February 2006:
One of the biggest fitment problems was the front crossmember. The engine has a front-sump oil system. The pickup engine is a rear-sump setup, but doesn't have the power. To get the engine to sit as far forward as possible (this still means 3 of 4 cylinders rear of the front suspension) the crossmember had to be moved forward. Some 3" by 3" square tubing will resemble the original frame material.

March 2006:
I want to keep the original classic lines. Too many people try to wedge an engine in these Spits and have to cut scoops or reliefs in the bonnets. These, to me, are eyesores. To get the front of the engine to drop enough to fit underneath the original bonnet I replaced the original crank pulley with an aftermarket undredrive pulley. The engine is internally balanced, so a lightweight aluminum pulley is safe. It also give the bonus of directing a little more power out the crank. On the left is a comparison of the one piece underdrive pulley with the two piece one. The right shows how the engine fits with the combination of the underdrive pulley and the new crossmember.

Above is another Spit I got. I found it on ebay. This car was 100 miles away and went for $100. Except for a small under-fascia fire the car was in good shape. Only a few fixable dents in the body and not a spot of rust in the floors. I now have a body for replacement later.

April 2006:

The one downside to modern fuel injected engines...there is more wiring needed to run one of these things than the Apollo moon lander. Here is my younger brother helping me wire everything up in order to test the engine. We had not heard the engine run since I bought it from the junkyard. Notice the battery sitting on the passenger tire and the bucket next to it. That bucket has the fuel pump and about 3 inches of fuel. By the way, we did get it to run, but only with constant fiddling with the throttle.

July 2006:
Another issue with a fuel injected engine is that it needs an electric fuel pump and feed as well as return lines at the fuel tank. The Spit tank was not designed for this. I could have bought a custom tank with all the necessary parts, but that just wasn't fun. Ironically, the 240sx fuel pump aparatus was easy to adapt to the original tank. It just took some cutting and welding a flat steel plate on the top of the tank. The aparatus even came with the sending unit for the fuel level gauge.

One other problem...the exhaust manifold dumped directly on the accelerator pedal. Currently the easiest exhaust to make was a log style manifold. This is not the best flowing design, but it dumps right where I need it to in order to route the exhaust to the passenger side, for side exit exhaust. The engine might be a little choked, but the stock motor already makes more power than a stock Spit suspension is capable of handling. I will address this manifold again when I upgrade the rest of the car to be capable of more power.

August 2006:
Here is a picture in the process of cleaning and painting the seat frames I got in the second Spitfire. They had a little surface rust, so I electrolytically stripped the rust and painted the frames to protect them. They were then handed over to an upholstery place to have them re-foamed and covered.

I had to put this picture in. The car had to accompany me as part of the move from Missouri to Michigan. The car on the trailer was a piece of cake to load. The body of the other car under my stuff in the truck was a little more difficult. But I made it with no problems.
November 2006:

I had a much tougher time making it across town to work on the car than I would have thought. With the first year of my PhD getting into full swing, and getting used to a new state and group of people, little time was left for wrenching around on the car. I did, however, get to finish making the bracket needed to fit the Toyota alternator in the only spot available. I am still cautious about the alternator hitting the suspension uprights once the belt loosens up, but I plan on modifying the upright on the passenger side by blocking in the hole from the factory that allows the steering shaft through on right-hand drive cars. That will strengthen it up enough to remove or reduce the ribs on the outside that the alternator might come in contact with.