My car is a 1978 Triumph spitfire 1500, then I had an accident following much perswasion from a m8 to use an angle grinder, hope you like the results??
standard Triumph 1500cc engine pushed out 65bhpm my intention is to run around an extra 150bhp ontop of this figure, around the 220bhp mark, note the spitfire weighs about 650kg with the nissan engine in place so power to weight is crazy, hehe... have a look at the pics below let me know what you think.
I brought This..
and after looking at it a bit and planning to start, 5 mins after getting it back it ended like this
that was it for day 1, time to go home but the weekend after and alot of £ spent later we arrived back with one of these engine, box, wiring everything to get her running...
So who thinks it aint gonna fit??
Any way a bit of elbow grease and we pulled the old engne out of the spit and had a car looking like this
So that was early Dec / Jan and the whole project slowed down over christmas due to it bein so cold!!
but we managed to do bits here and there...
Lots of this
and we ended up cutting out sections of the chassic and replacing them with 2 new smaller members as the sump was right in the way,
It'll be fine! hopfully... hehe but after weeks and weeks of measuring, re measuring, trial fitting welding cutting and gosh knows how much McDonalds food we got to this stage
See it fits, just! A touch of the baulk head has been cut back but not as much as we thought!
More delays due to bad weather, but delays did mean time for shopping so I've brought a new solid hood for the winter months with a funky glass top
Right now we must be at mid spring by this point and a big step has been taken....
Are you ready??
YEP IT FITS!!
And even the gear stick will end up in a really good position for the driver
So now with the engine actually in i turned my attention to the wiring loom which came out of a bag looking like this
This is proberbly the biggest pain on the job so far to be honest, its taken weeks of sorting, its still not all sorted but i've done as much as i could (before my mum killed me for getting dirt everywhere inside) and the last few bits will be done on the car, this is what i've managed to squeeze it down to.... Well it's a working progress...
Just a quick bit in here to mention the 'other' problem with doin this type of swap and wanting it to look 'correct' the dials have been fun, I wanted somthing custom but classic, Digi gauges were out the question, far too modern, so with some scanning, a bit of art work on a computer and with the use of some cusotm brackets i managed to re-face the Nissan dials into the Spitfire housings and ended up with this...
New purchase - New deep core Rad, Don't ya love ebay it's actually a bigger capacity than whats in a 200sx!!
Ok peep's were now starting to come up to June this year
Bonnet on, ah poo it don't fit over the engine, so...
Thats right, cut cut.. I had to get a friend to do this bit, was too scared of buggering it up
all braced out to clear the engine
See it's only a little bulge!
It's gonna take alot of work to sort this issue out, but time will make it look better.. pictures once it's sorted but it's a work in progress...
Ok, begining of July, lots been goin on including the order of new AVO coilover suspension which was fitted last weekend, pics to follow once i get then up loaded but for now this was how it was all comming together as of 2 weeks ago, my order at Demon tweeks came in and the first section of exhaust was built....
Its tight to the body but its only the passanger side so I'm not worried..
The trouble with this is the car is goin to be lowered by "2's about so the exhaust will be even lower than you see above.
Anyway, New suspension fitting!
fitted the passanger side front, cleaned it up afterwards as things look ace when clean..
Drivers side was a bit of a pain as the engine was in the way of using the easy tools.. back to spanners,
Rear damper... Quite an easy Job
Rear damper number 2... then came the pain of fitting the lowering block in under the rear leaf spring, has to be done by lifting the spring up but never easy, achieved with a little help from my friend.. Phil... haha, he only popped in to have a look at the springs...
and so after swearing lots we finally got it in place..
And that brings us right up to date, lets see what the weekend brings us.
just another quick update, while at home it's hard to work on the car being as its not with me but even so i've started making progress on the new dashboard, removed the old plywood one and planning on using a new one with mahogany finish.
Once i'd trimmed it quickly i popped in the gauges, but i'm not sure if its gonna look right yet so the finished one may be constructed and covered in sude to match the new interior.
....
The dash has taken a U-Turn and should be finished off tonight, pics 2mro hopfully it's no longer wood looking as for the rest of it, Ebay took some abuse and got me a Spal cooling fan for £21 bargin!! the progress on the car slowed down a touch otherwise, still doing wiring but waiting on water haoses and inlet pipework at the moment but even so new plugs have been fitted after filling the oil up and rotating the engine to make sure the pump was lubed up properly. After that exciting bit i turned to the fact it's goin to Shrewsbury College this weekend coming and thought it best look like a car a bit with that in mind the seats had their runners welded on and bolted into place.
Spent a few hours sorting out the new dash having previously done the Dials with white backings I thought a wooden dash would look authentic but as you can see from the previous pics it didn't really go to plan so after a lot of sanding filling and what knot the end results as show here. I'm quite chuffed!
This first image shows the main instrument area of the dash
Big View, a little fancy shot but I like it.
The full monty, almost as wide as the car, that’s quite scary.
The gauges in their new surroundings
Not bad for a computer drawing and a bit of effort.
Ok, that’s about it for now, I'm off to Demon tweeks to get some more gauges later hopefully so at the show this weekend I'll have at least the dash fitted so people can get an idea into what it will end up like, I'll take some outside pics when its there, as long as it's not pouring down. Enjoy!
25th Aug 2007 - well the post man came and wen't, ebay came and went and now the car has progressed along way from the last update.
Now fitted (photos to follow once I've loaded them up, Cooling Fan all mounted and fitted propper job, New fuel supply, return and breather lines fitted much better fitting than what I had originally!
The new groved and drilled dics are on and new pads are in, all cooling system pipework is now clipped up and waiting water just need to sort the rad thermo slot out.
New Jap can 3.5" is hung at the back I realise it's not quite everyones taste but it's needed for the engine and my wallet.. the new pipe work to complete the exhaust is waiting by the side of the car, Wiring loom is FINISHED!!! just a few tests which I was in the middle of then I connected up the battery to find it's dead, has to be replaced so waiting on that at the min,
the rad hole and then I'll be turning the key for the first time, will make a vid of it and hose it up hopefully it willbe running by the end of the week.
New brake line is ready to be installed, and dash waiting for final fitment.
Also putting the other bucket seat in as now our new sofa has arrived we no longer need it in the house.
Oh yes and ebay bargin, a set of Compomotive wheels 13" with new Toyo 205 width tyres on for less than £140! they look ace as are 5 black spokes in a dished polished rim!
Pics of all this to follow, new battery has now been installed so I'll be back on this tonight getting it ready to start up for the first time.
Ah... How can I get these link's to work... do i need to load all my pictures into Car Domain as well?? Help!
I have so many picture to try and load for you all but my camera lead is playing up. Hope to get it sorted for you soon.
Here she is on the driveway without the bonnet showing off her new foot wear.
and as long as this work's here she is starting properly for the first time. Exhaust stops currently at the back of the turbo hence rather loud and lumpy! but it lives!! I don't know how to load vids on here so I hope this link works.
[URL=http://s205.photobucket.com/albums/bb12/Spitsx/?action=view¤t=MOV00056.flv][IMG]http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb12/Spitsx/th_MOV00056.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
Well I've been busy, finished the car and really enjoyed the obsceen preformance. I'll try to update this more but just incase anyone is intrested the car is now up for sale, asking £3000 ono not what it's cost to build (way more) but what I think it's worth..
Thats how I show her off at shows
