Hi Victor,
Glad to see another spit owner.
The problems you're experiencing are pretty much typical, even more
so considering you live in the rust belt.
Your drum shouldn't have been quite that hard to put on. Could be
the brake shoes weren't quite made right.
I would definitely get rid of the honda radiator and put the original
spitfire one back in. If it wants to run hot then ut in an electric
fan cooling kit. Victoria British sells one for $100 or so. My 64
spitfire doesn't have any overheating problems and I live in Lincoln
which is just due west of you and the temps are pretty much the same
from here to there.
The PO was wrong about "under powered", all you have to do is
maintain the car properly and you shouldn't experience to many
problems with cooling. Also make SURE all the shrouds are in place.
That makes the biggest difference on cooling effect.
Good luck.
> I'm relatively satisfied with the brakes and park the car in the
> garage again only to notice a radiator leak. A small one, but a leak
> is leak. The previous owner had plopped a Honda radiator into the
> Spitfire. Obviously that one was not quite new. He said Spitfire
> radiators were a bit "under powered" for North American weather.
>
> Question: Since I'm looking to restore (long range) but will be
> using it for summer driving (in the city), would you recommend
> repairing the leak in the Honda radiator or replacing it with a
> Spitfire radiator? The bonnet, etc will be needing work when I get
> to this stage of restoration, so should I wait for the new radiator
> until then? Is the Spitfire radiator large enough?
>
> Sorry for the long winded email, but it's helping me vent my
> frustrations. And thanks in advance for any replies!
>
> Victor Michael
> Rachael Silvers
> Chicago, IL
>
> 1977 Spitfire (in need of some TLC and spare parts, but has
> "potential"!)
>
>
>
>
Brad (Lincoln Nebraska 402-464-1502)
1964 Spitfire4 BFC25720L (In "Teething" Mode right now)
1966 TR4A CT72398L (Waiting for garage space to start teardown)
1951 Dodge Truck 82217766 B-3-B-108 (Suspension just about ready to install)
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