear wheels, more or less, were staying under
car by virtue of the fact they had done it so long, I
guess they saw no point in doing anything else. There
was NO frame at all. Hardly even an indication that
there ever was one either. So if you ever feel like
someone has taken you for a ride, just think of my buddy
and try not to laugh too hard.
Woodruff@caen.engin.umich.edu
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