For those of you contemplating using a TR4 rack on a roundtail Spitfire
these are the gotchas that I have now discovered in doing this. The TR4
rack will fit, sort of, but will require modifications. The luggage rack I
purchased is the reproduction rack the big three carry. I dont really
think it matters who it comes from as they will probably all be the same.
The main problem is that the TR4 rack (as I purchased it) has two L shaped
brackets with holes in them welded to the lower rail that mount to the
holes that the TR4 (USA) license plate would normally occupy. The Spitfire
application does not use these brackets and the lower rail is simply
drilled through and attached directly to the boot lid.
You could use the rack as delivered, but the lower rail (now elevated
because of the L shaped brackets) would foul one arm of the opening lever
on the Spitfire in the open position. One solution would be to use a GT6+
hatch lever (these have only one arm instead of the symmetrical two that
the Spitfires use) and leave the rack alone. This might look a little odd,
but would work (some modification of the GT6 lever might be in order, I
havent looked into it as of yet but it would appear to work)
The other solution is to grind off the brackets and drill the mounting
holes through the lower rail as required for the Spitfire. This would also
require dressing the grinds somehow or re-chroming to prevent rusting
I *think* I am going for the latter, and will end up re-chroming the rack
anyway since I have heard that the chrome is not all that good on these
racks (a letter is included with the rack explaining how porous the finish
is and that one should apply a good wax) and I know of a shop that can
handle small parts and does an outstanding job of chroming items.
Expensive, yes, but it appears that this is the only way of getting an
original style rack that I know of for the early Spitfires (short of buying
a used one if you can find it)
Apparently the maker doesnt see fit to make these, being a simple matter
of using the existing tooling and not welding the brackets on, I guess
because they dont see a big enough market?? It certainly wouldnt cost
any more (no tooling as mentioned) so its beyond me why they dont offer
one
Anyway thats my findings so far
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