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spitfire twins, paint questions, and interior parts

To: spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: spitfire twins, paint questions, and interior parts
From: s1500@comcast.net
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2004 16:19:25 +0000
1. Has anyone seen their Spit's "twin" on the road? 3 weeks ago I saw a 79/80 
Inca yellow Spit(even with a luggage rack) drive by on hwy 36. If it had 
pinstripes, I would have sworn my car was stolen, driven ridicously fast to 
catch up wtih me(i was in my other car) and on its way elsewhere. Funny to see.

I'm trying to compile a list of what items under the hood(and elsewhere) are to 
be appropriately painted to stock condition. Looking at the list, it's 99% 
gloss black, or aluminum.  After one paint experiment(on a piece of scrap 
metal), I'm not totally sure the "metallic" parts of the Spit(like the metal 
parts of the alternator) are supposed to be painted aluminum color. Any insight 
on this? The hi-temp aluminum paint I tried seems to resemble the photos on old 
sales brochures.

Also, what is the solution for "rough" paint? I took off the 2 arms that hold 
the sun visor off, and realized they needed to be repainted. I repainted it 
flat black, but it is not at all smooth to the touch. Paint doesn't flake off 
like in earlier trials, but it just doesn't look as nice as it used to. Is it a 
symptom of just a bad    can 'o spray paint, or did I lay too much of a coat?

And as for web page development, I'll hopefully be adding a lot more content to 
interior restoration. My handbrake console covering and new gaiter from Newton 
Commercial finally came in. The gaiter(the cylinder shaped vinyl covering that 
goes under/in front of the handbrake console) is nice, but it needs holes 
drilled in it.  The handbrake console covering is a beautiful replacement for 
my cracked-on top one. The thing is, it  seems to require a bit of effort of 
cutting(the hole opening in front) and clamping down for gluing the flaps on.

Then comes the real fun part. the black pvc "cone" that goes just behind the 
handbrake handle is needing quite a bit of effort. The original cone is stapled 
on to an o-shaped piece of cardboard, and inserted into the console. Needless 
to say, the cardboard ring is ruined, so I improvised using a piece of a CD 
jewel case. This required a lot of drilling and filing down to get in there. 
Instead of stapling(can't staple hard plastic) I had to glue it in there. Then 
I had to drill more holes in the plate to fit the tabs on the console to fit 
through. 

As you can tell from all this anal-retentive effort, I want to get this console 
restored right, with some slight improvements from the original. Geting the 
console re-upholstered(ie final gluing)is going to be real fun. cutting the 
hole in the front is a bit of a mess. 

This will all make sense once I upload all the photos. 

--
Kids love the rich taste of web 
content!
http://british.nerp.net





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