Victor,
Sounds as if your car is suffering from neglect and perhaps the ravages
of those northern winters (salt on the roads). If you can find a Spit
radiator, I believe you should replace the Honda one. The original one
is every bit large enough to handle the requirements of the US weather.
Just keep the coolant clean and properly filled and you shouldn't have
any problems.
And when you get a chance, visit the International Triumph Spitfire
Database and register that Spit. THe URL is:
Victor Michael wrote:
>
> Greetings,
>
> I recently purchased a 1977 Spitfire and drove it around for about week.
> One day after parking it in the garage after a short jaunt around town, I
> noticed brake fluid drippings along the tire down to the ground. Since my
> goal is to restore this car, I decided to replace the wheel cylinders and
> brake lines, if needed. Well, my unsuccessful attempts to separate the
> existing wheel cylinder from the steel brake line forced me to replace the
> line to rubber one. My unsuccessful attempts to remove the rubber line from
> the frame forced me to replace that one, etc. I don't remember where it
> stopped. These connections seemed to be rusted closed. The emergency brake
> cable/hinge assembly is quite rusted also.
>
> Question: How does one get beyond these rusted or otherwise hard to crack
> connections? Is this just a sign of an old car and should I just expect to
> replace all these parts after having to demolishing them to pieces or the
> sign of an inexperienced "mechanic" or what?
>
> So now, I've replaced the wheel cylinders, virtually all the brake lines in
> the rear, and given it a new pair of shoes. The driver side drum was harder
> than I expected to get over the shoes, but I figure I might have to wear them
> in? A little smoke at first after braking hard to test the new brakes, but it
> subsides. All seems well. I might have an "actual" mechanic have look.
>
> 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"!)
--
"If you can't excel with talent, triumph with effort."
-- Dave Weinbaum in National Enquirer
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